March 20, 2019

Yes. C -12.

Sen. Marcus Jones: Here we are. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman, for your v igilance.
The line item there under Public Transport ation is 76293, which is the buses. So we understand, I believe, that four buses have arrived. Can we get a total number? The spokesmen for Transport may
have given the numbers, but I am going to ask her if
she can give it to us again, the number of buses that
were actually delivered?

[Inaudible interjection]

Sen. Marcus Jones: Four? Thank you, Senator
Richardson.
So there were four buses that arrived in
2018/19, in that year. And then I am made to understand that there are four more on the way.

You have to speak through the Chair.
Thank you, very much.
Please continue.

Sen. Marcus Jones: Thank you for your direction, Mr.
Chairman.
So, Mr. Chairman, if I could get clarificati on on
the numbers of buses and whether they have been
delivered or whether they are en route, and then I can have a better understanding of the numbers of the
capital acquisition of $3 million for 2018/19 and then
that amount of money, those amounts of funds were
reduced in 2019/20. I believe that answer would clear
up that situation.

Very well.

Sen. Marcus Jones: So, I reiterate to my colleagues
the importance of having a bus system that works for
everybody. It works for the tourists who come to our
country and want to enjoy the pleasures of the sun
and beach and not be found standing in the sun as opposed to enjoying the sun on the beach. As we are
made to understand, there are going to be 60,000
more cruise passengers who are going to be gracing
our shores, 194 ship calls in total. That extension of
the cruise season, we are hoping to be able to fill that
during the off season where we are, by the way, not receiving any tax for that, but we can understand why
the Government wants to incenti vise the ships to
come during that time.
I did have a few questions that I believe were
answered during the brief that was given by Senator Caesar, and at this point, Mr. Chairman, I will finish my contribution. Thank you.



Bermuda Senate The Chairman: Thank you, very much, Senator
Jones.
Would any other Senator wish to address
these heads?
No?
Then I think Senator Caesar, you have some
questions to answer. You have the floor.

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, a question was asked around
key performance indicators. It should be noted that
they have not been done away with. The key performance indicators are in the process of being deve loped. Basically, they are going to be new and i mproved, which will be able to give more precise information as it pertains to that department. So they are
still in process. It is not that they are no longer being used, but they definitely are . . . new ones are in pr ocess of being developed.
There was a question with regard to cancell ations which I think we all . . . it has been a sticking
point for a lot of us over the last several years. It
should be noted, again, that previously there were 88
buses on the schedule. Many of them were not at
peak working condition. But as of Monday, we will
have 50 buses, and there will be no cancellations. So
I think we need to keep in mind that we have retired buses that are no longer in good working order. We
have a 50- bus schedule, and there it is planned that
there will be no cancellations.
So, it is a misnomer to say that we are still
expecting cancellations. We have put a new schedule
in place with 50 buses and it is our anticipation that there should not be the cancellations that we have
seen at the level previously.
Mr. Chairman, professional services, the
question was around why that number has gone up.
Again, this relates back to our ageing fleet. We have
had a number of MAN . . . if you note that the bus
model is M- A-N (MAN), so I am not saying “a man,” —

[Laughter]

I understand. It is a make of bus.
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Yes. It is a make of bus, yes.
We have some of their technicians assisting
our very abled mechanics, but of course, as the buses
age there are more complications. So we have had to
hire them. Obviously, we have to pay them for t he
work that they do. So that is why the number has gone up in that particular category.
There was a question around auxiliary bus
services. Can they fill the gap? We just do not have
enough buses at this time to do that. So this would be
a gap where mini buses, taxis, would be able . . . the
private sector should, or hopefully would, be able to fill
that gap. But again, Government does not necessarily
have the funds to contract them. As mentioned prev i-ously, the transportation coordinator liaises and meets
with stakeholders that would hopefully be able to as-sist. But again, Government does not quite have the
money at this time to hire those buses. So we can
only rely on their good will and ability to assist us when they can.
Again, same question around mini buses, the
Government is trying to ensure that we are being eff icient and diligent with our funds, so again, we meet
with stakeholders, but we are not hiring minibuses to
fill the gap, as it stands right now.

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Point of clarification.

Thank you, Senator.
Senator Caesar, if you would like to continue
with your . . .
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Yes. Thank you.
So, just finishing my answer as it pertains to
not being able to hire minibuses and fill that private
sector gap, in time sightseeing tours, et cetera . . .
once our bus fleet is replenished, hopefully we will be able to fill that gap. But, again, we are relying on the
private sector to assist us with that.
Maybe we misunderstood the question, but I
think there was a question around revenue as it pertains to passes, and why that number has decreased. In fact, all DPT [ Department of Public Transport] rev enue is anticipated to increase this year, not decrease.
So if we misunderstood the question, I would ask,
please, if it pleases the Chair, that that Senator reiterate that question. But all DPT revenue is anticipated
to increase, not decrease in the 2019/20 year.

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Sorry, would you like me to
clarify that now, Mr. Chairman, or later?

Yes, Senator Kempe, I think if you
would like to clarify your question to Senator Caesar,
if there was some doubt as to what you were trying to
convey.

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Yes. My question surround ed
the fact that last year the actuals in revenue for bus
passes, which is on page B -209, the actuals were
$2.7 million. The original budget for 2018/19 was a
million dollars higher, $3.7 million. However, the r e270 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate vised estimates show that that $3.7 million target was
vastly overstated. In fact, the revised estimate for
2018/19 is some $300,000 less than the 2017/18 actuals. So I am questioning what is justifying the premise to budget for an increase again in 2019/20, which is budgeted right now at $3.2 milli on.

You may proceed with the answ ers to
the other questions.
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Answers to the other questions,
yes, thank you.
There was a question, Mr. Chairman, around
the performance indicator which was 50 per cent for
Tourism Ambassador staff, and it is the same for
2019/20. The DPT has been training staff half at a
time, so that is why that performance measure is what
it is. It is not that they are only expecting a 50 per cent
. . . it is just half of the staff is being trained in one
year and half is being in the following year. So that is
the answer for that.
There was a question around the number of
buses, I believe. And if I could clarify, I know I read in my Statement that there were four new buses deli vered in 2018, and there will be eight new buses deli vered in 2019. I jus t would like a few minutes to just
confer with my technical officers to get the remaining
answers to your questions.

Yes, that is fine. You can confer.
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Thank you.

[Pause]

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Mr. Chairman, for the question
around professional services, again, and the increase
in the hire of mechanics, the reality is that the DPT has been trying to hire new mechanics. And it is act ually not as easy as it sounds. It is a very specialised
area, so they have been unsucc essful to date in hiring
mechanics that have sufficient experience to fill those positions. And out of an abundance of caution, the
DPT continues to accommodate those additional MAN technicians such that their services are required. So
people are either tr ained up or they can find the appropriate people in those positions.
Now, there were a couple of questions around
the past revenue and around equipment. As it stands
right now, we will undertake to clarify those areas that
actually . . . we need to dig a little deeper to get the answers to those questions. They are not at our fi ngertips right now. So we will take note of those two questions, specifically, and get back to the Senators
with the appropriate answers once we do that.
Now, I do believe, Mr. Ch airman, that I have
answered any questions that have been posed, or as best I can anyway. So with that said, Mr. Chairman,
may I move that Head 35 now be approved, for Public
Transportation?

We now move on to the next Order of
the Day which is the Ministry of National Security.
Again, we have allowed two hours for this. We will be debating Heads 27 and 6. I believe that Senator Caesar you are also presenting these heads as well.
I will give you a few minutes to just collect
yourself and put one lot of information away and bring
out the next.
Yes, Senator Kempe?

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Mr. Chairman, I just want to
highlight that it appears that it is an hour for one head,
and then subsequently an hour for another, as opposed to a two- hour block .

You may begin, Senator Caesar.

MINISTRY OF NATIONAL SECURITY

HEAD 27 —DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, i t gives me pleasure to present
the budget for Head 27, the Department of Immigr ation, found on pages B -289 through B -294 of the
Budget Book. The mission of the Department of Imm igration is to serve, conserve and protect Bermuda for
the benefit of its people—residents and visitors.


Bermuda Senate As noted on page B -289, the Department of
Immigration has [been] allocated a budget of
$4,754,000 for the fiscal year 2019/20. This budget
number remains the same as 2018/19, thus reflecting
a 0.0 per cent change for 2019/20.
The material changes in the estimated budget
for the Subjective Analysis of the Current Account E stimates, as compared with 2018/19 revised (column 5), found on page B -290, are as follows:
• A minor increase of $108,000, or a 3 per cent
increase, in Salaries, which is listed on line
item 1. This slight increase is mainly due to
salaries f or temporary relief staff and recently
negotiated pay [increase] of 2 per cent .
• A decrease of $4,000 represents a 57 per
cent decrease in advertising and promotion,
which is listed on line item 8.
• A decrease of $54,000, which represents a
25 per cent decrease in professional services,
which is listed on line item 9.
• A decrease of $68,000 represents a 74 per
cent decrease in rental services, listed on line 10.
• An increase of $52,000 represents a 13 per
cent increase in repair and maintenance.
• A decrease of $24,000 represents a 25 per
cent decrease in materials and supplies,
which is listed on line item 13.

Revenue Summary

Sen. Crystal Caesar: The revenue summary is outlined on page B -290. The total revenue estimate for
2019/20, as compared with the 2018/19 revised (column 5), is $21,835,000, an increase of $3,139,000, or
17 per cent. The most material changes are as follows:
The land acquisition fees for 2019/20 have
increased significantly at $3,086,000, which repr esents a 128 per cent increase over the revenue for
2018/19, which is listed on line item 8. The land ac-quisition fees have increased from $2,414,000 to $5,500,000.
Entry clearance fees for 2019/20 decreased
by $58,000, which represents a 60 per cent decrease
variance to 2018/19, which is listed o n line item 1.
The residence fees, listed on line item 9, for
2019/20 have decreased by $45,000, which repr esents a 47 per cent decrease over the revenue for
2018/19.
On line item 11, the nationality fees for
2019/20 have decreased by $50,000, which repr esents a 43 per cent decrease over the revenue for
2018/19.
The Status and Naturalisation fees, listed on
line item 12, for 2019/20 have increased by $139,000,
which represents a 27 per cent increase over the revenue for 2018/19. There is a decreased estimate for penalties,
listed on line item 13, issued by $44,000, which repr esents a 56 per cent decrease over the revenue for
2018/19.

[Sen Michelle Simmons , Chairman]

Capital Expenditure

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Madam Chairman, funds budgeted for Capita l Acquisitions for 2019/20 amount to
$1,927,000 and can be found on page C -14. The
amounts allocated include the total amount of
$1,927,000 and will be allocated for the purchase a
new border management system to replace the ageing system. We estimate that total cost of implementing the new system will exceed this amount.

Manpower

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Madam Chairman, the manpower estimates for the department, as outlined on
page B -291, are 50 full -time posts. Within the depar tment, there are four vacant posts, consisting of one
customer service representative; one assistant chief
immigration officer; one manager of finance and administration; and one business systems officer. A pproval has already been granted to fill these positions; it is expected that al l posts will be filled during the first
quarter of the new fiscal 2019/20. You should note
that the assistant chief immigration officer and manager of finance and administration positions became vacant due to the retirement of each incumbent, Mr.
Steven Lambert and Ms. Dawnette Bean, in May and
September, respectively.

Output Measures

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Madam Chairman, t he depar tment’s performance measures are outlined on pages
B-292 through B -294. During fiscal year 2018/19, the
staff of the Department of Immigration have worked
diligently, courteously and impartially to accomplish our mandate.

Plans for the Upcoming Year

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Madam Chairman, the depar tment’s plans for the upcoming year will continue to focus on comprehensive immigrati on reform and the
development and implementation of a new border
management system (or BMS).
The roadmap toward the realisation of co mprehensive immigration reform comprises four phas-es. The first phase was completed early in December
2018 and related to w ork permit processing. The r emaining phases are:
1. process improvement —short to medium term;
2. immigration reform —long term; and
272 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate 3. operations, systems and execution implementation.
All three phases will have as a first step the
securing of a project team and resources.
The process improvement phase is due to
start in April 2019. It will entail the review of immigr ation workflows, and its aim is address bottlenecks, i.e., applications processes. The immigration reform phase
is at the centre of the overarching ref orm and will emphasise policy development, public consultation and the drafting of legislation. The Ministry aims to bring legislation to the House by July 2019. The operations,
systems, and execution phase will be the output of the
work done in the first two phases. The timeframe for
this final phase is yet to be determined and will entail the procurement process, the revision of vendor contracts and forms, change management and staff trai ning.

New Border Management System

Sen. Crystal Caesar: In the pas t two years’ budget
briefs, the department highlighted its plans to replace
its current border management system [or BMS]. As a
reminder, the BMS is one of Bermuda’s frontline defences used to screen arriving passengers who arrive
at the L. F. Wade Interna tional Airport. The system
processes passenger information against a variety of
local and international alerts, such as the stop list, the
watch list and the terror list, upon [a person’s] arrival
to Bermuda, and alerts officers to critical information
in real time. It also allows for the detection of overstays and provides a detailed travel history record that
is used for investigation purposes.
The 3M- Innovative Properties Company (or
3M) developed the BMS in the mid- 2000s. Significant
steps have been taken to advance the plans to r eplace the current BMS. A request for proposal (or
RFP) was posted in mid- summer of 2017. Four vendors provided quotes in accordance with the RFP pr ocess. A new vendor has been selected, and the department will shortly enter into the contract and i mplementation phase of this project. Without question,
the new BMS will be aligned with industry standards,
and both locals and visitors will be pleased with the
processing process upon arrival in Bermuda. The i mplementation phase of t he new BMS will be completed
prior to the opening in 2020 of the new L. F. Wade
International Airport.
Madam Chairman, I would like to thank the
dedicated members of staff at the Department of I mmigration. I would like to thank the immigration team,
under the leadership of Dr. Danette Ming, the Chief
Immigration Officer; together with Mr. Philip Perinchief
and Ms. Lauren Sadler -Best of the Attorney General’s
Chambers; the Immigration Board headed by Mrs.
Renee Ming, JP MP; and the Immigration Appeal Tr ibunal, headed by Mr. Charles Richardson, for the work undertaken in 2018/19. Finally, we would like to recognise Ms. Marita
Grimes, Mrs. Michelle White, and Mr. Ron- Michel D avis, and their respective teams, as well as the Collector of Customs, Mrs. Lucinda P earman and her airport
team for administering the airport border control on
behalf of the [Department of] Immigration.
Also, thanks to the Information and Digital
Technology Office for their timely assistance in ensur-ing that our systems were operable, particularly at the
L. F. Wade International Airport. They have all been
cooperative and innovative in their respective disc iplines, and the roles they have played in immigration
matters. Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Would any other Senator like to
speak? Senator Jones.
Sen. Marcus Jones: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
I would like to just say a few words in regard
to the overarching subject of immigration before I actually start to deal wi th the cost centres and the line
items. If I may, Madam Chairman, make a quote from
the Fiscal Responsibility Panel in November 2018.
“A precondition for faster growth” (in the
economy) “ is to increase the island’s workforce. It is
the only realistic count er to the island’s demographic
challenge from a rapidly shrinking and ageing popul ation.”
That particular quote is apropos for the times
that we are living in today. And I think the country knows that we on this side of the political aisle have
been beati ng this drum for a number of years now,
understanding, as many economists have stated and
confirmed, that the workforce levels need to increase.
But, of course, we also realise that there must be ba lance in everything that we do in regard to dealing with
immigration reform.
We know that immigration reform is critical for
any economic plan. We also know that a capitalist society must have freedom of movement, not only of
capital, which is important, but a freedom of mov ement of labour. We know in this count ry that immigr ation reform is a very emotive, a very passionate topic. And so I was very much encouraged as I have heard
the Minister (who has graced us with his presence)


Bermuda Senate [make] statements that he wants to start to proceed,
for the country to start to com e to grips.
So I do have one or two questions in that r egard. The Minister has stated that a consultation paper is going to be sent out to the public. I want to know what type of questions are going to be asked of
the citizens.
I have also been made to r ealise that there is
a Green Paper that is going to be unveiled by Cabinet. I believe the country will be curious to know what the
turnaround time would be. Another good question would be, Will the IB community be a part of a consu ltation process and contr ibuting to it? And finally, will
there be an effort to educate the community [with] the pros, the cons and what the country has to benefit from [with] an improved immigration reform?
So with those quick comments, I now turn my
attention to the actual cost centres and line items.
Now, we look at the salary increases, we are looking
now at page B -290. We notice there that the salary
increase is 3 per cent with no change in full -time e mployees. Now, I would gather . . . I am not sure if that
reflects the incre ases that the civil servants received
in that year, in this last year that we have exper ienced. But I would have this question: What cost centre would reflect the temporary staff and summer st udents who were hired to clear up the backlog? How
many temporar y and summer interns will the depar tment be expecting to hire and utilise in the coming year?
I have also noticed, we are still on page B -
290, that we are looking at training. The training cost for the year 2018/19. As the budgeted amount was $6,000. And i f we look in the revision column, that
number is going to be zero. But then again, in the estimate number of 2019/20, we see that an amount of
$6,000 being put back on there. My question would
be, with the intention of transforming the department
into a di gital electronic method of processing from the
manual system that exists today, is $6,000 sufficient for training to get the staff up to speed on a new
method of processing work permits and the like?
Now, one other thing that I have also noticed
under the revenue section, if we look at line 8291, that
is land acquisition fees, we see that the 2018/19 orig inal budget was $7,000 . . . sorry, $7 million. What am
I saying? Seven thousand dollars would be a travesty!
But $7 million in revenue was what was estimated for
the 2018/19 year, but the revised figure is now
$2,414,000— a considerable drop- off from what was
originally expected. Armed with that information, we then see that the estimate for 2019/20 is back up to $5,500,000, an increase of $3,086,000.
So my question would be, What was the just ification for using those numbers? Especially if you turn to page B -292, and if you look down there it is the
sixth line from the bottom of that page, on the line that
says, Permission to acquire land, the revised forec ast
for the numbers of applicants to acquire land is 70. And next year’s target, 2019/20, will be 77. Somehow
those numbers do not jive with the revenue that will be
expected from line item 8291, under revenues, which
is land acquisition.
Now, moving along to performance measures,
and we all know that one, or several, of our main competitors to the south of us is able to process work
permits on a regular basis for . . . just a standard work
permit can turn around in five days. We want to be
sure that we can match that, if not do better. So performance measures are very important. We are looking at the number of work permits processed (that is
the third line) from business unit 37010, under corporate services, on page B -292. The original forecast for
2018/19 was $5,324. The updated number is $4,614.
Then the estimated amount is $5,075. I guess my
question would be, How does the department come up with a 10 per cent increase year -on-year? From
our educated guess and information that sits before
us, that $5,075 does not appear realistic. I will ask for
the “why” of those numbers to be shared with us.
Continuing in this same category, business
unit 37010, here on page B -292, we are looking now
at the number of civil penalties. Now, the forecast for 2018/19 was to be 15 civil penalties. We find that the
revised forecast for 2018/19 is a whopping 148, and
the targeted amount for 2019/20 is 163. Now, I understand that we are getting a new border management system, which the spokesman for Immigration has
shared with us that that is the plan. In light of these
numbers that we are looking at, I guess my question
would be: What is the success level of the hotline calls and assistance from the public that the department
gets in regard to violators of our immigration policies
and work permits, and the like?
If we have repeat offenders, whether they be
companies or individuals, what are the consequences
of those violations? There are many of our fellow
Bermudians, residents, who are sometimes dishear tened when they see their livelihood being affected by
lawbreakers. And so I believe the public, like me,
would love to get a number on the repeat offenders
and how the department deals with that.
If you would just bear with me, Madam
Chairman.

While you are doing that, I am going
to acknowledge the presence in the Chamber of the
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of National Sec urity, Mr. Collin Anderson.

[Committee of Supply , continuing]

274 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Sen. Marcus Jones: Thank you. Thank you, Madam
Chairman.
A number of the questions I am realising were
answered by the spokesmen for Immigration. And on
that note, Madam Chairman, I will rest.

Senator Kempe.

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Thank you, Madam Chai rman.
I just wanted to get some more clarification. I
note that professional services has a very large i ncrease, the largest percentage increase, but it is also accompanied by an increase in five more employees.
I would just like to he ar some justification behind the
increase on both of those line items, concurrently.

Thank you.
Senator Caesar.
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Thank you.
While the technical staff answers that question, I would like to go back and answer some questions that have been asked previously.
There was a question, Madam Chairman, with
regard to the consultation, or Green Paper that will be
drafted. Well, actually, it is in the process of being
drafted. It requires Cabinet approval. At this time the speci fic questions that will be asked of the public have
not been approved, so it would be impossible to say at
this time. But in due course the public will be made
aware of the questions that will be asked around, I
believe the question was around the different types of
closed categories that will possibly be considered.
The next question was, Will the IB community
be involved? Absolutely! They continue to be involved
in most of the discussions regarding immigration; they
are our partners. So the whole alphabet —ABIC, ABIR,
Bermuda First, BBA —all of these bodies, as well as
others stakeholders are always consulted when it comes to immigration issues because they employ a
large portion of our population and thus it would affect
them, their businesses, and Bermuda ultimately. So,
yes, those stakeholders are consulted.
Another question was . . . there will be, as I
think has been a hallmark of this particular Gover nment, involvement of community stakeholders. So
there will be town hall [meetings], there will be info rmation sessions. I am sure that the Minister may co nsider even inviting submissions from individuals in the
public. So that will continue with regard to this. Imm igration is a hotbed topic and very emotive, and ther efore the community at large does need to be canvassed and comprehensively. That is the commitment of this Government, and has been the commitment,
and we will continue that as it pertains to consultation
for immigration reform.
There was a question around how many temp
staff and/or summer st udents were employed to clear
the backlog. There were three temporary reliefs hired
from December 2018 to February 2019. And if I could
just clarify . . .

[Crosstalk]



Bermuda Senate Sen. Crystal Caesar: The number of summer st udents is in process. As we all know, a l ot of summer
students are not quite here, do not quite know their
plans as yet. And it will be determined through the
Workforce Development department as to what st udents are available, what their skill set is, and where
they will be placed. So we do not actually have an
answer for that right now, unfortunately, but we will
see.
A question was asked regarding training costs
for 2019/20, Is this sufficient for digitisation of the I mmigration Department and trust? That is definitely in
the capital budget for 2019/20. What the public and
fellow Senators must keep in mind is that our Imm igration Department has not maybe moved at the
same technological pace as we would have liked. It is still very much paper driven. So digitisation is very
high on the priority l ist. So, yes, it is actually included
in the 2019/20 budget number.
I am just clarifying one of the answers, so
please bear with me.

Yes, Senator Kempe.

POINT OF CLARIFICATION
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Yes, the Senator just said
that the digitisation was in the capital budget. But the
question was about the training expense in the current
account budget. So I just want to get some clarity. I
would understand that the actual software and computer equipment or whatever is in the capital budget,
but the training for the usage I would expect to find in
the current account. And the question was about the
$6,000 allocated.

Thank you.

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Yes, no problem.
For the question regarding land registration
fee revenues, What is the justification for the $5 mi l-lion est imate? This is arrived at using historical average trends, plus a degree of professional judgment. It
is subject to market conditions and the timing of rev enue received. So there is quite a bit of calculation that goes into that number.
I believe that was the question from page B -
292.

[Pause]

Take your time.
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Thank you.

[Pause]

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Just so the listening public is
aware , the technical officers who support us oftentimes have to scribble down notes, so it is not quite as
quick one would think.
If they would just have an understanding and
bear with us in terms of getting that information . . .

And we will give you a minute to
see—

Sen. Crystal Caesar: To digest, yes.

[Pause]

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Okay. Thi s question is around
the civil penalties, [business unit] 37010. The question
was, What is the success level for the department hotline for violations of immigration breaches? As the
current Minister has made it . . . as one would know
from the adverts, I think we have all heard the quite
creative adverts with regard to encouraging reporting
of these. The department has become more diligent in collecting and collating that information, and is in the
process of doing so. So in terms of the success level
versus any other key indicators, they are still compi ling that information.
So I would be remiss at this point to try and
guess at that, but, again, it is being collected. The
Minister is very forthwith in making sure that we collect
that information and it w ill be forthcoming.
276 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate The question was, What are penalties for
breaches [of] immigration laws, and does the Immigr ation Department handle repeat offenders? Well, the
legislation provides for a range of [fines] $5,000 and
upward for each offence. So I guess one would say
that if one is found in breach of immigration laws, then
they can be fined from $5,000 and up. And repeat offenders, obviously, would not necessarily be consi dered a good corporate citizen and would need to be
closely monitored. But, again, there are fines which
would levied as appropriate.

Senator Kempe, yes. Please go
ahead.

Sen. Nicholas K empe: Thank you, Madam Chai rman.
On the land acquisition fees, I believe I heard,
and correct me if I am wrong, Senator Caesar, you
said that the drop . . . or, I am not sure if you even
addressed this drop on the revised estimate. But you
said that the budgeting was based on timing of pa yments, market trends, and something else. If the r evised estimate, down from $7 million to $2.4 million, is because of a deferment in payment, I would expect
the 2019/20 figure to be much larger than what was budgeted las t year, or at least what was the actual for
2017/18.
This is the second- biggest revenue line item
of the Department of Immigration, and we are talking about $4.5 million in lost revenue. I think we need a
better explanation about how that amount of revenu e
is lost or missed from the target and what has been done from an accountability standpoint to ensure that
that does not repeat.

Okay.
Does any other Senator wish to ask a question or comment?
Okay.

[Pause]
Sen. Crystal Caesar: In just going back to civil pena lties, civil penalties are levied when someone has
been in violation of some of the regulations or imm igration laws. And although there has been an i ncrease, it would beg to reason that the department has bec ome more diligent in accessing those who
have fallen outside of the law. I see that there are 163
for the 2019/20, as a result of the department’s experience. And so that means that the department is becoming more . . . How can I put this? In the past year
they have become diligent. So, obviously, if we have
not necessarily determined that there are going to be
more, I think that is actually a good sign. It means that
people are becoming more honest in submitting appl ications. They are not falling outside of the regulations
and, therefore, we are ensuring that the people are
staying within the immigration regulations.
Now, with regard to the question on the pr ofessional services, I will repeat the answer that I had
given with regard to the number of an incr ease of
staff. There is actually not an increase in headcount
for 2019/20. I’m sorry, wrong answer . . . wrong answer.

[Laughter]

Sen. Crystal Caesar: There are too many pieces of
paper here.
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Point of clarification.

Thank you, Senator Caesar.
Sen. C rystal Caesar: I am also just quickly scanning
the additional questions that have been asked to en-sure that I do answer the appropriate questions.
The final question that I believe I have not
answered is with regard to land fees. There is a timing
delay t hat is a part of the process. The department
typically has to wait for other departments to complete
that process, therefore, there is a lag in the revenues
that are actually received.
So, for example, in the last week there were
19 applications approved for 2018/19. So the revenue
will now come through for that. So there is some lag in
the results as it pertains to the revenue numbers that
we have, so . . . I believe —

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: A point of clarification, Ma dam Chairman.

What is y our point of clarification,
Senator Kempe?

POINT OF CLARIFICATION
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: So is the Senator saying that
this $5.5 million in the 2019/20 estimate includes re venue that should have been collected in 2018/19? And if so, how much of that $5.5 m illion is deferred
revenue and what is the actual revenue for 2019/20 that is from land acquisition fees for the upcoming year?

Thank you, Senator Kempe.

Sen. Crystal Caesar: I am advised that it is not act ually deferred revenue, it just has not yet been collec ted. It is a receivable.

278 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate The Chairman: Senator Kempe, a follow -up?

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Then why is it not included in
the 2018/19 estimates? If it has been incurred, if the
revenue has been accrued, but it is not collected, that is a receivable balance, but it is still revenue.

Sen. Crystal Caesar: That’s correct. That is an accounting term. That is correct.

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: So then why is the number
lower in 2018/19 if it is suggested that this revenue
has actually been appr oved?

Okay. Thank you.

Sen. Crystal Caesar: I am just getting some clarific ation as it pertains to the hotline calls and what the ty pical penalties are. I do believe that I answered, but I
will reiterate that hotline calls are only as successful as they are received.
So, obviously, we can only account for what
has come in. And where the information has been
comple ted, it does take investigation. Sometimes a
complaint is insufficient to deem it a true complaint.
And, again, civil penalties are $5,000, and up, to both
the employer and employee. So I believe that gives
them a fulsome answer in that regard.

The Chairm an: Thank you.
Senator Caesar, would you like to move Head
27, Immigration?
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Yes, I would. Please bear with
me until I can find my papers. Here we go.
Madam Chairman, I move that the Committee
do now approve Head 6 [sic], Immigratio n. I’m sorry —

And I believe we are on page B -273.

Sen. Crystal Caesar: That’s correct, Madam Chai rman.
I move that the Committee do now undertake
consideration of Head 6, Defence, which is found on
pages B -273 through B -276.

HEAD 6 —DEFENCE

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Madam Chairman, Head 6
compris es the Defence Department, or the Royal
Bermuda Regiment (“RBR" or the “Regiment”).
The Regiment’s role is to provide operational
capacity to support the civil authority. It performs a
number of critical functions including natural and manmade disaster r elief (both on and off the Island), internal security, state ceremonial activity, routine and specialist support for the Bermuda Police Service, military training, social cohesion, and youth development.
The primary legislation affecting the depar tment is the Defence Act 1965, the Royal Bermuda
Regiment Governor’s Orders 1993, His Excellency’s Directive to the Commanding Officer dated 21 September 2018, the Bermuda Volunteer (Reserve Force)
Act 1939, and the Royal Bermuda Regiment (Junior
Leaders) Act 2015.

Mandate

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Madam Chairman, under the
authority of the Defence Act 1965, the Royal Bermuda
Regiment’s mandate is to be a military force maintai ning the necessary standards of manpower, training and equipment to enable it to perform it s assigned
roles efficiently and effectively. The Regiment is co ntinuously training to remain at a state of readiness in
order to accomplish its important missions and tasks
for local and, potentially, overseas operations.

Mission and Roles

Sen. Crystal Caesar: The mission and roles of the
Regiment were confirmed by formal reviews in the
years 2000, 2006, 2014 and 2018. The extant mission
is: The Royal Bermuda Regiment is to support the
Civil Authority with the security of Bermuda, its peoples, property, livelihood and interests in order to maintain normality.


Bermuda Senate At this time, the Regiment has implemented a
five-year strategic review in order to reorganise the
Regiment in an effective and efficient manner, to e nsure that missions and tasks are current. This i s a
working document and will be used as a guideline, as
it will be upgraded to offer a better solution than what
was stated. The mission statement roles for the Royal
Bermuda Regiment are:
a. recruit and retain an all -volunteer force;
b. influence through a tar geted information operations campaign;
c. support the Bermuda G overnment in providing
Military Aid to the Civil Authority ( or MACA);
d. support the Emergency Measures Organi sation in responding to H umanitarian Aid and
Disaster Relief ( or HADR) operations;
e. develop an externally focused Humanitarian
Aid and D isaster Relief capability;
f. develop a force to generate a full -time professional inshore Coast Guard capability ; and
g. provide ceremonial support for official and n ational approved events.

Concept of Operations
Sen. Crystal Caesar: The RBR will better define and
clearly articulate its roles and responsibilities and develop a sustainable recruiting and retention process
that serves as a post -conscription Regiment. It will
establish a professional development cycl e and sustainable training plan in order to exercise interoper ability and meet operational demands.
It will conduct planned community and defence engagement activities to assist the transfor-mation pr ogramme. Moreover, the RBR will measure
perfor mance and effectiveness, whilst communicating
progress and success to internal and external aud iences.
Furthermore, it will deliver operational capabi lity through the use of Reserve soldiers, in the follo wing areas:

Military Assistance to the Civil Authority (MACA)

Sen. Crystal Caesar: The role encompasses the
spectrum of assistance that the Regiment could be
asked to give to the civil authority of Bermuda. MACA
can be subdivided into three main areas: (a) assi stance to civil power —to provide protection for highvalue assets and other internal security operations in
support of other governmental departments; (b) assi stance to civil ministries —responding to a crisis beyond
the Government’s immediate control or more routine
requests for assistance; and (c) assistance to Berm uda society —through the provision of a voluntary mil itary experience, support the integration and develo pment of the people of Bermuda. In each case, the decision to embody the
RBR rests with the Bermuda Government and the
commanding officer as appropriate.

Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief (HADR)

Sen. Crystal Caesar: The RBR is mandated to assist
the civil authorities in the event of a major disaster,
either natural or man- made, befalling th e Island.
The Commander -in-Chief will work with the
Emergency Measures Organisation to coordinate the
deployment of the RBR, in order to protect and preserve the community and its property prior to, during,
and after a disaster. Should a request for exter nal assistance be received, then Government House will
coordinate the potential deployment of the RBR off the
Island.

Coast Guard

Sen. Crystal Caesar: In order to secure Bermuda’s
territorial waters out to 12 nautical miles, and in compliance with the Defence (Coast Guard Unit) Amendment Act 2018, the RBR will develop a full -time Coast
Guard capability that can undertake the following
tasks, once approved:
a. law enforcement of the inshore waters ;
b. search and rescue coordinated by the Berm uda Maritime Operati ons Centre;
c. support HM Customs to interdict marine
smuggling operations ;
d. support the Bermuda Police Service, working
as a joint hybrid model at first, training, adapting, and joint operations concurrently , with a
view to take over after a period of time;
e. support the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources to enforce fisheries regul ations ; and finally
f. support the Department of Marine and Ports
to enforce maritime regulations and ensure
maritime border and port security.

Funding

Sen. Crystal Caes ar: The total funding, Madam
Chairman, for Defence for the coming year is
$7,208,886. This reflects no change from the 2018/19
budget.

Capital Acquisition Funding
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Madam Chairman, the Ministry
of National Security has approved $247,5 60 of capital
acquisition funding for Defence. This funding will allow
the Regiment to continue with its vehicle replacement
plan with additional funding provided for the muchneeded replacement of computers, office equipment, and kitchen equipment.

280 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Pers onnel

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Madam Chairman, the Berm uda Regiment employs 31 full -time staff, of which all
but three are military personnel. The three civilian staff
are employed in the administration of recruitment, accounting, and grounds maintenance at W arwick
Camp.

Output Measures and Objectives

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Madam Chairman, the Regiment successfully completed its preparations and training for the past hurricane season. In February,
the Regiment had a successful [Recruit] Camp in 2019 with 25 vo lunteers participating. There will be an
additional [Recruit] Camp in July 2019. Preparatory training is being established for the three overseas
training events. These are:
• The Potential Junior Non- Commissioned O fficers ( or PJNCO) Cadre will be held at Camp
Lejeune, North Carolina, this May 2019 for the
culmination of their leadership and training
course.
• “B” Company ( or HADR) will take part in E xercise Tradewinds in June 2019, in St. Vi ncent and the Grenadines, as part of an international HADR exercise practicing the r egions’ response mechanism to natural disas-ters. Th is exercise is designed to combine
joint interagency training, focusing on regional
cooperation for complex multinational security
operations.
• “A” Company (MACA) will travel to Lydd &
Hythe training complex in Kent, UK, late in
September 2019 to conduct internal security certified training.
• And finally, t he RBR Boat Troop will train l ocally, with the aim to provide support to the BPS Maritime Unit throughout the peak boating season. Additionally, they will continue training in local disaster mitigation exercises
with regard to oil spill s and other man- made
or natural disasters.

Major Achievements

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Madam Chairman, the Regiment again demonstrated its enduring agility and r esilience in January and July 2018, with a total of 65 new
recruits entering the gates of Warwick Camp. This
was the first time in history that a summer Recruit Camp was conducted in order to attract young males
and females, once completing high school in Berm uda, and the RBR achieved that aim.
The RBR provided security and marshalling
for the International Bermuda Triathlon in April 2018,
dedicating a reinforced platoon on the ground, includ-ing senior officers operating the Joint Service Command Centre.
The RBR Potential Junior Non- Commissioned
Officers [PJNCO] Cadre—(that was quite a mouthful)
[Laughter]

Sen. Crystal Caesar: —was deployed in North Car olina, Camp Lejeune, with 30 students being assessed
in a demanding environment.
The Royal Bermuda R egiment continues to
work closely with the Bermuda Police Service (or BPS), including the Joint Service Explosive Ordnance
Disposal [JSEOD], as they continue to conduct
mont hly training.
The RBR [Marine] Platoon will continue to
support the BPS Marine Uni t on the waters, conduc ting regular civil authority training operations.
The RBR Special Constable Recertification
training continued with 40 soldiers being re- authorised
in April 2018.
The RBR conducted the regular annual cer emonial parades including Beating of the Retreat Ceremonies for 2018 and is prepared to continue for
2019. The RBR developed a B Company as the Ceremonial Company, which also acts as the HADR
Company.
Additionally, they sent two members of the
Boat Troop to the Cayman Islands to tra in in defence
engagement activities with the Royal Navy and were
certified in small engine repairs and boat handling
skills.
Additionally, the RBR attended the fifth meeting of the Caribbean Region Information Operations Council [CRIOC] between the 28
th and 29th of June
2018 in Turks and Caicos Islands. The meeting was
facilitated by the United States Northern Command.
The aims were to maintain trusted partnerships, foster
regional collaboration to enhance Information Oper ation [IIO] capabilities to counter common threats af-fecting the Caribbean and Bermuda regions.
Additionally, t he RBR participated in SCARS
training and over 90 soldiers were certified in this area
to help mitigate risks against children within the Junior Leaders and Junior Bandsmen. (Quite commendable.)

Mm-hmm.
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Two senior officers of the RBR
attended and passed the Advanced Command and
Staff Course at Shrivenham, UK. This course is a post
graduate programme which prepares officers for se nior command positions within the RBR.
Four soldiers, three male and one female, of
the RBR attended the All Arms Drill Course at the prestigious All Arms Drill Wing in Catterick, UK , and
achieved passing grades.
An RBR Senior Non- Commissioned Officer attended and passed a six- week Jamaica Defence


Bermuda Senate Force, Warrant Officer Course in Jamaica in January
2019.
During this past fiscal period, the RBR sacr ificed attending its annual overseas training camp in
lieu of cost savings which were to be used toward the initial start -up of the RBR Coast Guard. Local training
was conducted throughout the year to address the
training needs of the battalion over this period. Ho wever, the anticipated training levels were not achieved
due to the lack of the wide range of purposely built
facilities that were planned to be used in Camp Lejeune for testing and evaluating RBR troops.
The RBR conducted the National Academy of
Police Diving (NAPD) Course and certified three so ldiers and two Bermuda Police Services personnel in the following:
• Dive Team Management ;
• Police/Special Response Diving Physiology ;
• Dive Team Equipment ;
• Underwater Search and Recovery ;
• Underwater Crime Scene Investigation;
• Emergency Medical Technology ;
• Underwater Crime Scene Photography ;
• Lift Bag Skills ;
• Police Tactical Diving al ong with Hull and
Seawall Searches .

Sen. Crystal Caesar: They have been very busy.

Mm -hmm.

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Madam Chairman, in closing,
the RBR is an organis ation with proud traditions and a
structure, ethos, training and management which is
now being transitioned into a hybrid unit. The organization is being modified and is being designed for
what Bermuda needs today in terms of military capabilities and output. Over the last 20- plus years, many
reviews and surveys have been conducted but never
fully acted upon. That is no longer the case. The RBR needs to adapt to the requirements of this 21
st century
in Bermuda.
The Strategic Review 2018 is a living doc ument and shall be utilised to make decisions that will
[contribute] toward success . It contains candid observations and recommendations which were implemented and will provide excellent opportunities to ensure
that its alignment is coherent with Bermuda’s needs. It
is an opportunity to transform the Royal Bermuda Regiment into a bespoke organisation which is more
efficient, effective and professional. It will be able to respond to events in the HADR, MACA and Maritime domains, supported by a mix of full -time and part -time
soldiers, held at graduated states of readiness.
The Regiment is well set to provide valuable
services to the government as it moves through [the]
second half of the century. The end state will be able
to demonstrate a full operational capability in HADR, Maritime Security, and MACA. These capabilities are underpinned b y a coherent defence engagement plan
with agencies on and off the Island, including the UK Ministry of Defence [MOD] and partner nations. The
RBR's narrative is articulated by a communications plan targeting internal and external audiences.
The Regiment w ill recruit all year round with
flexible intakes of recruits, attractive terms of service,
along with career paths that are clearly defined for
current and potential officers and soldiers. The RBR
will design a pathway for education and training, and
as the competency of our people improves, so will the services we delivery.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Junior Minister.

Sen. Marcus Jones: I have listened to the spokesman . . . Junior Minister. Sorry. I have listened to the
Junior Minister for National Security. My train of
thought got all ruined there, but I want to get it right.
Respect is due.
I listened with great interest because as we all
know, the traditional model of the defence force that
Bermuda has been practicing and exercising is in a midst of a transitional period. We all know the history,
the successes, and how many of our family members
. . . and I have to say family members , because I never had the, I guess, good pleasure of being drafted by
the Regiment . So I can only comment on it from a di stance. But we know that this particular organisation is
going through some monumental changes. And so it
is going to have some challenges that it has never
seen before. So, I believe, for the sake of the public, I
have a few questions here where I may ask the Junior
Minister of National Security to expound upon to bring
clarity.
Now, we are at page B -274. I am looking at
cost centre 0602. There are a couple of expenses there that I would like to see if I can get some clarity
on.
Now, one of the sections on this Budget Book
that really got my attention was the Military [Aid] to the
Civil Authority, MACA. That is found on B -273. I just
want to back up a quick second so we can understand
what this is. This role encompasses the spectrum of
assistance that the Regiment could be asked to give
the civil authority of Bermuda. Now, I stress they
“could be asked.”
With that definition of what MACA is, I turn
back to page B -274, and I am looking at line item
16040, which is Internal Security, MACA. We see
there that in the year 2017/18 the cost was
282 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate $1,748,000. The estimate was then increased to
$1,861,000 with a more updated revised figure of
$2,111,000. So those are big numbers. And again, I
go back to the definition where it says this particular
assistance to the civil authority that is being asked of the Regiment, the pertinent phrase there is “could be
asked.”
So, based on that premise, I would like to ask
the question. How does the department come up with
those numbers? What data do they use to come up
with a budget figure, especially since for the last two
years the amounts have been very high, in excess of
$1.7 million ? And then in the 2019/20 estimate that
figure drops down to $382,000, which is an 82 per
cent decrease in what has actually been an expense,
and what has now come to the updated, revised number and cost for 2018/19 . . . I guess my question is, Is
that amount speculative? Is it based on actuary for ecast of disaster? Just a little bit of clarity on how the
department comes to that number.
Similarly, line number 16030, which is Cer emonial, which is HADR . And the description for that is
that HADR , which is the acronym for Humanitarian Aid
and Disaster Relief. And the description is the Royal Bermuda Regiment is mandated to assist the civil authorities in the event of a major disaster —in the event
of a maj or disaster. So for the 2017/18, the actual
amount was $460,000. The estimate, and then r evised total, was $393,000, and then the department
has increased it to $656,000. So, that number is
based on what the department, or possibly what the
civil authoriti es can use as their best guesstimate to
determine that maybe it is because there are hurr icanes that have been forecasted that will be circulat-ing around the Atlantic that may strike some of our
neighbours in the south, and so that money is being
set aside in the event that our forces are needed for
help to our neighbours to the south.
Again, I am just trying to get a little bit of understanding and clarity on how the department calc ulates those numbers.
Then, of course, I listened with great anticipation and excitement to the concept and idea of a
Coast Guard, something that has been talked about for some years now. So I am looking within the expenditure lines, in the business cost centre to see if funds have been set aside for that particular enterprise. And I am looking at line item 16085, which is
Marine Operations.
[Sen. James S. Jardine, Chairman]

Page B -274.
Sen. Marcus Jones: Thank you for your assistance,
Mr. Chairman.
So, I am looking at that figure of $349,000,
which was the most updated figure, and then in
2019/20 it has been removed. So maybe some clarity.
If that amount is attributed to the Coast Guard, I would
like to know if that is the case.
Then on the same page, B -274, under Trai ning and Validation . . . sorry, Overseas Camps. That is
what I was looking at, Overseas Camps. Now it
jumped from the actual numbers . . . well, the revised
numbers of 2018/19 of $218[,000] to $895,000. So, I
guess my question is, Wi th that increase, is that number just an anomaly or is that something that is pr ogressively getting larger a s we get closer to a full -
strength volunteer force? Just a little clarity on that
case would be most appreciated.
Then I am turning to page B -275, looking u nder expenditures there . . . well, let’s drop to full time
. . . I will come back up to expenses, but let’s look at
the employee numbers, full -time equivalents.
The number of full-time employees at the
moment is 31. It has been 31 since 2017/18. It was
budgeted, and the actual numbers were the same in
2018/19. And then looking forward, that is the same
number, 31. My question would be, How many of those 31 military employees are actually Bermudian?
That is question number one. And secondly, can we
anticipate a complete or near -complete Bermudian
executive, or senior ranking officers , as part of our
succession plan? I am not too sure how that works either, but I would like to think that if that was a poss ibility for the next generation, it would b e something
that our youngsters can aspire to do as a full -time pr ofession.
Then I am looking at the travel budget. It was
estimated in 2018/19 that the travel budget was going
to be $406,000, dedicated to travel. It came in at
$197[,000] as a more updat ed number, under the r evised 2018/19. And then next year that figure goes up
another 127 percentage points to 447. Can I get some
explanation on that figure?
We also see professional services at $67,000
for the year 2018/19. It increases by 40 per cent. S o,
can we get an understanding of what that professional
services line is made up of? And some sort of understanding of why such an increase year -on-year?
Now, the professional services are going up
40 per cent, but we look up to the line item where it
says Wages, the original budget for 2018/19 is
$2,154,000. And the estimate for 2019/20 drops down
to $2,024,000, which is $299,000. So we have professional services going up by 40 per cent, and we have
wage levels coming down 13 per cent, but full -time
equivalents remain unchanged. So just a little clarity in
that regard would be good as well.
Now, what I have also been made to understand is that the Royal Bermuda Regiment at full strength is approximately, or was in the past, 420 perBermuda Senate sonnel. My question would be, What is the minimum
number that will be required in the model, in the volu nteer force, that the Royal Bermuda Regiment has t oday? What would be the minimum number that would
allow this force to adequately execute its mission? I
would venture to guess that 420 at this point is una ttainable ; but what would be the minimum number to
ensure that all their mission would be accomplished?
On top of that question, I would want to i nquire, with 65 volunteers who are signed up working at the Royal Bermuda Regiment, is 31 full -time e mployees, the majority of which are senior officers, an
overkill? [If] 31 full -time employees were able to manage and operate a force of 420 personnel, I would say
that in my estimation 31 full -time employees at a senior level would be more than enough, if not too much,
in handling 65 volunteers. Governments as well as the
military have to be able to adjust their staffing levels based on the size of their staff. So just a question of
whether the Regiment is looking to pare down on
some of the senior officers until it gets to being a force
of full strength.
Then I am turning over to page B -276, which
is the performance measures. I am looking under the
business unit 1600. The matrix there is the number of
volunteers for service in Roy al Bermuda Regiment.
The actual in 2017/18 was 50. These are recruits;
these are volunteers , the number of volunteers. And
the forecast in 2018/19 was 61. That number has not changed in updated actual numbers, it has dropped
by one . And then next year it i s the same. I guess my
question . . . actually, I am about to ask a question
that I believe was already answered. But I will throw it
out there anyway.
If the Regiment’s goal is to increase its number of volunteers, advertising and promotion actually
went down. You see that on page B -275, the estimate
for 2019/20. In 2018/19 [it was] $81,000 and it has
now dropped to $60,000 for 2019/20, which repr esents a 26 per cent decrease in advertising and pr omotions. Does part of that budget, that line item, also
include . . . does it also have a component in it where
it involves recruitment of volunteer soldiers?
Another question I would just throw out there
as an aside would be, Has the Royal Bermuda Reg iment considered a programme to go into the high
schools to recruit students? I remember back in my
high school days that the police had a junior cadet
programme. I think it even exists today to some degree. It w as very effective in recruiting young high
school students to consider a career in police work. At a time now , when many of our young people are looking for a place to cultivate a career, they are not sure
what they can do, the opportunity to go to school,
possibly at Bermuda College, while learning how to
become a military man within our Regiment, could be a fairly good thing to consider.
Now, again, I am still here on page B -276,
and we are looking under business unit 16020 at trai n-ing and support. There is a line item here that says
(number 2), number of soldiers listed as long- term
absentees. Now, again, pl ease forgive my lack of
knowledge when it comes to the explanation of what
that means. Soldiers listed as long- term absentees in
2017/18 were 105, in 2018/19 the number did not
change, and then the revised forecast is zero for the
coming year. Just an expl anation of what that is all
about.
Mr. Chairman, at this point I believe I will bring
my questions to a close. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Senator Jones.
Would any other Senators like to speak to this
head?
No? Then I think Senator Caesar y ou have
some questions. You have had a busy afternoon of
questions.

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Mm-hmm.

[Crosstalk]
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
There was a question with regard to the i ncreasing number as it pertains to overseas camps in
particular, line 16075. It should be noted that in 2017
there was no camp held at all. In 2018, there was also
a desire for cost savings so again there was no camp.
But for the 2019 year, in order to ensure that the offi cers get the appropriate training, that number has been
put back into the budget number . Therefore, you will
see a significant increase in the amount budgeted.
In addition, for professional services, there
was a question about why that number had increased
40 per cent. As we all know, we no w have an all -
volunteer Regiment, a Royal Bermuda Regiment .
Therefore, in order to entice those individuals to act ually volunteer there needs to be increased advertising,
marketing media, recruit camps need to be held and they have been held on Island. So these are all i ncreased costs that were used by certain professional
services in order to entice people to get them in the
door. So that is why there was a 40 per cent increase
in that particular area.
And I am just going to confer with my tec hnical offic er for some remaining answers.

Please do.
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Mr. Chairman, the question
was regarding the complement of full -time employees
as to what the [breakdown] was of Bermudian versus non-Bermudian staff. My understanding is that a ll of
the officers, except one person, are Bermudian.
There was also a mention of succession planning for Bermudians entering, and then there are
some who are a bit older. There is a succession plan
in place, and the promotion process is well in hand
284 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate and well established. So there is a succession pr ogression through the RBR.
The travel budget has admittedly varied over
the last few years. The question was, Why has that
happened? Only a few officers have travelled over-seas to get some requisite training, so the overseas
camps were not attended or held. They were held on
Island. So the numbers have fluctuated. (Let me confer here.) And as previously stated, it is anticipated
that in this year quite a few of those camps will be r einstituted, so that number has been budgeted to go back up. Therefore, you will see the 127 per cent jump
in that number.
This is an ongoing question as to, now that it
is a volunteer Regiment, what is the ultimate number
for it to be fully staffed? The number is around 200 .
Howev er, it should be mentioned that it depends on
what the mission is, what the threats are at the time,
and what tasks need to be completed. You will appr eciate that the Coast Guard is not staffed at this point.
So, obviously, there aren’t any numbers there either. So, obviously, there are less people in that area.
But the Royal Bermuda Regiment is actively
seeking to staff up and also give the required complement of funds to that particular area to staff it up.
But in the meantime, there are soldiers who are actually assisting the Marine Unit of the Bermuda Police
[Services]. So it is in train . It is not just being left until
someone says, Hey, I want to do it. There are people
who are actively pursuing that particular area of the
Royal Bermuda Regiment.
The brief that I read, or the Statement that I
read, with regard to the RBR actually did highlight
that. We have, and continue, to recruit young st udents. So we actually do . . . I just wanted to go back
and indicate that we actually did have 30 students who travelled to North Carolina to Camp Lejeune . So
we do actually recruit , and have recruited for a number of years , young people within the high schools to
get them interested in continuing a career within the
Royal Bermuda Regiment.
I am just making sure I am not repeating m yself.

[Pause]
Sen. Crystal Caesar: So, if I could just point out as
well . . . and I believe there was a discussion around
the makeup of the Royal Bermuda Regiment. And if I
could reiterate that there are now two companies,
there is the MACA, which provides military assistance
and assistance to the civil authority, and the HADA
which is humanitarian. Of course, at some point, coming on line will be the coast guard . But, of course, the
sufficient funds need to be raised in order to ha ve a
full and operational coast guard unit, and that is in
train, as I previously mentioned.
I dealt with professional services; we do have
a junior leaders programme. I talked about the com-plement of soldiers. And I certainly hope that I have touched—

You did. You mentioned the compl ement of 200, but it is variable depending on the commission.

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Correct. That is correct. And
what the needs are at the time.
I believe that I have touched the questions
that I have noted here. Certainly, if there is anything
that is not clear or that needs further clarification, I do
invite, as I have previously, Senators to speak with
myself, the Minister, and the technical officers.
So with that said —
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Mr. Chairman—

Please proceed, Senator.

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Thank you.
The $349,000 in the revised 2018/19 budget ( I
am on page B -274, for those who are following along )
on Marine Operations. That was a one- time spend?
And, if so, to what end did it go when there is nothing
budgeted for that same category for the upcom ing
year? You mentioned something I think about a m arine corps , but I am not entirely clear on why we have
a one- time unbudgeted spend of $349,000 this year,
but nothing budgeted for next year.

Thank you, Senator Kempe.

Sen. Crystal Caesar: If you recall, during the Amer ica’s Cup we needed to deploy a unit to assist with the
Marine Services . That is what that one- time revised
number was for. As we do not presently have a coast
guard, so we actually had to use Royal Bermuda Reg-iment soldiers —

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: So that actually —
Sen. Crystal Caesar: —to cover.

Senator Caesar, do you want to take
a few minutes to confer?

Sen. Crystal Caesar: —confer.
Mm-hmm.

[Pause]
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Thank you.
I have received clarification. Those funds
were actually diverted during and after America’s Cup. We noted, as a result of the fact that we actually do
not have a dedicated marine corps, there was quite a
bit of training done after America’s Cup to ensure that
those that had begun in that par ticular unit would continue to get training. It just did not continue, unfort unately, because the monies ran out. So it was during
and after the America’s Cup that this training happened. You will see that $349,000, but it was a bunch
of training specifically for people in the maritime area,
and it was during the summer after the America’s
Cup.

Senator Kempe, you had a follow -up
question?
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Yes, a foll ow-up question.
If this spend happened during the America’s
Cup, as well as after, why is the line item showing z ero dollars spent in the actual for 2017/18? And if it is for training, why isn’t it in the training and validation
line?

Sen. Crystal Caesar : I’m sorry, if I could ask him to
clarify his last sentence. Why isn’t it in the what line?

Is there any objection?
No objection.
So moved.
Thank you, Senators.

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

Senate resumed at 5:06 pm

[Sen. the Hon. Joan E. Dil las-Wright, President, pr esiding]

The President: Good afternoon, Senators.
Thank you for your participation in the debate
on the budget estimates.
We will now continue with the Order s of the
Day. We are entering the second reading of the M unicipalitie s Reform Act 2019.
Senator Caesar, you have a very busy day. I
believe this is your Bill. You have the floor.
Sen. Crystal Caesar: It is Madam President, please
bear with me. Just let me sort myself out here.
286 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate The President: Yes, indeed. You take your ti me.

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Thank you.
[Pause]
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Okay. I am ready, Madam
President.
The President: Senator Caesar, you have the floor.
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Thank you, Madam President.
I move that the Bill entitled the Municipalities
Reform Act 2019 be now read a second time.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Carry on, Senator Caesar.

[Pause]

The President: Senator Richardson, you are going to
cover for her while she takes a few minutes.

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Madam President, if I may. I
am not sure if this is standard procedure, but we have
a long day. Is there any mechanism by which anyone can pause for five minutes and stretch their legs?

The President: Yes, we can. Yes, we can take a fiveminute break then.
So we will resume again in exactly five
minutes. We have been here all day. So the Senate
will take a five minute recess.

Proceedings suspended at 5:08 pm

Proceedings resumed at 5:15 pm

The President: Senators, we are now back in sessi on
and we are carrying on with the second item on the
Orders of the Day , which is the second reading of the
Municipalities Reform Act 2019.
And Senator Caesar had the floor, and you
now have it again.

BILL

SECOND READING

MUNICIPALITIES REFORM ACT 2019

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, I introduce the Bill entitled
the Municipalities Reform Act 2019 to be read for the
second tim e. This Bill seeks to abolish municipal elections to provide for the appointment of members of the
corporations to make consequential amendments to
the Municipalities Act 1923 to make certain directions given by the Minister to a corporation subject to parliamentary scrutiny.
Madam President, the Minister stated in his
Ministerial Statement of the 1st of March 2019, this Bill
begins the journey toward achieving the goal of modernising the municipalities and realising the Gover nment’s vision for the people of Bermuda. There have
been a number of theories that have been bandied about regarding the reasons for this route, and I must
restate our vision and our reasons for proceeding with
this Bill.
It is envisioned for the Town of St. George’s
that there will be a mega- yacht port and marina with
enhanced infrastructure, amenities and activities. In order to achieve this vision, the following needs must
be met:
• a sustainable management plan for the World
Heritage Site;
• a sustainable and non- seasonal industry;
• infrastructure and amenities to address the
needs of the community, in addition to the
businesses, particularly the St. Regis development; and
• general infrastructure upgrades.
It is envisioned f or the City of Hamilton a
“smart city” infrastructure with a thriving residential centre, with an entertainment hub with distinct districts
to touch all aspects of city living, including tourism
interfaces . In order to achieve this vision, the following
needs must be met:
• the development of a multifaceted waterfront;
• increased city living;
• increased use of vacant office space;
• effective traffic management, using “smart city” technology; and
• encouraging the development of districts (for example, financial, entertainment, restaurant,
et cetera.)
Madam President, I must also reiterate what
the legislation does not intend to do. It does not mean the loss of any jobs. It does not mean that Gover nment will dismantle the existing operating structure of
each municipality or do away with the positions of
mayor or councillors. Th ere will continue to be a
mayor and eight councillors. It does not mean a tak eover of the town from those who do not live and work
there. Persons who reside, do business or work in the
City of Hamilton or the Town of St. George’s will have
the opportunity to provide input in the selection pr ocess of the mayor and the eight councillors, especially
for councillors. And it does not mean that Government
is making an asset grab. The municipality will remain a corporate body.
Madam President, the municipalities have
served an important purpose in managing the City of Hamilton and Town of St. George’s; however, there
are inconsistencies in how each is structured. One
corporation is focused mainly on business, one mainly residential. One has a fairly healthy revenu e stream,


Bermuda Senate one is reliant largely on the largesse of government.
Both have issues with failing infrastructure. Both are
looking for ways to stimulate their economies in order
to raise more revenue. Municipalities overseas pr ovide social services including h ousing and policing to
their residents. Municipalities in Bermuda do not de-liver social services. This is the exclusive authority of
the Government of Bermuda, although the need for
social services within the municipalities is growing. It
is evident that t his model is outdated and no longer
works.
Some of the challenges that we have encountered with the municipalities include: an absence of
priorities that are in alignment with the vision of the
Government, failures of accountability, and lack of proper due diligence and governance in awarding of
contracts; inadequate resources to undertake i mportant public infrastructure projects, such as the needed upgrade to the sewage system; ongoing cha llenges in the labour relations environment, especially
in the Corporation of Hamilton; the lack of consultation with government depart ments in relation to infrastructure, such as the Mini stries of Public Works, Public
Safety, and Home Affairs, before embarking on pr ojects related to traffic control and in relation to sidewalks and ordinances, such as sewage and waste
management and planning for structures; a lack of
formalised consultation that would allow the munic ipalities to team with the Government to provide ec onomic solutions within the municipalities that will
bene fit Bermuda; and lack of funds to proceed with
initiatives of national, economic and social i mportance.
Madam President, to achieve the vision for
the future outlined previously, it requires the efforts of
both Government and the corporations moving t ogether in the same direction at the same time. It would
also be evident that neither corporation has the financial and other resources to achieve and sustain the
vision to rejuvenate the cities. The central government
has the resources and access to the expert ise to pr ogress the vision to turn these cities into vibrant entities
in order to attract more visitors and greater investment opportunities for Bermuda.
Madam President, municipalities do make
sense in much larger jurisdictions, such as the UK, Canada and the United States, where it would be diff icult to manage cities and large populations centrally.
But does it make sense in a 22- square- mile Island,
with 60,000 people? In preparing for this move to modernise the municipalities, we have looked to a
number of smaller jurisdictions, many of the islands in
the Caribbean of comparable size to us and even
larger. These jurisdictions have either reverted to partial administration in the same way that we have suggested or simply dissolved the municipalities.
Some examples include George Town, Ca yman Islands. George Town is the capital city of the Cayman Islands, a UK Overseas Territory. Its popul a-tion is around 20,000. George Town is governed and
administered by the National Government of Cayman
[Islands]. It does not have a separate level of gover nance and administration from the National Gover nment. There are no special powers conferred upon the city, nor are there any distinct services or responsibil ities particular to the city. The city is administered sim ilarly to other areas in the Cayman Islands by the national civil service.
I move on to Bridgetown, Barbados. Bridg etown is the capital city of Barbados. Its population is 97,000. Bridgetown is an actual electoral constituency
and is represented by a member of parliament.
Bridgetown is governed and administered by the N ational Government of Barbados. It does not have a
separate level of governance and administration from
the national government. There are no special powers conferred on the city, nor are there any distinct se rvices or responsibilities particular to the city. The city
is administered similarly to other areas in Barbados by
the national civil service.
Nassau, the Bahamas. As Honourable Members may be aware, Nassau is the capital city of the Bahamas and its population is 210,830. Nassau is
governed and administered by the National Gover nment of the Bahamas. It does not have a separate
level of governance and administration from the national government. There are no special powers con-ferred upon the cit y, nor are there any distinct services
or responsibilities particular to the city.
Madam President, when reviewing the prev iously stated vision of the Town of St. George’s, to put it simply, the Corporation of St. George’s does not
have the resources, incl uding the monies or persons,
required to achieve the vision. Of those who have shared their opinion, many have stated that the Government should just (1) give the Corporation of St.
George’s the money that they need; and (2) leave
them alone to manage thei r own affairs.
Madam President, I would state that the two
sentiments are mutually exclusive. The Government
must also exercise good governance and ensure that
the money is spent, achieving the vision for the Town
of St. George’s. Unfortunately, the Corporation of St.
George’s does not have the persons with the skills to manage the town’s finances adequately. This can be
evidenced in the fact that their auditors, KPMG, have
recommended (quote) “The Corporation should reach
out to Government to have a suita bly qualified civil
servant or Minister sit on the Finance Committee to provide financial oversight.”
Madam President, you may be aware that the
World Heritage Site is under threat. We must resolve
this issue as a matter of urgency. The status of the
World Heritage Site is [under] threat in part because
of the lack of a proper management plan. This is cur-rently being addressed by the Department of Pla nning, which is producing the management plan for the
World Heritage Site in St. George’s. In addition, the
288 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Corporation of St. George’s does not have the funds
to undertake infrastructure repairs and has traditiona lly appealed for a grant from the Government in the
amount of between $1 million and $2 million. To ensure the continued sustainability of the designation, the Government intends to give greater authority to
the Corporation of St. George’s both legislatively as a
separate Act and financially.
Madam President, the Corporation of Hami lton is in a very different position. While fiscally able,
the mayor and councillors do not see the Gover nment’s vision as a priority. For example, when di scussing with the mayor the possibility of developing
the waterfront, he stated that it was not a priority for
the Corporation of Hamilton at this time. When di scussing the possibility of implementing smart city
technology, including exploring the introduction of free Wi-Fi, he and his team stated they did not have the
money, although the mayor has recently stated publi cly that he intends to use the technology to make stop-lights more efficient.
However, Madam President, smart city tec hnology is so much more. Cities worldwide, the top five being Singapore, Barcelona, London, San Francisco,
and Oslo, are turning to new technology to search for
new approaches and solutions that will improve city
transportation, water, waste management, energy usage, and a host of other infrastructure issues that underpin the operation of cities and the lifestyle of urban
citizens.
Of those who have shared their opinions,
many have stated that t he Corporation of Hamilton
runs so efficiently and the government could do no better. I beg to differ. Persons have also made the
claim that the Government is setting democracy back
by not allowing individuals and businesses to vote for
their mayor and councillors. However, in more than
one meeting, and even in a town hall meeting in Hamilton a few weeks ago, residents and businesses in
North Hamilton complained that they are being underserved.
Madam President, a councillor in the Corpor ation of Hamilton s tated that the businesses in the centre of Hamilton (I assume from Front Street to Church Street) pay more money, so they should get more attention. So, it is assumed that you pay more and you get more attention. This harkens back to times in the
1900s whe n landowners got the vote. I certainly hope
that this is not the idea of democracy that we want.
Madam President, many believe that only the
administration that served from 2012 to 2015 was
guilty of missteps and failures. But I must remind Honourable Mem bers that some of these deficiencies
were not only due to the perceived shortcomings of
that administration. Between 2004 and 2012, there
were repeated efforts by the corporation to develop a hotel in Par -la-Ville. Numerous mayors during that
period negoti ated with no less than three international
hotel brands, including Starwood, St. Regis and the Ritz-Carlton, to bring a hotel to fruition. These were
lavishly announced deals, development agreements, an SDO, and planning approvals. As evidenced today,
millions of dollars of ratepayers’ money did not pr oduce a hotel.
The sewage system is outdated and millions
of dollars’ worth of work has been expended to prop
up an ageing system. Fortunately, a project is now
being undertaken by the Ministry of Public Works ,
which will replace the work that is being currently un-dertaken in respect of corporations and will reduce the proposed capital outlay of $8.5 million over the next
three years for the Corporation of Hamilton.
The fire hydrants in the City [of Hamilton] do
not work. It was pointed out by the mayor that section 19 of the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service Act 1982
states: “On 1 April 1983 any engine, equipment, vehi-cle and other movable property and assets belonging
to the Corporation of Hamilton and used by t hat Corporation in connexion with its fire services shall be transferred to, and shall vest in, the Government.”
It does not appear that this includes fire h ydrants and the underlying infrastructure. However, it could also be argued that in 1983, we did not have
international business to the level we have today, and
multi- storey buildings that house these other bus inesses. These buildings would be put at risk if there is no infrastructure in the city to assist with fighting fire.
This risk was quite evide nt in recent years
when there was a building fire on Front Street attended by the Bermuda Fire Services, and hoses had to
be dropped in the harbour to access water to exti nguish it. The fire hydrants on the sidewalk in front of
the burning building, on our most celebrated and expensive business addresses, were useless in a time of emergency.
Madam President, these deficiencies only
underscore the point that the City of Hamilton is not as
well maintained as it should be.
Madam President, I will now turn m y attention
to the Bill entitled the Municipalities Reform Act 2019.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

SENATE VISITORS
The President: Senator Caesar, just as you take your
break for a second, I just want to acknowledge the
presence in the Gallery, first of all, the Deputy Premier
and Minister of Home Affairs, the Honourable Walter Roban. Welcome.
[Also,] Junior Minister of Finance, Mr. Wayne
Furbert; Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Rozy Azhar; and the Parliamentary Counsel, Brian Eaton, who are in
the Chamber. Wel come to you all.
Do carry on.

[Municipalities Reform Act 2019, second reading debate, continuing]


Bermuda Senate Sen. Crystal Caesar: Thank you, Madam President.
The Municipalities Reform Act 2019 proposes
to achieve the following:
1. Abolishing municipal elections in 2019, after which members would be appointed. Members
would be aware that there was one extraordinary m unicipal election held on the 5th of February 2019 to
replace deceased councillor, Mr. Phillip Anderson. His daughter, Cyniqua Anderson was subsequently elected.
2. Making consequential amendments to the
Municipalities Act 1923 by amending or repealing the
section that made reference to municipal elections.
3. Prescribing the tenure of office of the current elected members by ending on May 13
th, 2019,
and prescribing the tenure of appointed members to
take effect on the 14th of May 2019.
4. Inserting the Fourth Schedule, which pr ovides for the appointment of members for their tenure
of office. For each corporation, the mayor and four
councillors will be appointed by the Minister. The other
four councillors will be appointed on the recommendation of a selection committee appointed by the Mini ster.
And if I could quote from the Act, or the pr oposed Act.

The President: You may.
Sen. Crystal Caesar: [The Fo urth Schedule par agraph] 2(2), “ The persons appointed to the Committee
shall be individuals who reside, do business, or work,
in the municipal area of the Corporation and who the Minister believes will carry out the functions of the
Committee effectively and efficiently. ”
Further, and after consultation with Honour able Members of this Chamber, and others, a motion was passed in the House to change the wording of
[the Fourth Schedule, paragraph] 2(4) of the proposed Municipalities [Reform] Act of 2019 from “The criteria
for the selection of Councillors by the Committee shall
be determin ed by . . . the Minister” to “ The criteria for
the selection of Councillors by the Committee shall be
determined by the Committee after consultation with
the Minister.”
The F ourth Schedule also provides that the
name of every person appointed to the office of mayor
or councillor of a corporation and a vacancy in such
office be published in the Gazette .
Madam President, when the Bill was debated
in the House a motion was passed which will expand
on the skill set of the persons that the Minister will be
appointing. Such persons will include persons with
knowledge, expertise and experience in the following
categories: accounting, legal affairs, planning, archi-tecture, engineering or construction, human r esources, or collective bargaining agreements.
These amendments will clarify that the skill
sets of the persons that the Minister is appointing will represent the skill set required to reform the munic ipalities. In addition, the a mendment clarifies that, ot her than appointing the selection committee, the com-mittee will set the criteria for the persons they will be recommending to the Minister. And those criteria will
be made available to the general public by publication
in the Gaz ette. And finally:
5. Amending the principal Act to clarify that if
an act or thing done by a corporation would otherwise
not be construed as being for municipal purposes, it
will be deemed to be for municipal purposes if done
under the direction by the Minister.
This amendment is particularly important in
light of the 2019 Privy Council decision of Mexico I nfrastructure Finance LLC v. The Corporation of Hami lton [2019] [UKPC 2], which assigned a very narrow
meaning to the expression “municipal purpose. ”
These directions will have legislative effect and ther efore be a statutory instrument subject to parliamentary
scrutiny .
I would like to highlight that this Government
continues to listen and this is evident in the Minister’s
commitment in another place to the Town of St.
George, in particular, to pursue a standalone Act for
the Town of St. George, provide legal and financial
authority for the UNESCO World Heritage Site to the
St. George’s Corporation, and produce the development agreement and tabling the relevant legislation to bring to fruition a St. George’s marina.
Also, there are other aforementioned amendments made even after the Bill was tabled in the House. Therefore, this demonstrates that this Go vernment does listen, not just when we have made a decision but even when we are asked to reconsider.
Madam President, in conclusion, I would like
to finish as I started by stating that this Bill begins the
journey toward achieving the goal of modernising the
municipalities and realising this Government ’s vision
for the people of Bermuda.
Thank you, Madam President.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

SENATE VISITOR
The President: Thank you, Senator Caesar.
And before I open to other Senators to speak
on this Bill, I would like to also acknowledge the pre sence of MP Renee Ming, representative of St. George’s area, in the Gallery. Welcome to you.

[Municipalities Reform Act 2019, second reading debate,
continuing]

The President: Would any Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Robinson, you have the floor.

290 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Sen. Dwayne Robinson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
Frankly, I am finding it hard to see the point of
this Bill. Modernising does not mean that you have to
forgo elections. It does not require the removal of elections . And the municipalities are a lready overseen
by the Government , and the Government already has
robust oversight measures.
The people have spoken out against this Bill
on every possible channel. It is our responsibility to listen to the people, as the PLP have screamed every step of t he way during the OBA’s ten ure as Gover nment. But it is do as I say, not as I do. Right?
Madam President, the Government has
claimed to have listened to the people. However, to me, the proposed separation of legislation for the St.
George’s municipality is a clear backpaddle. Why
wasn’t separate legislation considered before the
launch of the Municipality [Reform] Act? If this was a
consideration, why did the MPs representing the St.
George’s constituents vote for the Municipalities [R eform] Act, despite vocal dissatisfaction from the co mmunity of St. George’s? Is this putting Bermudians first?
It is clear that it is a grab for the Corporation
of Hamilton. And this separation of legislation only isolates that fact even further for the public of Berm uda. T his adds to the pattern of half -baked legislation,
rerolling or repackaging, as we saw so bla tantly with
the sugar tax, roll outs, roll back in, consultation, and
then we are back to square one.
I implore my fellow Senators to vote in the
interest of the people. They want support for their
communities, not control. This amendment needs to
be better thought -out with more and further consult ation with the people and further consultation with the
mayors so that the Government can support each
municipality an d the community in a collaborative
fashion. I would rather see this avenue then for it to be settled in the courts, Madam President.
We all agree that the Town of St. George and
the Corpora tion of Hamilton have distinct histories and
challenges. Separate legislation is not a bad idea so
that both municipalities have their individual needs
met. Had the Government led with this tack it would
look a lot less like a divide and conquer ploy.
What does the Government actually want?
This is the question that we f ind ourselves asking. My
colleagues on the other side of the table should agree with my viewpoint, as their Honourable Members
made very similar points when they debated the Municipalities [Amendment] Act (No. 2) 2015. This amendment was enacted to give the Minister responsible more powers of oversight in the municipalities.
This was met with staunch opposition from the PLP at
the time, yet they seek to go a step further than that.
The PLP was accused in this debate of wanting to
take over the municipalitie s back in 2015. And, fastforward to 2018, that is exactly what we are seeing. If you would allow me, Madam President, I
would like to read two excerpts from the
1Official Ha nsard Report , during the debate of 2015.

The President: You may.

Sen. Dwayne Rob inson: The Honourable Member
stated, “So what exactly is it that the Government
wants to do?”

Who is speaking?

Sen. Dwayne Robinson: The Honourable Walton
Brown.

The President: Carry on, Senator Robinson.
Sen. Dwayne Robinson: “So what exactly is it that
the Government wants to do? Does the Government want to take control over the development of the W aterfront? Does the Government want to take control
over what happens with respect to Par -la-Ville? ”
The next excerpt is: “ What exactly is the r ationale behind all of this? We need to have more i nformation; we need to have better information be-cause as it stands now, Mr. Speaker, this legislation
represents a grab for power from the Corporation of Hamilton. I am surprised that no one in the C orpor ation has even objected to it because these are elected members of Government (in the small sense of the
word “government”) who will be completely neutered
politically once this Bill is passed. They have made no
comment whatsoever. And if they have no objection to
it, then that, in and of itself, creates a level of challenges that I do not fully . . . I think the public should
. . . certainly needs to be fully aware of.
“But this legislation creates those challenges.
We need an explanation. The Governm ent has not
[yet] provided an adequate explanation. And in that
light . . . we believe this piece of legislation should not
be supported.”
And that is the end of the excerpt, Madam
President.
I don’t think I could have phrased it any better.
We are almos t looking at a mirror situation where
these comments, made by an Honourable Member on that side, clearly reflect the position that we find ourselves in today. If my concerns are answered and the
concerns of a Member of their own party, I think that the pub lic would undoubtedly appreciate it.
So, with that, Madam President, I conclude
my comments. Thank you.

The President: Thank you, Senator Robinson.
Would any other Senator care to speak? Se nator Jardine, you have the floor.


1 Official Hansard Report 10 July 2015, page 2681


Bermuda Senate Sen. James. S. Jardine: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
Madam President, it is probably appropriate
that I first acknowledge the fact that I served as an
elected member on the Corporation of Hamilton Council for 18 years, from 1987 to 2005, first as a
common councillor and then as an alderman, so some
of my comments are based on my own personal experiences during the 18 years I was there, and some of
them are based on more recent discussions that I
have had with a variety of individuals.
During my time on the corporation, the corporation completed a number of very significant capital
projects, including the building of the Bull’s Head mul-ti-storey car park at a cost of $10.5 million; the reloc ation and construction of a new sewage pumping st ation on Front Street, costing $8.9 million; and the ex-tension of the sewage outfall at Seabright costing
$650,000.
Now those total some $20 million. And all of
that was funded by the Corporation of Hamilton, with
the exception of a small grant of $1.6 million from the Government of the day. Now, all of those loans, and ,
in fact , the bond issue, have all been repaid fully by
the Corporation of Hamilton. And since that time, in 2010, subsequent to my leaving the corporation, they
borrowed a further $10.6 million to fund the building of a new Works depot down on Laffan Street because
the one they had there was in sore need of replac ement. Again, that loan is being satisfactorily paid off in
the normal course of events. So the Corporation of
Hamilton has always been able to fund major expenditures themsel ves without any funds being received
from the Government of Bermuda.
Madam President, during my time on the corporation I also saw several proposals for the deve lopment of the City of Hamilton waterfront. And, i ndeed, parts of some of those proposals wer e good
ones. However, it was not simply a case of building something just because we thought it was a good
idea; it had to make economic sense for the investors .
And, naturally, there had to be a sufficient number of
people living and visiting in Bermuda t o be able to
support whatever developments took place on the waterfront.
The old adage of build it and they will come is
not necessarily the correct course of action in all ci rcumstances. There is definitely a need to see some development on the waterfront of Hamilton; there is no
question about that , and St. George’s. And, certainly,
in my time on the corporation, we were very anxious to see development occur. But it must be properly thought out and planned. Now, a small start has been
made in the City of Hamilton in terms of the West End
where we see a building going up there for the D epartment of Tourism. As small as it is, it is a start. And I agree that there should be far more development on
the waterfront of Hamilton. There is no question about
it. Additionally, the financing to carry out this
work has to be found no matter who owns or controls the docks. It is as simple as that. It is dollars and
cents. Who is going to pay for it? And if it is a foreign
investor, what is their return going to be? B ecause
nobody is going to put money into something unless
they are going to see a return.
So, Madam President, this Bill, and I just
wanted to quickly summarise for the listening public
again, this Bill seeks to do the following:
First of all, it effect ively turns the Corporations
of Hamilton and St. George’s into government -
controlled operations. And the word “quango” has
been bandied about, but I won’t use that because it
has a specific definition. The second thing is to abo lish all municipal elections . So we all know that. The
third thing is to end the tenure of the current elected mayors and councillors on May the 13
th, 2019. And
the Minister is to appoint the mayor and four counci llors of each corporation to take effect on May the 14th,
2019. The ter m of these persons is for two years, but
it should be noted that there is no time limit on the
number of times that they can be reappointed to those
positions.
Additionally, the Minister will appoint a further
four members for each corporation on the recom mendation of a selection committee. The members of
which are, again, appointed by the Minister. There is
no limit on the number of times those members on that committee can be reappointed. So, effectively, all
members of both corporations are either approv ed or
appointed by the Minister.
It should also be appreciated, and this was
mentioned in the opening comments, that the persons
appointed by the Minister to serve on the selection
committee can be anyone who resides, does bus iness —and this is a key point —works in the munici pal
area. Well, you can imagine the City of Hamilton . . .
there are thousands of Bermudians who work in the
city who do not actually have businesses here and do not reside here. So, effectively, those individuals could
serve on this com mittee and have absolutely nothing
to do with the city , except that they actually go do
work here.
Also, nominations of persons to serve on the
corporation as councillors can come from the general
public. So, effectively, the city and town residents and
businesses are not the ones nominating the members
of the corporations.
Now, Madam President, before I go further, I
want to first go back to the reasons given by the pr evious Minister . I think it is important to go back to the
previous Minister’s [ reasons ] for wanting to make the
changes to the existing operating structures of both
corporations. And these were contained in the stat ement made by Minister Walton Brown back in March
9
th, 2018.
Madam President, if you will permit me to
read from his statement .
292 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate The President: You certainly can.

Sen. James. S. Jardine: He said the following:
“Mr. Speaker, further governance reform of
the municipalities is now necessary as a result of . . . :
“1) Failures of accountability, proper due dil igence and governance in the awarding of contracts. Honourable Members will recall that the proposed
Hamilton waterfront and Par -la-Ville hotel develo pments resulted in a highly critical report by the Ber-muda Ombudsman, legislative intervention by the Government of Bermuda, the assumption of temporary stewardship, and an arbitration that has cost
many millions to the” public purse.
So, Madam President, I would like to first
comment on the first point made by the Minister back
in March 2018. My comments are: Certainly, the fai lures of the proper governance, as referred to by the
Minister , with respect to the Hamilton waterfront and
the Par -la-Ville development were of great concern to
all of us. For those of us who served on the corpor ation for many years (and we think we did a reasonable
job) see it get into the state that it got into was very,
very disappointing. However, sections 7 and 37 of the
principal Act which exists now, part of which were enacted in 2013 and part of which were enacted in 2015,
have adequately dealt with t hat particular situation. It
ensures that in the future, Madam President, the Go vernment of Bermuda shall have control over and final say in the approval of any such capital projects. And
that is made very clear in section 7.
The Minister also has the power to give direction to the corporation, whether of a general or a specific nature, if he considers it to be in the best interest
of Bermuda. Section 7B covers the subject of good
governance and requires the corporation to submit on an annual basis its muni cipal asset management plan
setting out how it will manage its infrastructure. The
Minister has the power to change that plan as he
deems necessary.
Section 7B(6A) sets out a very specific situ ation where the Minister may assume with the approval of the Cabinet control of [the] corporation’s financial governance if he or she believes that it is being mi smanaged.
Section 20(1A) to [section] 20(1C) of the Act
also makes it clear that any agreements for the sale or
lease of any properties must be submitted in draft to
the Minister for approval by the Cabinet and approved
by the Legislature. And any sale or lease agreement
that has not had such approval is considered null and
void. And that is specific in the Act; it is quite clear of the powers that exist there .
Finally, Madam President, in section 7(10)
and [section] 7(11), it gives the Minister the right to attend, to be heard at all corporation meetings. And,
further, that no resolution decided at a bona fide meeting of the corporation shall have effect unles s and until it is approved by the Minister. So, the failures referred to in point 1 of the
previous Minister’s Statement have been adequately dealt with by the amendments in the sections that I
have referred to. So this concern, Madam President,
in my vie w, no longer is relevant and falls away.
Now, Madam President, the second concern
expressed by the Minister then was as follows:
“Mr. Speaker, further governance reform of
the municipalities is now necessary as a result of . . .:
“[2)] Inadequate resources to undertake i mportant public infrastructure projects such as the needed upgrade to the sewerage system .”
As I have stated in my opening remarks,
Madam President, the Corporation of Hamilton has certainly been in a position to finance the replacement
of the sewage infrastructure back in 1992, and an extension of the sewage line in 2002 at Seabright. All of
that was paid for by the corporation. Further e nhancements, as I understand it, with respect to se wage treatment, have been agreed to by the corpor ation members and they are able to finance the upgra ding of the current systems without any finance help from the Bermuda Government.
I also understand that the Government has
been kept informed of the developments by Corpor ation of Hamilton as they have deve loped their plans
for the changes to their sewage system.
As one can imagine, Madam President, and
appreciate, a lot has happened to the treatment of
sewage over the last 10 to 15 years. And because of
the new developments it has made it possible for a
small addition to be made to the current pumping st ation on Front Street, not a complete rebuild, as some
people would say, but a small addition to be made
whereby the necessary screening system can be i nstalled. And they are ready to go. They have the
plans ; they have the financing. They are ready to go.
If larger sewage treatment plans are contemplated by the Government, then naturally, of course, the corporations and any other entity that will be partaking in this, whether it is the hospital or some other
entity, must work with Government so that there is an
overall coordinated plan. I am not suggesting for one
moment that the corporations should go off on a frolic
of their own. But they should work in conjunction and
consultation with the Government. There is no question about that.
Now, the situation I appreciate with res pect to
the Town of St. George and the City of Hamilton are
completely dif ferent. The Town of St. George is not
financially in a position to undertake any capital infr astructure projects and, therefore, it must rely on grants
from the Bermuda Government. And I understand
that. But in talks with the mayor of St. George, she
said they are able and willing to work with Gover nment with grants that are given to implement whatever capital infrast ructure plans need to be made. I do not
see that that is necessarily going to be a problem.


Bermuda Senate For St. George, of course, there is also the
fact that the new hotel there has to link into their new
sewage system and so there is some urgency, as I
understand i t, for that to move forward.
Madam President, if I can just turn to the third
point raised by the Minister raised back in March 2018. He said as follows:
“Mr. Speaker, further governance reform of
the municipalities is now necessary as a result of . . .:
“[3)] Policy and operations that need to be
aligned with Government policies and legislation, and
lack of consultation with the relevant Government departments in relation to infrastructure.
“[4)] Reform [is needed] to ensure collabor ation between the Mini stries of Public Works and Public
Safety and Home Affairs before embarking on projects that impact traffic control and the making of ordinances.”
So, let me respond to [those] points. Sections
7 and 20 of the current Municipalities Act, as amend-ed in 2018, already make it a requirement that consu ltation regarding any infrastructure projects, certainly
expenditures thereof, must obtain the approval of the
Minister. And, according to the Bernews interview with
Mayor Gosling on February 17
th, 2019, and more r ecent discussions that I have had with him, consultation
with the Bermuda Government with respect to sewage
infrastructure projects has been taking place for some time. The corporation, as I said earlier, is ready to go,
but they need the approval of the Go vernment before
they are able to proceed. And they are waiting for that
approval.
Further discussions with the mayor and city
engineer also revealed that there has been a great
deal of useful and helpful interaction between the
Corporation of Hamilton and the Public Works D epartment at the technical level with respect to assis ting Government with information concerning, for example, the sourcing of new government garbage trucks that we have all seen. This was based on the
corporation’s experience with its new garbage trucks ,
and they spoke and worked with the Public Works Department. [As I said,] this was based on the corporation’s experience with their new garbage trucks. I
am told that there have been other occasions in the
past where staff at the corporation and staff at Public
Works have interacted well together and share many
useful ideas with information flowing both ways. This
sounds like a good and useful working relationship to
me.
I have also been told that there are a number
of city ordinances that the Corporation of Hamilton has proposed. But they have not been approved as
yet by Government. There again, city ordinances must
be approved by Government. So, naturally, there is
coordination and consultation. Listeners should also
be aware that it is a requirement , as per section 38(3)
of the Act, that all city ordinances must be submitted
to the Minister for approval. Now, Madam President, it would seem to me
that these particular issues answer the Minister’s concern, and that is, as far as I can see, that collaboration
is taking place between the ministries of Public Works
and public safety and Home Affairs before embarking on any capital projects that impact any part of the city.
Accordingly, in my opinion, Madam President, the entirety of the third concern expressed by the previous
Minister falls away.
And now I want to address the last point that
he raised in his comments back in March 2018.
“[6) The] need to coordinate with Government
in major developments because financial resources of the publ ic purse, whether of the Bermuda Government
or the Corporation . . . are limited. ”
Well, as I have just stated, the corporation has
to liaise with the Government because they cannot
carry out any major capital projects without the Go vernment’s consent. So the fourth and last concern, as
far as I am concerned, falls away.
Additionally, Madam President, there were
two further points raised in the recent posting on the
Government of Bermuda’s Citizen Forum page highlighting other reasons why the Government wi shes to
change the operating structure of both Corporation of
Hamilton and St. George’s. And the two further co ncerns expressed by the current Minister, where . . . if I
may quote them, Madam President?

The President: You may, Senator Jardine.
Sen. James . S. Jardine: “At present, both entities
have crumbling infrastructure and empty buildings that
do not reflect a thriving city and town that is attractive
to both visitors and investors.”
As I have demonstrated, Madam President, at
least with respect to t he City of Hamilton, there is no
crumbling infrastructure. The sewage pumping station is relatively new; the corporation storage works is
new; many of the sidewalks and intersections are
new; the traffic lights, many of them are new and are
well-maintained and are regularly upgraded. I understand from discussions with members of the corpor ation that the Government would like the Corporation of Hamilton’s staff to assist with the maintenance of the
government’s traffic lights because of their extensive exper ience in the city in dealing with traffic lights.
The new sewage system outfall was extended
in 1992 and new plans for further enhancements of the sewage system, as I have just referred to, are
ready to go, subject to Government’s approval —and
they are wa iting for that. The corporations has also
put in new paid parking, installed at City Hall; city road
resurfacing continues on a regular basis; all city electricity is underground; and the City Hall building continues to provide the centre for the arts.
Its parks are well maintained. Local art is being erected. Entertainment is provided at the Par -laVille Park during the summertime on a regular basis,
294 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate and many other activities and events occur on a regular basis within the City of Hamilton, a nd, I might add,
within the Town of St. George, as well. I think those
who live there are well aware of the activities that occur there on a regular basis. Further concerns were expressed by the Mi nister at the Hamilton town hall meeting, which I a ttended two weeks ago , with respect to the condition of
the fire hydrants in the City of Hamilton from a health
and safety point of view. And we heard comments
from Senator Caesar about that in her opening stat ements. I was concerned when I heard those comments as well, and s o I hotfooted it around to the corporation to get to the bottom of it.
The mayor made it quite clear that, as outlined in section 19 of the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service Act [1982], the responsibility of the fire h ydrants lies with the Government, and n ot the corpor ation. And that was re- emphasised by a number of ot her individuals at the corporation who have been there
for some time.
Now, I also understand that in 2009, after di scussions with the corporation, the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service purchased a very large pumper truck,
known as a portable hydrant system, at a total cost of
approximately $740,000. And it was purchased speci fically to deal with the issues surrounding the fire h ydrants in the City of Hamilton. This is a strategy that is employed by the City of London to deal with fires
there, and has worked successfully for many years.
These pumper trucks can actually put a hose
in the harbour (or wherever) and they can drive 1 ki lometre with the pipe trailing behind them, and then
locate at a particular area and use that for putting out
the fire. I understand from the discussions that I had
that the system was first used to assist with exti nguishing the Holmes Williams and Purvey [HWP] fire
in August 2011, and was the primary source of water supply for fighting the fire on Front Street two years
ago. So there is a pumper truck that is specifically designed to cope with situations where there are no fire
hydrants, and it is used in the City of London.
Additionally, the Minister said that one of the
visions that the Government will bring in its vision for
the City of Hamilton was effective traffic management
using smart city technology. The Corporation of Ham-ilton agrees with this , and has already been moving
ahead with the instillation of this technology throughout the city. As they have replaced intersections and
traffic lights, they have been installing this new smart
technology and, I understand, according to them, that
it should be completed in the next year to 18 months.
So they are well aware of these technologies and this
is but one technology that they have been looking at.
Therefore, Madam President, I cannot accept
the fact that the City of Hamilton in any event has a crumbling infrastructure and that the city is not attractive to both visi tors and investors. St. George’s undoubtedly requires a lot more
work and a lot more assistance. That is a different
situation, and as I said earlier, the Town of St. George
is prepared to work with Government, obviously using
their funds to carry out whatever needs to be done there. My only comment on the point of empty buil dings in the city and the town is that most of those
empty buildings in the city and town are owned pr ivately and they are not owned by the Corporation of
Hamilton or the Corporation of St. George’s. The
owners of those buildings are subject to the laws of Bermuda. And if those laws do not require them to
keep their buildings in first -class order, then that is a
problem for Bermuda and needs to be addressed by
the Government. The fact t hat they are empty is a
symptom of a far larger problem for our Island as a whole, one that we would all love to solve.
I believe that I have already dealt at some
length with the second point that the Minister raised;
namely, that available evidence suggests that neither
corporation has the financial and other means to achieve and sustain the vision to rejuvenate the cities. It is also evident that central government has greater
access to the resources and expertise needed to
achieve the vision. Certainly , the Corporation of Hamilton has its own city engineer and has a lot of other
very skilled technical people on its staff. I recognise
that the Town of St. George does not . But in my co nsultations with the mayor of St. George, she has i nformed me that wher e they do have shortcomings in
technical expertise, they have outsourced and have been able to retain the necessary services to carry out some of the work that they have done.
And certainly with the Corporation of Hamilton
having spent over $31 million in the last number years
with major capital projects, it appears to me that the
Corporation of Hamilton, at present at least, is able to
finance its own capital projects. I could go on at some
length about this, particularly the millions of dollars spent by the corporation on replacing roads, pav ements, lighting in the north of Hamilton.
Now, I heard a comment about that which
was, actually, quite upsetting, because in my time,
and certainly in discussions with members of the cor-poration now, they have spent millions in the north of
Hamilton. And there are some examples, such as the
complete refurbishment of Ewing Street and Princess
Street; the repaving of various roads in the north of
Hamilton; street lighting and festive lighting put there
just like any ot her part of the city. So, in my view, the
corporation has done a significant amount of work all
through the city.
Now, Madam President, I have discussed this
matter extensively with a number of persons . And I
would just like to quickly run through the lis t so that
people do not think that Senator Jardine is making all this up. I have met with the Minister of Home Affairs and his permanent secretary. I have met with the
mayor of Hamilton. I have met with the mayor of St.


Bermuda Senate George. I have met with senior staff at the Corporation
of Hamilton. I attended the town hall meeting in Hami lton. I watched the two town hall meetings in St.
George on Bernews, and I have had numerous di scussions with other interested parties. So I have co nsulted widely on this matter.
Apar t from all that I have just said, there is existing right under the current Municipalities Act with
respect to the Corporations of Hamilton and St.
George’s where the residents and the businesses of
the city and the town have the right to vote for their chosen representative. In the case of Hamilton, over
$8.6 million is raised by way of taxes on the residents
and businesses in the city. Residents and the bus inesses in St. George also have the same right to vote for their chosen representatives , though they pay no
taxes , such taxes being replaced by the ability of the
town to collect wharfage revenue in lieu of that. The
poll results that were carried out by the Corporation of
St. George’s indicated that about 94 per cent of those
who participated in the pol l wanted the existing structure of the town to remain as it is.
The Citizens Forum results on the Gover nment website seemed to indicate that of those who gave an indication of their view on either Government
proposal, 98 per cent were against making any
change to existing structure of both municipalities.
Madam President, this proposed amendment
will take away from residents and businesses of the
city and the town their existing democratic and legal
right to be able to elect their own city and town off icials. I am, frankly, very surprised and extremely di sappointed that , based on the history of all those who
fought for fair and proper representation in the past in
all areas of Bermuda life, the Government now wants
to deprive residents and businesses in bot h of these
municipalities of the right to elect their own city and
town representatives, as has been the case for many
years.
In conclusion, I therefore see no valid reason
to change the existing operating structure of either the
Corporation of Hamilton or the Corporation of St.
George’s. There is more than sufficient legislation which provides for the Bermuda Government to exercise control over the actions of both corporations, and
in the case of the Corporation of Hamilton it is finan-cially self -sufficie nt and able to finance its own capital
projects without Government assistance, even pr oducing a surplus of $2 million in 2017 in the case of
the Corporation of Hamilton.
To deprive the residents and businesses of
the City of Hamilton and the Town of St. G eorge of
their ability to elect their own representatives on both
corporations is simply not the right thing to do. There
is no question that there should be input from the
Government of the day, both the City of Hamilton and the Town of St. George are important gateways to
Bermuda. But as I have demonstrated in my comments so far, the Minister has more than sufficient powers to assist, direct, and work collaboratively with
both corporations. I believe very strongly that with
proper dialogue at the senior l evel the current structure can work well. I also firmly believe that it is not right to take away from the residents and the bus inesses in the city and the town their democratic right
to vote for their representatives in both municipalities.
I, therefore, Madam President, cannot support
this Bill. Thank you.

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

Sen. Anthony Richardson: Good evening, Madam
President —
The President: Good evening.

Sen. Anthony Richardson: —fellow Senators, and
those in the listening audience.
I am going to take, certainly, a different tack. I
will start off by saying that I actually attended the two meetings that were held in St. George’s, in terms of
the proposed municipalities reform. One comment that
stuck out, and still sticks out in my mind, is that a gentleman stood up and said, I am a St. Georgian first,
and a Bermudian second. Clearly, that has impact.
I am going to allow that colour my comments
because I grew up in St. George’s and have signif icant familiarity. A lot of my comments, actually, are
going to focus on Senator Simmons to some degree as a fellow St. Georgian.
Before I go further , though, I would like to, I
guess, declar e my interest in the context that I actually
served on the Corporation of St. George’s under the current mayor, Quinell Francis . And I served with all of
the existing councillors except two. One came on
board, Mr. Dowling, once I came to the Senate. And
then Ms. Anderson came on board once her father
met his untimely death. In addition to that, I did pr ovide some accounting advice to one of the existing councillors on the Corporation of Hamilton. I do not
think that my comments are going to be coloured by those situations.
In terms of my comments today, I did think
through, What is the real objective? And I heard a fellow Senator make a comment publicly that a lot of us
have already made our decision in terms of what we
are going to do today. We, on the Gov ernment side, of
course, serve at the direction of the Premier . And at
least two on the other side serve at the pleasure of the
Opposition Leader. And so, yes, to some degree, to a large measure our decisions and conclusions have
already been decided based upon the process.
And so we think through, What is our real objective today? And Senator Jardine has already sp oken and given his position. So we come down really to
296 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Madam Simmons and Madam President, in terms of
having the opportunity to cause you to po tentially co nsider what you are going to do. I am going to hopefully
rely on my ability to speak in a clear fashion to infl uence your current thoughts, or your current position.
Again, I am speaking from the position primarily from
St. George’s because that is where I have the greatest information, experience and expertise.
So with that I will even go through the idea of
St. George has been accurately described as being a
“living town.” And to me a living town reflects the idea
of growing up in St. George. St. George must be a
vibrant town, which means that the people who live
there must be excited. There must be things to do.
They must have jobs. The place must look tidy and clean and well -kept. I remember even from my
younger days growing up, running arou nd St. George.
Sometimes my children now smile at the idea that in
the morning, based upon situations, you may have to
go to the store before you go to school. And you run
down the hill to the store and you go back home and get things sorted out, and I happen to be close
enough to school whereby (we are at the East End)
and if I happen to forget my gym clothes I will be able
to run home and get them during that last recess time
(well, now it is called wellness break) and get back to
school without being det ected by anyone. So, for me,
it was a good thing to be able to do all those things.
Growing up, I still recall, certainly, in the area
of Coots Pond doing the mischievous thing. Your
mother said, When you finish school, you go home
and stay home, and all those kinds of things . And one
day, I recall that I went right down by Coots Pond, and
I was playing around. And what happened? I went
overboard —by mistake. And as a young boy, of
course, you try to get home and make sure your
clothes are clean and dry . But there was no way to do
that because back in the day there was no washer
and dryer to do those things . So Momma comes home
and says, Hey, what did you do? And you make some
excuse . I hope you don’t lie, but you know how that
goes.
So, you know, St. George is that. And then
depending upon your age, and you go to St. George,
for example, and you walk around and people know
you. And that is the vibrancy. And if you go back in the day, as it were, you had many yachts coming in, especially during the summertime, and the time was just
always full. There were many, many things to do. And
so, for me, that is the reflection that I would lik e to see
resumed in St. George .
When I served on the corporation, I was act ually the finance chair. So I am very, very, very familiar
with the idea that the corporation never had excess
funds to do what was necessary to achieve its objectives. One of the specific tasks that I worked on ex-tensively was the proposed marina. And as far as I am
concerned, it got to a stage whereby we were about to
sign-off on the marina for the benefit of St. George’s, within the context of the legislation, but we did not
quite have that last little bit to push us over the edge.
And so under the current conversation, and I know
that the Government has pledged to ensure that there
will be a marina in St. George’s and so I trust that
through this whole process that will come into play
because that will be one of the key drivers, I believe,
to ensure that there is increased vibrancy in St.
George’s, especi ally during summer months when the
yachts tend to transition from . . . and you know, stay
over for sometimes several weeks, and sometimes several months. But, basically, as a transition time.
In reflecting on what is transpiring also, there
were many com ments made in terms of , Is this an
increase in democracy ? Or is this a reduction in d emocracy? And as part of that conversation in my own
head I reflected and researched the various iterations of the Municipalities Act. And I was quite surprised, to
be hon est, for it to be emphasised and then reiterated
by MP Ming that prior to 2010 land ownership was a factor in the participation both to vote and to run for
office. And so, that being revised in 2010 represented
a significant move forward in the elements of demo cracy.
And to some degree I look at what is now being proposed as an extension of, as opposed to a r eduction in, democracy. I look at it the context of the
overall Bermuda landscape being relatively small. What it proposed is that the properly elected Gover nment would have additional influence over the corporation. And in that context I think we would have to
agree that this is an expansion or increased surety in democracy in that context.
Now, clearly, the persons who are involved in
the corporation should be, I believe, from St. George
because there is a l evel of intimacy in St. George
based upon your living there, being there, and having
family. While there is some emotion attached to the
past processes, that I also have some attachment to, to be hon est, because my grandfather also was on the
corporation some time ago. Even now, many of my
family members on my father’s side live in the town,
most of my aunts certainly over in the Wellington area.
So, yes, I am familiar with the whole idea and the
emot ion that is attached to it . But I still come back to
the idea that , notwithstanding the emotion, we have to
make sure that the town is able to be revitalised and
that there is a lot more energy than currently exists.
And so my point is that this i s in no way a r eflection of reduced democracy ; it is increased democracy as long as those persons who are ultimately a ppointed, or however they are attached to the corpor ation, whatever form it takes, have a heart for St. George’s and have to have a sense of the h istory of
St. George’s. And as I am speaking, what is coming to
mind actually is Phillip (or Phoopa, as we called him)
Anderson, and the level of energy, and commitment and vision that he had for St. George’s. And I trust
that that can be carried on.


Bermuda Senate And certainly, Senator Simmons, you would
be familiar with him. He was quite passionate. His
passion was all St. George’s —sometimes very, very
vocal, in more ways than one. I recall when we used to have those corporation meetings and sometimes it was his voice , his voice, and his voice only. But he
had a point. And his point was that we have to all
stand for St. George’s to ensure that we get it back to
the way it was.
And now we are at a stage where, clearly, the
corporation does not have sufficient funding and the current Government has basically stated that they are
prepared to assist . But, they want a change in the
mechanism by which they will assist. If this is what the
current Government is saying, I am suggesting to you that, yes, it does make sense because the mechanism
is less important than achieving the ultimate objective
which is to ensure that St. George’s is revitalised.
We all know that the St. Regis hotel is now
well under way. There were some challenges in terms of ensuring that access to the beach remained, and there were some other potential challenges which I
think have all been worked through, again working
with the developer plus the representatives, and also
the Government, generally speaking. And so I am ac-tually looking forward for that t o come online, and I
trust that the St. Georgians, in particular, but Berm udians in general, take advantage of what will become employment opportunities in the hotel because, again,
going back even to my own history, actually working in
the hotel sector, i t is an important opportunity to allow
the interaction between businesses and Bermudians
for them to get a real sense of what it is to be in Ber-muda. And then when you are serving them breakfast
or dinner and they ask you about Bermuda, What can
you do? What have you done? It enhances the overall
relationship. And so, certainly to the extent that we can ensure the successful completion of the hotel will
go a long way.
The benefit of a successful hotel, and now the
marina coming on board, will be the shops. Because
again, I remember running down Water Street and
doing different little things, especially as a young boy during the summertime, whereby you do small things
to assist . But the shops themselves were always open
and full and tourists going back and forth. When you
are in the street, for example, they ask different questions, Where is this? Where is that? Where is the ot her? And you just give them advice. And you can imagine, some of you can imagine, I hope, the town just
being full of people, people as king questions, and
everybody gets excited and there was a buzz. And
from that, of course, you are going to encourage
transportation. And even those persons who chose, in
some respects (I want to say) not to work, they get a
H.U.S.T.L.E. [Truck] and they d o work and then ever ything starts to gel together.
Another key point which I became much,
much more aware of as I got older, and I was on the corporation of St. George’s, of course, was the value
of the World Heritage designation. That is very, very
impor tant. And there are some aspects of the town
that are yet to be improved to ensure that, number one, we enhance it and it is also retained. Because I think sometimes that we forget the value of an area in
any country (right?) that is designated as a World He ritage site because there is a significant tourism value
in that. And so that is also one of my hopes, that
through this process that we get to a stage whereby
there is a more definite process for managing the World Heritage status which is St. George’s, and ensuring that all of the businesses and properties are
also enhanced.
Recently we heard in the media the idea that
the St. Peter’s Church was going to be challenged to
remain open, notwithstanding the fact that it is one of the most significant visit or attractions in Bermuda. So
when tourists come to the Island, what are they going
to do if St. Peter’s Church is also forced to fall by the
way? We have to make sure that we keep the big pi cture in mind, and in this instance for St. George’s being the early part . . . well, the first part, of Bermuda.
And there is a lot of history that goes to that. So I am
suggesting to you that in this process if it ends up
whereby St. George’s is properly funded then, yes, I
am more than on board.
When considering this whole process, I did
have some concerns myself. And what finally completed my thought process to be able to give the
comments that I am giving today, was the fact that
based upon the sensitivity, based upon conversation, based upon public consultation and based upon the
more direct representation of MPs Ming and Swan, with the Deputy [Premier], as the Minister, that he has
now committed on behalf of Government to bring forth
some additional legislation which will further the ability
of the people in St. Ge orge’s to influence those persons who are appointed to what is proposed as being
the new quango for St. George’s.
And I think that is important , because even in
talking to some people who were at some of those meetings , and just people who I know in St. G eorge’s,
there is still the idea that we want to make sure that we have a significant role to play in who runs it. Now, separately, there will be a need for some financial skill
set for the corporation. I know that. And I will also say
that, notwithstanding what happens today, I have a lready been asked, you know, Anthony, would you
provide some assistance for whatever reason? And,
obviously, the answer is yes , because to go back to
my original comment about the man who said that I
am a St. Georgian first an d a Bermudian second, to
really understand that, having grown up in St. George
and experiencing what it was as a young boy, and
experiencing just that whole vibe (if you will) of the
town being full, being able to run around St. George,
you grew up with pe ople you went to school [with]
298 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate down there, all these kinds of things, they all tie t ogether.
And for me it is a matter of do whatever is
necessary to ensure that St. George can be revitalised, because in doing so you have the self -interest
whereby persons like yourself, Ms. Simmons, and
others who live in St. George, there is a growing infr astructure (if you will) of Airbnb— which another huge
opportunity, by the way, because persons then when
they come to Bermuda they get a much better feel for
what it is to be in Bermuda and in St. George , in particular.
And so, Madam President, with all those
comments, I trust that I have been able to add a more human flavour to the discussion. Yes, ultimately, there is going to be a financial impact because without the
money these things cannot happen. But it is going to
be important for us to see the b igger picture, that St.
George, in this instance, has to be revitalised. They
do not have sufficient funding at this stage. And if,
when, this process allows for the improv ements to the
infrastructure because, obviously, I am aware also
with my job at BLDC in terms of how it can be more
efficiently done whereby the whole town, the airport,
everybody by the way can tie into a single source for a
waste water treatment and also potable water, then
we can move forward in a significant manner.
I guess I will close by saying that the evidence
of the Government’s commitment to making this work
is in fact political, because at this stage, of course,
you have MPs Ming and Swan, for [ constituencies] 1
and 2, and they are going to have to work extra hard
to ensure that they, obviously, can retain their seats in the next election cycle so there is a vested interest,
there is an emotional interest, there is a historical i nterest, and ther e is a financial interest for everybody to
make sure that this thing works.
And so I trust with those comments, to the extent that I am able to influence, whether it be Senator
Simmons or yourself, Madam President, to support
this legislation, I will conclude my comments.
Thank you.

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

Sen. Marcus Jones: Thank you, Madam President.
We have been here all day . And as the
minutes and the hours tick along, I know that there is
a desire to bring this very important debate to an end,
but I feel compelled to contribute in the way that I best
can contribute.
It was interesting, as I listened to my Senator
Richardson on the other side of the aisle talk with
much intimacy and personable- ness, as it relates to
his younger days in St. George’s and coming along
and being a part of that community. And being a Somerset man, where we do not have a corporation,
where we do not have a struc ture like Senator Ric hardson experienced and was a part of, the Corpor ation of St. George’s, or even Senator Jardine and his
experience with the Corporation of Hamilton, I have
been sitting here thinking, How can I relate to the sit uation in both of these municipalities?
And then the thought occurred to me, being a
very loyal and strong Somerset man, I had this hypothetical thought, and it was, If the Government deci ded, in the best interests of a country , to take control of
Somerset Cricket Club for Cup Match , because it felt
that that particular event was of such value and could
draw many people from overseas to come and experience the Cup Match experience, but in their wisdom
felt that Somerset did not have the finances, did not
have the acumen, did not have the competence to run an event like that, if the Government through the auspices through the BTA decided to do that, I can tell
you with great confidence, there would be a major
uproar in Somerset. And once I thought of that hyp othetical scenario, I w as then able to get a sense of, I
guess, disappointment and betrayal that the people and the residents of both St. George’s and Hamilton
would be feeling as this Government has rolled out its
amendments to the Municipalities Act.
Now, Senator Richardson al so mentioned the
fact that this attempt to change the arrangements in both municipalities is not the complete removal of democracy. He considered it a reduced democracy.
Well, that is like saying—

Sen. Anthony Richardson: Point of order.
Sen. Marcus Jon es: Sure.

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

POINT OF ORDER
Sen. Anthony Richardson: My comments were not
that this was a reduced democracy.
The President: Carry on, Senator.

Sen. Marcus Jones: Thank you, Senator Richards on,
for that correction. I sit and stand corrected at the
same time.
Democracy: Democracy is a government in
which supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly through a system of repr esentation, usually involving periodically hel d free elections. That is democracy.
Now, I do not have to go through the history of
this country and recite and rehearse a certain dem ographic group of this country whose democracy was withheld from them for the longest period of time. But
it is as recent as no more than two generations ago


Bermuda Senate that there were certain people in this country that did
not have the right to vote and exercise their democratic right. Many have marched the streets; many have
practiced civil disobedience, Madam President, to en-sure that democracy was won for them.
Now, I do not know if the residents and bus iness people of the municipality of St. George’s and
the municipality of Hamilton are quite ready to make
that type of visible, militant move to demonstrate to
this country that they are not happy with this move,
but I think, suffice it to say, having watched the town hall meetings, both in St. George’s and in Hamilton, I
believe the emotions are just as strong as they were
50, 60, 70 years ago when those within this Island
could not exercise their democratic right.
I believe that the Senator to my right, Senator
Jardine, made a very compelling argument . And it was
going to be a part of my discourse this afternoon, but
as time goes on I do not feel the need to retrace those
steps. B ut I am reminded of a quote that was made by
one of the favourite actors, Gene Hackman, in the movie Crimson Tide. He was a captain of a submarine
ship for the US. Another one of my favourite actors,
Denzel Washington, was his lieutenant commander.
And in a particular scene, Denzel Washington was
given directions by his commander, Gene Hackman,
to follow a certain directive.
To make a long story short, Denzel Washington was hesitant in following through with his captain’s directions. Denzel Washington had more information;
he was more personally attuned to the situation at
hand , and following his commander was a dangerous
risk to the life and limb of his fellow cre wme n. And
when Denzel Washington was called on the carpet by Gene Hackman and told that under no circumstances
was he supposed to even act like he was going to be
hesitant to follow orders, Gene Hackman made the time-honoured statement, We’re here to preserve democracy not practice it. And I must say, as I think
about what is going on here today, n ot only is democracy not going to be practiced, there is no attempt to preserve it either.
Now, this particular Municipalities Act is set to
be implemented May 14
th—a mere eight weeks from
today. And I cannot say with confidence that all has
been done to ensure that there is a smooth transition
from the situation as it is today to one where these
two municipalities are going to be transformed into . . .
whether it is quangos, whether it is going to be in a
different format. So the question has got to be ask ed,
Has enough time been dedicated to ensure that over
200 years of a tradition that has been practiced by
both municipalities has been given the time, has been
given the attention, has been given the appropriate
consultation?
There is a familiar phrase t hat we are all used
to hearing and that is, You measure twice and cut once. Well, we have seen over the last week or so
that the Government has offered a different pathway, by looking to separate St. George’s from Hamilton in
an act that would be more conducive to each munic ipality. And we take note of that. Then we see a commitment being made by the Government to actually
move ahead with the marina, to be involved with the UNESCO [World] Heritage site, to do all the things
that it had the power to do befor e. We asked the
ques tion, What propelled you to step forward and do
what you can for the Corporation of St. George’s,
where only a few months ago, maybe, you weren’t
prepared to do?
The statement was made in a long litany of i ssues or areas of weakness of the Corporation of Hamilton, which disqualifies it from taking St. George’s to
the next level, at least financially, the statement was
made, for example, that the Corporation of Hamilton
failed to secure a hotel developer at the Par -la-Ville
Park. How many times has the Government attempted
to get a deal signed or to get a hotel developer in to
this country? Time and time again there has been a lack of success in that area. And that is just one thing.
It is interesting, now that all the gloves are off,
that everyone is getting themselves all armoured- up
for a major battle. And it does not have to be that way.
I truly believe that if the Government was willing to
take a step back and do all it can to make this trans ition more palatable, give time for both the residents
and businessmen of both municipalities . . . after over
200 years of an institution, I don’t see what the rush
is.
I have also looked at the Budget Book, trying
to see if I can find any funding in the Government’s plans for the next budgetary ye ar, looking for funds
that have been set aside for these major capital pr ojects that it is promising to do and, I stand to be cor-rected, but I do not see anything of substance for pr ojects in both municipalities within this next upcoming year.
So in light of that, Madam President, I cannot
support this particular Bill.
Thank you.

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

Sen. Michelle Simmons: Thank you, M adam Pres ident.
Madam President, I am going to concentrate
initially on t he town, the Town of St. George. [It was]
incorporated in 1797. I am a 13- year resident of St.
George’s —the municipality of St. George’s, a place I
never, ever imagined I would go to live. But I am there
and I have fallen in love with the town.
I can assure all of you around this table and
those of you listening at home, or wherever you are,
that the people who run St. George’s and who make
300 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate decisions about how the town works are our neighbours. There may be one or two councillors on the
Corporation of St. George’s who do not currently r eside in the town, and I am not sure about that. Maybe they all do reside in the town. But even if one or two do not reside in the town, their roots ar e there, and
they run deep. You run into the mayor [and] you run
into the councillors as you move around St. George’s
going into King’s Square, going to Tobacco Bay, wal king past your gate. Sometimes they come to talk plants. But it is a close- knit communi ty, and if you talk
about issues with regard to the municipality of St.
George’s with any of your representatives, i.e., the
mayor or the councillors, they will listen and they do
respond.
You can tell from the attendance at both town
hall meetings that were held about this Municipalities
Reform Act that the people are very, very, very interested and concerned about Government’s proposal to
change the way in which the municipality will operate.
And when I say “the people,” I mean people of every descripti on— young, old, black, white, Catholic, Angl ican, you name it. At both town hall meetings, which I attended, I saw people from all over the municipality
and the parish, really, it went beyond the town.
So let’s consider the situation right now r egarding how the Municipality of St. George’s operates,
and in fact, I am also going to include the municipality
of Hamilton in this.
Currently, the Minister has the right to be directly involved with all decisions; every decision made by the municipalities, that i s, whatever resolutions
they agree on, the Minister has the right to be involved
because he has the right to approve them. And I b elieve, as Senator Jardine said earlier, this is in accordance with the Municipalities Act of 1923, which
was amended in 2015. The relevant section is section
7, as well as subsections (10A), (11A), and (11B). And
I would just like to quote a couple of short excerpts
from those.

The President: You certainly may, Senator Simmons.

Sen. Michelle Simmons: I am going to begin with
section 7(10A).
“The Minister, and public officers authorized
by the Minister to do so, are entitled to— [(a)] attend;
[(b)] be heard at; and [(c)] receive minutes of, any
meeting of the Corporation, but not to vote thereat.”
And if I go on to subsection (11A), it says:
“No resolution referred to in subsection (11),
decided on or after 7 May 2015, shall have effect unless and until it is approved by the Minister. ”
Then, in section 7AA, under the heading,
“Minister may give directions to Corporation” it says:
“(1) The Minister may give written directions to
a Corporation, whether of a general or of a specific
character, if he considers it to be in the best interests of Bermuda for him to do so, and the Corporation shall
carry out any such directions. ”
And furt her down, in [section 7AA](3):
“Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the Minister may direct a Corporation—(a) to
do anything that appears to the Minister necessary to
secure that the Corporation’s functions are exercised
and performed in the most efficient manner; (aa) to do
any acts or things that the Minister, acting under the
general authority of the Cabinet, requires the Corpor ation to do; ”
Those are just some of the excerpts from that
amended Municipalities Act of 1923, Madam Pres ident.
Once I realised . . . because I had to do my
homework ; I was not that familiar with the Municipal ities Act 1923. I had not read it before. I even went
back to the very first Act of 1797. Once I realised that
the Minister already has control and oversi ght of both
municipalities, I had to ask myself, Why is it being
proposed that we eliminate the municipal elections?
So far, I think there have been a lot of things said, but
maybe not all of it has been said. I will certainly be the
first to acknowledge t hat there is need for change in
the municipality of St. George’s, Madam President.
But the changes proposed in the Act are not the
changes that the people of St. George’s want. They
have made that abundantly clear through the poll that was taken by the may or of St. George’s, and Senator
Jardine has already mentioned that 94 per cent of
those polled want to keep the corporation as it is, and only 4 per cent agreed that the corporation should
become a quango, [and] 2 per cent said they had i nsufficient inform ation.
Now, I am going to go out on a limb here, and
I am going to make some suggestions, because I
have spoken to a number of people in St. George’s
and I believe that some of the changes that would be
very palatable and most acceptable are as follows:
First of all, St. George’s needs appropriately
qualified staff with the requisite skills to administer all
the affairs of the town. And that is especially true in
the area that Senator Richardson has mentioned, and
that is financial management. Yes, there ar e issues,
but having had the ability to collect taxes or rates from
ratepayers, from people who reside in the municipal ity, means that St. George’s has been severely han dicapped financially for years now!
Secondly, the corporation would like to take
the lead, and they should take the lead in developing
and executing the World Heritage Managem ent Plan.
But that has to be led by a salaried member of staff
with the requisite skills. I have already seen the old
World Heritage Management Plan, so these things
have existed in the past. I am not sure how well they
have been executed, and I know that one is needed
with urgency, but these things can be addressed wit hout, in my opinion, eliminating elections.


Bermuda Senate Another suggestion: Yes, the municipality of
St. George ’s collects wharfage from the two oil impor ting companies, as well as rents from a meagre 20
properties, and they also collect docking fees. But that
certainly is not enough revenue for them to hire the requisite staff and also to advance the infrastructur e
projects. So that is why they need additional sources
of funding. Now, I am not sure what arrangements
have been worked out with the upcoming hotel, and
that is looking very promising, the St. Regis, but hopefully there will be some access to some funds there.
And I would add that in my next suggestion
Government should consistently provide St. George’s
with a grant. St. George’s is where Bermuda began.
That should be worth something. And no matter whether we have elected or appointed officials on the
corporation, I think funding for the Town of St. George
should be enshrined in legislation. It should not just be left up to chance, or the issuing of a grant.
And then, my last suggestion with regard to
how we can help St. George’s is: When legislation is
needed to advance plans like the marina, which was
St. George’s vision, not Government’s vision, it was a vision crafted in the Town of St. George, then Go vernment should act more proactively to support the
town and advance the legislation that is needed. I am
not being critical; I am just making suggestions.
So let’s just go to the Corporation of Hamilton
because I think I am rather unique sitting around this
table because I grew up in the City of Hamilton, a few
hundred yards from where I am sitting right now. I
have some insight into how the Corporation of Hami lton runs. I have also lived in the City of Hamilton as
an adult and paid my taxes to the corporation. Furthermore, my sister was an elected member of the
Corporation of Hamilton. She was first elect ed as a
Common Councillor, she became an alderman, and
she rose to the position of deputy mayor over a 13year period.
I do have a vested interest in seeing that the
City of Hamilton continues to thrive. When I refer to
the City of Hamilton, I am referring to the whole qua rter of a square mile—that is how big it is, it goes from
Front Street all the way to North Street. I am not s elective in terms of my reference to the City of Hami lton. In my opinion, the Corporation of Hamilton has been extremely effecti ve in fulfilling its mandate over
the years, even though it has not been a perfect organisation. It has had its flaws, and I am not going to
go into what they may have been, but I will say that for
some time I think the northern part of the city was
woeful ly neglected. But a lot of that has been a ddressed.
The city has many, many assets, unlike the
Corporation of St. George’s. However, it is still quite clear to me that the Minister has the authority now under the current amended Municipalities Act 1923, t o
direct the Corporation of Hamilton, just as he can d irect the Corporation of St. George’s. But it is quite clear from things that I have heard and things that I
have been told in direct conversations, that there has
not been a meeting of the minds regarding the future
of the city. And that meeting of the minds needs to
take place between those who are in office in the Cor-poration of Hamilton, and, of course, our Government.
In my opinion, that is the biggest issue for the Corp oration of Hamilton. Unless t here is that meeting of the
minds, then we will have this impasse, and I see it as an impasse between Government and the Corporation
of Hamilton.
Madam President, democracy. And Senator
Richardson, I listened to your carefully. I heard what
you said about this being an improvement, or a buil ding-up, of the democratic process, but you will forgive
me if I have to disagree with you.
Madam President, democracy is something
our forefathers and foremothers in this country had to
fight for over many, many years. And any attempt to
erode the democratic process should be carefully scrutinised. Under Universal Adult Suffrage we now
have the right —all of us —to elect persons to repr esent us in our national and, if you live in the municipa lity, in the municipal electio ns. And, of course, in Hamilton it is also the ratepayers who can vote. But we also get to hold them accountable. I had to sit quietly
and ask myself if I was prepared to see an erosion of our democratic process in this Year of our Lord 2019.
Bermuda held its first general election under
Universal Adult Suffrage only 50 years ago. It was
May 22, 1968, an occasion that we all recognised in
the House of Parliament and around Bermuda just last
year. We need to safeguard what we have in terms of
democracy. And Senator Jones read out a definition
of democracy earlier.
Madam President, we are here to discuss
some major changes that are on the table with regard to how people will hold office in our two municipalities.
I have read the [Municipalities] Reform Act 2019 se veral times, and I have reviewed the Act as amended in
the House of Parliament last week. I realise that there
is just one major change, just one. And that really is
the elimination of elections. That is, we will no longer
have representatives on the two municipalities who
answer to the people of St. George’s and Hamilton. Instead, the Minister will appoint the mayor and four
councillors with the requisite skills, and then a selection committee, appointed by the Minister, will, after
determining the selection criteria to be used, after
consultation with the Minister, recommend persons to
the Minister for the four other councillor positions.
And here I am just going to pause and I am
going to thank the Minister, because I did have the
opportunity to meet with him and share my concern
about how the selection committee would be doing its
task. And he did listen and make an amendment to
the Bill. I am sure it was not just based on my input, but maybe on the input of many people.
302 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate But, basically, this Bill ta kes away rights ; it
takes away the right which residents and ratepayers
of the municipalities have. The control of the munic ipalities will lie with the Minister through the persons appointed to those positions. Therefore, I thought, when there is a change in Government . . . and I know
the appointments are for two years, in the first i nstance. But as someone pointed out earlier (I have forgotten who said it), there is no stipulation with r egard to how many times someone can be appointed. But with the change in Government, or even the
change in the Minister responsible for the municipal ities, we will probably see a change in the appoin tments, and this could lead to great instability in both municipalities, in both Hamilton and St. George’s.
The trend of elec tions in Bermuda these days
is that no single party dominates. That used to be the case way back when. And I am grateful that there is
no party that dominates. Undoubtedly, there will be
changes of Government in the future, and because
the mayors and counc illors will be serving at the
pleasure of the Minister, it is most likely that the appointments to the municipalities will also be changed.
As I said earlier, and maybe I did not say it
clearly, but I will say it clearly now, the two municipal ities are very, very different. And I have noted quite carefully the offer of the Minister to craft a separate Act for St. George’s, and I assume that means there
will be a separate Act for Hamilton, but we do not
have any of that now. None of it is in writing; there is
nothing to hold on to. And it is not as though I am sa ying that I do not believe, but we are here to deal with the piece of legislation that is before us —and it is right
here, on paper.
Someone said earlier that St. George is a li ving town. Truly, it i s, with many original buildings going
back to the 17
th century, displaying unique architectural features. Because of the climate that we have in
Bermuda, because of the building materials which are
available, because of the living needs of the people in the town, the original alleyways are still there. I am
sure that Senator Richardson ran up and down a
number of them, and from time to time I walk and jog
up and down those alleyways. All of that adds to the authenticity of this historic town.
The Corporati on of St. George’s, with the
support of the St. George’s Foundation, has taken on
a number of significant projects over the recent past. I
know since I have lived there they have done a lot of
re-bricking of streets to bring back the old historic flair
and to show that, you know, once upon a time we had
cobblestones down there. They have done that re-bricking work. They have helped in terms of street
lighting, putting back some of the old forms of street
light. So there is a desire on the part of the Corpor ation of St. George’s and the St. George’s Foundation
to ensure that the historical aspects of the town are
maintained. But remember, the World Heritage desi gnation is for t he historic Town of St. George and relat-ed fortifications, and those related fortif ications are not
just in the town. That honour was bestowed on St.
George’s in the year 2000.
As I said earlier, through the management
plan that the town is developing, the World Heritage Management Plan, I believe the Town of St. George,
i.e., corporation representatives, representatives of
the Department of Planning, representatives of the
Foundation, I believe they are all working together on
a committee to develop that World Heritage Management Plan.
Madam President, I am going to conclude in
summary to say that the general consensus, from
what I gather, is that in neither in St. George’s nor Hamilton are people happy about losing the right to
elect their representatives. They are not happy about
seeing this erosion of the democratic process. The purpose of local government, as I see it, i.e., the m unicipalities, is to shine a spotlight at the local level so
things can happen at a faster pace. Government already has a lot to do.
My main reason for speaking today is to suggest that there are ways of bri nging change to the
municipalities without eliminating the democratic pr ocess. There can be a compromise. Therefore, at this
point, Madam President, I cannot support this legisl ation because it fails to uphold the democratic process
that the people of this country expect of us. If Government wants to ensure that the various infrastructure projects are advanced by the two municipalities,
there has to be better collaboration and communic ation, as well as a guaranteed commitment to improve
funding for the Corporation of St. George’s.
With those remarks, Madam President, I will
say thank you for listening.

The President: Thank you, Senator Michelle Si mmons.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

SENATE VISITORS

The President: And before I open the floor to another
Senator to speak I just want to acknowledge the presence in the Gallery of the Minister of Public Works,
Lieutenant Colonel the Honourable David Burch. And
also we want to recognise MP Kim Swan. Welcome to
you both.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Campbell, you have the floor.

[Municipalities Reform Act 2019, second reading debate, continuing]

Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, Senator Jones likes to use
marbles to illustrate his point.


Bermuda Senate [Inau dible interjections]

Sen. Vance Campbell: I am going to use an old car,
or any car.
[Laughter]

Sen. Vance Campbell: You know, you buy a car . It’s
brand new ; it works fine. Then you start to have i ssues with it, so you put in patches. You take it to the
garage, and they change a part. And then you find you are having to go to the garage more frequently to
put in changes, and in spite of these changes, it still
does not function the way it did when it was new. And
you eye starts to look at a new model of car.
The municipalities were put in place in 1923
through legislation. My quick calculation makes that 96 years ago. They have been patched up through
amendments along the way. Let’s look at the result of
how they have operated in that 96 years. In anot her
place for the past two weeks we have had discussions
about the economy, and here in this place for about a
week. And much talk has been had about the state of
the retail industry in Bermuda, that they are facing
grave challenges. And part of that, Madam President
. . . I wish we could leave this Senate Chamber and
take a walk in the City of Hamilton, right now, on a
Wednesday night at about 7:30. We would be astonished at how empty this city is.
There is nothing going on in Hamilton right
now, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Fr iday is saved by Happy Hour. People come out of their
office and they stay in the city for Happy Hour. And even on a Saturday, Madam President, it is fairly dead
in the City of Hamilton. We have heard how it is even
worse in St. George’s. That is the result of 96 years of
operating the way we operate today in the municipal ities. That is the end result of 96 years. We have no one in our cities, except maybe on a Friday night.
If we were to take a walk, we would not have
to go far. Behind me, on Court Street, at the junction
of Reid and Court, there are two buildings there. One
does not even have a roof now, the old Salvation A rmy building, I believe it is. It is falling down. The buil ding next to it [is] falling down. That ex tends a fair di stance down Reid Street. If we go over here, opposite the Post Office building, empty. It has been empty for
some time. [The] buildings on Barnaby Street, closed
up. One floor is being used, if that. Yes, there is some
activity now in one of those buildings, but we have
vacant lots scattered throughout the city.
Now, Madam President, I want to take this
outside of Bermuda to some of the places that I have
travelled. Granada, in Nicaragua; Quito, Ecuador,
Panama City, Panama; [and] Cartagena , Colombia.
Some of these cities have World Heritage status, but
not that long ago they were dangerous, rundown and
empty . Some of them were just neglected. Casco Vi ejo in Panama City, just neglected. Dangerous in the daytime, let alone at night. But the governments in
these countries decided that they had to do things
different if they were going to attract investment. They
had to have some reason for that investment money
to want to come to their country. They made drastic changes.
As a result, Madam President, today Granada
is thriving. Quito, Ecuador, you can stand . . . I stood
in the street of old colonial Quito and was told, Just
last year, eight months ago we could not stand here in
the daytime, let along stand here at night as we are now. Cartagena , a beautiful city, Madam President,
have you been? Lots to do there ; lots to do in all of
these places.
But after 96 years of operating the way we
operate today in the municipalities, we are talking about retail businesses going out of business because we have continued to operate the same way year after
year, put a patch here, put a patch there. And we do
ignore the signs that our car (going back to my car
illustration) . . . we tend to ignore some of the signs,
even though we just got it patched up and i t is telling
us again it is going to happen, but we ignore that. And sometimes we have a breakdown.
So today we are faced with remaining with the
status quo and getting the same results —no one going in the shops , no one in the City of Hamilton, no
one on the streets of St. George. Or, we can vote for a
transformational change and reverse that trend, do
things differently and reverse that trend.
Thank you, Madam President.

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

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
I have heard some clearly contrasting arguments between the Government supporting this legi slation and the OBA Senators and the Independents
that are not supporting the legislation. When I listen ed
to the Government side, they are seemingly creating problems that either do not exist , or have already
been solved, and are using these trumped- up problems as a justification for removing a democratic pr ocess in both the city and the town.
When we talk about the various reforms that
have happened to the Municipalities Act, they have always been in response to a defined problem or an established public interest. We listened to Senator
Richardson talk about, I beli eve, the KPMG report
where it spoke to Government lending assistance by
sitting on the finance committee. This legislation does
not do that. It removes voting rights.
We have heard talk about this potential separate Act, but as Senator Simmons has said, th is is not
what we have seen. What we have before us is an Act
304 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate that does nothing more than to remove a democratic
process. Government has in its power now to provide
grant money to direct infrastructure projects. This Act
does nothing to improve on the exis ting process.
We have heard talks about the Fire Service
and somehow that is the fault of the city, even though it is the responsibility of Government. We have heard
about the smart city lights, but the places where we
see smart city lights are in the cit y. Driving along Front
Street now, if you come up to the docks at night, the light will automatically go green. That does not ha ppen, for example, with the lights in Paget. So the city
is already ahead on these. It is leading on these smart
city initiative s, and it is Government that should probably take note from the city on these matters. The city
does not require Government to tell them how to fix
these things.
We have heard talks from both Senators
Richardson and Campbell about how stores are em pty and this kind of thing. And it sounds an awful lot like
my reply to the budget. I have been asking Gover nment where their economic stimulus is for the last six months. It is not just retail that is declining in the city
and the town, Madam President. It is Is land-wide. We
are going 10 straight months in retail reclines. Six of
them were post America’s Cup.
So, yes, I agree with the Senators, the country
needs more stimuli . We need more people here
spending. Those are not problems unique to the city
and the to wn, and this Bill that we have before us
does nothing to remedy that. It simply removes a
democratic process.
We have heard talk about “transformational
change,” which is the buzzword du jour of the Government. This legislation does no transformational
change. It simply removes the democratic process.
If we look at the public interest, and when the
last amendments to the Municipalities Act were put in place it was with regret and reservation, but it was in
response to highlighted problems by the Ombudsman.
And there were failures of accountability in the awar ding of the Hamilton waterfront development. There was the fallout from the $18 million bank loan. There were inadequate resources from the infrastructure
project. Now, what was done to remedy that? Whar fage was given back.
The Heritage fund was given back because
the grant that had been used to replace it was insuff icient to fund the town and the city. So, as Senator
Jardine comprehensively dismantled the position of
the Minister in 2018, the Minister was relaying a set of
challenges that existed in the past and have since which been remedied. So, again, we are looking at a
Bill that simply removes the democratic process.
The Minister appoints the mayor. The Minister
appoints half the councillors direct ly. The Minister appoints the selection committee. And then appoints,
after consultation with them, the remaining councillors.
So, it is a complete sham of a democratic process. It is clearly not representing the will of the people. Qu inell Francis, the Ma yor from St. George’s, said, if I
may quote, Madam President?

The President: You certainly may, Senator.

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: “‘It doesn’t seem like the constituents of St. George’s concerns were taken into consideration.’ Ms. Francis said that East End residents were concerned that the ability to elect their own officials had been stripped away. She added: ‘They’ll be appointed —and that’s not sitting well with
many of the persons in the Town of St George.’ She
added that she felt the views of local peop le had been
ignored and that the vote had been ‘predictable.’” (R eferring to the vote in the House of Assembly.) “She
added: ‘We [deserve] to be governed by our own Act that gives us a level of independence and gives us a
level of democracy.’”
And yet, th e MPs for St. George’s voted for
this Bill.
The Minister of Tourism and Transport, Zane
De Silva, “said the motive behind the legislation [is] ‘We need a mayor and a councillor that follows the
vision of the Progressive Labour Party. That’s what
we need. ’”
It has nothing to do about the will of the pe ople. It has nothing to do about the public interest for the constituents of Hamilton and St. George’s. It is
about neutering the public institution so that they go
lockstep with the PLP’s wants. It is more about creating a monopoly on power and having no dissenting
voices. This process, this Bill . . . all it does is rollback
democratic processes.
The Minister said that there would likely be
some level of ring- fencing of assets for Hamilton. This
is entire ly vague. There has been no context to what
is going to happen if this Bill were to pass. There is no mention of taking over corporations in the PLP plat-form, so Government cannot even suggest that
somehow the election result justifies this move. The
consultation that has been had overwhelmingly o pposes this legislation.
And if I may, Madam President, there was a
survey held and the following questions were asked.
And if I may quote?

The President: Yes, you may, Senator Kempe.

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: [These are:]
“1. Describe a strong, positive, ideal relationship between the Corporation and the
Government of Bermuda.
“2. In the current relationship between the
Corporation and the Government of Ber-muda, what is working?
“3. What would you like to see more of in the
relationship between the Corporation and
the Government of Bermuda?


Bermuda Senate “4. How would you create the ideal relatio nship between the Corporation and the
Government of Bermuda?”
And then it stated that, “The results of this
survey and town hall meetin gs would be published
shortly.”
Now, I struggled to find these anywhere, but
subsequent to this survey there were two questions posed on the Government’s (whatever it was called)
. . . the transparent platform. And the two questions
that were posed seemingly had absolutely nothing to do with the feedback given on those four questions
because two very similar, and clearly unwanted questions, were posed: Change both corporations to quangos, leaving each organisation intact as a body corporate, or dissolve the corporation through appealing the
Municipalities Act. A third option saying, leave the
corporations and protect the democratic process, was
not offered.
And it is interesting when you look at the r esponse to those two terrible choices. To the first one,
change both corporations to quangos , four people
supported; 169 were against. So 98 per cent of the
people were against option one.
Option two, dissolve the corporations, had a
similar response; four people were in favour, and 177
against. So, again, 98 per cent of the people were
against these options. And despite this overwhelming
dissatisfaction with Government intentions, the Bill
was presented in the House.
I was at the town hall meetings, as well. And
there are more representatives here today than there
seemingly were in the audience in St. George’s. It is nice of the Minist er . . . no, he is not here any more. He
was not in St. George’s either. So the whole consult ative process was clearly a sham .

[Inaudible interjections]
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Oh, he has returned. Welcome.
And so despite —

POINT OF ORDER

Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: Madam Pres ident, point of order.
The Minister was in fact at St. George’s.

The President: Thank you.
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: That was not the impression
of the mayor or any of the attendees there. If he was,
he was very well hidden, and I —
The President: Senator Kempe, —

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: —will stand corrected. Thank
you. The President: —your point is taken.

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: This is clearly not in the interest of the people.
It improves no processes, it improves no
oversight . It adds nothing of value to the corporations
that is not already there in the existing Act, and it is simply a rollback of the democratic process.
Madam President, I do not feel the need to
speak any further on this, but I will not be supporting
this Bill.

The President: Thank you, Senator Kempe. Would
any other Senator care to speak on this Bill?
Senator Kathy Lynn Simmons, Attorney Ge neral and Government Leader in the Senate, you have
the floor.

Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: Thank you,
Madam President.
Let me start by addressing the comments of
Senator Robinson, made at the beginning of this debate. He characterised the legislation as half -baked,
and I appreciate the new vintage of the Senator, but I
can guarantee you that no legislation that comes out of my Chambers will ever be half -baked. Behind me
sits one of my senior parliamentary counsel who hails from Botswana, and I can assure you that he is the best of the best. So, if you intended to say that the
policy , in your opinion, is half -baked, then let’s be
clear on that. So, I apologise on your behalf to the drafter.
Let me continue, Madam President. I have sat
here and listened with great interest to emotional out-pourings. I have listened to traditional ties. I have li stened to a picture painted of a benevolent framework
that the Government is being accused of dismantling
for all sorts of political and other reasons. So, let me
go back in time a bit, because my role as the Minister
of Legal Affairs is to actually look at law reform. And
for Senators who have forgotten, we actually have a
Law Reform Commission Act from 2009, and in the
context of law reform, let us be clear what we are tal king about.
We do not intend to maintain the status quo in
this country. We sit in a Chamber which is indicative
of attempts to maintain the status quo. The legislature
was created to maintain the economic power of white
landholders in Bermuda that we characterise as the
oligarchy, okay? And the efforts of this Government
are to dismantle that. Every morning I walk off the el evator on the fourth floor of Global House as the Attor-ney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, and confronting me is a plaque which lists all of the Attorneys
General that Bermuda has had. And they are in co lumns. And the first one, two, three, four columns do not represent anyone who looks like me. Okay? And understand that our legislative framework came out of
a drive to maintain the power base for that dem o306 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate graphi c in this country. So, as you all sit here and wax
poetic about preserving democracy, let me give you
some information that you may or may not know.
Today, an Originating Summons was filed in
the Supreme Court. And by virtue of that summons, tomorrow , the 21
st of March at eleven o’clock, the Patron Saint of municipalities has brought an application.
The Corporation of Hamilton is the applicant, and the
first respondent is none other than the Attorney Gen-eral. The second respondent is the Governor of Bermuda.
And Madam President, with your indulgence, I
am actually going to read what this thing says.

The President: Yes, you may.

Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: By this su mmons, colleagues, the applicants, the Corporation of
Hamilton, are seeking the foll owing Order:
“(1) An Order declaring that the Municipalities
Reform Act 2010 and the other amendment Acts, as well as the decision by the Government to convert the
corporation to a quango” (and they call that in quotes ‘the decision,’ as implemented by the Bill, which is
what we are talking about this evening,) “and the Bill,
if enacted, contravenes or would contravene sections
1 and 13 of the Bermuda Constitution, in that and i nsofar as (a) the amendment Act, the decision and the
Bill deprive or would deprive, as the case may be, the corporation,” (not the residents, not the people of
Bermuda, the corporation) “of property without compensation, or are or would be likely to do so or (b)”
(hope you return soon, Senator) “deny or would deny
or have the effect of denying, as the case may be, the
corporation, ” (again, the corporation) “the protection of
law or are or would be likely to do so, and to that extent are therefore void and of no effect.”
What are they talking about? They are talking
about all of the Acts that gave democratic rights to the
residents of the municipalities. So, let’s take a walk
back in history.
We have an Act called the Emancipation Act
1834, and under that Act . . . and I will read the pr eamble which tells you what it is about . That is how we
do our legislation. It states, and Madam President, may I read?

The President: Yes, you may.

Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: “WHEREAS it
is expedient to relieve free blacks and free persons of
colour,” (whatever that means) “from certain disab ilities, liabilities and restrictions to which they are now
subject, to extend to them the laws now applicable to
white persons, and to fix the qualifications for voters
and the electors, and for candidates for certain offices and places of trust:”.
And l et me repeat, “WHEREAS it is exped ient.” Not right, not just, but expedient . The definition of expedient, Madam President, is convenient and practical, although possibly improper or immoral, and that
is our foundation and we are real proud of the fact that
we were emancipated as black people.
Madam President, under section 2 of that Act,
provision is made for qualification for voting in munic ipal elections. And under section 3, there is a qualific ation for Aldermen or Common Councillor of municipal ities. An d under those sections, notwithstanding the
fact that we became emancipated, the legislature was used to ensure that certain rights for that demographic were maintained. So, they freed you on one hand, and
made sure they retained the rights that would allo w
them to consolidate forever their power base economically. And that is what I refer to as the status quo.

[Inaudible interjection]

Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: Wow is right,
Senator. Wow, wow, and wow. So, be careful what
you are objecting to ton ight.
So, let me make it clear. When we talk about
this originating summons which chooses to void all of
the amendments to the Municipalities Act, we have
amendments that were made in 1994, 1995, 2010,
2013, 2014, twice in 2015, and in 2018. So, we actual-ly had legislation in 2010 which talked about elections.
Somebody missed somewhere two sections, or the same as sections 2 and 3, which bestowed or made
clear the rights that were going to be retained, and it
was not until 2013 that the penny dropped and they
were repealed.
So, let us be clear. Let us be clear. What we
have in front of us today is this Government’s attempt
at collaboration. Whether you like it or not, that is ac-tually what it is. And you all sit around here and say
you are not supporting it. But guess what? Don’t support it, because you have been trumped, or you will be
trumped tomorrow morning at eleven o’clock when the
Patron Saint and Co. go to the Supreme C ourt and
erode every voting right that you will ever have. B ecause what that will do is take you back to sections 2
and 3 of the Emancipation Act, whereby the only
rights were bestowed on the very demographic that
represents the status quo.
And understand where we are with reform.
This Government is not going away. You say, no, tonight, we will come back again and again, because
the people of this country decided that they do not want the status quo.
The Minister went to St. George’s . The Ministers went to St. George’s to ensure that we had the
support that was necessary. We consulted. W e asked,
What do you want ? We made amendments to incorporate what people wanted. But understand what you are doing tonight. You are rejecting an attempt to
move away from the status quo and to give effect to
what needs to happen in terms of real emancipati on.


Bermuda Senate This is not a race card. This is reality. B ecause we think we have progressed, but we have not.
Because on our books is a whole slew of legislation
that speaks to maintaining the status quo. So, we will
come back with criminal law reform, with land la w reform, with social reforms that are aimed to erode the
status quo.
So, Senator Simmons, I appreciate your sentimentality, but understand what we represent sitting around this table as black people. That is a race card,
but it is real. It is a fact . We w ill tomorrow at eleven
o’clock , if the court determines, if there is some merit
in the P atron Saint’s argument, we will be back to
1834. And, as the Government Leader in the Senate
for the Progressive Labour Party, that is unaccept able.
Say no tonight to this Bill and sleep well. Go
down to court tomorrow and have a listen here, and
see what democracy looks like when the clock is
turned back.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Kathy Lynn Si mmons, Attorney General.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
Senator Hayward, you have the floor.

Sen. Jason Hayward: Madam President, I —

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

SENATE VISITOR
The President: Sorry, before you do, I need to
acknowledge the presence of MP Michael Scott in the Gallery.
Welcome, sir. Carry on.
[Municipalities Reform Act 2019, second reading debate, continuing]

Sen. Jason Hayward: I had the chills just now when
the Attorney General was speaking. The chills, b ecause every time we think we are moving forward, we
end up going backwards.
And I know, Senator Simmons declared her
interest regarding being a resident in both. But I am not sure when Senator Simmons made her decision
just now if she relied on a piece of legislation that she
did not know at the time was under attack. That orig inating summons is real. You said that the Minister has
not provided you with any real paperwork regarding
the change that will take place in St. George’s. That is a real piece of paper. We will be in court tomorrow
fighting for our rights to have residents of a city to
vote—not landowners, residents of a city to vote
again. And we sit up here and we talk about preser v-ing democracy. Well, let’s have that conversation t onight.
In 1793, the corporations were incorporated.
The corporation of Hamilton was incorporated. That was prior to the Emancipation Act. So, the corporation
became a corporation prior to slaves being freed in
this country. Who did that corporation represent, and
whose interests did that corporation represent at that
time?
In 1815, the City of Hamilton became the
capital of Bermuda. It was named after a former governor, Henry Hamilton, an appointed governor, a go vernor who was not democratically elected. Since
1815, I really wonder how democratic elections in the
Corporation of Hamilton have actually been. We have
to be realistic. How democratic have elections in the corporation actually been? We have just heard it was
not until 2010 that residents received rights to vote.
Well, who got to vote for all those years between 1793
and 2010? How democratic were the operations of
these institutions?
Madam President, we have over 10,000 persons who work, who reside, operate in this city on a daily basis, and less than 700 of those persons actually show up and vote in municipal elect ions. This is city
is all of our s. How is it that less than 700 people get to
decide the fate of our city? This is a beloved city for all
in Bermuda. This is an economic hub for all in Berm uda. This is the lightbulb for all of Bermuda. But we want to preserve the voting rights of the 700 persons
who come out.
This is not erosion of democracy. Democracy
in the Corporation of Hamilton is a sham. Democracy
in the Corporation of Hamilton is a farce. It is a f açade. There is no real democracy. The majority of t he
country frequents the city, but only a handful of people
get to decide, a handful of people who date back to
1793 when the corporations were incorporated, this
same handful of people who had the rights in 1923
when the first Act was passed. And I ask you som ething. We want to rely on a 1923 Act. Did we even
have a democratic Government in 1923? Who got to
vote for Government in 1923 when the corporation
was established, this Act was established? Let’s be
clear on democracy in this country.
The former may or won the Government, the
current mayor won the Government with 409 votes —
409 votes —and he gets to preside over the economic
interests of the majority of the country. And we are
sitting here talking about democracy? And the same democracy we are talking about, that same individual
has filed a writ to reverse all of the power that we
were talking about that was instilled in 2015, to r everse the voting rights that were instilled for individuals. I do wonder how individuals feel about that .
You see? We are not making progress in this
country until we do things which are transformational. Systems in this country are wrong and when we attempt to dismantle systems, we see that some are not
308 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate bold enough to move forward with what is transform ational. Madam President , persons are opposed to the
Corporation of St. George’s and Corporation of Hami lton becoming quangos. Madam President, if I may
read a quote? Madam President?

The President: Senator Hayward, I am sorry. I was —

[Laughter]

Sen. Jason Hayward: This is a quote from the former
Minister of Home Affairs, Michael Fahy. “The first i mportant reform would be to allow the Minister to pr ovide binding directions to Corporations. These are similar to those provided for in legislation related to the West End Development Corporation and the Bermuda Land Development Companies permitting general and special directions from their respective Mini sters.”
Madam President, the West End Development Corporation and the Land Development Compa-ny are quangos. We can argue that the quango structure did not begin with this Government; it began with the previous Government. We were already well away
on establishing quangos, and that is why Senators
can say today that there are not many changes needed in the legislation to transform these bodies into quangos. You know why? Because the work has already been done by the former Government ; the work
to transform these institutions into quangos has a lready been done by the former Government.
Madam President, in 2015, the oversight was
needed after allegations of governance violations.
Madam President, if I can read some of those con-cerns that were present at that time?

The President: You may.

Sen. Jason Hayward: This is a quote from the former
Minister, Michael Fahy at the time: “Senators wi ll be
aware of significant challenges posed by the munic ipal corporations in recent years under both the current
and previous Governments. Reform of local gover nance has become acutely necessary in Bermuda as a
result of failures of administrations that ha ve caused
disarray in governance.”
Let me repeat that, Madam President. “R eform of local governance has become acutely neces-sary in Bermuda as a result of failures of administr ations that have caused disarray in governance.” This is referring to our corporations!
“Further governance reform is now acutely
necessary as a result of the past actions of the Corporation of Hamilton, which include: failures of accountability in awarding of the contract for the Hamilton w aterfront development, resulting in a high ly critical r eport by the Bermuda Ombudsman, legislative inter-vention by the Government of Bermuda, the assum ption of temporary stewardship and an arbitration that may cost many millions to the public purse; . . . .” A dditionally, Madam President, “Concerns about the vi ability of a cooperative relationship between the two levels of Government . . . .”
Madam President, I repeat, “Concerns about
the viability of a cooperative relationship between the two levels of Government.”
He then went on to say, this i s the former Mi nister of Home Affairs: “A multiplicity of legal actions, such as the ‘clamping litigation’ and a myriad of surplus constitutional actions; disorder and dissention at
the Council level that have been reported in the media
. . . .”
The Royal Gazette headline of January 27,
2015: “Fahy takes control of a CoH ‘in disarray’”.
In disarray ! We paint these wonderful pictures
of good governance that has been taking place. That
is not the reality on the ground. And it is just like we
can say, Well, w e have a Government and when the
Government comes in, things may change. It is no
different when a mayor and a team are elected that do
not do good by the residents, the ratepayers, or the country. We see how the country suffers. We saw how
the country suf fered with mismanagement of the Corporation of Hamilton. How do we prevent that from
happening again?
I ask you, How do we prevent that from ha ppening again?
And you would say, There are now legislative
amendments that were made in 2015 that increased
governance.
And I would tell you, We go [to] c ourt where
those legislative amendments are trying to be r emoved.
So, where is the oversight and accountability?
Where would the oversight and accountability be? Do
we have to settle with corporations signing documents
that they did not have the authority to sign? What we
are attempting to do is put permanent oversight in place. What we are attempting to do is to ensure that
there is a functional relationship between the corpor ation and the Government.
Madam Presid ent, I came across a newsp aper article where the current mayor pledged “war” with
the Government. War has already been started by
taking the Attorney General to court. How could there
be an amicable relationship moving forward? How
could there be an establ ished relationship in the best
interests of this country moving forward when we are
threatened with legal action, all because we want to
improve the wellbeing of our cities, or because we
want to improve the wellbeing of the Town of St.
George?
Madam Pres ident, the current mayor, Mr.
Gosling, is on record stating and I quote, may I quote?
The President: You may quote.



Bermuda Senate Sen. Jason Hayward: “2The added voice from the
poll in St. George’s also speaks volumes to the fact
that the government oversight is not w elcome in the
town.”
That the g overnment oversight is not welcome
in the town!
Madam President, do you believe his view of
the Government oversight in the City of Hamilton is the same, or does it differ? Do you think the current
mayor welcomes the Government oversight? This is
hypothetical, but I am going to answer it for you. No,
he does not , because we have seen in action now that
the oversight is sought to be removed.
So, we can have an election where a few
people can elect the representatives and they can do
as they please, and the Government has no say. But
those same organisations need funding from the Go vernment to carry out major infrastructure projects. And
some would say the Corporation of Hamilton can fund
its own. Well, you need not look too far into newsp aper articles where the finances of the Corporation of
Hamilton are not peachy at all. They are not peachy at
all.
The Minister of Works wants to put a sewage
plan in place for the entire country. Yet, the Corpor ation of Hamilton is going to hi re its own firm to do its
own project in the City of Hamilton. So, the proposal is
to put the sewage plant on Front Street. Madam President, we cannot leverage economies of scale by
working in silos. But that is how the current structures
are set up, [they are] set up to operate in silos. We
say there is ministerial direction according to the 2015
amendments. But how do you think that works in prac-tice? How do you think that works in pract ice? Where
the same individual is now taking the Government to
court? The Minister is going to submit something to
Corporation of Hamilton and they are just going to say
Yes, sir, and do it? Or, We have our own plan and we
disagree.
And then every single time we want to make a
change, we are going to find ourselves in cour t because this is not the first time that the Corporation has
taken the Government to court. The former mayor and
his team took the Government to court for changes
that the Government wanted to make. So, let us not
kid ourselves. There is no harmonious rel ationship
that will be had moving forward.
The Minister stated that the laws have diluted
the rights of two local authorities. He is talking about
the current laws, the current laws that Members have
stated that we are happy with because they provide
the necessary oversight. The current mayor believes
that those laws dilute his rights. But I beg to differ. I
will say those laws are what govern and establish his
right of operation. But he is not happy with the laws of the land because the laws of the land w ere set by the
Government, and the c orporations want to remain i n2 Royal Gazette, 1 March 2019 dependent of the Government . Why? Madam Attorney
General’s notion is that they want to maintain their status quo.
Madam President, the Corporation of St.
George’s . . . it used to be our capital, the Town of St.
George. But in 1815, town became our capital, the
City of Hamilton. I will support the notion that the Corporation and the Town of St. George have been
abandoned since 1815. When they decided that that was no longer to be our capital , the powers that be at
the time abandoned St. George’s then. Luckily, St.
George’s is heavily populated with residents. That is
the advantage they have. And the residents banded
together, clawed hard, fought hard. The residents
were able to get a vote and then the residents were
able to elect officials that they would like to see. But
based on these amendments that we will see in this
court case tomorrow, they plan to strip that vote away from residents. Residents did not have a vote in St.
George’s prior to 2010. Where were the cries of democracy being eroded and the limits to democracy
then? What we are trying to do is give the residents a
permanent seat at the table, not a temporary one.
St. George’s is so sensitive to politics that no
MP feels safe in St. George’s . I do not think that the
PLP Government ’s aim or objective is to compromise
our two St. George’s MPs by doing nothing. We have
a plan for St. George’s .
I think the concept of St. George’s was best
summed up by what I would consider to be a progressive resident. Her name is Kristin White. In The Royal
Gazette on March 5
th—and can I read her quote?

The President : Yes, you may, Senator Hayward.
Sen. Jason Hayward: “I don’t care what the structure
is. It is time for us to be a priority.” See? I will prefer to
hold on to the structure and maybe you can have us as a priority, Or, I do not care what the structure is, let
us stop tossing it over the governing structure. I want
to be a priority.
Madam President, the people of St. George’s
should be reassured that the Minister responsible
promised them that they will be a priority. On Tues-day, the 5
th of March 2019, the Minister of Home A ffairs, the Walter H. Roban stated—can I read, Madam
President ?

The President: Yes, you may, Senator Hayward.

Sen. Jason Hayward: Let me share with you some of
the things the deal means for the town of St.
George’s . “It will mean enhanced services.” It will i mprove infrastructure. “It will mean better upkeep of public spaces, and it will allow, finally, for the crea tion
of a marina . . . It will also allow the creation of a
World Heritage [Site] management plan for the town, which is crucial . . .” for the designation as a World
Heritage Site.
310 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate It will improve the financial management of
the town. That is a promise. That is a commitment.
That is in the best interest of the people of St.
George’s . Whether or not they get to vote is not the
big thing. The structure . . . I don’t care [about] the
structure. That is what a young St. George’s resident said. I don’t care th e structure. I want to be a priority.
The Minister has promised, I promise you, this
is a good thing for St. George’s . The Government is
committed. The Government has political interests,
but outside of just political interests, we see within our
midst w e have persons who are passionate about St.
George’ s. We have a Senator who resigned his seat
on the Council of St. George’s to become a Gover nment Senator. MP Renee Ming is the biggest adv ocate for St. George’s . I am still on the fence about
Kim.

[Laught er]
Sen. Jason Hayward: But, Madam President, they
have two excellent representatives down there. We
will not compromise our colleagues. We will not aba ndon St. George’s .
Madam President, I do ask the question to
residents, Are you satisfied with the pr ogress in St.
George’s ? When asked in 90- some years, are you
satisfied with where you are now? The honest answer has to be no if you are a St. Georgian. You cannot be
satisfied with where our former capital is now. But you
have to be optimistic that we want to inject a lot of energy into St. George’s .
Please do not fight on the structure. The
structure is important only to the extent that a quango
provides greater cooperation. I do not know why we
are afraid of this thing called “quangos.” Some of our
most prestigious institutions like the Bermuda Monetary Authority is a quango. That does not mean the
Minister of Finance is running the Bermuda Monetary
Authority.
We have to be mindful when we just float
around terms and think that somehow they are all
nega tive. Nothing is negative about a quango. But if I
am injecting resources, money, capital . . . if I am le veraging services from the Government , I need to ensure that the leadership of the organisation shares the vision and we are not wasting our time.
Madam President, the Government wants to
ultimately transform Hamilton and St. George’s into
vibrant entities that will be attractive to visitors, attractive to businesses and that will boost utilisation of both
the city and the town. It is clear that neither the Corp oration of Hamilton nor the Corporation of St. George’s
have the resources to do it on their own. It is clear that
providing the resources under the current structures of
those organisations would not bear the fruit that we require.
And some ma y ask, Well, what is the vision
that the Government has? Government plans to have a multifaceted waterfront, increased city living, i ncreased use of vacant office space and using smart technology. One could only look at Singapore as to
where we can go when we embrace smart technology
in our cities. See? We want to hold onto our little kingdoms and operate in silos at the expense of moving
forward. This Government is trying to be transform ational and move this country forward. Why not give us
a chance? Why are we protecting this façade democracy? We were elected to govern. We were elected to
make a difference.
I am asking you to give us a chance. I am
asking you, What are we trying to protect? Are we
trying to protect the organisation who has now proven that they do not even care about the same residents
that we are sitting here trying to protect? Because ac-cording to the writ that the Attorney General read, they are trying to strip the rights away from those individuals. They are trying to remove the oversight of the
Government from those institutions.
Senator Simmons, you said I am satisfied that
the current changes that were made in 2015 go far
enough. How do you feel learning that those current
changes that were made in 2015 are being ripped
from right under our nose? I am going to ask you to
reconsider your position based on the additional i nformation. And that is what rational people do. When provided with all the information to make an informed decision, that is what they do. That is what is bold.
That i s what is courageous. I am going to go out on a
limb here.
Madam Simmons [sic] , we had a democratic
process in high school . . . I am sorry, Madam Pres ident—

The President: Yes.

[Laughter]
The President: You decided you were running your
. . . continue.

Sen. Jason Hayward: But we did. We had a dem ocratic process in high school where Madam Simmons
was actually my principal. Teachers voted for prefects. Madam Simmons, Madam President, appointed me a
prefect.
The teachers revolted against Madam Si mmons. And I was prefect for two weeks and I got my
yellow shirts removed. But what Madam Simmons did not know is my mother refused to buy me white shirts after she bought me yellow shirts. I could no longer
wear my yellow shirts. I had grown and I had to wear
my white school shirts that were too small. And I was
teased because they had yellow stains in them, because they were my sister’s old shirts, and I had wear
a sweater in the summertime over my school shirt every day. And guess what? It changed my mind- set
when I was getting teased. And I was not productive


Bermuda Senate as I could have been in my fifth year of high school.
And Madam Simmons knows the catastrophic events
that took place in my fifth year of high school.
I am lucky to have graduated. I am asking . . .
I should have gone to the office and asked Madam Simmons to reconsider then, but I am asking you to
reconsider now.
The President: Senator Hayward, speak to the m otion . . . speak to the Bill.
Sen. Jason Hayward: I am speaking to the Bill. I am
definitely on speaking with the Bill.

The President: My concern is you are speaking to a
Senator who has already spoken and trying to persuade her, and I think that is out of order.

Sen. Jason Hayward: And the young Senator went
mm-hmm.
You know what is important, Madam Pres ident? That we are clear on how we are moving forward. You know what is important? We are clear on
exactly what we are attempting to do today. What is
important is we are attempting to understand exactly
what the Corporation of Hamilton is trying to do, which
is remove rights. None of us should take comfort that
even the amendments of the former Government are
now trying to be repealed.
That should give none of us great comfort. In
the midst of us attempting to pass legislation to move
forward, we have a group of peo ple attempting to take
us backwards.

The President: Senator Hayward, I do want to indicate here that this information has just come to light just a short while ago. So, it was not . . . Senators
were not privy to the information befor ehand, and so I
want you to continue to address the Bill at hand.
Sen. Jason Hayward: Madam President, what we
are attempting to do is move the country forward. The
Government has the best interests of the people of
Bermuda at heart. I have not heard any compelling
argument against why this has happened outside of
the erosion of democracy to protect democracy for individuals who are attempting to erode democracy.
Madam President, we want to exert life into
our cities. We want to invest in our cities. We w ant to
make our cities a better place. We have the resources
at the Government , Madam President . We want to
leverage our resources. We want to create economies
of scale that will ultimately reduce cost. We do not
need duplication of services. And what we are asking
is a change in the structure; a change in the structure
so that we can be effective in our delivery. This is not about erosion of democracy. Democracy in the City of
Hamilton is a façade. And with that, Madam President . . . I really
would like to conclude, but this debate . . . I believe
we have been kind of bamboozled into believing that somehow this Government is eroding rights, when we
are attempting to make the city as efficient, as effective, as vibrant as it could be. We have seen the mi smanagement of the city. How do we prevent ourselves
from going back down that road? The only way we
can prevent ourselves from going back down that road
is to provide the proper oversight. That can only be
achieved by the changes that the Government has
recommended.
Madam President, we really have to ask ourselves who has the best interests of the people at heart. And, Madam President, I would like to close
with this quote from OBA Minister Fahy, the Honour able, former Honourable Minister of Home Affairs, in
2015:
“
3In fact it is important that the national age nda and the agenda of any Council are aligned in some
way to ensure that there is harmony in Bermuda’s
governmental functions —especially given that the City
and the Town are major parts of Bermuda’s economic
life blood. Co- operation is key and the Government of
Bermuda is committed to that . . . .”
I repeat, Madam President, if I may, “In fact it
is important that the national agenda and the agenda of any Council are aligned in some way to ensure that there is harmony in Bermuda’s governmental fun ctions —especially given that the City and the Town are
major parts of Bermuda’s economic life blood. Cooperation is key and the Government of Bermuda is
committed to [do] that . . . .”
These were the words of Senator Fahy in this
very same Chamber when he made his amendments to the 2015 Bill, amendments which we now learn are
trying to be stripped away. We must be clear that
there will be no real coo peration between the Corporation of Hamilton and the Government . There is no
desire from Corporation. There is no real desire. If not, we would not find ourselves in court tomorrow.
You would think that the court action would be
to remove the provisions that the Government has put
in place and to maintain rights. You would not have
thought that the court action was to strip control, oversight, the rights away from persons who you all say
have fought hard for those rights.
Be careful whose side you are on. We have a
vested interest in this country. And, like the A ttorney
General said, this Government was elected to be
transformational, it was elected to change power
structures. And that is what we are attempting to do.
And we are doing it in the best interests of the people
of Bermuda.
Thank you, Madam President .



3 Statement to Media , 10 April 2015
312 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

SENATE VISITOR

The President: Thank you, Senator Hayward.
And before we proceed any further, I would
just like to acknowledge the presence of the Financial Secretary, Mr. Anthony Manders, in the Gallery. Welcome, sir.
Senator Kathy Lynn Simmons, Attorney Ge neral.

Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: Thank you,
Madam President .
We have had a fulsome discussion on the
merits and otherwise of this Bill, and due to some of
the arguments advanced and representations made
which may cause Senators to pause and consider
their positions, I would like to move that the Senate
rise and report progress on the second reading of the Bill.

The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objections.
It has been agreed.
So, the Committee will rise and report pr ogress . . . the Senate will, sorry.
[Motion carried: The Senate agreed to rise and report
progress on the second reading of the Municipalities
Reform Act 2019.]

The Clerk: The second reading then, we will resume
second reading . . . it will remain on the Order P aper
as a second reading item.

The President: Yes. Senators are in agreement.
Thank you.
The Clerk: Okay. So, we move on to the next item.

The President: Senators , we will move on to the third
item on the Or der Paper which is the second reading
of the Miscellaneous Taxes Amendment Act 2019.
Senator Campbell, it is your Bill. You can pr oceed.

BILL

SECOND READING

MISCELLANEOUS TAXES AMENDMENT ACT 2019

Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President .
Madam President, I move that the Bill entitled
Miscellaneous Taxes Amendment Act 2019 be now
read a second time.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President , the pu rpose of this Bill before the [Senate] today is to make
amendments to the Miscellaneous Taxes Act 1976
(“the Taxes Act”) and the Miscellaneous Taxes
(Rates) Act 1980 (“the Rates Act”) to introduce a new
tax st ructure for cruise ships and cruise ship passengers, and to make consequential amendments.
Madam President —
[Sen. James S. Jardine, Vice President, presiding]

The Vice President: Mister.

[Laughter]

The Vice President: I am quickly coming to the Chai r
as fast as I can.

Sen. Vance Campbell: All right. Mr. Vice President.

The Vice President: Please proceed, Senator Cam pbell.

Sen. Vance Campbell: The existing tax structure for
cruise ships and their passengers is comprised of a
passenger cabin tax an d passenger departure tax. In
reviewing the taxes paid by cruise lines, the Gover nment determined that there was scope to make
changes to the current tax structure whil st remaining
competitive with comparable cruise destinations .
[Mr. Vice President] , the passenger c abin tax
specified in the Taxes Act is charged in respect of
each visit by a passenger ship to Bermuda. It is pay able by the owner, operator, or agent of the ship at the rate prescribed in the Rates Act. The passenger cabin
tax is calculated b y referenc e to the number of passenger cabins on the ship and the number of nights
the ship is docked or at anchor in Bermuda.
The c abin tax does not apply to ships docked
in the City of Hamilton or the Town of St. George. [Mr. Vice President], this was an attempt to attract smaller luxury ships to Hamilton and St. George’s, so a waiver
was introduced as an incentive. However, [Mr. Vice
President], this never really worked and there are only 24 cruise ships in the world that can fit into our small
harbours and they mostly serve other jurisdictions.
[Mr. Vice President], the cabin tax is currently $14.00
per cabin from May to August and $10.00 per cabin
from September to October. It has not changed in 13
years.
[Mr. Vice President], t he passenger departure
tax also specified in the Taxes Act is charged per
passenger departing from Bermuda by passenger
ship. As with the cabin tax, it is payable by the owner, operator, or agent of the ship at the rate prescribed in
the Rates Act. [Mr. Vice President], the pass enger
departure tax is currently $20.00 per passenger per


Bermuda Senate day from April to October, to a maximum of $60.00,
and this has not changed for 17 years , [Mr. Vice Pre sident] .
[Mr. Vice President] , there is an additional
charge paid by passengers on large cruise ships
which is a capital cost recovery charge. This charge,
which is $22.00 per passenger, per visit repays the
loan provided by Royal Caribbean International, to
dredge the North Channel so that Quantum class
ships can access Heritage and King’s Wharf. A greements with our contract cruise partners prevented
taxes being raised while the loan remained payable.

[Sen. the Hon. Joan E. Dillas -Wright, President, pr esiding ]

Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, with that
loan now repaid by the Bermuda Tourism Authority,
the Government is in a position to make changes to
the cruise tax regime. I now provide a summary of the
amendments.
First, Madam President , the amendment Act
repeals the passenger cabin tax . With the Gover nment’s more targeted approach to taxes , the cabin tax
is unnecessary and somewhat duplicative.
Secondly, the amendment Act introduces a
new “large ship infrastructure tax.” This tax applies to
passenger ships with a gross tonnage exceeding
149,000 tons, or which exceeds 1,120 feet in length,
or that carry more than 4,000 passengers, whichever
is the greatest, Madam President .
Madam President, this tax is intended to fund
the infrastructure improvements associated with and
required by the large cruise ships that frequent Bermuda. As with other passenger ship taxes, it is pay able by the owner, operator, or agent of a ship at the
rate prescribed in the Rates Act.
Madam President, the amendment Act
amends the Rates Act to set the infrastructure tax at
$22.00 per passenger for visits between the 1st of
April and the 31st of October. Madam President, further amendments to the Rates Act increase the pas-senger departure tax by $5.00 to $25.00 per passenger for a 24- hour period, up to a maximum of $75.00
for ships docked in or at anchor and tendered to
Dockyard.
The departure tax is $20.00 per passenger for
a 24- hour period up to a maximum of $60.00 for ships
docked in or at anchor and tendered to Hamilton or St.
George’ s. This tax also applies between the 1
st of
April and the 31st of October. The diff erence between
the departure tax for Hamilton and St. George’s is to
still provide a small incentive for the smaller ships to
visit there.
Finally, Madam President, the final provisions
of the amendment Act pertain to consequential
amendments made to the Taxes Management Act
1976 and the Tax (Accounts and Records) Regul ations 1991, due to the repeal of the cabin tax and to the introduction of the large ship infrastructure tax and
the increase in the passenger departure tax.
Thank you, Madam President .
The President: Thank you, Senator Campbell.
Would any Senator care to speak on this Bill?
No? Then Senator Campbell, you can carry on.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitled the Miscellaneous Taxes Amendment
Act 2019 be now read a second time.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Carry on , Senator Campbell .
[Motion carried: The Miscellaneous Taxes Amen dment Act 2019 was given a second reading.]

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.]

BILL

THIRD READING

MISCELLANEOUS TAXES AMENDM ENT ACT 2019

Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitled Miscellaneous Taxes Amendment Act
2019 be now read a third time.

The President: Is there any objection to the third
reading?
No objection.
Carry on, Senator Campbell.

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 Miscellaneous Taxes Amendment Act 2019
do now pass.
Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
The Bill is passed.

[Motion carried: The Miscellaneous Taxes Amen dment Act 2019 was given a third reading and passed.]

314 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate The President: I think you have the next one, Sen ator.

Sen. Vance Campbell: Yes, I do, Madam President .
The President: Payroll Tax Amendment. Carry on.

BILL

SECOND READING

PAYROLL TAX AMENDMENT ACT 2019

Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President , the Bill
now before the Senate is the Payroll Tax Amendment
Act 2019 . The purpose of the Bill is to amend the Payroll Tax Act 1995, the principal Act and the Payroll Tax
Rates Act 1995, the Rates Act, to provide payroll tax
relief to prescribed retailers and musicians and entertainers as announced in the 2019/20 national budget.
Madam President , the retail sector is an i mportant part of Bermuda’s economy and a major employer of Bermudians. Retailers committed to training
and developing and providing many non- university
educated Bermudians with a leg up and a career path advancement in sales, administration, accounting,
marketing, buying and management. Also, retail employs a significant amount of seasonal and summer
students. Without a strong retail presence, we cannot
hope to attract either international business or tourism
to Bermuda.
The Government is very much aware of the
pressure on the retail sector. And in this regard, in
2010 a payroll tax concession was established for r etail stores for the months of January , February and
March, recognising that this is a slower period for r etail. Madam President, further relief was provided to
the sector in October of 2011, when 100 per cent pa yroll tax relief was granted during the recession.
Madam President , currently retail employers
who have a payroll o f $1 million per annum or more
pay payroll tax at the highest rate of 10.2 5 per cent
and retail employers who have a payroll of $500,000 to $1 million per annum pay at the rate of 9 per cent.
This compares to a rate of 6 per cent for the restaurant and hotel sector s. For employer s who come in
just below $1 million annual payroll, this A ct is a deterrent to hir ing.
Madam President , the retail division of the
Bermuda Chamber of Commerce have lobbied for this
sector over the last several years and have noted that
retailers simply c annot sustain their current level of
operation if they have to pay 10.25 per cent, or
9 per cent payroll tax, and have advised that consol idation may take place and Bermudian jobs will be lost. Further consultation on this matter occurred during the prebudget process , Madam President .
Madam President , the Government has li stened to the retail sector, and this amendment will provide payroll tax relief to certain qualifying stores in
the sector to maintain business operations and, hopefully, increase employ ment. In particular, the amendment will provide a rate of 7 per cent for an employer
operating a qualifying retail store.
Madam President, a qualifying employer will
be de fined as a store or a group of stores whose pa yroll amounts exceed $500,000 per annum that also
has at least 50 per cent of sales for a tax period co nsisting of the following products: clothing, shoes, je wellery, and perfume. To obtain this relief, the employer will have to make an application in writing to the Tax
Commi ssioner.
Madam Pr esident , any tax relief should be
targeted to the businesses that need it the most, r ather than across the board. The current estimate of
revenue forgiven by this concession is less than $1 million. If this relief was provided to the entire retail
sector, Government would lose approximately $16
million in payroll tax, which is not sustainable as we
try to eliminate the deficit.
Madam President , the second part of this
amendment is to provide payroll tax relief to musicians and entertainers. Madam President , entertainment
plays a very important role in the culture and development of Bermuda. We have seen a decrease in entertainers and musicians over the years, who, at best,
work six months of the year and during the season,
very few, if any, work six to sev en nights a week.
There was a time 25 years ago when a band
could work exclusively for a hotel. That is no longer
the case and has not been so for many years. Ther efore, the Government will be provid ing a three- year
payroll tax concession to independent m usicians and
all businesses that hire local musicians and entertai ners, by removing the employer and employee payroll
tax for the next three years.
The Government believes that this concession
will encourage more businesses to hire local entertainers and encourage more Bermudians to become
involved in this extremely important industry.
With that, Madam President, I conclude my
introductory remarks. Thank you, Madam President .

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

SENATE VISITOR

The President: Thank you, Senat or Campbell.
And before I open the floor, I would just like to
acknowledge the presence in the gallery of the Per-manent Secretary of Tourism, welcome Aideen Pryse .
Would any Senator care to speak on this Bill?
Senator Kempe, you have the floor.

[Payro ll Tax Amendment Act, second reading debate,
continuing]



Bermuda Senate Sen. Nicholas Kempe: I will be very brief because I
have mentioned this on multiple occasions and the
reply and in the general economic debate, but what
retail and all other business in Bermuda woul d like to
see is more consumers and more stimulus rather than
tax cuts for the select few.

The President: Would any other Senator care to
speak on this Bill?
No? Then Senator Campbell, over to you.

Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President ,
and this Government would also like to see the jobs
here for those people to come here.
Madam President, I move that the Bill entitled
the Payroll Tax Amendment [Act 2019] be read a second time.

The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objec tion. Carry on, Senator Campbell.
[Motion carried: The Payroll Tax Amendment Act 2019
was given a second reading.]

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.
Carry on.

[Motion carried: Standing Order 26 suspended.]

BILL

THIRD READING

PAYROLL TAX AMENDMENT ACT 2019

Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitled the Payroll Tax Amendment Act 2019
be now read a third time.

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

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 Payroll Tax Amendment Act 2019 do now
pass.
Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection. The Bill is passed.
Thank you, Senator Campbell.
[Motion carried: The Payroll Tax Amendment Act 2019
was given a third reading and p assed.]

The President: I think you have another one.
Sen. Vance Campbell: The next one as well, yes.
The President: Yes, carry on. This is the second
reading of the Stamp Duties Amendment Act 2019.

BILL

SECOND READING

STAMP DUTIES AMENDMENT ACT 2019

Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, t he Government wishes the Senat e to give consideration to
the Bill entitled the Stamp Duties Amendment Act
2019 .
Madam President, Senators will recall that in
the 2019/20 national budget, Government announced
it will amend the Stamp Duties Act 1976 in order to
exempt from stamp duty the commercial transfer or
assignment of a mortgage. It was also noted that following prebudge t consultation with the real estate division of the Chamber of Commerce, i t was proposed
to increase stamp duty on all residential and commercial leases.
Madam President , in 2012, the Stamp Duties
Act 1976 was amended in order to exempt from stamp
duty t he commercial transfer or assignment of a mor tgage. Having noted that, Madam President, it is now
proposed to clarify and amend this provision to restrict this concession to mortgages of $750,000 or less.
Madam President , the reason for this r estriction is simple. This Government has always b elieved that in order for a tax system to be fair and equitable, taxpayers who can afford it should be asked
to pay more than those who cannot afford to.
Madam President , the second part of this
amendment is a revenu e-raising measure and it is
proposed to increase stamp duty on all residential and
commercial leases. Accordingly, Head 25 of the
Schedule to the principal Act (stamp duty payable on
leases and agreements for leases), to provide for a stamp duty payable on leases and agreements for
leases to be calculated as 1.0 per cent of the aggr egate rent for leases up to three years plus 0.5 per cent
of the a ggregate rent payable for any additional period
beyond three years.
Madam President , the last time these rates
were increased was in 2000, some 19 years ago. As
mentioned previously, this was a proposal put forth by
the real estate division of the Chamber of Commerce.
316 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Madam President , one of the guideline princ ipals of any good tax system is to avoid specific taxes
expressed as fixed in value in Bermuda dollar terms in
favour of ad valorem taxes expressed as a percen tage of the selling price. Therefore, in order to provide some level of equity and fairness in stamp duty paid
on rental leases, we propose to amend the Act as
mentioned previously.
Madam President , 10 years ago Government
collected just over $46 million in stamp duty. This year
we are forecasting $29 million.
The Government rec ognises that some of this
decrease relates to a de crease in real estate acti vity.
However, to ensure that we are collecting all that is rightfully due, Government will be undertaking a com-prehensive review of its stamp duty legislation, with a
view to updating this legislation, and eliminating loopholes.
Madam President , Governm ent has tried to be
balanced and fair while strengthening the tax base with various revenue- raising measures, and it is i mportant that all parties contribute their fair share of
taxes.
Madam President, with that, I conclude my
introductory remarks. Thank you, Madam Pres ident.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

SENATE VISITOR

The President: Thank you, Senator Campbell, and
before I open the floor, again, I want to— with humble
apologies —acknowledge the presence of the Chief
Parliamentary Counsel, Mrs. Cathry n Balfour Swain.
Welcome to the Senate.
Would any Senator care to speak on this Bill?
Senator Kempe, you have the floor.

[Stamp Duties Amendment Act 2019, second reading
debate, continuing]

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
I specifica lly left out from the general economic debate on Monday, when I was going through some
of the elements of doublespeak, this particular motion
because I was curious as to how it would be repac kaged and spun in the Senate. And I appreciate my
colleague oppos ite for reframing this initiative from
what was presented to us in the Budget Statement
where, and if I may quote, Madam President —

The President: You may quote.

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: “In addition, as announced in
the Throne Speech we will eliminate stamp duty on
any mortgage refinancing for amounts up to
$750,000.” Now, what that statement leads one to believe
is that people were paying duty, stamp duty, on as-signments and other things when they changed to a
new bank. What this Act does is actually narro w the
concession for assignments whereas before there was no upper limit and now it goes down to $750,000. So, the exemption always existed, but it was a nnounced as some brand- new deal. So, I appreciate
the Minister clarifying here what was not framed correctly in the House.
The other challenge I have with this Bill is less
of a political one and more of a technical one. Where the Stamp Duties Amendment Act 2019 says it
amends Head 2 of the Schedule, it speaks specifically
to aggregate rent. Now, that is w onderful if your rent
term is specified in an exact value each year. But there are many rents that have some form of CPI, or
call it adjustment, built into it and you simply cannot
predict what that value is going to be each year for the
duration of the Bi ll.
So, there has been a lot of talk about efficiency of Government and deregulation and ease of bus iness, but I fear that the language used in this Bill will
cause unnecessary bureaucratic backlog because of
the use of this aggregate rent term.
Thank you, Madam President .
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.
I had one question with respect to clause 3, in
Head 31, (b) and it talks about the exemption and it
says “ after ‘mortgage ’ insert of a total amount not exceeding $750,000. ”
The clarification I am seeking is so that if you
seek to refinance a mortgage of say $850,000, is this
Act saying that the amount between zero and
$750,000 of the refinancing is exempt, but then you
have to pay stamp duty on the amounts between
$750,001 and $850,000? I am seeking some clarific ation on that.
I mean, it is obviously useful for som ebody
who has a mortgage of $750,000. B ut if you are sa ying if they have got a mortgage they want to r efinance
and it was say $775,000, then it does not give them anything? I am just trying to get some clarific ation on
that.
Thank you, Madam President .

The President: Thank you, Senator Jardin e.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
No? Then, Senator Campbell, you have a
couple of questions.



Bermuda Senate Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President .
First, I would like to address the question
posed by Senator Jardine, and the answer for that is
no. So, there —

Sen. James S. Jardine: So, once you are above . . .
sorry, Madam President —
Sen. Vance Campbell: Yes, once you are above
$750,000 . . . or $750,000 and above there is no relief.
Sen. James S. Jardine: Thank you.

Sen. Vance Camp bell: And to the comments made
by Senator Kempe regarding the process, those
comments will be taken on board and they will be
looked at with a view to making them as simple as
possible. With that, Madam President, I move that the
Bill entitled the Stamp D uties Amendment Act 2019 be
now read a second time.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection. Carry on.

[Motion carried: The Stamp Duties Amendment Act
2019 was given a second reading.]

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 26

Sen. V ance 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.
Carry on.
[Motion carried: Standing Order 26 suspended.]

BILL

THIRD READING

STAM P DUTIES AMENDMENT ACT 2019
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitled the Stamp Duties Amendment Act
2019 be now read a third time.
The President: Is there any objection to the third
reading?
No objection.
Carry on, Senator Campbell.

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 Stamp Duties Amendment Act 2019 do now
pass.
Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection. The Bill has p assed.
Thank you, Senator Campbell.

Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President .

[Motion carried: The Stamp Duties Amendment Act
2019 was given a third reading and passed.]

The President: And I believe that —

Sen. Vance Campbell: I have the next one.
The President: Yes, indeed you do! Second rea ding—got you working tonight —the Exempted Partnerships Amendment Act 2019.

BILL

SECOND READING

EXEMPTED PARTNERSHIPS
AMENDMENT ACT 2019

Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitle d the Exempted Partnerships Amendment Act 2019 be now read a second time.

The President: Is there any objection to the second
reading?
No objection. Carry on Se nator Campbell.

Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, Government wishes this
Senate to give consideration to the Bill entitled the
Exempted Partnerships Amendment Act 2019. This
Bill provides for a revenue protection measure in support of Government’s 2019/20 budget.
Madam President , Senators will recall that in
2019/20 national budget, Government announced leg-islation will be amended to increase company discon-tinuance fees from $425, the current annual Gover nment registration fee for the respective company. That
rate, Madam President, is currently $2,350.
Madam President , this proposal was put forward as part of the prebudget consultation process by
one of the law firms. As with all proposals submitted during the prebudget process, the Government car efully considered this option and has determined that it
meets the conditions required to protect Bermuda’s tax base in a way which allows Bermuda to continue
to be an attractive place to do business. When I read
that, Madam President, I am like wow, you know. In
other words, what we are just trying to say here is we
will earn more from discontinuance fees, but it should
not impact exempted partnerships from registering
318 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate here and that is because they are more concerned
about the upfront registration fees than the disconti nuance fees.
So, Madam President , this proposal provides
that if an exempted partnership leaves Bermuda,
Government will get the annual fee. I would like to
thank the law firm and the legal profession in general
that provided this submission, or their submissions,
during the consultative prebudget process.
With those comments , Madam President ,
conclude my introductory remarks.

The President: Thank you, Senator Campbell.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
No? Carry on then, Senator Campbell.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President .
Madam President, I move that the Bill entitled
the Exempted Partnerships Amendment Act 2019, be
now read a second time.

The President: Is there any object ion to the second
reading?
No objection. Carry on.

[Motion carried: The Exempted Partnerships Amen dment Act 2019 was given a second reading.]

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.]

BILL

THIRD READING

EXEMPTED PARTNERSHIPS
AMENDMENT ACT 2019

Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitled the Exempted Partnerships Amen dment Act 2019 be now read a third time.
The President: Is there any objection to the third
reading?
No objection.

Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the Bill do now pass.
The Presiden t: It has been moved that the Bill ent itled the Exempted Partnerships Amendment Act 2019
do now pass.
Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
The Bill is passed.
Thank you, Senator Campbell.

Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President .

[Motion carried: The Exempted Partnerships Amendment Act 2019 was given a third reading and passed.]

The President: We move on now to the consideration
of the draft Regulations entitled the Government Fees
Amendment Regulations 2019. I believe that is y our
Bill as well, Senator Campbell.

Sen. Vance Campbell: Yes, that is mine as well,

You are on a roll!
[Laughter]

REGULATIONS

GOVERNMENT FEES AMENDMENT
REGULATIONS 2019
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President , I move that
the Senate do now take under consideration the draft
Regulations entitled the
Government Fees Amendment Regulations 2019 .

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

Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, by way of
standing policy, Government reviews the fees on a
regular basis to ensure that there is reasonable cost
recovery for the provision of the various services o ffered by a range of Government departments. Accor dingly, a biannual review of Government fees is conducted with the last review being in 2018.
On occasions there is need to amend fees
based on justifying situations in between the review
period. The Government Fees Amendment Regul ations 2019 represents i ncreases in these respective
fees. In total , four of the 81 heads, included in the current 2018 Government Fees Amendment Regulations
are being amended.
Madam President , each of these four heads
included in these Regulations identifies the principal Act wherein the authority exists to permit the charging of each of the fees set out in the Regulations. Each of
the fees, therefore, makes reference to a section in
the principal Act where the spec ific authority exists for
the charging of a particular fee. Madam President, the


Bermuda Senate four heads have a combination of revisions to existing
fees, and additional provisions have been added as
follows:
Head 16, Companies Act [ 1981] , provisions
32 and 40A. As part of the prebudget consultation, a
proposal was put forth by a law firm to adjust disco ntinuance fees so that they are on par with annual fees.
What this means, Madam President , is that if an exempted company leaves Bermuda, Government will
get the annual fees. It is noted that other jurisdictions charge up to three times the current annual registr ation fees. This adjustment is consistent with the
change made under the Exempted Partnership
Amendment Act 2019 that we just passed.
Head 22, Dogs Act 2008, provisions 1 through
6. This amendment is to correct errors in the Dogs
Amendment Act 2018 that came into effect October 1,
2018.
Head 40, Limited Liability Company Act 2016,
provisions 7 and 9A. Again, this is to maintain the
consistency that we spoke about for the Exempted Partnerships Amendment Act 2019 and above for
Head 16.
And finally, the fourth, Madam President, is
Head 61, the Public Lands Act 1984, provisions 6
through 8. This amendment is to allocate fees amongst the various classes of vehicl es which utilise
the tipping services at Marsh Folly and the airport.
With that, Madam President, I conclude my i ntroductory remarks. And, t hank you, Madam Pres ident.

The President: Thank you, Senator Campbell.
Would any Senator care to speak on this Bill ?
No? Senator Campbell, it is over to you.

Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the said draft Regulations be approved and that the
following message be sent to His Excellency the Governor.

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

Sen. Vance Campbell : “May it please Your Excellency: The Senate, having had under consideration the
draft Regulations entitled the Government Fees
Amendment Regulations 2019, proposed to be made
by the Minister of Finance under the pr ovisions of
Section 2 of the Government Fees Act 1965, has the honour to inform Your Excellency that the Senate has
approved the said draft Regulations.”
Thank you, Madam President .

The President: Thank you, Senator Campbell.
Is there any objection to the message being
sent to the Governor?
No objection. Agreed to.
Thank you, Senator Campbell. Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President .

[Motion carried: The Government Fees Amendment
Regulations 201 9 were approved.]

The President: We now have t he second reading of
the Bermuda Tourism Authority Amendment Act [2019] and I believe that is Senator Caesar.
You have the floor.

BILL

SECOND READING

BERMUDA TOURISM AUTHORITY
AMENDMENT ACT 2019

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Yes, thank you, Madam Pres ident.
Madam President, I move that the Bill entitled
the Bermuda Tourism Authority Amendment Act 2019
be now read a second time.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection. Carry on.

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Madam President, the purpose
of the Bill before the Senate today is to make amendments to the Bermuda Tourism [ Authority ] Act 2013,
or the “Act,” to introduce a new fee for cruise ship
passengers and to make consequential amendments.
The Act provides for a number of funding
mechanisms for the Bermuda Tourism Authority , or
the BTA, including appropriations by the Legislature,
money received by way of fees, payments or commi ssions, and grants.
In terms of fees, currently the BTA receives a
Tourism Authority fee paid by hotel proprietors in r espect of each guest staying at a hotel which is 4.5 per
cent of the rack rate charge, and a vacation rental fee paid by proprietors or agents of vacation renta l units
which is 4.5 per cent of the rack rate charge.
In reviewing the taxes and charges paid by
cruise ships and cruise ship passengers, the Gover nment determined that there was a scope for a fee to
be charged to cruise visitors that would be payable t o
the BTA. This would take it a step closer to being a
self-funding body and reduce the need for the activ ities of the BTA to be funded out of the C onsolidated
Fund.
Madam President , the purpose of the new
cruise ship passenger fee is to support destinati on
marketing and on- Island product and experience d evelopment by the BTA. Honourable Senator s might
question whether the new fee, together with the r evamped tax structure is appropriate. I can assure the
Senate that the following matters were taken into co nsideration when making this decision:
320 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate • Bermuda is usually a single- port destination
that is lucrative for cruise lines.
• Bermuda does not have a sales tax.
• There is an unmet demand for access to
Dockyard, should one of our existing cruise
partners step asi de.
A summary of the amendment is as follows:
First, Madam President , the Act adds a cruise ship
passenger fee to the passenger departure tax, and large ship infrastructure tax as a charge that is pay able to the BTA in the amount of $16 per passenger. This applies to ships visiting Bermuda between
April 1
st and October 31st.
Second, the amendment Act specifies the exemptions that apply . For example, children under two
years of age, officers and crew of the passenger ship,
and passengers on a ship that arr ives in Bermuda due
to distress or emergency.
Third, Madam President , the amendment Act
sets the penalty for failing to comply with the requir ement to pay the cruise ship passenger fee, upon conviction in court, at a maximum fine of $80,000.
Madam President , the final provisions of the
amendment Act pertain to the consequential amendments made to the Act in respect of the cruise ship passenger fee and the vacation rental fee, the latter
being a housekeeping matter.
Thank you, Madam President .

The President : Thank you, Senator Caesar.
Would any Senator care to speak on this Bill?
No? Then, Senator Caesar.


Sen. Crystal Caesar: Thank you, Madam President .
Madam President, I move that the Bill entitled
the Bermuda Tourism Authority Amendment Act 2019
be now read a second time.

The President: Is there any objection to the second
reading?
No objection.
Carry on.
[Motion carried: The Bermuda Tourism Authority
Amendment Act 2019 was given a second reading.]

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 26

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Thank you, Madam President.
I move that Standing Order 26 be suspended
in respect of this Bill.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Carry on.
[Motion carried: Standing Order 26 suspended.]
BILL

THIRD READING

BERMUDA TOURISM AUTHORITY
AMENDMENT ACT 2019
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitled Bermuda Tourism Authority Amendment Act 2019 be now read a third time.
The President: Is there any objection to the third
reading?
No objec tion.
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Madam President, I move that
the Bill do now pass.

The President: It has been moved that the Bill ent itled the Bermuda Tourism Authority Amendment Act
2019 do now pass.
Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
The Bill is passed.
Thank you, Senator Caesar .

[Motion carried: The Bermuda Tourism Authority
Amendment Act 2019 was given a third reading and
passed.]

The President: Then we have the final Order which is
consideration of draft Regulations entitled the Bermuda Immigration and Protection (Land- Holding Char ges) Amendment Regulations 2019.
That is your Bill?

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Yes, Madam President .
The President: Carry on, then.

REGULATIONS

BERMUDA IMMIGRATION AND PROTECTION
(LAND -HOLDING CHARGES) AMENDMENT
REGULATIONS 2019

Sen. Crystal Caesar: Madam President , I move that
the Senate do now undertake consideration of the
draft regulations, entitled the Bermuda Immigration
and Protection (Land- Holding Charges) Amendment
Regulations 2019 .
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
Carry on, Senator Caesar.
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Thank you, Madam President .
The Bill before the Senate is the Bermuda
Immigration and Protection (Land- Holding Charges)


Bermuda Senate Amendment Regulations 2019 , and Members may
recall that the Bermuda Immigration and Protection
(Land- Holding Charges) Amendment Regulations
2013 were introduced by the previous administration as a tax init iative aimed at stimulating economic activ ity and employment by way of the temporar y reduc tion
in licence fees for non- Bermudian purchase of Bermuda property, currently due to expire on March 31
st,
2019.
This Bill, Madam President, seeks to extend
the concession for a further 24 months until March 31
st, 2021. This means that the current licence
fee rates of 12.5 per cent of the value of the property
purchased by non- Bermudians, 8 per cent for condominiums not used for tourism purposes, and
6 per cent for P RC holders will be extended for this
period.
During this extension the Government will
evaluate the effectiveness of these concessions on
property sales.
Thank you, Madam President .

The President: Thank you, Senator Caesar.
Would any Senator care to s peak on this Bill?
No? Senator Caesar, carry on.
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Thank you, Madam President.
I move that the said draft Regulations be approved and that the following message be sent to His
Excellency the Governor:
“May it please Your Excellency: The Senate,
having had under consideration the draft Regulations entitled the Bermuda Immigration and Protection (Land- Holding Charges) Amendment Regulations
2019, proposed to be made by the Minister respons ible for Immigration under the provisions of Section
102C(1)(a) of the Bermuda Immigration and Protection Act 1956, has the honour to inform Your Exce llency that the Senate has approved t he said draft
Regulations.”

The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection. A suitable message will be sent.
Thank you, Senator Caesar.

[Motion carried: The Bermuda Immigration and Pr otection (Land- Holding Charges) Amendment Regul ations 2019 were approved.]

MOTIONS
The President: There are none.

CONGRATULATORY AND/OR
OBITUARY SPEECHES
[Crosstalk and laughter]
The President: You have all been warned!
[Laughter]
The President: Would any Senator care to speak on
congratulatory and/or obituary speeches?
Senator Kempe—I was just going to call your
name.

Sen. Nicholas Kempe: No, nothing.

The Presi dent: No one?
Then we move on to item number . . . am I
missing something? Did somebody want to speak on
this?
No. Then, adjournment . . . no congrats, no
obits?
So Senator Attorney General, adjournment —

ADJOURNMENT

Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: Thank you,
Madam President.
I move that the Senate do now adjourn until
Friday , March 22.

The President: Senators, would anyone —would any
Senator care to speak on the motion to adjourn?
No?

[Laughter]

The President: Therefore, the Senate stands a djourned until Friday, March the 22nd.

[At 9:02 pm, the Senate stood adjourned until
10:00 am, Friday, 22 March 2019.]



322 20 March 2019 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate



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