March 18, 2019

Members, let me finish listening to the
Minister.
Hon. Wayne Caines: Mr. Chairman, I could have it
wrong, and I crave your indulgence. If it is at all poss ible, I would like to seek y our leave, Mr. Chairman, to
have my colleagues opposite ask all of their questions now, and then we will proffer all of the answers at the
end. And then they can just ask one, two, three, four of them. If they can go through all of the questions
now, then we can answer the questions in the end. It
is a matter for you, Mr. Chairman.

[Pause and crosstalk ]

Well, Minister, in all due respect, we
have to acknowledge that this is the Opposition’s debate. And I will have to take my lead from them on this
question.
Members, are you, the Opposition, prepared
to indulge the National Security Minister in his r equest, or not?
The Chair recognises the Shadow Minister.

Mr. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Thank you, Mr. Chai rman.
As you stated, this is the O pposition’s debate.
And during the debate, oftentimes, our questions are
generated by responses that the Minister gives. So, if
we wait until we give him all of the questions and then
we cannot ask any more questions, we will probably
miss out on something. That is why we have this ebb
and flow, so to speak.
If the Minister needs additional time to answer
the questions, then his technical officers are here, and
I am sure he is getting information from his technical
people. He can take [his time]. We will be patient. But a lot of times, additional questions are generated from
the answers that the Minister gives. So, with that being said, we would like to get answers to the questions that have been asked. And then we can continue from
there. Thank you.
The C hairman: The Chair is inclined to go with the
standard format, Minister. So . . .
Hon. Wayne Caines: I am guided. I simply have over
50 questions that were asked. Obviously, the tec hnical team here is making every endeavour to get the
responses to the li on’s share of those questions.
I want to just go to a couple of the questions
that were asked, not necessarily in any specific order. There was a question that was asked by Members opposite, How did we choose the companies for the
pilot? We have been meet ing with a number of the
exempted, and businesses [in] Bermuda. And so,
when they come, they have a number of . . . Well, let
me digress.
We have been looking at the procedures in
immigration and looking at the challenges that we
have been seeing in the i mmigration process. We
have put together a plan to look at immigration line by
line and everything surrounding that. So, the first
phase is, how do we make the immigration, the actual work permit process, more robust? How do we get rid
of some of the impediments? We have recently s ecured and will be able to announce it in the next couple of days one of the five accounting firms that are
going to be acting as a management firm to go into
Immigration and actually look —have them open the
kimono and look at what all of the challenges are wit hin the department.
The lion’s share of it will be funded by private
industry. Private industry, we have been meeting with them over the last few months, and they have gotten
together. And they say, Listen, these are some of the
challenges that we are having. And this is how we
believe we want to see Bermuda work better. We
want to see if there are opportunities in Bermuda for
us to look at doing things differently. And so, we have
been going on a proverbial roadshow, sharing with our
industry partners how we believe we can make this
process better.
Over the last three months, we have been
meeting with each and every one of the companies
that said, Listen. These are some of the benefits of
the department. These are some of the challenges
that we are having in the department. So, we went on
a roadshow, if you please. And one of the challenges
that we saw was that a number of businesses were
lamenting that they were having a problem with direc ting their businesses in a certain m anner because it
was so difficult for them to go through and work through the work permit process. And they shared
with us, and we shared with them what our long- term
plans are.
We believe that the programme should be
robust. Number one, the ultimate aim for the Depar tment of Immigration is to make sure that Bermudians
are given opportunity, that the processes are fair, that
there are no roadblocks and there is a level of accountability in each of these departments. And so,
when you have the Board of Immigration, they are
simply doing that. They are making sure that in each process, that qualified Bermudians are given the opportunity, whether it is through the advertising, advertisements in the newspaper, whether it is through the
job being on the job board , the necessary how -many -
days it has to be advertised in the newspaper.
So, in meeting with a number of the companies . . . and, remember, Mr. Chairman, this is a pilot
1300 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly programme. This is not something that is etched in
stone. This is a pilot programme.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Wayne Caines: I know. I am getting there.
And so, when we start meeting with different
companies, we met with Liberty Mutual. When we met
with Liberty Mutual, we realised that they had a firm
and deep commitment to Bermuda. We looked at their
track record for hiring and moving Bermudians through that particular company. We met with the
leadership team. They showed great commitment to
being in Bermuda and understanding the tapestry of
Bermuda. And when we talked to them, we shared with them, as we did with every one of the companies,
the vision that we had for immigration reform. And we
chose that company based on what we believe is a
commitment to Bermuda, the history of training and
developing Bermudians, their senior management
team and their commitment to Bermuda, their philan-thropic efforts and commitment to Bermuda through
philanthropy and investment in the social tapestry of
Bermuda.
The exact same thing with Sompo. We met
with the senior staff. We looked at their comm itment to
Bermuda, what their plans have been in Bermuda for the last few years, what the development looks like.
And we said, if we are indeed going to balance what
this new process looks like, we have to be brave. We
have to balance what is best for maki ng sure that
Bermudians get opportunities, but look at two companies that we believe are leading luminaries in this par-ticular avenue and work through a pilot programme.
Mr. Chairman, it is a pilot programme in that
we are not going to be getting rid of t he checks, the
balances, the ability for them to be held accountable for everyone who is within the organisation. It is sim ply a pilot programme, looking at how we can make the programme less cumbersome. And [looking to see] if
a [company] is a good corpor ate citizen, if they do
have training and development for Bermudians, if they
do have a number of internship programmes both l ocally and abroad which give Bermudians the opportunity to train and develop in Bermuda.
But we have two lines —my words. We have
two lines, a line where you go in and you have to have
the advertisement in the newspaper, you have to go
on the Job Board, you have to show specific things on
each and every occasion. Then you have a line which
is almost (my words again) like the global e ntry line,
where beforehand you have met with the HR director
of the company.
They have shown you the company’s overarching plan for the HR development of the company. They have shown you the plan for developing Berm udians within the organisation. They sh ow you, histor ically, what their trajectory is for the company. They show you the Bermudians who are in the corporation. They show you the opportunities that Bermudians
have for internships locally and abroad. They show
you what they are doing with reference to investing in
the company. They show you what they are doing
philanthropically with the social elements of Bermuda.
And you put all of those elements together,
and you say, this is a particular company that —this is
the reason why we chose Sompo and L iberty Mutual
as the pilot programme for the jobs programme.

The Chair recognises the Member
from constituency 23.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I wonder if the Minister could
maybe just give us some indication as to the size of
these companies. How many employees are there in
Sompo, and how many in Liberty Mutual, just as an
idea?
Hon. Wayne Caines: I can get both of those numbers. Both of those companies have a significant
presence. I do not actually have the number of people
in each firm. I can endeavour to do so and get that
before the end of this discussion.

You may proceed, Minister.

Hon. Wayne Caines: Consultants. There is an i ncrease in the consultative budget. A number of part of
the consultants ––as you know, Mr. Chairman, we will
be undertaking a review and a reboot of that particular
department. And a part of that is having a consulting
firm come in and look under the hood, find out what
the strengths are, what the weakness es are, what
they are doing to develop that department. And that will come from the use of a consultancy firm. And the
lion’s share of it will be underwritten by industry.

[Pause]

Hon. Wayne Caines: There was a question, What are
the plans to increase r esidents to the Island, the overall plan? When we are looking at what we believe a
healthy economy requires, it requires a bit of balance,
Mr. Chairman. We are looking at the department specifically from a number of different aspects.
We believe that the Immigration Department,
through the Immigration Board, has always had a r obust plan to have companies coming to Bermuda. We
believe that there are certain developments that are
taking place. There are certain developments that are
taking place, one in the East [End] and one in the
West [End]. And we believe that there is an opportun ity to allow people to come to Bermuda, whether it is through the hotels —we are going into the hotel se ason. And so, we see a number of companies starting


Bermuda House of Assembly to ramp up their summer employment through hiring
people.
There are a number of exempt companies —
excuse me, reinsurance companies, that are looking
to come and to set up in Bermuda, whether it is FinTech companies. We believe now that we have to
have an immigration process that is robust, have a
department that continues to be available, and have a
process that is transparent.
The Immigration Act was written in 1956. And
over those number of years [since then], there are a number of nuances and parts of the Immigration Act
that actually make it very cumbersome. We believe
that, through looking at the structure of the work permit policy, the plan is to look at the work permit policy, to understand specifically, where are the bottlenecks
in the work permit policy? How is this preve nting companies from coming to Bermuda? Or how is this limi ting opportunities from coming to Bermuda?
And so, when we look at it from the enforc ement side, Mr. Chairman, this year there has been . . .
the Member opposite asked, What are we doing to highli ght Bermudians who are not being given fair opportunities and who are not being given the opportunity to develop in those firms? How are we balancing
that?
A number of times, we have the specific hotlines. This year there was an email address. There was a confidential hotline that was established by the
department where people can come in, where they
can say, Listen. I applied for this job. I know there is a
qualified Bermudian. I know that somebody is working
outside of their work permit at this particular location.
That information is given out to the enforcement team.
The enforcement team actually takes their prodding
from the online and from the anonymous calls that are
made in. And they then go and make their concerns
known.

The Chair now recognises the Shadow Minister.
Mr. Richards.

Mr. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Thank you, Mr. Chai rman.
I am just trying to follow on with what the Mi nister is saying. So, the question that I had asked that he is answering was [on programme] 8285, Work
Permits, work and reside, where the revenues are
down 39 per cent over three years. And as I stated,
this was a warning trend.
So, would the Minister agree that it is i mportant to reverse this trend, as Bermuda needs to
increase our resident population? I am trying to figure
out exactly what he is trying to say here.

Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Looking on page B -290, under 8301, Status
and Naturalisation, I was wondering if the Minister can
give us some information regarding the belonger sit uation in Bermuda. Obviously, this is something, being
involved with sport, which has been in the news and
highlighted. I know that a lot of the national sport organisations are interested to know what the overall
position is going to be in regards to belongers and
belongers’ representation for Bermuda as Bermudian citizens.
So, if the Minister can give some details on
what the Ministry’s position is on this, and whether there have been any upcoming details that we can
hear that will allow people to have an understanding
of representation from a national level when it comes to belongers and when it comes to citizens of Berm uda. Thank you.

Thank you, Member.
The Chair now recognises the Minister of N ational Security.
Hon. Wayne Caines: The is sue of the belongers st atus is . . . it is quite emotive. I have had the opportunity to talk informally with the Shadow Minister of N ational Security. And he and I do understand that this is
a very sensitive issue in Bermuda for a number of
reasons.
We ha ve a paper that is due to go to Cabinet
any day now with reference to the plan around the belonger status. We will have the opportunity to di scuss that within the next week at Cabinet. And we will
be able to have a decision made on that quite soon.
And, l isten. At the end of the day, everyone
understands the delicate balance that we have with a number of issues. Mr. Chairman, we are looking to
have the issue of mixed- status families in Parliament
[raised] and debated and going through the parli amentary process before Parliament is prorogued in
July. And so, what we have understood is . . . if you
can allow me to digress for a minute.
The immigration challenge that we have found
ourselves in is not something that we will get through
easily. We are in the position where we have to, num-ber one, make sure that the rights of Bermudians are
protected, as per the Immigration and Protection Act.
1302 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly We have to make sure that the rights of Bermudians,
that they are given the proper opportunity. There is a
delicate balance when understanding that we need
international business coming to Bermuda. But at the
same time, within that matrix, Bermudians have to be given opportunities.
The issues of dealing with status and PRCs,
this is something that the Bipartisan Immigration Reform Group are grappling with. This is something that,
every time we have a discussion, we have to go back
to our requisite teams and share those issues. And everyone, when you see people on the street, or when
you look and you say, Listen. Where are we with this?
Well, this is not something that is going to happen
overnight.
So, let us go back to the Member opposite
and talk about the systematic way that we plan on achieving this. The first part is looking at the proces ses and procedures around work permit applications,
understanding, in the Immigration Department, what is
creating all the backlogs? The digitisation process, looking at how do we make this more robust? That is
the phase that we believe ––we are in the phase of
getting a consulting company coming in, looking at
and understanding the numbers.
The numbers are a challenge. We understand
what has happened in the past with other iterations of
this. It has torn this country asunder. With the parli amentary subcommittee, we are looking at these things. We have made significant progress with the
mixed -status families. That will come to Parliament
before Parliament is prorogued in July.
There are some significant issues that have
raised their head. And the belongers issue is one of
them. We want to d ispassionately be able to look at
the belongers issues, understand the court’s judgment
and just how it affects Bermuda. There has been a
recommendation. Minister Walton Brown has written a
paper around the belongers issue, and this will go to
Cabinet in t he next week, and we will be able to have
a position on that, going forward.
The question on page B -290, line [item] 8291,
Land Acquisition Fees. Why is the 2019/20 estimate 1.5 less than 2018/19 forecast? The answer is the
department has adjusted its rev enue targets in line
with the softness in the market conditions. There is
not a formal forecasting model being employed. We
will need to revert back with the details regarding the
drivers in the softness in demand. However, these will
be aligned with the s ame trends seen in the real estate industry.
Mr. Chairman, the technical officer has left the
room. We have a number of the answers. He literally
is printing those out so I can answer those questions. I
received a number of the answers. I am not able to
read the majority of them off of my phone. So, I litera lly just asked the technical officer to print out the answers so I can go through these.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Just following on from the question, thank you
to the Minister for starting to give us some clarity
around what we are trying to do. But, specifically to
the belongers issue when it comes to sport, under-standing that while this process is happening, the
challenge is that teams have to be selected. So, in
that process, what happens is that if a sport is specif ically trying to do what you referred to, which is protect
Bermudians and Bermudian selection, when you now
have this category that has been dealt with in the
courts and that category does not have paperwork to
support what has happened in the courts, it puts the
sport in a difficult situation where, potentially, t hey are
going to end up back in the courts.
Is there anything that you can speak to that is
going to lead to potential paperwork to support what
has happened in the courts, or at least something that
the sport can do in order for them to prevent further
legal action while they are trying to manoeuvre the
situation?

The Chair now recognises the Mini ster of National Security.
Hon. Wayne Caines: I think that at every aspect
there is a catalyst to prod us, that can potentially prod
us, into mak ing decisions without considering the full
spectrum of what is to happen. So, when we think of how many PRCs there are in Bermuda, people in
mixed -status families who are in untenable positions
. . . on a daily basis, I am meeting with families who
are in absolutely untenable positions around mixedstatus families, not being able to get passports, not
being able to travel.
We simply cannot look at comprehensive i mmigration reform based on the fires that we have to put out. We have to look at this in a syst ematic way.
The systematic approach that we have to do this, over
the last six months since I have been in the depar tment, is very clear. The first part of it is to understand
each of the significant drivers which are causing di squiet in our country. When we made overt mov ements, knee- jerk reactions, it tore the country asunder. We are looking at this specifically, as there are
the issues of PRCs. There is the issue of status, generally. There is the issue of mixed- status families. And
there is the issue of belongers. These things must be
dealt with systematically.
There is a plan of the Bermuda Government
to deal systematically and overtly with the belongers
issue. We understand that there are a number of matters that are predicated on a decision being made. A


Bermuda House of Assembly paper will be discussed in Cabinet within the next
week, and we will be able to go through that, line by
line, looking at the PRCs issue. If that is not dealt with,
that is looming largely. That can potentially be a matter that can be dealt with in t he court. But what we
have to do is we are taking an Act that was written in
1956. We are taking a country that is polarised on a
number of fronts. We are talking about international
businesses that are trying to look for a pathway to get
jobs, to get people into Bermuda and to make that
happen.
We believe that there are opportunities
through the Job Makers Act to get the right people in
Bermuda and have them be in a position. We believe
that there are opportunities for us to look at the be-longers, at mixed -status families. We have said on a
committee that [deals with] the mixed- status family
that this has to be regularised as a priority. And that is
something that we have committed, in this House, in
the Throne Speech, that we will look at resolving before Parliament is prorogued this year.
Mr. Chairman, page B -[289], business unit
2703 is up 35 per cent. Why is that? The figure has decreased by 1 per cent. Where are you getting the
35 per cent as an increase?
Page B -290. Why are salaries up? Due to
incre mental changes, due to increment changes.
Page B -290, professional services. What plan
does the department have? Professional services r elates to the passport processes and payments to
WorldReach, Her Majesty’s Passport Office, and the
courier fees.
The entry clearance, why is there a decrease
of 58 per cent? This relates to fees collected at the
import. The figures are decreased because, more fr equently than not, more people are arriving with the
requisite documents (i.e., work permits) and other
permis sions, such as visas, et cetera.
On page B -285, work permits, work and r eside, what plans does the Government have to r everse the 90 per cent decline? The emphasis should
be on work to reside and not just work permits. Per-sons apply for permission to work and reside, partic ularly if they are changing jobs. Job changes can result
in redundancies and employee relationships, et
cetera. The decline should not be taken negatively. It means that work permit holders may not be changing
jobs as they did in the pas t.
On page B -291, why is the head count the
same but the salaries are up? Pay scales, increment
changes, i. e., the pay scale for the Assistant Chief
Immigration Officer, the post was increased.
On page B -292, on performance indicators,
what accounts for the 10 per cent projected increase
in work permits? Actually, that one is not answered. We are still waiting for an answer for that one.
Number 9, for civil penalties, why is there a
jump from 15 to 148? There has been an increased pace at which the civi l penalty cases are being ident ified and being handled.

Thank you, Minister.
Members, the Chair now recognises the O pposition Leader.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes. Thank you very
much, Mr. Chairman, and good morning to everyone
in Bermuda.
Just curious. On page B -290, as I look down
under the revenue summary, I was hoping to get a bit of a clearer understanding of exactly the entrance
clearance so that the public is aware of exactly what
that is and they understand it. The reason I am aski ng
these few questions is that immigration is, of course, one of those very emotive areas. And the more detail people have, the better and more comfortable and
confident people are going to feel as the Minister
maps out his duty, going forward.
It is very clear here that there was a prec edent set in the original amount, under entrance clearance, of 2018/19, original $78,000, the revised being
$96,000. So, obviously, we have spent more than
what we were thinking in the beginning of last year.
So, this is a great thing that we have received more
[revenue]. What exactly was that, and why are we forecasting that it is actually going to be so much less, a third less, actually, in this estimate coming forward
on 2019/20, of $38,000? This is telling a story, and I
am just trying to get a feeling for exactly what that st ory is.
Also, if you move down, and this was mentioned a few times, 8291, Land Acquisition Fees. I am
assuming what that is, but it would be nice if the Mi nister could give the public a detail of ex actly what that
is and why, as he mentioned, there was a softness
concerning this here. Certainly, last year when we
started out, there was a belief that we would be pulling in $7 million. This is a drastic difference that we act ually are at a third of that, at $2.4 million. And again,
this is telling us a story line here. So, we are trying to
understand what was their thinking in the beginning of
last year as to why we were at the $7 million? And
now that we are actually coming in . . . something has
happened; I do not know. Machine broke down? I do
not know. But it would be nice to get the details of
that.
And if there is a softness in the market, if we
are going to take that as the answer to why it was r evised, then why is it then going back up to double?
What makes them believe that the market is going to
be less soft, and then hardened in 2019/20, that we
can say, Oh, well, it’s going to be double that amount ?
It will be actually double that amount of $5.5 million.
So, I would appreciate that. I would like to get
some details on that. I will concur with the Minister.
Certainly, immigration is a very, very challenging area.
Many are excited about the fact that he has taken on
1304 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly this role. And I would just like to say that the issue
with the belongers, as h e mentioned in what he was
saying, and mixed status, [is that] it is vital that we
clear this up. Just Friday when we left here, I ran into
several folk of the mixed status. And, yes, we just cannot have it. And these are young people. All they
know is Ber muda. I mean, you talk to them, they are
Bermudian through and through. And so, I am looking
forward to him clearing this up and giving us that update.

Hon. Wayne Caines: Again, with the mixed- status
family, that is something that we together will tackle before Parliament is prorogued during the summer.
Mr. Speaker, in the next two days there will be
a consultancy that will go out to all of Bermuda around
restricted and closed categories. This is to a question
that was asked by PGP [Honourable Member Patr icia
Gordon- Pamplin] on the other side, the Honourable
Member. She asked a question about what we are doing to protect Bermudians and jobs, and Bermudi-ans not being given opportunities. We are going to be
doing a consultancy that will be opened up to all o f
Bermuda with reference to closed categories. And we
are going to open up to the public to say, these are
the categories that are now restricted. These are the
categories now that are open. What categories would you like to see are closed or opened, and w hy? What
categories would you like to see restricted, and why?
We have a document that is being crafted by
the Chief Immigration Officer. And the Chief Immigr ation Officer will then send the document out to industry, and they will look at this thing in de pth to say, You
know what? The tennis pros, there are a number of
tennis pros in the Island who are saying, We cannot
find work in our own country. Should this be a closed
category, and why [or why not]? There are people in
golf, and there are people who are [talking about] a
number of the categories they believe should be
closed or restricted. This is going to be opened up for
people to give the reasons why. This will be an open
consultancy period where people can share the r ationale behind their wanting a category to remain open
or to be closed or to be restricted.
That is a process that will start within the next
two weeks, that will be opened up online on the government portal, where they can go and they can look
at it and make their representations.
On page B -290 and [programme] 8291, the
Land Acquisition Fee, why in 2019/20 the estimate for
1.5 is less than the 2018/19 forecast? (Wait a minute.
This is the same thing.) Again, we have already an-swered that. Number four . . . a couple of these questions have been [answered] already.
Passports being processed in the United
Kingdom, receiving the wrong code. This is being handled at the Cabinet Office by Minister Walton
Brown. He is working closely with HMPO. The Minister
will be traveling to the UK in the not -too-distant future to have discussions with the relevant people on the
passport codes.

[Inaudible interjections and laughter ]

Hon. Wayne Caines: I heard you. I heard you.
With reference to the question . . . I actually
did not get the questions. If I can have some clarity
around the questions regarding processing times and
performance measures?
Just before we go, I just want to say som ething generally. Part of immigration reform will include
improvements to the work permit process. Bermuda
needs to shift to a more risk -based approach which is
streamlined. And if you are a good corporate citizen
who maintains a high assurance and all the proper
controls in place, through the retrospective audit pr ocess . . . So, PGP [ Patricia Gordon- Pamplin], the
Honourable Member opposite, asked a specific question around how we are choosing the two companies,
and what the process looks like. I just want to highlight
that with the answer.
We believe that the process, the work permit
process has to move to a more r isk-based approach
that is streamlined, where good corporate citizens who maintain high standards of assurance and have
proper controls in place through a retrospective audit
process, that they give opportunities to Bermudians, they contribute significantl y to our community, that
they have a training and development programme that
gives Bermudians the opportunity to matriculate to the
highest echelons of their businesses, and that is ev idenced. We believe that there is an opportunity for us
to create a glob al entry line, if you please, a more
streamlined process, where they do not necessarily have to go through all of the vetting procedures, overt
vetting procedures, having the form gazetted, going on the job board. They, through a clear, outlined pr ocess th at is evidenced in their internal mechanisms,
allow them to receive what we believe is a different [work permit process].
Step one is the vetting phase. The pilot will
include up- front due diligence on the companies that
participate. The Government will r eview detailed su bmissions from these firms, describing their corporate
profile, the number and the composition of staffing,
the training and development programmes, their phi lanthropic efforts, their wider corporate and social r esponsibility efforts. The Government will engage these
companies to fully understand their particular circumstances and will use this process to pre- certify the
firms.
The second step is the processing stage. In
this phase, the selected companies in the pilot pr ogramme will receiv e expedited work permit processing
within certain parameters in line with their business needs. It is envisioned that this will be an electronic process by means of a web- based portal that will be
efficient and have a minimal turnaround time.


Bermuda House of Assembly So, can we s top there for a second? A big
part of the [current] process is that it is a manual pr ocess. This process allows people to come in, and just
by the very nature of its being a manual process, it
allows for, number one, significant time frames and for human error and for the process to be cumbersome.
We are saying, get corporate partners that are saying,
number one, This is our company profile. This is how
many Bermudians we hire . And we are saying, You
are not going to come in and just be able to get the
glut of work permits. We are going to create a streamlined online process that is based on a significant risk
matrix that is managed. And it is an electronic, or eapplication. This now will be something that we believe will be significant to the business comm unity.
But to the Bermuda community, Mr. Chai rman, it cannot be that we are opening up the floo dgates to allow companies to just do whatever they
please in Bermuda. The genesis of this and the key
part of this is that they will have to show and evidence
that they have training programmes, that they are
committed to Bermuda, being here, that Bermudians
are matriculating well, that they have training and d evelopment programmes, Mr. Chairman. I think that is
something that we want to stress through this pilot
programme. That will commence with Liberty Mutual
and Sompo.
Step three, the monitoring and assessment
phase. This phase, the Government will assess the impact of this programme, this pilot programme. We
will consult with the industry stakeholders. And i f it is
successful, we will determine how this will be impl emented widely through the work permit process.
It is recognised that this is ambitious. And it
implies that the policies, processes and technology
will need to be quickly addressed. The Government intends to collaborate with industry to make sure that
this is a reality. It is the vision of the pilot programme
that Bermuda’s work permit processing can come in
line with other jurisdictions to enable Bermuda to be
more competitive and to allow firms to quickly secure
the intellectual capital required for them to execute
their business plans globally. This plan is critical for Bermudian firms to maintain their relevance and for
new companies to grow to scale.

Thank you, Minister.
The Chair now recognises the Member from
constituency 23.
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to have a quick
look at a couple of the performance measures, page
B-294, under Compliance, 37030. Initially, we had
forecast that there would be four foreign nationals being invited to pack up and leave. The original forecast,
which actually ended up being 22 on the revised for ecast and 24 being the targeted outcome. I wonder if the Minister could give us some
idea in terms of what —

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: This is 37030,
Compliance, page B -294.
I am just trying to understand where we are
going so radically wrong in terms of people being put
in this position. I am wondering whether these are
based on criminal activities or just overstaying? Or what are we capturing in that particular area?
And with respect to the Finance and Admi nistration, under 37040, we have an original forecast of $4.8 million and a targeted outcome of $4.8 mill ion for
the budgeted expenditure by department. And I am just trying to understand, when we are looking at the changes that have been made, we had $4.8 million of
expenditure or $4.754, which is close enough to $4.8,
in the 2018/19 original. But we have got $5.254 million
in the current year. But the budgeted expenditure by
department is showing here at $4.8 million being a targeted outcome. So, already the outcome does not
tie in with the amount that we have estimated to be
expenditure for that period of t ime.
And, similarly, the budgeted revenue under
the performance measures has indicated that there
was initially $21 million, a revision of $23.5 million, which we see under, as an original for 2018/19 rather
than a revised. But in any case, the $21 millio n does
not seem to be accurate. But the $23.5 million is a
revision. And we are showing a targeted outcome of $23.5 million, whereas the actual number that we
have put on the 2019/20 budget is $21.8 million. So, I
am just wondering why our performance meas ure
outputs do not tie in with what we are showing now in
the Budget Book.
The Budget Book, as I said, for the revenue
generated by department, is saying that the targeted
outcome is $23.5 million. But the book is telling us that
we are going to get $23.835 million. So, I am just cur ious as to why we have that significant differential, $2plus million. And I am just wondering . . . no, it is not
$2 million. It is $1.8 million, $1.7 million. But I am just curious as to why these numbers do not tie, because that does not make . . . you know, just trying to link the
performance measures, as stated in the book, to the
numbers as stated in the book. There should be a
proper correlation, and there is not.
I can leave that question.

Thank you, Mem ber.
The Chair now recognises the Shadow Mini ster. Mr. Richards.
Mr. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Thank you, Mr. Chai rman. Thank you.
During my original comments, I had referenced, on page B -290, Revenue Summary, 8293,
1306 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Residence Fees. I was looking to get an explanation
for those figures. And also, 8299, Nationality, I was
looking for an explanation for those numbers. Yes. So,
I am still waiting for those answers. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.

Hon. Wayne Caines: One more time, please? One
more time, please?
Mr. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: On page B -290, under
Revenue, 8293, Residence Fees, which is nine lines
down. And 8299, Nationality, 11 lines down. I was
looking to get an explanation for those numbers.

Thank you.
The Chair now recognises the Member from
constituency 23.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, the Minister mentioned in one
of his responses the Job Makers Act. And I wonder if
the Minister could just give us some indication as to
how many new appli cations have been made and how
many have been processed and approved for Job
Makers, in terms of the qualifying criteria? If he could
let us know that, and also whether —

Hon. Wayne Caines: How many have been a pproved?
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: How many have
been approved on Job Makers?
And also, whether we have any intent of looking at Job Makers in respect of key individuals in local
companies where the individual may qualify under the
criteria for Job Makers if the company were foreign,
but not being considered because the company, the
overarching company is local? I am just wondering
whether anything is being looked at in that regard.

The Chair recognises the Minister.

Hon. Wayne Caines: Mr. Chairman, the Job Makers
Act actually comes under the Cabinet Office and the
Premier. And so, he will be able, in his brief . . . that
actually comes under the Job Makers Act. It does not
actually fall under the Department of Immigration.
That particular Act and everything that flows from that
actually comes under the Cabinet Office under the Premier.

Thank you, Minister, for that clarific ation.
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Yes, just a clarif ication. Because the actual permits themselves get
issued through the department. Has that changed?
Hon. Wayne Caines: Yes.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Okay.
Hon. Wayne Caines: Having said that, the Minister
signs off on it. The actual approval is done by the
Premier.
Having said that, this is an opportunity for us
to have a holi stic debate around immigration. Because
when a person comes here, they are not going to say,
Well, Minister Brown is looking at belongers. The
Premier is looking at incentives for job makers. So,
what we will do is, we get the information. I think it
allow s us to have the full context of this. So, what I will
do is I will get it, and I will present it. Because it is very
important that we have a complete picture of where
we are going in the immigration reform.
But I will say this before we get the number
because several people reached out to me when they
received the order, the Order of Business. Several
people reached out with real big concerns about
where we are as a country, where we are going with reference to immigration reform. And I think the questions from the Members opposite are that we all understand that this is something that is key and that it is
important for us to get right. And when we are talking
about the Incentives for Job Makers, we are at a time
as a country at which we realise that som etimes we
do not understand it. But we actually need people to
come to Bermuda’s shores to have the opportunity to
work, have the opportunity to bring other employment.
The Incentives for Job Makers Act, the whole
ethos around this particular Act is to get people in
Bermuda who actually can create jobs in the country
and to get our economy kickstarted.
The second part, Mr. Chairman, and we just
spoke about it just now, is understanding where we
are with reference to actually [having] Bermudians
being [inv olved] in this process.
And there was a question asked with reference to performance measures, four versus twenty -
two persons being shipped off the Island. These items are different from the forecast. They were dependent
on incarcerated persons being released, persons being arrested on warrants with immigration breaches and a number of other factors. And so, what happens
is, the notion is that people are being kicked off of our
shores and that we are just [wantonly ] going into
homes and kicking expats off of the Island is a bit of —
it is not what is transpiring. There were a number of
people who were incarcerated; [then] after their period of incarceration, they were asked to leave the Island,
and people who were being arrested on warrants. So,
if [there is a] police stop, whether it is roadside sobri ety or whether it is a warrant on a Saturday night, if you
are stopped by the police and it is seen or found that
you have overstayed your immigration status, that has an immediate benefit.


Bermuda House of Assembly And so, without going into the science, over
the last six months, we have increased the number of
road sobriety checks. The roadside sobriety checks,
obviously, for obvious reasons have led to some of
what we would only describe as “ other unintended
consequences. ”
Page B -290, line 8299, the question on N ationality, why are these numbers down? The answer: These decreases are based on actuals collected over
the last two years, of $75,000 and $69,000. In other
words, we have revised our forecast based on the trend over the medium term.
The Budget Book says $2.35 million outcome
versus $21.8 million outcome. Why does the book not align with the forecast? The answer: The department will need to liaise with the budget office to determine
why the numbers do not tie together.
Mr. Chai rman, we are now reaching out to the
department, the Cabinet Office, to get specific information around how many Job Makers applications
that we have and how many of those were approved.

Members, are there any other Members who would care to address Head 27?

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes. I am still waiting for
an answer to line item on page B -290, the philosophy,
or trying to get an understanding of . . .
Hon. Wayne Caines: Why the market was soft.
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Soft, yes. And now we are
anticipating it to go back harder (or whatever you want
to call it), strengthened. I just want to get an idea as to
why they believe it is going to be that way. That is a
drastic change.

The Chair will recognise the Member
from constituency 23.
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, just as a matter of curiosity,
does the Minister have any indication as to how many
items are outstanding by category through the department? I know, certainly, as Minister, I used to get
a weekly count on the number of, let us say, work
permit applications that had been presented. How
many had been processed, how many new ones have
come in, how many have been processed and how many are left. We had those on the 20 B2B applic ations. We had those. So, on a weekly basis, I used to
be able to get a job count.
And the reason for that is to be able to appr opriately determine whether we had the appropriate number of staff deployed to be able to process some
of the vexatious things that were coming through —vexatious to the applicant because of the time delays.
And I am just wondering whether we still have that
kind of process to see where we are.

Hon. Wayne Caines: The process is there. But if you
can allow me, just for two seconds —and I hope that it
does not seem as if I am obfuscating. I just want to share with you what we believe the new direction that
we are going to go in is. We believe, Mr. Chairman,
that in the next few months, we have t o have a plan
for immigration that totally evolves. And so, what the
plan now is, if you heard from the beginning part, we
have to look at what all of the impediments are. When
you are going to a system that is not digitised and the
system is manual, as yo u know, you literally have to
go to each box to try to find out where everything is. There is no way to collate all of the information. There is no way for the systems to talk to each other.
And so, the plan in the near term is to . . . and
those numbers are available. But I think that does not
answer your question. So, just allow me to tarry here for two seconds.
Th plan, going forward, is for us to have a sy stem that is digitised, that allows us to get these numbers readily available. So, what I want to do here is to
answer that question, but to share what the vision is
going for the next year. We have said . . . Listen. The
Department of Immigration, they do a yeoman’s service with what they have. However, when a person
comes to the Immigration Department, they should
have a digitised application so that when they go
online, they are able to see where it is, they are able to understand where they are in the process.
Our goal right now is to revamp the work permit process. Our goal is to set a new path. Now, r emember, we have gone out to industry. They have
given us a significant amount of money to help us
through this process. The consultants’ contracts will
be signed in the next week. The consultants will be embedded into the Department of Immigration. They
will be doing the change management progress that
will allow us to have a robust system.
Where is the money coming from? Do we
have it in the budget? As you can see, there was no
increase. The majority, if not the lion’s share, of the cost will be un derwritten by the private sector. And
that will allow us to . . . the Honourable Member has
highlighted, where are we with those numbers? We can get those numbers. The difficulty of it is that we
should not have to search for these data. These data
should be readily available. And those are some of the
challenges that, we believe, Immigration Ministers well
before my time have lamented, that this process is too
cumbersome. And that is where the emphasis right
now is on immigration reform.
So, give me two s econds, Mr. Chairman. I mmigration reform, we get the part that we are going to have to look at belongers, that we are going to have to
look at PRCs, and that we are going to have to look at
1308 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly status. That is in train. We believe that for a small to
medium enterprise, we believe that for a big reinsurance company, we believe that for an upholstery store
that has to bring people in, we have to change the
work permit process in the department. That is our immediate priority, and that is what we are working
towar ds now.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Yes. Good morning, Mr.
Chairman.
I just want to speak in support of the Minister
and to the concerns of the Member from constituency 3. Being on the Bipartisan—key word —Bipartisan
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Committee has
afforded me and fello w MPs, such as MPs Ben Smith,
Leah Scott and Renee Ming, the ability to see the
complex nature of our present immigration policies.
Some mirror each other. Some overlap. It is really a
most tangled . . . I will not say “ tangled web .” But it is
very entangl ed.
Over the last year and a half, we have had
near-weekly meetings in order to arrive at some sort
of consensus, firstly informed consensus. We have had to have [substantial] amounts of data coming in.
We have had persons from the Statistics Department
come in, to give us a comprehensive (excuse the pun)
idea of the challenges that we have in order to
stream line this process. And as the Minister has spoken, one part of this process, one crucial part of this
process is what is happening in the back office. There
is no way in the year 2020, when I can WhatsApp
somebody in Japan, that we who have a progressive
government should be having files here, there and
everywhere, without our being able to have access to
them.
So, this is a crucial part of that proces s. And
as the Minister has outlined, this is not being addressed from our international budget, but by, for lack
of a better term, corporate citizens who wish to help that department.
I will speak more [on that] later on. Thank you,

The Bi -par-ti-san (key
word) —that means people from both sides —
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Committee.
The Chai rman: Okay. And if you return to the subject
later, let us see if we can drill down a little more on the
respective head and the attendant data that are be-fore us. Thank you, sir.
Any other Members who wish to address
Head 27?

Hon. Wayne Caines: Mr. Chai rman, I am waiting on
answers to two questions.

What is the meaning of life?
[Laught er]

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: I do not think you
have figured that out yet, Minister.
The question that I have is, when it comes to
clearing through border control here, coming into
Bermuda, the system . . . I know the Minister has indicated that there is going to be investment in a new
system. But my question is, Have we seen any i mprovement more recently with the interim fixes in terms of the processing time for individuals coming through customs and immigration at the airport?

Thank you, Member.
The Chair now recognises the Minister of N ational Security.

Hon. Wayne Caines: The immigration system. We
have people from customs who are processing the airport. And they do a yeoman’s service. They are
limited with the processing speed, based on the sy stem that they are using, 3M, the system that is being used, but it is antiquated. It has to then talk to about four different systems. It is indeed at end of life, and a
lot of that system cannot be supported. We have
looked at, and we ha ve sourced, a new border management system. The management system, I think it
started under the Member’s, under your tenure, when
they started in mid- 2017 looking at a border management system. They have gone around the world ge tting the best system for Bermuda. That is going to be


Bermuda House of Assembly in place. They believe that it will be robust and it will
be fit for purpose.
We are recently in the process of implementing this. We believe that when the new airport opens
in 2020, the new border management system will be implemented. It will be fit for purpose. It will then have
a lot more processing. It will actually make the airport
entrance quite seamless and efficient. I believe that
when you are considering Bermuda on global standards, when you go to the airport, there is a bit of a
wait. And it is predicated on the old systems that we
have, [with] IDT [Information and Digital Technologies]
in use at the Immigration Department. And one of the
reasons why we have the budget that is included is
because we are getting a whole new system. And it is
a system that is totally robust. It will be relevant.
It does not include the e- gate, which is som ething that will be needed, and that is different [and will
be] in a supplementary budget. But we believe that we
will see a lot more efficient IT -based system.
If I can be allowed to digress again, Mr.
Chairman, the entire department is moving towards, in
the not -too-distant future, an electronic or digitised
process. Right now, the majority of the processes that
we see are actually m anual. In other words, you fill out
forms. We believe that a pathway going forward
through this process is to make the immigration pr ocesses more efficient. And a lot of this you do not
need legislation to do. A lot of this is policy. A lot of
this is goin g in there and looking at what the efficiencies are.
What we did not want is for civil servants, who
have 50 people on the staff, to have a specific budget, who have daily administration to do to try to get them
to then leave their daily responsibilities and go and put
together a programme and a plan, and effect it to
make it more efficient. That is why we are using the
outside entities to help us to make this system more
efficient, by taking an IT -based system that is okay,
that is fit for purpose. But we believe that with the new
system, it will be much more robust.

Thank you for that clarification, Mini ster.
The Chair now recognises once again the
Member from constituency 23.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Okay. Yes, and I
have one mor e question. And this is with respect to
(let me see where it would come) work permits.
And that is, we had moved away from capturing on exit forms for our young people and people
who are leaving— we had moved away from capturing
what students are studying. Therefore, we used to be
able to have something that tracked, which said that they are studying animal husbandry and they will be finished in three years. Therefore, if a work permit is
coming up in that particular area, then we could marry the fact that there is a Bermudian abroad studying
XYZ who would be eligible to fill that position.
And I am just wondering whether we are making any progress with that. It was a tedious process.
At some point in time, I do understand that —and this
goes way back before my time, certainly. But it was a
tedious process whereby the information was not b eing effectively captured. However, with new systems now being implemented, is this something that the
Minister is looking at with respect to the new software
for the system s that he is going to be implementing
that this information could be captured?
And I ask that particularly because, if we know
what our young people are abroad studying, we know when we are processing work permit applications, we
would have an indication as to whether we will be able
to fulfil the requirements or whether, in fact, we still
have to allow work permit applications to be succes sful. So, I am just curious to know where we stand in
terms of expecting some kind of synergy and correl ation between the information that we can gather from
our students and their ultimate expectation for being
able to find employment when they return.

Minister, you have the floor.

Hon. Wayne Caines: The former Minister actually,
obviously, has her finger on the pulse and knows the
majority of this far better than I. There is a desire to
get the information. But the data mining is actually a
difficult enterprise because a portion of it has to be
done manually. And so, when you have civil servants in a department, we end up fighting the fires where
the blaze is the brightest. And so, with where we are
now with work permits, the emphasis is on making
sure that the work permits are processed, to make
sure that the passports are being processed, to make
sure that we have the relevant information. Because
we know the shortcomings of the database and the data- catching system.
I think, to your point exactly, when we have
the conversation, the reason why it is important to have this conversation and talk about incoming tec hnology is because we need to highlight the fact that, whilst we have the very good intentions to segment the data, to understand how many people are in the
work permits, when they are expiring, we have a sy stem that does not allow for that because it is simply an
old system.
What we have to do now, through this pr ocess, is get a system, put pieces in there that allow us
to say what is fit for purpose. Again, Mr. Chairman, we
have an internal process. The team of consultants will
be embedded in the not-too-distant future coming
from the private sector with one of the top five, and
they are going to look at this thing from soup to nuts.
The recommendation is going to be made. It is going to be implemented with the digital strategy. The digital
strate gy is focused around fixing the work permit pr o1310 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report
B ermuda House of Assembly cess to make it more robust, to make it more efriendly, to make sure that it is able to capture, measure and synthesise all the data so we can get the key pieces of information.
We have a system that was really good 10
years ago. Now we are —
[
Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Wayne Caines: Twenty years ago. We have
now found, as an aggregate, that it is no longer fit for purpose. And we are in the process of modernising that process. Again, we have the consultants who
have been identified, contractors who will start in the
not-too-distant future. They will be embedded in the
office within weeks.

The Chair now recognises the Shadow Minister.
Mr. Richards.
Mr. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: While we are still waiting
for the Minister to get answers, and it looks like he is being handed some now, I wanted to ask the Minister,
Is the department capturing the numbers of Bermudians who are emigrating from Bermuda, that is, leaving Bermuda to live elsewhere? I know that in the past, these numbers have not been captured. Is there a desire or anything in place to capture that? Because, you know, that is information that is not just very i nformative, but critical to our current situation, where we have declining birth rates as people are having smaller families. So, I was curious if those numbers are being captured or if there are plans to capture da-ta on Bermudians who are emigrating from Bermuda.

Thank you, Member.
Hon. Wayne Caines: We will endeavour to get those
specific answers.
The question was, Does the exit form capture
students leaving the Island, capturing what studies they are undertaking? Will the new system capture this? The answer is, we are approaching that stage in the immigration reform process. It is not in the first phase. The implementation phase involves document-ing the requirements for systems. When we move into
the procurement process, then we will look at integrating that into potential solutions.

Thank you, Mi nister.
Members, we are in consideration of Head 27,
Immigration. Are there any other Members who wish
to pose any questions to the Minister?
Hon. Wayne Caines: Mr. Chairman, we are awaiting
two answers. I am waiting on two answers. One is
with reference to the numbers [requested by] Honourable Member Cannonier. And then, we have some questions around the last question, which is, how
many Incentives for Job Makers applications were
made and how many people actually received the I ncentives for Job Makers application permission? And, how many employees . . . that is going to be a little
more difficult because that involves going to the com-panies and getting those numbers.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I was wondering if the Minister can give us
some information regarding the belongers. Overall, how many applications have been processed recently
and how many are in process at the moment for belonger status?
Hon. Wayne Caines: I do not have those numbers.
Those numbers could be obtained. Again, the be-longers issues, I would have to get those numbers.

Thank you, Minister.
The Chair now recognises the Shadow Minister, Mr. Richards.
Mr. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Thank you, Mr. Chai rman.
While we are waiting, s o ther e is not dea d air
for the peopl e listening, o n page B -292, I d o not t hink I
receiv ed an answer t o my questi on that I ask ed in the
earlier par t of t he debate. P age B -292, bus iness uni t
37020, P ermissi on to Acquire Land. I ha d state d that
in the year 20 18/19, t he forecast w as at 70 . And at
2019/20, t he forecast was at 7 7. That is a d ifference
of seven permits. A nd I t ied it i nto the revenue from
land acquisitio n fees, show n at 8291, on page B- 290,
which is projecte d to increas e by just over $3 million,
which was a n average of $442 ,857 per permit. And I
was as king, am I l ooking at t his c orrectly ? Is this a
correct figure? So, I am still waiting for the answers to
that question. And I will leave it at that for now.

I am sorry, the Member from [consti tuency] 23, and not 31.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Yes. Thank you.
They say we all look alike.

[Laughter and inaudible interjections ]

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: That is what they
say.
I just wondered if the Minister could, just for
edification from the question that I have received from
outside, if the Minister could just give us an outline of
the process and the requirements for letters of per-mission. If somebody wants to bring somebody in to
perform a particular task that is short -term in nature,
they are required to have a letter of permission from
the department. If the Minister can just maybe briefly
outline what the criteria are? And then that would be the end of my questions.

Are there any Members who wish to
pose any questions at this time?
The Chair now recognises the Shadow Mini ster.

Mr. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Thank you, Mr. Chai rman.
I would like to make a suggestion. We are
probably about seven minutes away from lunch. If we
can go to lunch early, that would allow time for the
Minister and his technical people to get our questions
answered. And then we can reconvene.

Yes, please.

Hon. Wayne Caines: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Question: Please provide the rationale for the
estimated revenue for 2019/20 at $5.5 million for revenue code 8291, the Land Acquisition Fees on page
B-290.
The answer is as follows: This number is calculated based on the recent historical averages of
revenues received over several fiscal years and a degree of judgment. In 2016/17, the Department of I mmigration collected approximately $5 million. In
2017/18, the revenue collected was approximately $6
million. This estimate provided for fiscal 2019/20 is
$5.5 million, which is within the range of a reasonable
estimate.
The Land Licence Acquisiti on Fees are comprised as follows: The application licence fees of $1,625 which is paid up front at submission; and the
landholding charges which is paid at the back end
after the licence is approved by the Minister. The
1312 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly amount payable varies in accordance with who the
applicant is and the type of property, i.e., is it a r estricted person or a PRC holder or a freehold, a condo, or a tourist accommodation? There are tables attached.
I have checked the two charges above and
they could be split across two fisc al periods due to the
processing timelines. For example, if an application licence fee is paid today the licence may not be i ssued until April 19
th and at such time the landholding
charge would be due.
Question: Can you please provide the numbers of Incentive for Job Maker applications approved?
There were 250 applications for exemption
work permits approved to date.
Three: What is the number of employees at
Sompo and Liberty Mutual?
Answer: Sompo International comprises of
Endurance Specialty Limited, which was acquired by
Sompo International Holdings in 2018. Specialty orig inally started in Bermuda in 2001. Sompo has a total of 117 employees in Bermuda, 86 employees (or 74 per
cent) of the 117 are Bermudians, which consists of
Bermudians and spouses of Bermudians, PRC hol ders, and exemption holders; 31 employees (or 26 [per
cent]) are non- Bermudians on work permits.
Liberty Mutual’s operations are a combination
of Ironshore Bermuda and its affiliated companies of Liberty Mutual. There are approximately 65 emplo yees that work for Liberty Mutual’s combined Bermuda
operations. There are 54 with the Legacy Ironshore
companies which are now Liberty Specialty Markets Bermuda. Out of the 54, 33 are Bermudians, 4 are
spouses of Bermudians, 3 are PRC holders, [and] 14
are work permit holders. There are currently 10. Of
the 10, one is a PRC [holder], two are Bermudians,
one is a spouse of a Bermudian, and there are six on
straight work permits.
With reference to Sompo’s background in
Bermuda, they have a letter of permission for a nonprofit organisation, they have letters of charities for
religious institutions. A letter of permission may be granted for a non- profit organisation, a registered
charity, a religious institution such a coach, teacher, sports, clergy or a speaker, musician or entertainer,
whether they be remunerated or not. Such a person is
given permission to stay for 30 days at the time of extension.
The question was: The letter of permission for
a non- profit organisation and registered charities.
The answer is: A letter of permission may be
granted for a non- profit organisation or a registered
charity, a religious institution, or a coach, a teacher of sports, a clergy speaker, a musician, or an entertainer whether they be remunerated or not. Such a person is
given permission to stay in Bermuda for 30 days at the time the application is made. After landing, an ex-tension using the visitor’s extension application may be granted upon the application and the payment of
the appropriate fee, provided the s tay does not exceed 60 days. Should a longer than 60- day stay be
required, a work permit must be applied for. In the
cases where a group has landed for the same purpose—an orchestra, choir or a sports team —the letter
of permission fee is payable for each m ember. However, this fee is capped at five persons, and that is
also included in the recommendations.
Please provide the recommendation for $5.5
million revenue. The number estimated is a historical average of the revenues . . . actually, that is complete.
Madam Chairman, I think we have answered
the questions that were asked. If there are any further
questions, I would love the opportunity to answer those questions.
With reference to the Job Makers Act, Madam
Chairman, the question was asked, and the Jo b Makers Act actually falls under the Cabinet Office in that
the Premier has . . . I have signed . . . the Minister of
Immigration has signed off, but the final say is from
. . . is by the Premier.
The question was asked: How many Job
Makers applications have gone to date? There are
250. The reason why we wanted to make sure that we
gave the information today about Sompo and about
Liberty Mutual and giving the numbers for Incentives
for Job Makers is to give a clear understanding and a picture that we real ise that there has to be a delicate
balance with attracting businesses to Bermuda, ma king the policies relevant, making them streamlined, but at the same time, through other processes and
procedures, making sure that Bermudians are given
the place of promi nence in Bermuda.
If you look at Sompo and if you look Liberty
International, a couple of things stand out with both of
these companies. Both of these companies have
shown by their numbers (the evidence is in the numbers) that they have a commitment to hi ring Bermudians; that they have a commitment to the fabric and
the interweaving of being in Bermuda. We are saying
that we are in the process of creating two streams, a
stream where if you are a company and you have to
go through the regular process, but i f you are a company that has the proper documentation, you do the
proper posts and audits of your company, you can
show a significant commitment to Bermuda, you can
show training and development for Bermudians, you
can show where there are opportunities for emplo yment both locally and abroad for staff, that you are
investing in the charitable status of Bermuda.
We believe that there is an opportunity for us
to create another lane, an accelerated plan through
the immigration process. We are piloting that pr ogramme and we have two companies that will be leading the pilot in that programme, one is Sompo International, and the other is Liberty Mutual.
Prior to the break we were asked to quantify
the numbers of people that we are sending there. In


Bermuda House of Assembly other words, why did you choose these two companies?
And what we wanted to highlight is that we
believe the two companies chosen represent a good
starting point in understanding the relationship and doing what we deem to be a trial process for an alternative lane.
And Madam Chairman, I want to be clear that
the alternative lane is not carte blanche to come into
Bermuda, just giving away work permits. We have a
clear plan for ensuring that these companies are trai ning and developing Bermudians, that there is an i mmigration process; however, there will be some exemptions, things that they will not have . . . like they
will not be required to go to put it on the Job Board. They will not be required to go to the Immigration
Board. Why? Because we want to make sure that
Bermudians are being trained and developed, but
[these companies] will already have evidenced that
through highlighting their HR plan, showing us what
their plan is philanthropically for the year, what [their] plan for training and developing Bermudians.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Thank you for the explanation, Mini ster.
Would anybody else like to . . . ?
I recognise the Leader of the Opposition.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, thank you, Madam
Chairman.
Madam Chairman, I listened intently to the
answer to the question that I posed on page B -290 in
reference to Land Acquisition Fees. And I just . . . in
listening to that answer it has just drawn me to some
other conclusions here. He also mentioned that the prior year, which would have 2016/17, was $5 million
in revenue, and the actual that we see for 2017/18 is
$6 million and then, of course—

Thank you.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: So I was curious as to exactly what was the makeup of Land Acquisition Fees.
What is that? I had somewhat of an idea, and now
that I understand that it is due to expats or anyone not from Bermuda seeking to . . . condos or houses or
whatever th e case may be. These are the fees, and it
is a healthy amount of fees that Government gains from this here.
So I go back to the fact that this is suggesting
then that for the original amount of 2018/19, we b elieved that there was going to be a continuance of this land owning or condo- type owning by foreigners that
they would purchase. And to see that drop off, that drastic drop off to a third, I would just say it would be
good for the Minister to take a closer look at that as to
why. Because I am beginning to question . . . well,
maybe we got behind . . . I do not know why that is
what it is. Because there is confidence that we are
going to be doing, as I said, more than double for the
current estimate of 2019/20. This speaks to either
confidence or lack of confidence, I should say, and
then confidence. So if it is not a confidence issue, then it is something else? It is something else? And I
am not sure what that “else” is, so I am making the
recommendation to the Minister that he needs to u nderstand what is going on because I am now worried
about this here.
We have heard a lot of talk about the fact that
people feel like they are not confident in Bermuda,
whatever the case may be, and we are talking about
we need more boots on the ground, this speaks directly to the fact that we went from $7 million down to
$2.5 million. So we need to figure that out. I am not
hearing, you know, and you can come back, I am not
looking for the answer now. But if you can take it upon
yourself just to maybe pull me aside and say you
looked at it a little closer. The answer that is being
given is not getting to where I am going here and was
asking the question originally.
Something else is wrong here because it suggests that you had a strategy in mind. You knew what
was going on. The history speaks for itself, as the
Minister even went back to a prior book than this. To
then be in this position, quite frankly, for 2018/19
should be concerning. I mean, a third of $7 million?
Even if they came in at half of that, $3.5 million, that i s
a million more than what they have already got now
that they would have had in their coffers for revenue.
So somebody needs to be paying close attention to
this here to ensure that we got that money in.
And this is not a case of where people are
holding off and not paying their fees. They pay them;
they pay their fees. So, that is where I am suggesting, maybe find out a little more here because it is a bit
startling now that I begin to start running these numbers and backtracking it. There is a story behi nd it. So
I will leave it at that.

Thank you, Member.
Minister?

Hon. Wayne Caines: Just so you can be clear, I am
actually lost. So you are saying . . . can you be explicit
when you are saying . . . what are you saying . . . we
are not pay ing attention to which part? Because I read
through a lot of stuff and I just want to be clear I understand.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, thank you, I apprec iate that, Minister.
1314 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: Member?

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, I guess what I am
suggesting is that, you know, the reference to it being soft for whatever reason. Why is it soft for 2018/19? Why is it bullish for 2019/20?
The trend has been growing right up until
2018/19, I mean, actual figures. Unfortunately, by the time we get to the end of 2018/19 we are only at a
third of the estimate—the original amount of $7 mi llion. I do not believe that it is . . . so, when you qual ified it by saying “soft” and then you gave a few other titbits on what you are looking at here, but it still did
not get down to why this is so drastically low.
Because when it comes to revenue, I mean,
there is not much guessing work here, okay? You
have got 2,000 people. They come to Bermuda. They
have got 2,000 families, let us say, foreign families.
They have got 2,000 homes whether they are condos
or whatever they may be. They are paying the fees
and they are still here. Now, all of a sudden, in 2018/19 it . . . it . . . the bottom of the barrel just drops.

Hon. Wayne Caines: Got it, got it, got it.

Minister?
Hon. Wayne Caines: I actually get it now, I apologise.
So, when we are looking at the applications
that are made and the processes that they have to go through, whether it is for licence and principal and a
number of things, what I was seeing in t he department
is that the process was set to be between 60 . . . I
think it was 60 days for the process to go through. And a lot of times, going to the Land Valuation D epartment, it was actually simply getting caught in the
Government red tape.
And I know specifically . . . I know specifically
(to the Member opposite). In the last few months, I
have had to literally embed myself in the process to
look at what is keeping the bottleneck, whether it is a
Land Valuation Department, whether it is the Registrar
General’s Department, looking at specific things in
each one of those departments, we were seeing that
this was . . . there was a backlog.
I meet with the immigration team on a weekly
basis to understand where we are with licence and
principal with condos and with . . . and sometimes it is
simply a backlog. We are dealing with systems that
are not digitised, systems that have not been prior itised, there is a significant . . . and to the point by the
Member opposite. He has highlighted a point that we
all ge t. There are specific ways to bring money —boots
on the ground— to bring people to Bermuda and that
has to be our priority.
Now this is where the balancing act takes
place, right? Because when you start to say in this
country that we are focusing on getting people in
Bermuda and making sure they use work permits, there is a delicate balance, and it looks like we are
[opening] the floodgates. That is actually not the case.
To the point: We have processes and proc edures with getting the licences and getting the applic ations processed, and we simply are now ensuring that that remains a priority. And that means, when the files
come through, people realise that it is critical to the
survival of our country to get the people in Bermuda.
There is a change in mind set. It is a change
in how we process. It is no longer resting on our la urels. It is encouraging people to be a little more dil igent, it is encouraging the Land Valuation Department
to say, Listen, we need to get these things approved.
We need to have these licences approved in a signif icant manner.
Again, and to the Member opposite, I think it
is very easy for us to almost abdicate our responsibi lity and say that this is an administrative error and this
is . . . the lethargy is based on the lack of peopl e and
processes. It is. It is. When you look at the same peo-ple in the department, of course, they are segmented
into specific areas. As the Member opposite, the for-mer Minister, can tell you, the department has needed
an overhaul with processes and proced ures.
Now there has to be a clear emphasis, and
the emphasis is clear. We are looking at specific things within Immigration, looking at the work permit
policies, looking at specific things that allow us to f ocus with laser -like precision on making the dep artment
digitised, in making sure that we understand what the
bottlenecks are, prodding the staff. And they are hardworking staff. When you go to Land Valuation and you have to get those numbers, you have to go to the
Registrar General to get specific inf ormation; we have
to correlate getting the information with getting boots on the ground, with getting people into Bermuda.
And oftentimes we do not make the connec ting rod between getting these things done and getting
people in Bermuda. And I think that is a part of the
conversation that we are having as a department,
having a team that is understanding, You are doing
yeoman’s service. What we have to do now is put the
mechanisms in place so that the department is run
more efficiently. That is a part of com prehensive I mmigration reform that is significant.
We, Madam Chai rman . . . and I said this in
the beginning. When we look at each head, everyone
focuses on comprehensive immigration reform based
on what is most significant to them, what their need is.
And so in this parliamentary session we have said we
are going to focus on making sure that the processes
and procedures in Immigration are regularised, putting
together a plan that allows (in the next phase) to get
the proper digitisation process in place.
In the meantime, in getting a work permit pr ocess, we have people who are coming to Bermuda.
We want to make sure that we have a pilot pr ogramme that we can actually get people fast -tracked
through. On the Bermudianisation part, hold on for a


Bermuda House of Assembly second, you ar e not just going to get in the fast lane.
You have to have a plan in place that shows what
your plan is for Bermuda. Old Mr. and Mrs. Bermuda
are saying, Hold up a second, Minister, you’re allowing a lot of non- Bermudians in. What do we have in
place to pr otect Bermudians to give them opportunities? We have shared that we have a document that
will be going out in the next two days which talks
about looking at restricted and closed categories.
The department is going to say with a letter
going out to industr y, You’ve had the opportunity to
look at specific categories. We just don’t want to focus on barbers and hairdressers, we want to look at compliance officers, we want to look at police officers, we
want to look at doctors, GPs. We want to look at all of
these elements where we are not going to stifle the
economy. But tell me why, Miss HR at an exempt
company , or Miss HR at a local company (I hate sa ying Mr. and Mrs. Bermuda, right, but, the person that
understands our economy), how do we protect our
infrast ructure for Bermudians who need opportunities
and give them opportunities [and] allow the Immigr ation Board to have a clear documented process? It is very easy . . . very difficult, well, or not difficult, but it is
more cumbersome to change the law, but i t is a lot
easier to change the policy.
I think, Madam Chairman, what we are hearing today . . . so if we were to talk about what is the
difference with this particular immigration, the next fiscal [year], we understand that as a country we are
at the cros sroads and we have to put some things in
place that make sure that Bermudians are given a
place of primacy in their own country —training and
development opportunities for Bermudians. But, more
importantly, we have to now start to accelerate some
plans to get businesses to come into Bermuda, show
them that we get that they are good corporate citizens
that are in Bermuda and have been making an impact
for a number of years, and this is the pilot programme
that we have to evidence what our commitment is.
How i s this thing going to be financed? people
are saying. Oh , Mr. Caines, how are we going to do
this, we did not see any large increases? As a matter
of fact, it is the exact same budget as last year. We
have met with the private sector —ABIC, ABIR, the
Chamber of Commerce—a number of what we call
the “alphabet soup.” They have committed a large
sum of money to assisting us with this process.
To the Opposition Leader’s point, he rightfully
highlighted that there is an estimate, and that number
is woefully behin d. The Ministry has been looking at
the specific applications that are coming in, they will
be prioritised, we will be able to . . . we have said
some of the processes for getting licences were 60
days. I met with the team last week and, as a policy,
do yo u think that we can legitimately . . . okay, what
are the steps? It has to go through the Land Valuation
Department . What takes place at the Land Valuation D epartment? They look at the size of the property; they
look at the ARV of the property . Do you thi nk that we
can do all the work that is necessary? Do you think we
can take that from 60 days to 30 working days? It will
be a stretch, Minister . Can we look at this thing again?
This is my brain from having the benefit of being in the private sector, having the benefit of being in the public sector, my brain is saying, Listen, do you think that we
can take these times, legitimately so, and cut these
times in half, making sure that we get what we need to do to get the necessary permissions, to make the
neces sary checks? And the answer was yes.
And so, as we go through this procedure for
the last . . . since November 1
st, the PS and I have
been meeting with everyone. We have been looking at
processes and looking at procedures. It has not been easy. And I know my Opposition colleagues have
been very patient with me saying this for the third
time, again, today . . . and I have been repeating m yself with reference to the direction that we are going
in. We believe that we have to pivot. We have to u nderstand that t he country, we have protect the rights
of Bermudians, but we also have to ensure that we
give a little jolt where the jolt is necessary.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Thank you, Minister.
Would any other Member like to speak?
I recognise the Leader of the Opposition, Mr.
Cannonier.
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Yes, I just want to say that this is what the
debate should be like. We are now getting into some more detail so that the public understands where their
money is going or where it is not going, or whether
they are getting or not getting it. So I appreciate the expounding on some of these issues.
So as he was speaking, it was interesting because it then . . . I do not want it to go . . . I said he
could come back w ith answers. But does the Minister
now believe that with the employee numbers which
have . . . it is pretty static; there are no real changes
here. Understanding the backlogs and the likes,
whether or not . . . and I believe that under Finance
Administrati on is where we would be looking at this
particular line item of Acquisition of Fees on page B -
290. But page B -291, the full -time employees, and
with the assistance of ABCs of the world in helping out, I think that that may be going to somewhere else . . . does he believe that he can get by with getting this
revenue back in?
I certainly want him to be successful here g oing from that $2.4 million to the $5.5 million. And I am
hoping that as a track record of him getting on top of
things this will happen, that we will realise this money.
That is a huge windfall, quite frankly, double the
1316 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly amount of this year . . . a huge, huge, windfall. Can
that be done by just the Finance and Administration
[being staffed by] nine people? And the reason I ask
that question is because those of us on this side who
have been Ministers before, the budget may say well,
you know, nine employees, but you may have had to
make . . . what is the word I want to use . . .

Secondments?

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: No, not secondments. But
you may have had to make some sacrifices in one just
to have it the other type of thing.
So I am encouraging him, you know, if he
comes back and says, Look, I need to . . . I will say
this right off the top of the head, there is an election next year. And if we come back to the budget again
and he has had to add one more person, I will not get
on his case for that because I will just say I told you so
and I think you need some more people there to get
this money back. Because to go from 30 to 60 to 90
days when we know that this money is available and
we know that this is the character, the type of people
who pay their fees and bills. I would say, No problem,
mate. We recognise the problem. But I just wanted to
get on top of it, and does he bel ieve that realistically
that number will work?

Thank you, Member.
Is there any other Member that would like to
speak?
Minister.

Hon. Wayne Caines: Just a response to that point.
Again, and I say this respectfully, it is almost
cart/horse, right? Where we are now is . . . what we
want to do is be in . . . and we are about to sign the
contract with the consultancy firm that will be looking
for the inefficiencies. They will be looking at where the
opportunities are.
Once we look at inefficien cies, a big part of
where we are is we have had to admit that we were bringing in an outside resource. The next question is, how are we going to pay for it? The alphabet soup [is]
going to pay for it. But I believe that, as a result of the
efficiencies, as a result of the digitisation process, we
are going to see, in the not -too-distant future, where
we are going to be able to have resources that can be
moved in different directions.
And so, once you have a process that is exceedingly labour intensive, as you start to move t owards a more digitised process, we believe that a net
result of this is that you are going to see the opportunity for us to have, what we call in this business
model, concentration of forces. And the concentration
of forces will be pred icated on where the need is.
And so what we need to look at and what the
plan is to look at [is this: We say, okay, where are the opportunities fiscally to actually: 1. Get boots to the ground in Bermuda; and 2. To make revenue for the
department.
If we streamline the processes that are taking
up the most time—work permit application vetting,
making sure that you are looking at police vetting sy stems, calling employers, making sure the forms are
filled out properly, going through —so the process
when you s ee the immigration process, it is exceedingly labour intensive on the administrators. A file comes in, a file is not filled out correctly, they have got
to send the file back. They then have to sign the forms, they have to fill out the forms, they have to vet
the forms, they have to take the forms to the board.
We believe that once the form is digitised and
the form is online, it is almost like when you get the
ESTA form in America. You are not able to go to the
next form of the application if the first par t of the form
was filled out incorrectly. There are a number of things
that we believe in the process will be so streamlined, if
you can allow me to just cast a vision of what it will
look like in the end. For all of the applications, if they
are indeed on line, you are actually cutting down time.
If you are working with company A, you are able to go
on a portal and you are able to see the stage where
your application is, and then you are able to say, Well,
listen, estimated date of completion.
And so we bel ieve when you are keeping in
line with the work permit and that process, we believe that process will be streamlined. As a result of streamlining the work permit process, a part where it is going
to take a lot more of the energy will be with the licences as with different forms of administration. We might be able to . . . it is our plan, we believe, through the
process (and we are not clairvoyant) we believe that there will be an opportunity for us to move people
around.
I can say, when I was looking at thi s from
simply a business and a number of perspectives . . .
and you can [ask] where are the Government fees
coming from? I said to my PS, we have to move our
people around to where the opportunities are with getting people to Bermuda and the numbers. And t hat is
something that you cannot justify as a Minister. You
cannot go in there and just start moving around . . .
the civil service just does not work like that. Manag ement services . . . you have to come in with specific
recommendations.
We believe a key part in going forward is ha ving the consultative contract going forward, for them to identify what the key impediments are. We have the
support of the business [of] Bermuda. They are com-ing; they are being a part of the process. I think a
show of goodwill to us is for us to take two companies
and show what we are going to do in that process. I
know that I have looked at a number —and I will not
name the company —I know that there is a significant
entity in Bermuda that has a number of applications that are in front of us now. We have reached out to a
specific government department and said, Listen, this


Bermuda House of Assembly is what these 20 applications being approved means
to Bermuda. And I remember having the conversation
with the staff because arbitrarily you are the arbiter of
. . . you have the sceptre in your hand . . . you have
the conn , as they say. When you say to them, When
you make this decision, this is what it means to Bermuda Incorporated, people actually see the vision of
the direction that we are going in and we seem to have buy -in.
Again, I do not . . . I am not clairvoyant, I
would love to give an update at the appropriate time about where we are in the process. We have not
started the consultative process. One would have
thought we would have been further along t he road.
We believe that we can make some significant mov ements, but it remains a work in progress.

Thank you, Minister.
Was there any other Member that would like
to speak?
I recognise the Member from constituency 23.
Pat Gordon- Pamplin, you have the floor.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Madam Chairman, I thank the Minister for his
explanation. The only concern that I have in respect of
what he said is that we have had a consistent two- to
four-month turnaround time for the grant of land l icences with no Bermudian connection. And that —

Excuse me, that is on what page?
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: This is on page B -
293, Output Measures, business unit 37020, Personnel Services, and it is abo ut the fifth—sixth —line up
from the bottom, where the average process time has
been two to four months —the actual for 2017/18,
forecast for 2018/19, revised for 2018/19 and also projected for 2019/20.
The question then would be that if there have
been bot tlenecks, then are we looking at realistic output measures for the . . . that have been previously
stated, if with all of the efficiencies that we are antic ipating we are still in this two- to four -month frame? Or
are we likely to see that this two to four -month time
frame might effectively change a little bit downward
because of efficiencies and because of IT and the
like?
The other question that I have is —just two
more questions —one of which is, the Minister has
said a couple of times in his presentation that there is
no difference in the budget last year on this —

Hon. Wayne Caines: Overall, I meant overall.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Overall, but there
actually is an overall $500,000 increase in the budget
last year to this year. We had $4,754,00 0 in the Su b-jective Analysis on page B -290 and now we have got
$5,254,000 this year, or this coming year going for-ward. So there is a $500,000 increase, the majority of
which actually has been expended in Professional
Services. But I just wanted to point t hat out for . . . just
to make sure that the record is correct.
And the third and final question that I have
is—we asked it at the outset and did not really get an
answer —was there any reason why, in this Ministry,
we were looking at the revised 2018/19 estimates as against the 2019/20, when significant numbers of mi nistries have looked at 2018/19 original, which are the
numbers that have been approved by this House in
last year’s budget that should be compared against
the 2019/20 estimates?
We should be looking at original to original if
we are looking at apples to apples.
And it just . . . I just . . . by way of, perhaps, a
little bit of embellishment here in terms of what has
happened. Some of the ministries have compared
original 2018/19 to original 2019/20 or, you know, to
the new 2019/20, and others have compared the r evised. The question was, is there any reason why we
have compared the revised numbers of 2018/19 as
opposed to the original numbers? In this Book we are
going revised to new.

The Chai rman: Thank you, Member.
Is there any other Member that wishes to
speak?
I recognise the Minister.
Hon. Wayne Caines: I will have to get the answer to
the “revised” question from my technical team.
With reference to the budget being $500,000
more than it was last year, this actually was corrected.
The budget is not $500,000 more. The budget . . . that
$500,000, there was $500,000 and that was actually
in the wrong entity. That should have gone to the Headquarters budget and should have come under
. . . that $500,000 is on the wrong line and it should
have gone under Gang Initiatives. So the $500,000
that we spoke of Gangs, should have come away from
the Immigration and should have gone to Gangs. That
was . . . we cleared that up in our first debate on the
other heads when we debated the other part of our
ministries.

Thank you, Minister.
Is there any other Member that would like to
speak?
You have the floor, Member.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Just a clarific ation, yes, because I do not have that number.
Was there an errata printed for this page?

1318 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Wayne Caines: I do not have it at hand. There
was an errata that was printed and was distributed on
the last occasion, yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Okay. Thank you .

Yes, please.

Hon. Wayne Caines: Thank you.
We are at a unique position in where we are
as a country. As the Minister, you often hear that Bermudians are having difficulty finding employment.
There are many Bermudians who feel that the country is geared toward the opportunities for expats and
they, [Bermudians], are limited in finding opportunities
in Bermuda. We have heard . . . I have met with a
number of people and we have heard a number of people who have said listen, we need to get the b elongers issue fixed, the PRC issue has to regularised,
what are we going to do with status, with status generally, the mixed status family issues? There are so
many things that we believe our country is facing with
reference to the immigration matters ––it is very
evoc ative.
In the not too distant past, issues with refe rence to Immigration tore this country asunder. With
the Minister with responsibility for Immigration and
with the colleagues that work on the Parliamentary
Subcommittee for Immigration Reform, we have taken
a very practical approach to what we believe is the
proper way to solve the problems here.
I believe that in this parliamentary session we
have to understand a few of the problems. So we
cannot say that we will have a couple of the issues
that I mentioned solved by June. I believe that it is going to take us some time. The Act was written in
1956. We did not just fall into the problem overnight.
However, we take the people who are having these challenges . . . to quote an urban poet, Robert Nesta
Marley, he said he [or she ] that feels it, knows it, and
we understand that as a country we are going to have to grapple with these issues. We have taken a signif icant measured approach.
The first approach is by looking at the work
permit policy. In looking at that work permit policy we
believe that it i s fraught with pitfalls and needs to be
modernised. The processes and procedures in the
department, when we have excellent people, hard -
working people, like Dr. Danette Ming, that we need
processing procedures that allow that to be dealt with and tackled as a priority. Again, we have gone out to
the private sector and they will help fund that.
There is another thing that we are looking at,
How do we manage and give Bermudians the opportunity with this new Immigration reform [when] they see people who are working outside of their work
permit, working when they do not have permission by
the Chief Immigration Officer? Well, we have put t ogether a plan within the department that allows people
to have a hotline, have an address that they can [contact]. We have seen an increase of our compliance officers in the amount of people who have been asked
to leave Bermuda in the last six months based on the
things that we are doing as a country to make sure
that people who belong in Bermuda and do not have
the right immigr ation status . . . that they are asked to
leave.
I think something that this Government is doing differently in highlighting that is that we have to be
clear that when we are meeting with people, whether
they are a store or whether they are a reinsurance
organisation, we want to see their training and deve lopment plans for Bermudians. We are meeting with
the HR Directors; we are asking to see an overall plan
of development for Bermuda. So what normally hap-pens is a young Bermudian says, I’m not able to get a
job. This country’s unfair. And they shake their fist in
the sky because they are not being given an oppor-tunity. What we are able to do now when we are
meet ing with executives from reinsurance companies,
we are able to say to them, Bermudians want to work,
they are being qualified, they need opportunities.
And so the conversation now is a robust conversation when they come to meet with us —show us
your training and development programmes for Bermudians, show us where the scholarships are, show
us what you are doing for the country philanthropically. And so the conversation is now more holistic with
people who are doing business in Bermuda. It has to be said to international business and people who are
setting up companies in Bermuda, We get it. We understand that we have to have you in Bermuda, but
we also believe it is an opportunity for you, too, to i nvest in our country.
And what does investing in Bermuda look
like? It looks like getting trained Bermudians that have
the ability, that have the skills to get the opportunity
going in Bermuda, and that is a part of the narrative.
We looked in Immigration and are excited about the
programme that we have now that is a pilot with two
companies —Sompo International and Liberty Mut ual—where we are saying to what we believe are good
corporate citizens, invest in education, invest in trai ning and development programmes. But we can create another stream. We have a stream that everyone can
go in where you have to advertise and where you
have to put it on the Job Board, where you have to go
in front of the Immigration Board, to another lane
where we have good corporate citizens, people who


Bermuda House of Assembly are invested in Bermuda, people who have a signif icant number of Bermudians hired in their company —
that show and articulate a training and development
programme locally, abroad, internships for Bermudians, show us what you are doing philanthropically in Bermuda, monies that you are giving to charity —and
we are saying that there is going to be another line
which allows for you to get an advanced opportunity to
get your work permits approved.
When you bring this enforced with our goal to
have mixed status families to be considered by this July, before Parliament is prorogued for the summer,
tackling that head- on, understanding that this has to
be regularised. The issue of belongers is something
that has caused disquiet in this country. We have a document that has been written by the Honourable
Minister Walton Brown, it will be discussed in the next
week at Parliament —excuse me, in Cabinet —and we
will be able to have the conversation. We believe
when the drafting instructions are given in the next
two weeks with reference to the mixed families issue, we believe a number of families will have their imm igration status regularised. This was in our Throne Speech, this was something that we have committed
to, and this is something that we believe we will have
the opportunity to do and regularise.
And I am grateful to the Opposition for the cut
and thrust of this debate. We were able to look at i ssues. I was asked by Members about questions. I was
asked by Members specifically about people in the
department, two companies that I mentioned. How
many people do they have in that company? How
many Bermudians do we have in those companies? I was asked questions about the Job Makers Act. How
many people from the Job Makers . . . how many of
those people have we agreed to since they have been
in Bermuda? I was able to say that there are 200 applications that have been considered and have been
granted under t he Incentives for Job Makers Act.
I believe that the debate has . . . and I hope
that the Government has shown that we believe that
comprehensive immigration reform is not going to be
easy. It is not going to be something that we all agree on. I hope that going forward when we start having the
consultations on closed categories, restricted categories, that when we put [information] out for the general public, Mr. and Mrs. Smith . . . we are not just talking
about reinsurance companies and HR directors from
the big companies in Bermuda, we want to get people’s feelings on the categories and understanding
how do we restrict categories, how do we close cat egories, and why, and help us to consider this robustly
and as a country.
When I was talking to a gentleman by the
name of Robert Pires, he was talking about immigr ation reform —

[Inaudible interjections ]
Hon. Wayne Caines: Pires . He was sharing with me
how antagonist and how openly hostile the debate
was on the last occasion when we did this nationally
as a c ountry. I am actually of the opinion that we will
be having these debates in the not -too-distant future.
As the Minister, I hope by setting the tone today, that it is a tone that we can keep as a country. And people
will not like this part in certain segments.
1. We need to have people in this country. We
need to have people coming into Bermuda.
We need to have boots on the ground in order to make this economy run. Bermudians are
brilliant people, we are talented people, but
we will rely on other people from outside b eing in this country.
2. We have to have Bermudians having the opportunity to get employment in Bermuda. There have to be mechanisms in place that allow Bermudians to get the opportunity through
training and development.
We understand how this moves and it m atriculates through education, but I think the disquiet in
our communities, with the arguments of us being po-larised, is that a number of Bermudians feel that they
cannot participate in the economy. We have gotten
that.
We realise that when we have the discussion
about belongers, you will see a paper where we di scuss that. These are conversations that are going to
be uncomfortable. I believe we can have these di scussions. I believe that we can discuss it openly.
The Ministry of National Security, with its sp ecific emphasis on Immigration, wanted to set . . . and I
thank you . . . and I know we did not . . . we have a lmost . . . it almost seems as if its pie in the sky, but I
wanted to— we wanted to—set a clear objective of
where we are going to set realistic timelines. We are
not going to solve all the problems by July. We believe
in this July we will have the mixed status families. we believe we will get drafting instructions. we believe we
will have that done and dusted. As it pertains to other
elements of it, it remains a work in progress.
I believe that we are going in the right direction, Madam Chairman. I believe that we have a
budget that will require for us to be aggressive with
those dates when we are talking about the time to l icense in principal and and when we are doing specific
revenue generating entities. The Government is going to have to be fleet of foot. We are going to have to
move our resources around to give us the opportunity
but never compromise on selling our country away, giving everything away; make sure that our planning
laws are respected; make sure that the right people
are being given opportunities to reside and work in
Bermuda. And I think that is a big part of the holistic
approach that I hope that our country can see, that
this relationship is going to have to be one of give [and] it is going to have to be one of take.
1320 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Should Bermudians have a place of primacy
in the country? We will not resile from that. We believe
that. But we believe that this is an opportunity for us t o
do things a bit differently, making sure that Bermudi-ans have the opportunities to lead, to be trained and to find significant opportunities in their community.
Having said that . . . Madam Chairman.

Thank you, Minister.
Is there any other Member that would like to
speak?
I recognise—

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Yes, just for clarity
before the Minister moves the heads. We have not
received errata in respect of the Immigration Depar tment to which the Minister indicated that it had been issued. We do not have it. So if the Minister can ensure that this errata has been distributed so that we
have a corrected page in the Budget Book, it would be
appreciated.
Thank you.

Thank you, Member.
Is there any other Member that w ishes to
speak?

Hon. Wayne Caines: I am informed that the errata
was given in the other department; one was not given
with reference to Immigration.
My recollection of when . . . that when we led
the head, when we went through the Ministry, that we gave an errata and we discussed that. That was the
first thing that we did on the first day that we went
through the budget. I think —

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Wayne Caines: Okay. But I can give an undertaking to make sure that we go through it.

The Chai rman: Thank you, Minister.
Would you like to—

Hon. Wayne Caines: Madam Chairman, I move that
Head 27 be approved as printed.

Thank you, Minister.
I recognise the Member from constituency 23,
Pat Gordon- Pamplin.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
The Honourable Member indicated “as printed” but it is the errata . . . has not been distributed, we
do not have that. So it would have to be as amended
by the errata.

Hon. Wayne Caines: Madam Chair man— The Chairman: Minister.
Hon. Wayne Caines: I move that Head 27 be approved as amended by the errata.

Members, we will now move on to the
next head, which is Head 63, Non- Ministries, Parli amentary Registrar.
Minister Brown, you have the floor.

NON -MINISTRIES

HEAD 63 —PARLIAMENTARY REGISTRAR

Hon. Wa lton Brown: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Madam Chairman, I move the following head:
Head 63, Parliamentary Registrar; and Head 98, I nformation Commissioners Office be now taken under
consideration.

HEAD 98 —INFORMATION COMMISSIONER’S
OFFICE

Hon. Walton Bro wn: Madam Chairman, I refer to
Head 98, Information Commissioner’s Office because
we expected to debate this head. Unfortunately, and regrettably, the Information Commissioner’s Office
has decided not to provide us with a brief on this. We
find it highly o utrageous that there is no brief fort hcoming. It is ironic that a department whose mandate
is designed to disseminate information through information requests is actually prohibiting us from having
a thorough debate on this section, on this department.
So we just wish to express our profound di sappointment in this regard that the Information Commissioner’s Office has decided not to cooperate and
provide a brief for the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Thank you, Minister.

HEAD 63 —PARLIAME NTARY REGISTRAR
Hon. Walton Brown: Madam Chairman, I would like
to present the brief for the Parliamentary Registrar, Head 63, found on pages B -20 through B -23 of the
Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure.
The Mandate of the Parliamentary Registrar is
to serve the electorate of Bermuda, irrespective of
race, creed, colour or political affiliation, with respect
and unbiased attention to their needs, whilst pursuing
the full objectives of the democratic process.


Bermuda House of Assembly Madam Chairman, the Parliamentary Regi strar is appointed by the Governor under the provisions
of the Parliamentary Election Act [1978], and as such,
is required to discharge the duties conferred or i mposed under the Act. The Parliamentary Registrar is
subject to the general direction of the Governor, and
in the exercise of his statutory duties, is assisted by
such number of public officers as may from time to
time be authorised to be employed.
The Parliamentary Election Act [1978] (as
amended) and the Bermuda Constitution Order 1968 are the instruments by which the activities of the Parliamentary Registry are governed. On occasion the
House of the Legislature may pass other Acts such as
the Capital Punishment Referendum Act 1989; the Independence Referendum Act 1995; the Referendum
Act 2012; and the Municipalities (Election) Order 2011
that have a direct effect on the office’s activities.
The staff of the Parliamentary Registry co nsists of five full- time positions under the direction of
the Parliamentary Registrar, Miss Tenia Woolridge. It is intended that the department will have two additional workers to assist with election preparations for the Bermuda Municipal Elections scheduled to take place
in May 2019. And as I say, “scheduled” to take place,
but highly unlikely that they will take place.
Madam Chairman, the Parliamentary Registry
continues to make strides in improving our processes and procedures for registration of voters and general
maintenance of the Parliamentary Register. We continue to look at the quality of our service delivery and
have committed to allowing staff to take the necessary
training in order to ensure continued quality of service.
As always, we are committed to maintaining the Parliamentary Register to ensure it is accurate in accor dance with the Parliamentary Election Act 1978.
In this current fiscal period, the department
conducted bye- elections for constituencies 22, Paget
East, and 25, Warwick North East, on the 7th of June,
2018. These bye- elections saw a turnout of 52 per
cent and 54 per cent, respectively. Both elections
were conducted and managed with great efficiency and integrity, and there were no reported incidences of electoral fraud.
The Parliamentary Registry is committed to
continued dialogue with all stakeholders of the dem ocratic process with a view to ensurin g the integrity of
the process and identifying areas for improvement. In
the next fiscal period, we intend to push forward with
initiatives to improve the electoral process for all voters, including those with visual impairments who can
benefit from tactil e voting devices which will allow
them to vote independently in the future.
This year during Voter Awareness Month in
April, the Parliamentary Registry will hold a series of presentations throughout the senior schools, with a focus on educating new voters on the electoral pr ocess in Bermuda and the voter registration process, giving voters the opportunity to ensure they are regi s-tered to vote correctly; apply to register to vote for the
first time; ensure they know what constituency they
live in; and if that constituency has proposed bound ary changes that will take effect in the next General Election.
Furthermore, the department will be pushing
forward to integrate all the apostille receipting and
invoicing within Accountant General Enterprise R esource Pla nning known as the E1 system thereby
shifting away from the uses of several spreadsheets
for reconciliation. In addition, it will manage and oper-ate its own bank account to meet the demand and
preference by international and major private sector
clients fo r the domestic and wire transfer mode of
payment rather than cheque. Overall, this initiative will
align with the Internal Auditor recommendations for
improvement in the audit trail and efficiency of the revenue stream.
Madam Chairman, I now turn my attent ion to
the specific estimates of expenditure and revenue in
the five cost centres of the Parliamentary Registrar’s
Office.
The total budget allocation for the Parliamentary Registrar’s Office in respect of fiscal year 2019/20
as shown on page B -20 of the Budget Book is
$1,571,000, which remains relatively unchanged to
the original budget for 2018/2019.

Administration —73000

Hon. Walton Brown: The proposed budget for the
Administration of the Parliamentary Registry for
2019/20 is $944,000, an increase of $79,000, or 9 per
cent over the original budget for 2018/19. This i ncrease is mainly due to the alignment of bona fide
administrative expenditure to Administration, 73000.
The funds in this cost centre enable us to carry out the daily functions of the Parli amentary Registry
to include:
• supplies and Issuing of voter identification
cards;
• supplies and issuing of apostille certificates;
• overtime costs associated with Voter Awar eness Month initiatives;
• general office supplies and cleaning;
• printing of all regist ration forms and parli amentary registers;
• content management of the website; and
• maintenance of the PRO+ electronic register
and database.

Boundaries Commission —73005

Hon. Walton Brown: The proposed budget for the
Boundaries Commission for 2019/20 is $3 8,000 which
represents a decrease of $5,000 from the original
budget in 2018/19.


1322 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly General and Bye- Elections—73010

Hon. Walton Brown: The proposed budget for the
General and Bye- Elections for 2019/20 is $250,000
which represents a decrease of $61,000 from the ori ginal budget in 2018/19. This decrease is mainly due to
the allocation of bona fide administrative expenditure
to 73000. The proposed budget will serve to cover the
costs of any bye- elections that may occur over the
next fiscal period.

Municipality Elections —73015

Hon. Walton Brown: Madam Chairman, a proposed
budget allocation for [the] Municipality Elections [for]
$76,000 has been allocated to this cost centre for m unicipal elections. This will cover the next Ordinary Mu-nicipal election scheduled for May 2019, which I say,
Madam Chairman, is highly unlikely, but it is scheduled for May 2019, which will see elections for the
Corporation of St. George’s and the Corporation of Hamilton.

Electoral Reform Research —73017

Hon. Walton Brown: Madam Chairman, a proposed
budget allocation of $263,000 has been allocated to this cost centre for electoral reform research and development. The current global trend of mature democracies stands on some form of political finance regul ations and regulated environm ents. It is necessary to
ensure the effective management of money in politics and is important to maintaining the integrity of the democratic process. The Parliamentary Registry will
continue to press forward with research and deliber ation with the governm ent on this topic. The funds will
be used for legal advice, research, and any overseas
training required.

Subjective Analysis of Current Account Estimates

Hon. Walton Brown: Madam Chairman, I would like
to turn your attention to page B -21, [the] subjecti ve
analysis of current account estimates.
Salaries increased by $8,000. The salaries
account estimate for 2019/20 is $515,000 which rep-resent an increase of $8,000, or a 2 per cent increase
over 2018/19.
Advertising and Promotion decreased by
$33,000. The advertising and promotion budget is
$280,000 in 2019/20, which represents a decrease of
$33,000, or an 11 per cent decrease over 2018/19.
The aim of advertising and promotion requires the use
of a variety of media outlets and out -of-home adverti sing vehic les to ensure coverage of all demographics
of the electorate.
Professional Services decreased by $7,000.
The professional services budget is $261,000 in
2019/20, which represents a decrease of $7,000, or a 3 per cent decrease over 2018/19. These services
include independent legal advice, field registration officers, and internal software maintenance of the
electronic registration system known as the PRO+.
Additionally, the office is working on improving the online registration process in an effort to make it more
efficient and secure.
Materials and Supplies decreased by $3,000.
The Materials and Supplies budget is $126,000 in 2019/20, which represent a decrease of $3,000, or a
2 per cent decrease over 2018/19. This line item consists of expenses associated with office and election
supplies including all stationary items, repair and r eplacement of any broken polling booths or ballot box-es, uniforms and badges for election officers and
agents, et cetera.
Other Expenses decreased by $1,000. The
Other Expenses budget is $20,000 in 2019/20, which represents a decrease of $1,000, or a 5 per cent d ecrease over 2018/19. This line item consists of ex-penses associated with training and development of
staff, team building, and other administrative expens-es that arise fr om the day -to-day operations of the
Parliamentary Registry.

Revenue

Hon. Walton Brown: Madam Chairman, Revenue is
generated from the issuing of Apostilles. Total rev enues for the 2019/20 fiscal year are estimated at
$350,000, an increase of $75,000, or 2 7 per cent over
the approved budget 2018/19. The Parliamentary
Registrar’s Office continues to provide prompt and
timely issuance of Apostille Certificates to our international and private sector clients.
In closing, I would like to thank the staff of the
Parliamentary Registrar’s Office for their commitment
to undertaking the work of Registrar General’s Office.
I would like to thank Miss Tenia Woolridge, in partic ular, for her dedicated hard work in this undertaking
and I wish them all very well.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.

While I have the opportunity, I would
like to welcome Youth Parliament Page. Ms. McKe nzie-Kohl Tuckett.
Welcome.
[Desk thumping]

[Committee of Supply, continuing]



Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: And for the general public I would like
to advise that the debate for this head will be two
hours and we started at 2:51 this afternoon.
Is there any other Member who would like to
speak? I recognise the Leader of t he Opposition,
Craig Cannonier.
You have the floor.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Certainly, the allocation was assumed that we
would be doing some of the other heads. I must say that it is unfortunate that we are not or do not hav e the
opportunity to discuss the Information Commissioner’s
Office section. I was quite surprised after two weeks
of time that it was on the books and then, all of a sudden, it is off the books. So, I have spoken to the
Speaker. The Premier and I have also spoken to the
challenge here and so we will continue on. And I am
sure that the Speaker will handle it in due time as to what is the right outcome.
I will say with the Non -Ministries it has gone
back and forth as to whether or not we should be d ebating t hese areas, and I am looking for a policy going
forward on how we address this as opposed to every budget year we get into a debate over whether or not we should be including the Non- Ministries. Certainly,
the suggestion . . . taxation without representati on is
certainly wrong and if the Government is giving grants
and fees to an institution, then we would expect at
least some form of representation, maybe not as r obust, but some form of representation.
So with that in mind I will move now to Head
63, Parli amentary Registrar. I appreciate the Honourable Member for his brief. For some reason I could not
make out some of the words that he was saying so,
hopefully, if I repeat something that you have already
said, then you can certainly let me know.
This is another particular area that has come
under quite a bit of scrutiny in the last couple of years
and it certainly has had to wade through the impressions and interpolations from us in the House as to how it metes out its job and the information that
should be meted out. But I take the note that under
. . . that on page B -20, the department’s objectives
were to Maintain and ensure—and I am just giving
you an overview on this page here as to what I have
seen— Maintain and ensure that the continuous regi stration pr ocess is ongoing, open, compliant and transparent.
And as I have already said, some of that has
come under scrutiny. And so I know that the team . . .
you and I, Madam Chai rman, met with them. I feel
very confident with the team that is there that they wi ll
get their job done, after having spoken to them about
our concerns. So I am looking forward to this upcoming year. As to whether or not we have any byeelections, we will see. But I do know that . . . yes, I hear a little chuckle there. But we do know t hat they
might be very busy this year, actually.
So what I am going to do is I am going to put
on my fancy glasses, Madam Chairman, they are purple today, I found them from a friend of mine. And so I guess what I want to know is . . . there is a real challenge with the objectives here in maintaining and ensuring that the continuous registration process is on-going, open, compliant and transparent .
I am curious, Minister, as to what would they
consider to be some of their greatest challenges as they go forwar d in maintaining this here? Certainly
around the world, you know, parliaments and the
likes, governments . . . this particular area in the
Westminster system continues to come under a bit of
scrutiny. And so I am curious as to some of the things
that they are looking at, the research that they are looking at, how other systems larger than us are meting out this very, very, very important job.
And one of the biggest challenges that it has
in Bermuda, in such a small place, is it talks about,
under its depart ment objectives, maintaining a complete and accurate and up -to-date register of voters.
In this day and age with the financial situation the way
that it is, people are moving on a regular basis, [so]
keeping that register up- to-date has become even
more ch allenging. For us that go out, when we are
going out canvassing, one minute . . . you know, Mr.
Doe (to use a fictitious name) is there and the next
month he is not there, someone else has moved in.
Whether or not they have followed up on reregistering, t hese are some of the things that I was
hoping that we would hear [about] in the brief that
would suggest some of the challenges that they are
having and how they are dealing with those challenges, because that is a massive challenge there.
And one of the other big one that all of us in
here knows is that members of Bermuda who are deceased, some of them are still on this. And there seems to be a reluctance to move them off. And I am
not sure of all of the details, but we need to find out
what is happening t here so that there is an accurate
record of eligible voters within a particular constituency.
If you move down to the very bottom objective
there, To provide prompt , and timely issuing of Apostille Certificates in an efficient manner . I know that
many of us in the House know what that is talking
about. But can the Minister give some clarification?
This is about educating the general public on these
fees, these certificates. And when we get over to the revenues, we will see it again. What is that and how
do they approve revenues from that on page B -21?

Apostille.
1324 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Apostille, yes, yes, my
apologies, yes. Thank you for that correction, so that
they w ill understand exactly what is happening there.
For the most part this particular area is
somewhat static in . . . on [page] B -20, at the very bottom where you see the totals there, you see in the
revised amount $1.4 million, and you see an estimate
of $1.5 million. That is $166,000 more that is antic ipated in spending. What we want to find out is exactly
what that is going to. And as we go through the su bjective analysis, we will get to some of those details.
But considering that the employee numbers are static
as well, what exactly are we spending an extra million
dollars on . . . $1.1—
Hon. Walton Brown: Million?
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, you are going from
your total amount of $1.4 million in the revised amount, which you actually spent, to $1.5 m illion in
the estimate.
Yes, I am sorry. In the original amount you
said that you would be spending $1.5 million, but you
did not. You wound up spending less. So the revised
amount is $1.4 million. So I am just trying to understand the philosophy behind s ome of the issues that
you might have had within the Ministry as to the for ecast in 2018/19 to be $1.5 million, but in actual fact you spent $100,000 less. And there are reasons for
that. We know that it is fine to put something . . . a
theory is a theory. But when you go to put it in practice, stuff happens. And so it would be nice to under-stand exactly . . . $100,000. It would be interesting to
find out a little more about why that is the way that it
is.
If we move down to the breakdown on page
B-20, und er 6301, [and cost centre] 73000, Admi nistration, and I took it when the Honourable Member
mentioned that it was due to overtime, preparing voters cards and supplies, and the likes under Admi nistration. And, again, I highlight the fact that the orig inal am ount and the revised amount are pretty static,
they are just about . . . pretty close to similar amounts,
maybe. What is that, a $20,000 difference? No, not
quite that, not quite that. It is a $15,000 difference. So
the estimate this year of $944,000 would suggest that
we are spending more there. That would suggest that
you believe something is coming up, I do not know
where it is coming up, but the Administration is expecting to spend about $100,000 more there. And
maybe it is a bye- election that you know about [but] I
do not know about. I do not know. But certainly, the Administration is looking to spend that extra money
and it might be nice to have some more detail to that.
Now the Boundaries Commission is quite i nteresting (the next line down, 73005). I cannot r emember, we have not . . . I know we have seen it. Did
we get the report? I am trying to remember. And so,
again, here we are. We have for 2018/19 . . . we only spent $10,000 there for the year on the Boundaries
Commission. And I know a lot of wor k was going on—

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Maybe that is the case,
then. It would be nice to let the public know that a large part of the work was done.
So if a large part of the work was done in
2018/19, for the estimate of 2019/ 20 it goes back up
to $38,000. So from $10,000 to $38,000. Again, I go
back to what is the expectation? We are expecting
already from the previous line that it is going to be
$100,000 more in Administration. Now we are saying
that for the Boundaries Commis sion . . . I do not know
what that work is. Maybe they have to go out and do something else. What is that work that they need to now do that is going to allow them to spend more
money in that area to that tune?
If you go down now to 73010, General Elections, again, we begin to see a similar situation here
whereby you have for the original amount $311,000
was expected to be spent. We certainly know why in
the actual amount of 2017/18 it was $760,000 [b ecause] there was an election during that year. So we
understand that. And we also understand in 2018/19
we had two bye- elections as well. So I could understand them coming up with that figure. But interestingly enough, they have honed in and sharpened their
pencil. They did not have to spend as much as they
anticipated. So a lesson learned there because the
revised amount is $217,000.
What is interesting, though, is for 2019/20,
considering that we had two bye- elections in 2018/19
and we spent $217,000. If you take a look at the est imate amount for 2019/20, we are pushing that
$217,000 up to $250,000. So I do not know if this is
telling a story that somebody knows something that I
do not know.

[Laughter and inaudible interjections ]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: So it would be good if the
Minister could explain to us what the mind- set is b ehind . . . what are they thinking? It could be anything.
It may be some administrative- type thing, I do not
know. But certainly under Bye- Elections and General
Elections . . . I mean, it says General and ByeElections. Why are we now jumping from $217,000 up
to $250,000 for this 2019/20?
I hear a bit of interpolation over in the bac kground. I will just say be careful what you pray for.
Politics is a really interesting thing; it swings and
swings and swings —it is a wonderful ride.
Now one of the most controversial and, certainly in the House we have had debate here, co ncerning 73015, Municipalities Elections. And, quite
frankly, we just . . . we will run it a wash. We recognise
that that is highly unlikely to happen based on legisl aBermuda House of Assembly tion that has already gone through the House. So
more power to the Parliamentary Registrar. I do not
know how the Minister is going to handle that, but they
have certainly go $76,000 allocated to this particular
area, so it is in the kitty there.
And I would say for many of these areas, after
having . . . when we had that meeting, they are understaffed, they are under -resourced, take that and use it,
because although we have a saturation of I believe it
is about 80 per cent of eligible voters in Bermuda,
80 per cent of them are signed up to vote. So, of all
the Bermudians that c an vote, I think it is that number,
you can correct me if it is wrong, it is around 78 per
cent or something. That is massive! Most countries
wish they had those kinds of numbers. You go to the
States and places like that, it is not even half that that
are actually registered as voters.
So I would encourage this Head 63, certainly,
they could use those monies to help educate Berm udians. It is tough educating us on the process. I mean,
we know our politics, we talk it every day. We have got high numbers of those who are registered to vote
as well. But the actual process itself leaves a lot to be
desired. And I know that it is tough. It is really tough
for this head to get people to under stand. You know,
when election time comes you wind up going over the
same information that you just told them last year or the year before or whatever the case. So it is a constant repeating, repeating, repeating. And I do feel for
the head because they so metimes probably feel like
they are banging their heads up against a wall in tr ying to get us to understand the process. And I say that with a bit of jest, but take those dollars and I am sure that you will use them wisely.
Now [the] Election Reform on pag e B-20 (we
are still on page B -20) item 73017, Election Reform
Research. I am really interested in hearing a little more about what we are doing there. Certainly, I
would suggest maybe . . . for their travel because you
can see under their travel, that is pretty stagnant.
They might need to do a little more travelling around
to some of the other Westminster systems and the
like, use that $76,000 from Municipalities to take a nother trip to gain a little more information in reform and
research. Certainly, we are always looking for opportunities to better our system here in Bermuda as we
look at our system.
Quite frankly, I do not think that we give
enough credit to the people who work within these areas, because if you go to some of the other countries, they just do not have a clue. And sometimes we
get upset because people do not understand the pr ocess. But you try going to jurisdictions like the United
States and the like, Madam Chairman. Their constit uents do not have a clue about how the process works
at all. So we have a lot to brag about in this particular
area. So I would like to brag about the department,
the head, and those that work within there. Keep up
the good work! And I just want to know, though, have they
identified any new reforms that we could take on? B ecause if you take a look at it, in 2017/18 it was only
. . . my goodness, it was only $85,000. And we have
gone from $85,000 right on up to $273,000 being
spent in this area. And, again, as I said, the numbers
are static over the last two years . So it would be interesting to hear a little more about what Election Reform
and Research exactly is. Is that just locally for what is
going on locally? Or does it have to do with researc hing other jurisdictions and the like and what is happening there? I t would be nice to get a little more detail so
that the public understands what is going on.
I will take a drink of water and then move on
over to [page] B -21, Madam Chairman. And I think I
will move it over here because sometimes I move my hand. Give me just a second; I am going to put my fancy purple glasses back on.
So on [page] B21, Madam Chairman, under
Subjective Analysis, I see under Salaries . . . and that
may go back to the Administration where I said that there was this $100,000 or so. So under S alaries, if
you look at the revised amount of $405,000, we orig inally said that we anticipated spending $507,000. I am
just curious as to why we did not reach that mark.
Was it difficult trying to find an extra employee or
something? What was the difficult y? Or was that due
to . . . certainly not a salary increase, that is for sure,
as to why it has gone down as the revised amount.
But we do anticipate in 2019/20, [that there
would be] $100,000 more than the revised amount. We are pretty much close to what we were thinking to
do in the original in 2018/19. And, again, it is rather
interesting, because these numbers tell a story. And if
you spend a little time you can sometimes pick out
what is going on here. And I say that in reference to
the employee numbers as they are going down for this
upcoming . . . well, according to the book here it says
down, but it is pretty static because the revised
amount is six and the estimate is six. But what does
that have to do, that difference there, between the
revised am ount and the estimate amount? And why
did we not reach the mark in 2018/19 of $507,000
coming in at $405,000, [which is] $100,000 less?
Pretty much static, the wages. You are static,
again, as far as Travel is concerned. I recognise that since 2018/19 more travel is being devoted here. I am
one that I believe that if the education is there, go and
get it. It is vital that we have our people updated, even
though stuff is online, it is nothing like actually being in
the mix and being next to people as you are training
and viewing other systems and the likes. So I do not
have a challenge there at all. I believe that, again,
they should do more and take that $76,000 from over
in Municipalities and get your people well trained or
bring the training here, whatever it is. I do not know.
Now if I look at Communications, again, it is
rather static. But I was very curious about the Adver-tising and Promotion. And I remember . . . I recall the
1326 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Minister saying that it had to do with . . . well, Adverti sing and Promotion, kind of smooth over it very quickly.
What kind of advertising do we do? And what kind of
promotions do we have?
Maybe this is a great opportunity for the Mini ster to advertise, to do an advert while we are doing the Budget Debate, some of the Advertising and Prom otions to speak to what those Advertising and Prom otions are (and maybe not all of them, but maybe some of them). It would be a great opportunity for him to
exercise that. But, again, those numbers are pretty
much static. So what I can . . . what I am reading from
these numbers, Madam Chairman, is that this partic ular head and the . . . and I am trying to recall the name
of the head of Parliamentary Registrar —

Hon. Walton Brown: Parliamentary Registrar?

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes.
Hon. Walton B rown: Tenia Woolridge.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Ms. Woolridge. Certainly,
you can see here, if you are looking at the numbers,
they know what they are talking about. And when you
look at these numbers and you go back through the
history, they are learning from those previous
amounts as to what they should and should not do,
whether it is working or not working. You can see that
based on these numbers.
And so, gain, I tip my hat to them as they are
pretty consistent, increasing a little more here where they believe . . . and you can tell where the emphasis
is as they increase a little more. Maybe last year they
spent $400,000, this year they are spending
$420,000. So something is working. And it is nice to
see numbers like that because it does suggest that
management is getting on with the job and they are
managing well.
Now, I think, the one thing that kind of jumped
out to me was the Materials and Supplies. It is such a
menial thing when you talk about Materials and Supplies with that title. But we only spent $90,000 in r evised amount on [page] B -21, Madam Chairman, under Materials and Supplies. The original was $129,000. And, you know what Materials and Supplies . . . that . . . we know that we have bye- elections, but
that was the original amount and we spent less. To
now we are going to back up to $126,000. Maybe it is
just paper, I do not know. Maybe paper is costing
more or something, who knows. I am not sure about
that.
So, again, I just wanted to say under Subjective Analysis (as a guide to the public), when we are
looking at us as MPs and scrutinising and debating back and forth, when we look at the Subjective Anal ysis the numbers are saying a whole lot more than just
numbers —additions and subtractions. The whole idea
is to get around the core of this here to start adding some leaves to it and make it live and threedimensional so that people understand exactly what
people are doing and they can appreciate it.
You know I have said several times in the d ebates over the budget that if we do not give answers, then people come to their own conclusions. And you
know what happens then. It goes all over the place.
And rather than it being green, it is red, [that] type of
thing. So, you know? Or they come together and work
well together and it is Christmastime.
But I will move on down, Madam Chairman, to
the Revenue source, 8440. I have already asked the question to that particular area. Under the revised
amount we can certainly see that we spent . . . there
is a zero there. I am just curious as to why that is. And
then we go up to $350,000. Again, I mentioned some
of that already. If the Minister could then give us an understanding of what is happening there and a descriptive detail of what that is.
I will move down to the Employee Numbers at
the very bottom of [page] B -21, Madam Chairman.
And, again, as I said, if we compare the original seven
employees to the revised amount, which is six e mployees, it appears as if the Ministry is content with six
because they are saying that for 2019/20 that they are
going to maintain themselves under General and ByeElections at six.
So, obviously, not much to squabble with
there. But if I was trying to understand the budget in its totality over on [page] B -20 of a million dollars
more, $1.1 million, and understanding the subjective
analysis, I am not sure how that plays into the . . .
employee numbers would suggest that they are happy. They have just got to perform in other areas better
. . . and will.
I will go over to [page] B -22. And over on
[page] B -22 are the Performanc e Measures. And,
again, I need to put on those colourful purple glasses, the writing is very small on this page. And so if we start at the very top there we see where it says “Number of new voter registration forms processed: Form 1
(New Registration); For m 2 (Change Registration).”
And I was bringing up the fact before that people are
moving more and more. On an Island as small as this,
you would not think, but people are moving on a reg ular basis. And I can understand that for the 2017/18,
when we had the election, why that number is as large
as it is.
For 2018/19, we forecasted 200. We are co ming in at 200. And the outcome of this year is 50,000
more towards the change in registrations, which now I begin to understand they are putting some emphasis
here i n attempting to get to that issue that I brought up
about people moving and the like. So that would suggest (the target outcome) that they recognise and,
again, these numbers go back to really explaining
what they are doing. It suggests then that they know
that there is a challenge there and they are trying to


Bermuda House of Assembly get on top of it and are putting more resources there.
So if he could confirm that.
If we go down further on [page] B -22 under
Performance Measures you will see “Parliamentary
Registry will employ nine Field Registration officers” and it goes on to say that this is 75 per cent of this
total number of households. If you go across there to
the revised and the targeted amounts, it says, “Hire
two officers as needed to investigate specific events,
hire two officers as needed to investigate specific
events” and I am assuming that this is a fail -safe, they
do not know what is coming up because, at the end of the day, they do not know if a bye- election is coming
or not or whatever the case may be.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: What was that? I missed it,
say it again.
[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Cut and paste, eh?

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: So what . . . yes, put my
purple glasses on.
So, maybe just give us a little more information on that. I think I know what it pertains to.
Continuing down under 73005, Boundaries
Commission. As I said, we spoke a little more about
that, and so I believe the new boundaries will be in effect with any new bye-elections that take place.
They certainly were not in effect during the 2017/18
election. But now that that is through we know that
there will be new boundaries. And by the way, I am
just curious as to this Boundaries Commission, if I . . .
it just cam e to me, sorry. If you will give me just a m inute . . .
Yes, with Advertising and Promotion being
pretty static, I was quite surprised then, considering the boundaries have changed, that there probably was not a slight increase in the advertising amount
because that is vital to all of the constituencies knowing the new boundary changes. And that is going to
take some time to get people to understand what
those new boundaries are. And this is the second one
that I have been through in . . . I guess, I have been in
this for eight years now. Time has gone by quite fast. So I would be curious as to how they are getting the
information out there now with the new boundary changes.
Bear with me just a minute. Okay, I asked that
question already. And over on [page] B -23, again, we
are talking under Head 63, Parliamentary Registrar, the 73015, Municipalities Elections. I know that we
have allocated those monies. I also recognise that it is
up in the air right now. We do not know where that is going to go, especiall y now that we understand that
the corporations are taking legal action. So that mon-ey might still be used, I do not know. Who knows what
is going to happen?
But I do take to heart . . . I am now curious
then, what role, as we move forward . . . and hopefully
that has already been discussed with you, Minister.
So what role will you now play as the Minister of this
particular area? What role will this Parliamentary Re gister play in the new formation of what happens to the Corporations, both St. George’s and Hamilton? Will
this continue to be a head under this particular area?
Will it be called something else? I mean, if the changes are to take place by May, then that is literally right
around the corner. We are only talking about a month
and a week or two, tw o weeks from now.
How are they going to be involved in this
whole process? Have any discussions been had as to what (if it happens or does not happen) is expected of
them? And I think it would only be fair to this particular
area and the management team t here to know what is
going on with only a month and two weeks possibly to
where they need to know whether they are allocating
monies for this particular area.
And so this is not a large head, as I mentioned, a section area here. The people have done
well, Madam Chairman. I like the team that they have
and look forward to hearing the answers from the Mi nister.

Thank you, Madam Chairman.
I just have two questions dovetailing on the
points that the Leader of the Opposition made. Both of
them are under Head 63.
The first is in relation to line item 73015. And if
I understood the Minister, what he was saying is that
the allocation, the estimated allocation for the next
fiscal year of $76,000, is just a provisional allocation.
They have allocated money for an election that they
thought might happen. We now learn from the Bill passed on Wednesday night, which may or may not
pass through the Senate, that it may not be necessary, but the money is there. I think that is what the
Minister said in his brief, and I just wanted to confirm
that the money is there. And that is my first of two
questions.
And Madam Chai rman, the second of my two
questions [concerns] line item 73005 in respect of the
1328 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Boundaries Commission. And this was a point, again,
touched on by the Leader of the Opposition, but if I
could just drill on this just a little bit further just to see
if we can find common ground.
As I understand it the Boundaries Commi ssioners are only empanelled every seven years. We have just completed a successful Bo undaries Commission, which was tabled before this House in the
last calendar year, namely 2018. Therefore, the next
Boundaries Commission, absent something unexpected, will not be until 2025. And I think those are all common ground, those facts. And if those are factually common ground, what possible need could there be
to spend $38,000 in respect of the Boundaries Commission in the next year?
One could anticipate that there might be some
advertising. As the Leader of the Opposition noted, there will be a boundary change which takes effect at
the next general election —not the bye -election, the
general election. But even so $38,000 for a nonexistent Boundaries Commission does sound a little bit high. Perhaps that could be explained.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Thank you, Member.
Is there any other Member that wishes to
speak?
Minister Walton Brown, you have the floor.

Hon. Walton Brown: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
The first point is that the $76,000 is money
that has been allocated for the Municipal Election, but
it may not be used, as we all know, if the legislation is passed. And so that is very clear. It is put aside and
will just go back into the pool for other use.
The issue about deceased voters being on the
register. The Parliamentary Registrar’s office works
very hard and carefully to extract names from the reg-ister for people who are deceased. So they do that on
a routine basis, they do that on a regular basis.
The issue of people who move. There are
people who move all the time and there is an effort made by the people who go around checking on houses. Every year, every so often, the Parliamentary
Registrar sends people out to different houses to
check on voter registration and to marry -up the people
who are living there with the act ual voter registration.
That is an ongoing process that is undertaken.
Electoral Reform, that money is spent on r esearch primarily to look at a number of different i ssues. One issue is the question of the visually i mpaired being allowed to vote and so the research has
been undertaken in that regard to afford a measure of
success in ensuring the visually impaired are able to
vote. Also, the sick and shut -in, [research to] create a
methodology for them to be able to vote as well.
As I said earlier, it is hard work to get people
to change their address. Part of the money that is expended on PR and Communications is the voter regi s-tration process to let people know they should be registered, they should change the voting address once
they move. That is all par t of the educational process.
I believe those are the main questions that
were asked. The Boundaries Commission work is on-going, and that money is allocated for that work.
The Apostille generates additional revenue for
the Government. That is ongoing work that is generat-ing revenue.
This issue of the Salar ies at $507,000 versus
$400,000, that was an unfilled post so that is why the
amount was lower. And there is no anticipated need to
hire an additional person this coming year.
Okay, I think that is it for now.

Is there any other Member that would
like to speak?
I recognise the Member from constituency 23,
Pat Gordon- Pamplin.
You have the floor.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Madam Cha irman, in the Minist er’s response
just now he indicated about the voter’s requirement to
change their address within, I think, it is 30 days or 90
days of their moving. And my question is: What is the
follow -up if somebody refuses to do so? And I say that
by way of explanation. I have had people say to me,
I’m not changing my address from where I lived in P aget to where I have moved to elsewhere because my
vote is worth more. T hat is one instance.
I also have a situation in which I have sent n otification to the office of the Parliamentary Registrar
for an individual who has never lived in the house
where they are registered in my constituency . The
place has been rented out to expats for the entire time
that I have been responsible for that constituency —
not the whole 20 years, but since I gained that area.
And the owner of the house is registered in that
house, it does not . . . I would not know the person if
they stood in front of me. So I am just curious as to
how we could follow those kinds of things up so that
we know that t he register is appropriately reflective.

MP Furbert, you have the floor.



Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: That is four, five, and six by
the way.

[Laughter]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Madam Cha irman, I believe
the Honourable Member . . . somebod y asked about
the . . . I think the general elections and bye- elections.
I believe one of the Members asked about that.
I mean, the numbers are here. I mean, the
director, of course, put the funding in here. You never
know what is going to happen. It is n ot that anyone
knows it is going to take place, but you have to always
be prepared. And at the Ministry of Finance, we will
monitor these things quite closely.

[Inaudible interjections ]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: And if it is not used then, of
course, there are certain times (like, let us say, from
January to March) we know we are free if certain
things do not take place. So we expect . . . and like I
said, if it does not take place, then you will probably see that $250,000 down to . . . for the revised, prob ably [down to] zero next year unless something came
up.
I think the Boundaries Commission is appointed, you had mentioned, again, this is something that they are prepared in case . . . as you know, all of
us are asking for the boundary changes that are taking place and want copies of maps and a whole bunch
of other things that we may be asking for. And I am
sure the director is preparing just in case any one of us—36 Members . . . I am not saying a map will cost a
thousand dollars, but there are things that they have
to prepare for.
And yes, there are from time to time . . . I noticed an Honourable Member talked about people not
living in certain areas. That is a big challenge, I accept that. I do my best to try to get people as much as possible, I think, there may be something in the Act that
allows the director to deal with it, but I am not sure
whether the Minister has a response to that one, but I know that . . . I know of times when I have taken
names up there that they have taken people off the list, unless they can prove otherwise that they live in a
certain house. But I just wanted to answer particularly
those number parts.
Thank you.

Thank you, Member.
Is there any other Member that wishes to
speak? I recognise the Member from cons tituency 19,
Jeanne Atherden.
You have the floor.

Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Thank you, Madam
Chairman. A couple of questions and I do apologise if I
missed hearing this, but with respect to Electoral R eform Research, et cetera. I wonder if the Minister
could indicate whether part of the electoral reform r esearch is going to look into the concept of absentee
voting.
And the second question relates to the Electoral Reform Research as well as the Boundaries Commission. And the reason I am putting these two
together is I know that there has been some concern
about . . . and this ties into what my colleague said,
this concern about where people actually live. And I know at one stage . . . and I sat on the Boundaries
Commission (not this one, but the one before) when
people were trying to figure out . . . if you knew how
many voters were on the Island and then you try to figure out what the average size of a constituency
should be. That is a number that the Boundaries
Commission would start working towards. And then
when they are setting the boundaries they would be
looking to make sure, if they had to move a boundary,
that they would move it to make sure that you would not have, as in one constituency where there were
1,400 voters versus another which was 1,100 wh ich
means that you do not actually get the concept of one man, one vote or one woman, one vote.
And so I just wondered has there been any
consideration to try and marry up the Boundaries Commission with the next census? And is there going
to be any sort of suggestion that we do start to try and
make sure that where people live, they vote? B ecause, as my colleague said, if you do not know that
you need to speak to Helen because Helen is going to
vote in your constituency but she lives somewhere
else, then yo u do not have the opportunity for her to
be able to get the appreciation of who is going to re present her and ask the questions.
Thank you very much, Madam Chairman.

Thank you, Madam Chairman.
You will recall that I posed two questions, one
of which related to the Boundaries Commission and
queried the figure of $38,000, w hich is line item
73005, under Head 63.
The response from the Minister was that the
Boundaries Commission is ongoing and there are
costs. The response from the Junior Minister across
the way, I think, was that that $38,000 might be the
cost of producing s ome maps, et cetera, et cetera.
Let me just first of all clarify. My understanding is that the Boundaries Commission of 2018—

1330 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: Excuse me, Member, is you micr ophone on?

[It is] 2017, I am grateful for the
MP from c onstituency 11 correcting me—2017— later
tabled in the House.
So I think it is correct, unless someone wants
to correct me and my understanding, that we will not
see another Boundaries Commission empanelled until
2025, seven years later. In respect to the answer
about maps, I would be grateful to know. I am able to
go on www.elections.gov.bm
and press a button and
print a map for free, so I perhaps could have greater clarity on this $38,000, maps.

Thank you, Member.
Is there any other Member that wishes to
speak?
Minister?

Hon. Walton Brown: The $38,000 represents anci llary costs that are involved in carrying out the work of
the Boundaries Commission. So it is just ancillary
work. It is an estimat e of the amount of money that is
going to be expended. It is not hard and fast.
In regard to MP Atherden’s comments, the
work of the Boundaries Commission is always designed to ensure that there is equality of voting in all
constituenc ies. So it looks at the census figures, it
obviously looks at census figures, as a guide to pr edicting how many people should be in each constit uency . They used it as a base for determining the size
of each constituency . So last time it was about 1,200
per constituency and that is the rule of thumb that they
adopted and it was adopted across the board. So all constituenc ies are meant to have the same amount of
voters in them and that is the issue.
With regard to absentee voters, people who
no longer live in a constituency , yet are registered in a
constituency —that is an ongoing battle. And I take the
point. The Parliamentary Registrar’s office tries very hard to get people to change their addresses in 28
days. And I know that in some cases they have act ually moved some people, but it is a difficult thing to
take someone off the voters’ registration list. You cannot just take someone off. You cannot physically r emove someone from the voters’ registration list. And that is one of the challenges that they face. They have scrutineers that help the parties in
each of the constituenc ies, so that is ongoing work as
well.
And the deceased list is provided by the Registrar General. Persons who die . . . or are registered
here are taken off the list.

Thank you, Minister.
Is there any other Member that wishes to
speak?
I recognise the Member from constituency 19,
MP Jeanne Atherden.
You have the floor.

Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Thank you, Madam
Chairman.
Minister, I do not think you responded to my
question about absentee balloting, whether that was
under consideration. That’s the first thing.
And the second thing is that I just . . . I guess,
I need to clarify something. And this is in respect to the Parliamentary Registrar and people not living in a
constituency . Bec ause the only time that I am aware
of this sort of . . . people saying, Well, you don’t live
here and therefore, you’re going to be moved, is at the
time of an election or bye- election when someone
challenges someone and then they make the person either sw ear they are not . . . now, to me, that seems
counterproductive.
That seems counterproductive. If somebody
should have been moved, then why are you waiting
until such time as an election to challenge them?
Surely if people are able to say Helen lives here and
there is someone that could say, She is my tenant, or
whatever else, or, although Helen lives here, George
is already living in the place where she says she lives,
surely that has got to be enough. And I think it just
concerns me that we are not able to get people in the
places where they live because that, to me, says that
we are now not starting to look at this whole thing of
one man, one vote, and then you are starting to have
the Bermuda equivalent of gerrymandering.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Hon. Walton Brown: Well, I would not go so far —

Thank you, Member.
Is there any other Member that wishes to
speak?
Minister?
Hon. Walton Brown: I would not go so far as to call it
gerrymandering. But it is an issue that requires it b eing a ddressed. I take the point —the requesting a ddress.
The second point about the absentee vote,
that is a valid issue. That is something that we did not
have currently under consideration, but it is something that we will consider in due course.


Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman : Thank you, Minister.
Is there any other Member that wishes to
speak?
I recognise the Leader of the Opposition,
Craig Cannonier.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
[Page] B -20, I was asking under 73017, Election Reform Research, consi dering the amount there
in relation to the history, we still have not gotten an
explanation as to what that is. I gave some examples
of what I thought it might be, but exactly what is that?

Hon. Walton Brown: What?

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: In 73017, Elec tion Reform
Research—

Hon. Walton Brown: Yes.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: —and I gave samples of
whether away, locally, but —

Hon. Walton Brown: I told you what it was.

Thank you, Member.
Minister?
Hon. Walton Brown: I answered the question. I said
that it involves researching various components of
electoral reform, including the sick and shut -in, getting
them to be able to vote; the visually impaired, getting
them to be able to vote and so forth. That is part of the
research that is require d.
Let me just add another point about the ability
to move people. If the parties provide scrutineers, as
is required under the legislation, then the scrutineers
can assist in getting people moved from one constit uency to another. So that is a fact that i s already in existence.
Just some other issues that involve part of the
reform process, including the campaign finance regulations, part of the reform process, travel, courses,
information sessions, legal advice, conferences and
training. Those are all di fferent components involved
in the electoral reform process.

Turn your microphone on, please.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: —[page] B -20, Electoral
Reform Research, 73017. And having been through a
couple of elections I know that the process . . . there
was a process already in place for the visually i mpaired. And we already have amounts that we can see
of $85,000 that went towards stuff like that there. But
we are talking about not just double and triple that
amount for this parti cular area. So it cannot just be for,
you know, visually impaired, when we have a process
in place for that. If we do not have a process, then I
would like to hear it, but I know that we have had a
process because we had to get them to the polls to
vote.

Thank you, Member.
Minister?

Hon. Walton Brown: Actually, we started a process,
but the process was never completed, so it was not
applied in the last election.
As I said, the other items involving the electoral reform process involves cam paign finance reg ulations —

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Regulations?

Hon. Walton Brown: Yes. [There will be] a number of
courses, information sessions that are going to be public sessions for parliamentary reform, legal advice,
conferences and training. Thes e are all included in the
process of electoral reform.

Thank you, Minister.
Is there any other Member that wishes to
speak?
I recognise the Member from constituency 19,
MP Atherden.
You have the floor.

Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Thank you, Madam
Chairman.
Minister, you made the comment with respect
to scrutineers and that by having scrutineers this
should solve the issue of people moving, et cetera.
But I think unless you recognise that scrutineers have
to be on the basis of each group whi ch wants to come
and work on the problem [saying] these people are in
the wrong place, but each group is happy to have
someone [vote] in the wrong place [if] the vote is ben-eficial to them. So I do believe that perhaps we should
try and come up with something else that does not
require people having to sort of be committed to the
process.
The other question that I just wanted to ask
the Minister: There has been a concern about the amount of information that political parties get and,
thus, their MPs get in order to go out and canvass
1332 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly individuals, and I wondered whether as part of the
electoral reform research whether the department
would look at the fact that if they get telephone numbers, cell phone numbers, whether they would reach
out to the electorate t o say that unless someone says
they do not want that information to be circulated, that
that information will be given to everybody so that they
can make the contact with them. Because I do believe
that we want . . . I think most constituen ts want som ebody to come and talk to them, talk about what their
platform [is] and allow them to be able to have that contact. So, perhaps, the Registrar could consider
reaching out to the electorate to say that if we have
your number, unless you say not to, we can dissem inate that to the parliamentarians.
Thank you, Madam Chai rman and the Mini ster.

Thank you, Member.
Is there any other Member that wishes to
speak?
MP Furbert, constituency 6, you have the
floor.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Thank you , Madam Chairman.
Let me . . . look, we will never have 100 per
cent where . . . when you are canvassing and ever yone is in order . . . in place. There are thousands of
people that move about in Bermuda regularly. So
scrutineers play one role, but we ourselves . . . if we
canvass and we know our people, then anybody that
comes to that poll that I know votes against me,
stands a chance of taking a risk. You can challenge
that person on the day. And so, we cannot expect the
department to do everything. We have a role to play
and, like I said, if anyone is coming to vote (I use the
word vote) against me, takes a risk.

[Laughter]

Thank you, Madam Chairman.
I am going to take one last stab at this
Boundaries Commission. I am grateful to the Honourable Member from constituency 11, behi nd me, who
has reminded me how the constitutional process
works. And that is, there is a Boundaries Commission,
and they do not sit for at least three years and they
must sit before seven years. And so there is a const i-tutional appointment by which a Commi ssion is e mpanelled, it spends money, it does its job, it tables its report, and it ceases to be empanelled.
And so, again, and finally (I will not ask it
again, but let me try it this last time), if there is no Boundaries Commission appointed at the moment, if
there is no Boundaries Commission empanelled at the
moment, who is the “they” that is spending the money?
Or am I wrong and has a Boundaries Commission been appointed in anticipation of the period 2021 to 2025 and we simply do not know that?
Thank y ou.

Thank you, Member.
Minister?

Hon. Walton Brown: No, there is no Boundaries
Commission appointed and no Boundaries Commi ssion is in operation today. The work and the expend iture comes under the Parliamentary Registrar’s office,
but it c omes under the head of the Boundaries Commission because that is the work that is being r equested, if anyone is seeking a map or any other such
matter.

Twenty -two.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: If you look under Head 63
under Parliamentary [Registrar], the Current Account
Analysis, I am sure that the $38,000 is somewhere in
Advertising and Promotion. But I think when she does
the summary, and I could be wrong, she is saying that
the $38,000 is for . . . it is to do with the Boundaries
Commission. All ri ght? So it is in Advertising and
Promotion, but it is because this has to do with the
Boundaries Commission. That is the way I see it an yway.

Thank you , Madam
Chairman.
I just want to address the concern of the
Member from constituency 19. If you have two parties,
both obviously want to win their seat, but if they are


Bermuda House of Assembly both heavily canvassing every house, they will come
up with . . . both will come up with whatever is inacc urate. And from my experience, whenever I have taken something to the Parliamentary Registrar to say this
person has moved, this person has died, this one
does not like their momma, so they live in Somers et,
they have acted on that. And I give a lot of credit to
them because they then follow up. They do not just
take our word for it, they follow up.

Thank you, Member.
Are there any other Members w ho wish to
speak?
Minister, you have the floor.

Hon. Walton Brown: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Just to reiterate the point about the scrut ineers. The scrutineers cannot go to every single house. They go to as many as they can. But the parties must play a role in addressing the issue of scrut ineers, and that is just the reality of it.

Premier.

Hon. E. David Burt: I had to keep it a little bit fun.

HEAD 43 —DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION
AND DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

Hon. E. David Burt: Mada m Chairman, it gives me
great pleasure to present the budget for Head 43—the
Department of Information and Digital Technologies, found on pages B -62 through B -65 of the Budget
Book.
Madam Chairman, the department’s mission
is to empower ministries, departments and civil ser vants to improve productivity and services by providing
IT consulting services and core IT infrastructure at a
reasonable cost.
The department seeks to fulfil its mandate by
empowering ministries, departments and civil servants
to improve productivity and services by providing IT
consulting services and core IT infrastructure at a reasonable cost. Furthermore, working with departments
and ministries to identify and progress opportunities for the creation and deployment of online content,
transactions, systems and services that meet the
1334 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly needs of government, citizens, businesses and the
volunteer sector.

Expenditure Overview

Hon. E. David Burt: Madam Chai rman , the total current expenditure of the Department of Information and Digital Techno logies found on page B -62 is estimated
to be $6,627,000 for 2019/20 which is a decrease of
$63,000 from the 2018/19 fiscal year.
Madam Chairman, the Subjective Analysis of
Current Account Estimates of the Department of I nformation and Digital Technologies is found on page
B-63. The focus will be on the four line items with the
greatest absolute change. Rentals, line item 9, decreased by $163,000, or 16 per cent. The lease for
our building was renegotiated for a $72,000 decrease
and our Server Rental Facilit ies was decreased by
$91,000.
Madam Chairman, the budget for Repair and
Maintenance, line item 10, increased by $126,000, or 35 per cent. This increase is mainly attributed to i ncreased costs for software maintenance to support new systems.
Madam Chairman, the budget for Communications, line item 6, increased by $111,000, or 9 per
cent. The Data Lines increased by $95,000 and the Overseas Networks/Internet increased by $16,000.
Madam Chairman, the budget for Salaries,
line item 1, decreased by $72,000, or 2 per cent due
primarily to a vacant post being unfunded due to the
requirement to fund the salary uplift and adhere to the
department’s budget ceiling.

Capital Expenditure

Hon. E. David Burt: Madam Chairman, the Capital
Acquisition for the Department of Information and
Digital Services found on page C -9, makes provision
for new capital expenditure in the amount of $2,175,000, an increase of $375,000. Funding will be
used to upgrade to newer software licences, enhance
IT security systems, implement a new t elephone sy stem, develop new digitised business systems, enhance server farm and increase server capacity to
accommodate growth.

Manpower

Hon. E. David Burt: Madam Chairman, the Manpo wer for the Department of Digital and Information Tec hnologies, on page B-63 decreased from 40 full -time
equivalents in 2018/19 to 39. Presently, there are
three funded vacant positions.
Recruitment is currently underway and the
department aims to fill these positions within the
budget year.
Output Measures

Hon. E. David Burt: Madam Chairman, the Depar tment of Information and Digital Technologies [IDT] Output Measures, are found on pages B -64 and B -65
of the Budget Book. Selected indicators under each
business unit are outlined as follows:
Business unit 53030—Device Suppor t.
Indicator: To resolve and repair service tickets
within Service Level Targets. Target for 2018/19:
85 per cent were forecast to be completed within Service Level Target. Actual outcome 2018/19: 80 per
cent was achieved within Service Level Target due
primarily to decrease in manpower in this section. IDT
has since recruited in this section and now fully
staffed. The target for 2019/20 is 85 per cent due in
part to the implementation of modernised device
management systems. Which if there are any questions on [it], I will be happy to speak to later, as I have
tested it out myself.
Business unit 53035—Network Support.
Indicator: Network monitoring, resolve repair
and service tickets within Service Level Targets. Tar-get for 2018/19: 85 per cent was forecaste d. The actual outcome for 2018/19: Achieved 70 per cent due
primarily to increase in service tickets related to tel ephone incidents. The target for 2019/20 is 85 per cent.
Business unit 53040— Service Support.
Indicator: Manage tickets and resolve account
administration within Service Level Targets. Target
was 80 per cent that was forecasted. The actual outcome achieved was 95 per cent due in part to fully
manned service desk. The target for 2019/20 is 98 per
cent completion within Service Level Target due in
part to the now introduction of self -service tools for
public sector employees.
Business unit 53050—Digital Services.
Indicator: Consulting and advising, and public
satisfaction with availability use and selection of Gov-ernment online services. Target 2018/19: 60 per cent
was forecasted. Actual outcome: Achieved 60 per
cent due in part to only one full -time equivalent wor king in this unit. The target for 2019/20 is 70 per cent
due in part to the addition of two business process analysts.
Business unit 5 3060— Business Systems
Support.
Indicator: Conduct routine monthly Service
Level Review meetings with key departments, annual
review of service level targets with departments and
manage application support tickets. Target for 2018/19 was 85 per cent and the actual target
achieved, Madam Chairman, was 80 per cent due in
part to a reduction in full -time equivalents in this unit.
The target for 2019/20 is 90 per cent due in part to the
introduction of a new IT governance model, which I will get to a little bit later in my brief.
Business unit 53090— Security.


Bermuda House of Assembly Indicator: Disaster Recovery exercises
planned and executed, servers [checked] on a mont hly basis. Target: 100 per cent was forecasted. Actual
outcome: Not Achieved. This was due in part to the
Accountant General Department’s focus on develop-ing and implementing a new E1 system. The target for
2019/20 is now 100 per cent as it is anticipated that
the E1 upgrades will be completed by April 2019 at
which time a full Disaster Recovery exercise will coordinated and executed.

Plans for the Upcoming Year

Hon. E. David Burt: I will now move on, Madam
Chairman to plans for the upcoming year.
The Department of Information and Digital
Technologies will continue with the development of its
core services in the upcoming year by focusing on
eight key strategic areas.
The first, infrastructure stability and secure
network. Work in this area will progress by enhancing the Government department’s network in building
communications performance by doubling bandwidth
requirements. This will impact more than 140 loc ations throughout the Island. Further, IDT will continue
to roll out cell service systems, such as account
password management, and improve the overall net-work security with state- of-the-art artificial intelligence,
security monitoring and management systems.
The department will introduce a new state- ofthe-art phone system to replace the current and aged
and now unstable phone system and reduce the need for traditional phone sets with the introduction of a voice app that will be accessible on any device from
anywhere that can access the Internet. And I am sure
Members will be aware of the numerous different
phone systems that exist within Government. Well, the
plan is to eliminate those and have one.
IDT will focus on l everaging the use of local
cloud services to facilitate the delivery of specific a pplications with far less technical complexity and r educe the need to rely upon strained IDT engineering resources, thereby allowing IDT to focus more on business value and l ess on complex IT engineering
builds.
The second item is the budget efficiency initi ative. Work has commenced on streamlining specific
core IT services to achieve greater economy of scale
through negotiating vendor service contracts across
Government. This process will ultimately serve to r educe IT costs of operation when compared to the a lternative monthly service agreements. An example of this is the recent renegotiation of the bandwidth service agreement wherein a $70,000 annual savings will
be realised.
In addition, IDT is investigating generic personal computing devices (PCs) that will essentially perform the same tasks as more expensive namebrand models, but at half the cost. Upon conclusion of the generic PC analysis it is anticipated that IDT may
reduce its annual spend on PC upgrades and r eplacements by as much as 50 per cent.
Third item. IT Governance. It is expected that
implementation of an IT Governance policy will result
in IDT overseeing all IT projects and acquisitions to
ensure that IT purchases and the business needs are
properly aligned, thereby creating greater efficiencies
within Government and strengthening Government’s
return on investment and the fit between technology
and business operations. An additional point in this is to ensure t hat our IT systems that are procured act ually talk to one another as opposed to operating in
isolation.
As a result of a recent system -wide IT project
review, 31 separate IT projects in progress have now been deferred. These projects will be considered in accordance with the IT Governance policy, and it is
expected that they will be assessed and based on
alignment and value for money.
And just to speak very briefly on that, Madam
Chairman, if I may, there are a number of various IT
projects in various IT departments which could be accomplished by a single system serving multiple d epartments as opposed to individual systems for ind ividual departments. So that entire list has been put on
hold while we assess what is actually needed at this
point in time and focus on the priority services to be achieved, and also things that can deliver digital se rvices very quickly to the citizens of Bermuda.
Regarding e- payment, in moving towards a f uture form of Government for the people of Bermuda IDT will continue to work t owards digitising the deli very of services and payment processes. The focus will be on targeting specific manual processes that create
unnecessary frustration with archaic business delivery
models that have failed to evolve over decades. And
this is my fav ourite story, Madam Chairman, that I will
share, and I am sure that the Member for constitue ncy 1, who is not here today, will be happy to know that
we are trying to resolve this issue.
By way of example, a resident who was seeking to book a room at a comm unity centre for an event
in the town of St. George is currently required to—
after reserving that space in St. George’s —is required
to travel to the Accountant General’s Cashiers Office
in Hamilton to facilitate the payment for the use of the
facility and then to return back to St. George’s —or for
schools —or to return back to that particular place and
then show the receipt in order to confirm the booking
for that particular place.
And now, Madam Chairman, this is 2019, we
are holding ourselves out as a technology -friendly j urisdiction, but we still have these manual processes. So we are focusing on e- payments to make sure that
all these particular individual instances of payments can be handled online through a particular app and that will make things a lot more efficient.

1336 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly [Inaudible interjection]

Hon. E. David Burt: I cannot hear the interpolations
for the Member who is not in her seat, but I will continue, Madam Chairman.
Of course, this represents a needless commute and time wasted for residents, and such pr ocesses will be the subject of streamlining and delivery of online automated booking and payment systems.
The next project will be eID. In addition to epayments IDT will focus on the delivery of a unique identifier across all Government systems. A unique
identifier is essentially a single -user identification to be
used by a citizen of Bermuda that is linked to Government business systems across numerous data ba-ses.

Sorry, I just did not hear you clearly.
Thank you.
Hon. E. David Burt: No problem. I will start again, if I
may.
[The next project will be] eID. In addition to epayments, IDT will focus on the delivery of a unique
identifier or electronic identity. An electronic identit y is
essentially a single- user identification to be used by
the citizens of Bermuda that is linked to various go vernment business systems across numerous data bases. eID will make the process of registering and ap-plying for specific government services eas ier in the
future with the introduction of online, one stop friendly, interfaces that will be accessible across various go vernment affiliated agencies.
IDT will focus on delivering two key initiatives
with revised regulatory structure to attract new bus inesses to the Island and a proof of concept for “know
your customer” and anti -money laundering to replicate
current KYC and AML processes performed by local
banks that will be enabled by way of blockchain tec hnology to avoid needless replication of tedious m anual
processes.
By way of example, I can give one example
for this and this is eID on a broader sense, but on a
smaller sense if we talk about basically the ability of government systems to talk to one another and the
ability for us to gather information.
Some questions that have been asked and
posed in this House, for instance, are: How can we,
for instance, know how many persons in the Depar tment of Workforce Development have actually been
able to get jobs, specifically? And this reporting is not
yet don e, if someone is placed in a job they may not
inform Workforce Development, but, if for instance, at
Workforce Development, there was a single identifier
and that single identifier, you could then see if this person is then added to the social insurance roles,
then you can say that they have now received a pos ition.
Those are things that can be done completely
automated [and] do not require a government employee to check separate systems. But if that identifier is not there that is shared across systems, then it
would be difficult to get that information. So those are
things which we are looking to do at the outset. And,
as I said, there were 31 IT projects and we are now
simplifying it to eight specific things that the IDT is focused on so that we can achie ve these quick wins
and make sure we can make progress.
Item number six is training. IDT has commi tted to enhancing their staff’s skill set to better serve
the Government IT user base.

[Crosstalk ]

Hon. E. David Burt: Sorry.
IDT has committed to enhancing their staff’s
skill set to better serve the Government IT user base,
and a specific focus has been placed on project management professional training and certification. The
project management professional certification will ensure IDT staff, who will be r esponsible for project
management, are adept at managing IT governance
and will lead the IT project implementation by reduc-ing the need for external IT project management consultants and directly assist departments with key IT
project management initiatives.
Item number seven—document collaboration.
IDT has identified existing desktop office tools and
potential new desktop office application solutions that will modernise desktop applications with document
and file collaboration tools or systems to set up to help
multiple people work together on a single document
and file to achieve a single final version. This will r esult in reducing superfluous time spent and user frus-tration tracking and modifying disparate government edits by allowing users to contribute and collaborate in
real time on one master document.
Item number eight —telecom cost savings. IDT
has embarked on a rigorous audit of disparate phone services throughout Government and the associated
funding. IDT has identified over seven figures in frag-mented telecom budget that after rationalisation of
those funds can be repurposed and consolidated for


Bermuda House of Assembly specific IT projects managed by IDT where it simply
makes sense and will achieve greater value for money. As IDT moves forward with plans to introduce a
new phone service, it is anticipated that some of the
identified fragmented budget can be used to fund this
project and, in doing so, will reduce the Government’s
overall telecom operational budget requirements.
Madam Chairman, Information Technology is
essential to the everyday operation of the Government as many of the services offered simply would not be
available without it. In order for the Department of I nformation and Digital Technologies to advance its services, support and communications it is anticipated
that the Department of IDT will undergo a comprehensive review by the Management and Consultant Sec-tion of the Cabinet Office to ensure proper alignment
of resources and structure to meet the ever -growing
IT demands by the Government to deliver as we seek
to maximise efficiency in terms of the use of technol ogy, staffing and service delivery.
At this time, Madam Chairman, I would like to
take this opportunity to thank the acting CIO, Mr. Shawn Lightbourne and the entire Information and
Digital Technologies staff who came to see me at the
Cabinet Office about two weeks ago, for the excellent
service that they continue to provide for Government.
These have been challenging times for them. They have worked without a formalised structure. They
have worked w ithout a full -time CIO for quite some
time as there was a temporary . . . a CIO that was
hired, but did leave, but yet they are continuing to pr ovide service. It has been my pleasure to be working
with this department for the past four months and I think t hat we have put some policies in place that are
going to smooth the transition and focus so that we
can actually make sure that we deliver for the people
of Bermuda.
So with that, Madam Chairman, I thank you
and that concludes my budget presentation for
Head 43.

Thank you. HEAD 67 —DEPARTMENT OF ICT POLICY
AND INNOVATION

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Madam Chairman, I will now move to Head
67, which is the Department of ICT Poli cy and Innov ation.
Madam Chairman, on behalf of the Cabinet
Office, I present the budget for Head 67, the Depar tment of ICT Policy and Innovation, found on pages B -
72 and B -74 of the Budget Book.

Mission

Hon. E. David Burt: Madam Chairman, “Innovation i s
the calling card of the future.” This was a quote made
by Anna Eshoo, the U.S. Representative from California’s 18
th congressional district which includes Silicon
Valley, during an interview. Indeed, innovation is what
distinguishes us from the rest of t he world.
The mission of the Department of ICT Policy
and Innovation (IPI) is to develop sound policies and
regulatory frameworks that promote innovative, cyber -
safe and cyber -secure ICT -enabled industries and to
facilitate a secure and advanced digital economy.

Objectives

Hon. E. David Burt: Madam Chairman, the depar tment has set the following objectives to support its
mission in the coming fiscal year 2019/20:
• To protect the public interest;
• To promote Bermuda as an innovative, s ophisticated, and secur ity-conscious technol ogy and business jurisdiction;
• To ensure the appropriate policies and legisl ation are in place to support Bermuda’s digital
economy including but is not limited to cyber-security, cyber -safety, e- business, ICT, and
the protection of per sonal information;
• To facilitate opportunities for technology education, mentoring and training and to encourage e- entrepreneurship;
• To lead the change in the jurisdiction for the
safe use, adaptation and evolution of technology across all sectors.
Madam Chairman, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) are today’s great enablers
of progress, and Bermuda is employing them to advance innovation and pursue opportunities that will
benefit the jurisdiction and its residents.
The Department of ICT Poli cy and Innovation
provides valuable outcomes for the Government of
Bermuda through policy, legislative and programme
development, skills and initiative delivery, and awar eness building. IPI also plays a critical advocacy role,
ensuring that Bermuda is recognised as well -versed in
today’s technologies and that it is a safe and secure
jurisdiction that protects personal information, facil i1338 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly tates e- entrepreneurship, and prepares the next generation of professionals in the information technol ogies.
William Blak e wrote, “What is now proved was
once only imagined.” The department strives to ensure that Bermuda and her residents seize the opportunities that technology brings, keep their skills current, and maintain the ability to navigate this ever -
changing landscape skilfully and safely. It is vital that
we use technology in ways which allow us to benefit
from innovations as they are developed and adopted, while ensuring that technology -related risks are kept
at bay.

Expenditure Overview

Hon. E. David Burt: Madam Chairman, the estimate
for 2018/19 and 2019/20 are the same at $1,475,000.
While the overall budget for the Department of
ICT Policy and Innovation has remained the same,
internal efficiencies and partnerships with other de-partments and ministries have been achieved in order
to assist IPI in achieving its objectives in 2019/20.
Cost centre 77000, Administration. The est imate for 2019/20 is $919,000 up $13,000, or 1.43 per
cent from the previous year.
Madam Chairman, the Administration section
cost centre i ncludes all operational functions of the
department, including the support of the E -Commerce
Advisory Board (ECAB), operational requirements in
accordance with the Electronic Transactions Act 1999,
and administrative support to ad hoc committees such
as the Cybersecurity Governance Board.
Madam Chairman, I would like to highlight the
valuable work done by the E -Commerce Advisory
Board in 2018, headed by its then- Chairman, Mr. Ma lcolm Furbert. The purpose of ECAB is to provide str ategic advice to the Minister responsible for the D epartment of ICT Policy and Innovation. ECAB made a number of valuable suggestions in its year -end report,
which include proposals that are aimed at boosting
business development in Bermuda, providing input
into technology education, and enhancing the Berm uda business model.
The E -Commerce Advisory Board continues
to work with other Government and non- Government
entities in order to maximise synergies so that the department’s resources continue to be used in an eff icient and effectiv e way. I will also say that the ECAB
. . . I have had a chance to meet with the ECAB, the
new E -Commerce Advisory Board, and we have
agreed a set of objectives which will be going forward
for the upcoming fiscal year.
At the time of the budget preparation, Madam
Chairman, three full -time employees were in the department’s employ. Expenses under this cost centre include the salaries of one director, one administrative
assistant, two senior analysts and one junior analyst.
Other expenses in this cost centre i nclude equipment and utilities, software maintenance, office supplies,
training, and office operations.
Cost centre 77003, Policy and Legislative D evelopment, found on page B -72. The estimate for
2019/20 is $161,000 which represents no change
from the prev ious year.
Madam Chairman, the Policy and Legislation
cost centre consists of activities relating to the over-sight role that the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation plays with respect to Internet and e- business
policy and legislation. This is accomplis hed by ensuring that the correct legislative and policy framework is in place to facilitate the creation, growth and attractiveness of business in Bermuda, particularly through
integrating and leveraging technology. Legislation under the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation i nclude the Electronic Transaction Act 1999 and the
Personal Information Protection Act 2016.
Madam Chairman, I will now move on to cost
centre 77015, which is Cybersecurity. The estimate
for 2019/20 is $194,000 which is no change from the
previous year.
Madam Chairman, the November 2018
Speech from the Throne included a statement about
Cybersecurity and I hope that you will let me quote it,

“Bermuda’s economic fortunes and potential
for growth must be safeguar ded by a secure infr astructure and a strong cybersecurity platform. We
must have the necessary resilience and capacity to
respond to both current and emerging cyber -threats.
Consequently, the Government will introduce Berm uda’s first national Cybersecurity Strategy to promote
the maintenance of a secure electronic infrastructure
in both the public and private sector.”
Madam Chairman, the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation will continue to work in collabor ation with the Ministry of National Security to support the Bermuda Cybersecurity Strategy. Now, this is one of those areas where there is an overlap between
ministries as cybersecurity, ostensibly, was with the
Department of ICT Policy and Innovation, however, as
it is an emerging trend throughout the world, cybers ecurity is now being moved into National Security as it is something that is viewed not just from an IT per-spective but manages lots of different structures
around the country and it is not specifically just for the
Government. So that is being moved to National S ecurity.
So there have been department resources
which have been transferred from one Ministry to another, but the Department of ICT Policy and Innov ation still has its funding and is working in conjunction
with the Ministry of Nation al Security on the National
Cybersecurity Strategy.
On Cybersafety, Madam Chairman, in addition to the Cybersecurity Strategy, the Department of
ICT Policy and Innovation will continue to champion
and collaborate to encourage a strong culture of c yBermuda House of Assembly bersafet y in Bermuda. Cybersafety, the safe use of
the Internet and Internet -supported tools, continues to
be a priority for Bermuda. Through the Cybertips initiative, the department partners with many entities
from the profit and non- profit sectors, public and pr ivate, including the Bermuda Police Service and other committed community representatives. Cybertips is a
proactive awareness programme that imparts tec hnology users with information and tools to be safe and
smart in the online environment, whether they ar e 5
years old or 105. If our citizens know the dangers,
then they can work to avoid them.
And Madam Chairman, at this point in time I
will recognise that the department has done a lot of work in this particular area, but it is still challenging that some of our citizens are still vulnerable to, I would
say, online fraud.
One of the particular, very sad stories, for me
personally, was an individual who was constantly g oing to the money shop, or Western Union, and sen ding money away to me because he had received
notes from social media that if he sent money to me I
would be in turn for a grant . And it was many times.
These are the typical types of scams which
you will see, and the Department of ICT Policy and
Innovation has formulated a public campaign to r emind persons. And it was not until I guess the people
at MoneyGram actually tried to stop this person from
sending money and sent him down to the Cabinet O ffice that this unfortunate fraud was exposed. And, of
course, this individual sent quite a bit of money b ecause when you send the money, then those persons
will realise that you have actually sent the money and they will contact you again and ask you for more and
more money.
There is also a very active programme that
when fake accounts are seen they are instantly r eported and we get them removed as quickly as poss ible. And the services, whether it be the Department of
Communications or others, are working better in that
regard. But it is important for members that are liste ning to know that no member of t he Gover nment will
ever ask you over social media to send them money
via Western Union. I believe that is anyone. If I am
going to ask for mon ey, I will tell you to come to the
Cabinet Office and give it to me in my hand. But I will not do that.

[Laughter ]

Hon. E. David Burt: A little bit of light humour, I
guess.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. E. David Burt: I just said, that is what I will do,
but I would not do it online.
But it is incredibly sad because a lot of these
persons that are being preyed o n are senior citizens and they do not know different. I mean there was a particular instance where something had actually
happened where people get information . . . and it was
one of my relatives, actually, overseas who fell subject to the same type of on line scam where someone had
said, Oh, your nephew has been caught and you have
to give them this money or else he will . . . and, you
know, she sent away a significant amount of money out of care. So these are the things which we are
dealing with, but we are trying to make sure we address and to raise public awareness. And that is what
the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation does.
Madam Chairman, moving on to cost centre
77004, Technology Marketing, Promotion and Out-reach, found on page B -72, the estimate for 2019/20
is $70,000 and there is no change from the previous year.
Madam Chairman, the Marketing, Promotion
and Outreach cost centre enables the Department of
ICT Policy and Innovation to represent Bermuda as a
desirable jurisdiction to do business i n both the local
and overseas markets through marketing, advertising,
promotional and market research activities. The s ophistication of the Bermuda ICT landscape and wor kforce is important to the international businesses that make the decision to locate and operate in this juri sdiction. Through publications that boast international
readership, such as The European , we are able to
showcase our infrastructure and capabilities directly to
global decision- makers and opinion leaders.
Expenses under this cost centre include activities relating to marketing, advertising, training, and
editorial content in local and international publications, in addition to benchmarking and research.
Madam Chairman, I will now move on to cost
centre 77005, E -Business Awareness and Develo pment. The estimate for 2019/20 is $131,000, down $13,000, or 9.03 per cent from the previous year.
Madam Chairman, George Bernard Shaw
wrote, “You see things; you say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?’”
The e- Business Aw areness and Development
cost centre helps to make dreams a reality. Activities in this area include promoting the importance and
adoption of technology skills for personal and profes-sional empowerment, support of e- entrepreneurship,
programmes to train and mentor youth in ICT careers,
the stimulation and recognition of innovation, while imparting the importance of securing the flow of data.
And I think one of the important items in this certainly
would be the thing that is done every year through the Technology Leadership Forum which is sponsored by
the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation, which
sees a number of our young people go through a ri gorous eight -week course in conjunction with the pr ivate sector.
Madam Chairman, moving on to Manpower,
the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation is all ocated six full -time equivalents for its work.
1340 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The total current Salaries amount allocated to
the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation is
$684,000 for 2019/20, which accommodates the current year’s salary cost -of-living uplift as per the BPSU
Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Before I close, Madam Chairman, I would like
to thank the members of the Department of ICT Policy
and Innovation for their flexibility. It has been a pleasure working with them for the five months which I have
been responsible personally for this department. And
as we look to move to transitions and a management consulting review that is currently being done with that
department to look at synergies with other small government departments, we are looking for it to continue
to make an impact on promoting Bermuda as a friendly jurisdiction for e- business as we move forward.
So, with that, that concludes my remarks on
the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation and the
briefing on the heads that the Opposition has selected
for debate. Thank you.

Thank you, Premier.
Is there any other Member that would like to
speak to Heads 43 and/or 67?
I recognise the Leader of the Opposition,
Craig Cannonier. You have the floor.
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, thank you very much,
Madam Chairman, and for the brief, Premier.
This is probably one of the most vital areas
that requires, quite frankly, robust discussion and u nderstanding of what it is that we are doing with Head
43, Information and D igital Technologies, but certainly
also when it comes to Information and Communic ation, Head 67.
Listening to the Premier, there seems to be,
and we have heard him speak many times before, of how, you know, the Premier believes there is a need
for an overhaul (I am going to Head 43 on page B -62)
when it comes to Information Digital Technologies that there should be synergies. He spoke also of the fact
that there were economies of scale, and we have
heard this before.
He also spoke about the fact that there are
some challenges out there when we look at gover nment and how it operates and how we should be, at the end of the day, seeking out opportunities that will
create a more efficient operation when it comes to
Information and Digital Technologies.
Interest ingly enough, the Premier was going
quite fast at first and eventually, by the time he got to
the second head, he did slow down and we were able to get some of those details. And I am probably going
to ask him to go back over some of the examples that
he gave, which were brilliant examples, but I think that
as quickly as he was moving through it, some may have missed some exciting things that we heard going
on. So I would like to hear a little more about those, maybe at 20 miles an hour as opposed to 50 mil es an
hour. I am just teasing him now.
And when we talk about Head 43 and the Di gital Technologies and how the Premier has been
speaking to the fact that he believes that there is need for upgrading, there is need, certainly, for looking at
how we do things in the IT service area. I am curious
about Immigration. We heard already today during
that particular debate about the new processes i nvolved there, software and the likes. So it would be interesting to hear a little bit more about what is hap-pening down at the airport and how they are getting
along with that particular process there.
One of the things that we do know is that
change, many times, especially when it comes to IT
stuff . . . if you recall back in 1999, when 2000 was
going to roll around, everybody was scared and
thought that everything . . . the computers were going
to crash and cars that had chips in them were going to
drive into the trees or into a hole or something like
that. There was this fear out there. And there was a
fear because it w as an unknown. Okay, what are we
exactly getting involved with in here? And I would ve nture to say that as this particular head moves on into different types of software and synergies that we are
going to meet up with some resistance.
I can recall with th e E1 system how difficult it
was to get folks off of using a spreadsheet to calculate things and using a spreadsheet to order supplies and
the likes, just completely reluctant to take on the
change. But once a few of them did take on that
change, the light bulb, per se, went off and people
realised, Oh, this is pretty easy . All I need to do is ensure that I am putting in the correct information.
So when you look down at the Department
Objectives on page B -62, where the Premier read,
Support IT projects underway throughout the Government , I will ask him to come back and to speak
again to some of those, because this particular area he went through really, really, really fast. And because
this is his area, this is something that he enjoys, I
know it rolls off o f his tongue very easily, but the public would like to understand a little more about some of
these fantastic things that are going on.
But it also mentions deliver and manage IT
services used by the departments. And one of the areas that I wanted to ask about was the next one, under development of disaster and recovery systems for
selected departments . And I guess I was kind of cur ious as to the disaster recovery systems for selected
departments. What were those selected departments and why are they select ed? Knowing that disasters
can come in many shapes and forms, you know, it
could be a complete black -out of power, it could be a
hurricane, it could be through just an electrical storm
or the likes. Why have we just selected some as o pposed to others when it comes to disaster recovery?
And I will declare my interest. I spend a lot of
time in disaster recovery with the private business of


Bermuda House of Assembly mine in the fuel stations, and participating in working
with this particular department and what is being done
on a larger scale in private corporations. I would like
to know whether or not they are still meeting with ot her organisations when it comes to disaster recovery
and best practice so that we, as a Government, certainly, are operating at the highest of levels. We hav e
seen in the past where there have been disasters
overseas, and we have been asked to go and help.
But it would be nice to know a little more about how
we are keeping up with the latest technologies when it comes to disaster recovery systems and how this department is moving with that.
Also, down below, the very last is assist d epartments with defining and developing e- technology
solutions. And the Premier did go through some of
those areas. I would like for him to go back to some of that because this was actually . . . again, some of the
area he was going through quite quickly. I am pretty
good at taking notes, but I think that some of the li stening public, and even folks sitting with me here,
were missing some of those particular points as he
went through the eight . . . sorry, that was in the other
one . . . no, the eight different areas that he was hig hlighting.
If we go on down now to the numbers, Madam
Chairman, we will see that this is pretty stagnant. If
you look at the totals there on [page] B -62 under Head
43, Original amount, $6,690,000, the revised is the
same. And then we see this reduction here under
2019/20. And basically, as I have been saying with all
of the other debates that I have been involved in
throughout the day today and over the last two weeks,
it is important for us to look at these numbers [because] they tell us something and they tell a story.
And, you know, with our emphasis now and
the fact that we have just heard under Head 67 as
well, how we are looking to use technology more a nd
more and more, I would have thought that maybe more emphasis in the total amounts would have r eflected here. And I do not see that, but I do recognise
also that there were Acquisitions also on page C -9 in
the estimate this year to the tune of $2.175 mil lion. So
what I was going to say is that I see here that . . . that
is Acquisitions, but I see that we are not really . . . we
have reduced the amount that we are putting in this
area here.
And all of us who have worked in Government
before know that it is sometimes difficult, these guys
have got a massive amount of people that they are
supporting, including the public as well. But to keep up
with 5,000 employees, and just about all of them . . .
not all of them, but many of them, are using computers or a r adio or some form of communication device,
getting support for these things and the likes, I would
have thought we might have seen maybe a little more money in this area, understanding that the Premier
has taken it upon himself, at times it would seem almost singlehandedly, that we need to be moving the civil service and getting more support and looking at
different software packages and systems that would
create some synergies throughout different depar tments and the likes.
So, with that kind of general approach to this
here, I will move down to the general summary, as I
spoke, and the Premier was attempting to give some
answers here.
If you take a look under Business Systems
Support, 53060, and you take a look here at the r evised amount, and the revised amount is $621,000, if
you look at the estimate . . . and that is actually what
we did. It may vary a few thousand dollars because
we are not at the end of March, but that is pretty acc urate when we say $621,000. If you look at the est imate of $495,000, that is a drastic difference there. I
was hoping that the Premier would go back over this Business Systems report as to the reductions and why
we believe that this reduction is there.
And then if you follow up with that under Sy stem Support, 53070, we then see an increase here,
which makes sense. And based on the focus that the Premier has, this makes sense that we would see this
kind of increase.
If you take a look at the Training . . . now one
of the things I was trying to understand is under Trai ning. Is that training for the employees? Or is that trai ning that is going for . . . when I say “employees” those
within this particular head, Head 43?

Hon. E. David Burt: Yes.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: It is. Okay. Good, that answers my question then.
Now, again, in support of this particular head,
I am very bullish about this particular head. I believe
that it probably will require even more training as they
are moving now into some unchartered waters and
some territories and new areas that they are seeking to bring to government. There will probably be a need
for more training in this particular area. Maybe the
Premier can tell us of some of the training that is going on at present for these employees to keep them
up to par, up to date. This particular area of ex pertise,
quite frankly, is changing all the time. And certainly
because this is one of those pet areas of the Premier
where he loves —

[Inaudible interjection and laughter ]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Well, this is your expertise
here; you love this area her e. And maybe “pet” is not
a good word for it, but you certainly are paying it a lot of attention.
If he can give us an idea of some of the trai ning that is required for these guys, knowing that tec hnology is changing ever so quickly. By the time you
turn around the technology that we are going to get to
talking about where he mentioned about a new phone
1342 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly system and the likes . . . that might be outdated within
another year. So —

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, I would be happy to
hear some more about that.
If we move on over to page B -63 . . . and if
you bear with me just for a minute here. I mentioned
about the training here. And if you look here, again,
the Subjective Analysis is basically saying okay, well, we revised our amount of 2018/19, we spent about
$29,000. The estimate this upcoming year is $24,000
and it is less than what we anticipated from the original 2018/19. What changed? Was there a different focus that changed this from moving from the $37,000
which we originally said in 2018/19 as opposed to the
revised amount?
And then going down even further, to this
2019/20, [there is] $24,000. It would be nice to hear exactly . . . there is a trend there of training going
down, costing less. Maybe that is because someone
has moved out and moved to another area, whatever
the case may be. I do not know, but it would be good
to know that.
Also under Communications in the Subjective
Analysis, as you will see, again, if you look at the ori ginal amount for 2018/19 and you compare the estimate, certainly there is an extra $100,000 there.
When you look at what we actually did spend in the
revised amount of the $1,407,000, I am curious as to
what it is that caused that change.
Obviously, I have said it, and I will keep sa ying it, you kn ow, once you have something in place or
a theory . . . but when you go to actually do it, stuff
happens. In the middle of the year you get doing this,
you get delayed, or whatever the case may be. It
would be nice to know and understand a little more as
to the thought process . . . certainly it was close to
$1.3 million, which was close to the actual amount spent in 2017/18. We then wound up spending more
than both the actual of 2017/18 and the original
amount in 2018/19. So it would be nice to understand that.
He spoke to the rentals; we got answers
there.
And under Professional Services, it would be
nice to understand more specifically what that Professional Services are as to . . . and quite frankly, it does
make sense based on what we have been hearing
from the Premier in public. But it goes from an original
thought amount of $77,000 to . . . Oh . . . Oh. Hold on
a second, we made a drastic mistake here. We are
spending $207,000 . . . what was . . . was it a singl ehanded Professional Service that was added? Were
there several different Professional Services that were added to reflect that revised amount of $207,000 for
2018/19? And then we see almost the opposite where
we go back now to 2019/20 of $67,000. So something
happened there. It would be nice t o understand a little
more as to exactly what was going on there with Pr ofessional Services as to why 2018/19 needed in ex-cess of almost three times the amount as the original
amount, and now we are going back to saying we b elieve . . . well, the original amount of 2018/19 might
have been closer. I do not know what that is, but I am sure the Premier can apprise us of that.
Uniforms. And then he mentioned about Mat erials and Supplies, so I will not bother there.
If we go down to . . . oh, yes.

[Mr. Hubert (Kim) E. Swan , Chairman]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Oh, yes, yes. If you go
down to [page] B -63, Mr. Chairman (I see a change in
the Chair).
On page B -63, if we look at item 53060, Bus iness Systems Support, under the employee numbers.
I was trying to . . . I was actually . . . I am asking him
to repeat what he had mentioned to us, only because I
was writing down some of the other exciting things he
was talking about and I missed the analysis on this.
So I would like to understand the analysis under the
empl oyee numbers. Where is there a change, less
one person, there under the Business Systems Support? I missed it, unfortunately. Sorry about that. I
apologise. I was writing a lot of notes down as you
were going. If the Premier would give us the reasoning beh ind that.
I will move on over to page B -64, under Performance Measures. The Premier went through and highlighted several areas here. And I want to go to
resolve service tickets within service level targets. And
here he mentioned “modernised processing.” I t would
be nice to know what is that modernised process. You
said that you might come back to explain a little more about what that was within this particular area here.
So I will take you up on that, I will take that on and
look for you to tell us a littl e more about that moder nised process.
[Inaudible interjections ]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: I am on Performance
Measures, resolve service tickets —

The phone system?
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, yes.
We certainly know, Mr. Chairman, the p hone
system is quite frustrating, extremely frustrating. You
have also heard from another Minister how rather than
call he would walk around. Well, I was doing the exact
same thing when I was Minister of Public Works. It was extremely frustrating. I just w alked everywhere
rather than trying to call. I could not figure it out. You


Bermuda House of Assembly know, two minutes and I could have been next door to
where the expertise was. So rather than call, I would
walk there.
So, it would be interesting to really hear about
this IT -based system that is going to integrate all sections. We cannot have a government that, you know,
you have to dial four numbers to get to one particular
department within a Ministry and then you got to dial
seven numbers for another area. And I know that has
been vexatious for many. So, it would be interesting to
see how this is going to work out. And then also de-tails about when they believe it will be implemented,
certainly there is going to need to be a training pr ocess in place to accommodate something lik e this
here. I do not know if it is very simple to put in place—

[Gavel]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Oh, sorry.

Members, in the Gallery, please keep
your voices down.
Continue on.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
So, it w ould be interesting to hear a little bit
more about the timelines for this particular implementation. And I am sure that people will be excited about
that as well.
Maybe just a typo, I was not quite sure, but if
you move on down further on the Performance
Measures on page B -64, Public satisfaction with
availability and use and selection of government
online services. I was just curious as to how you come
to . . . how do you measure that? How is that being
measured? Public satisfaction with availability and use
of the selection of government online services. And,
maybe they just reply online. I do not know, but is
there a survey that they do or something to that effect
which allows them to come to that conclusion?
The next item down says, N o of new . . . I
guess it means “number.” I am assuming it means number of new e- payments [eID] and supporting new
process implemented via the new portal, their core
application or a bank bill pay service. That would be
interesting to hear a little more about that.

[Inau dible interjection]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Ah! Okay, that is what it
was. All right. I wrote that down, but I was not sure
what it referred to. Got it. Okay. Great.
So, I wil l move over on the other side to page
B-65. And we talked about disaster recovery already,
so I find that interesting. And on the bottom there, un-der 53090, Security, where it says disaster recovery
exercises planned and executed, unfortunately they
were not able to come to the measure for 2018/19, but
the target outcome is 50 per cent . And I believe the
Premier said it was due to the new E1 system and
training. And that goes back to some of what I was
saying before. It has been pretty tough trying to get
folks trained in the E1 area and some of it is just pure
fear, something new. So, hopefully, the training will
continue.
And I think that because that performance
target is at 50 per cent in this area it is probably low in
other areas, although it is not a performance task on
paper here. More training is going to be needed—
more reassurance, more support, and then more trai ning because these new systems can sometimes be scary when you just look at them. But I am encourag-ing the Premier and, again, this is an area that he enjoys, to continue to work with this head to help them
achieve their goals. And so, with that in mind and I
know some of my other colleagues will want to ask
some questions, because these are two small heads, I
am just going to go right through to the other one as
well.
Under Head 67, Information and Communic ation Technology. Quite frankly, by this time I was enjoying what the Premier had to say in this particular
area. He mentioned the likes of Silicon Valley and some of these key words. Bu t if you look under the
mission statement he mentioned about being cyber
. . . to develop sound policies and basically to be
cyber -safe and cyber -secure and to develop and facil itate adoption of growth in the digital economy.
He also went on to talk about examples of
how he knew of people who had been taken advantage of in the electronic world, and this has become an increasingly challenging problem for seniors—just private individuals and their bank accounts.
I certainly know business -wise we have already heard
from the police and the likes where software people have been basically hacking into business systems.
And we had one particular situation in the IB world, or
the ABIC world, where we had a massive compromise
of information. And so we know that ther e are people
out there and they have targeted Bermuda.
Bermuda is on the map now. You did not used
to hear about this too much before. But when a bus iness in the particular example that I am talking about
called and said this to me, Listen, man. They are actually bribing me here and said, basically they are saying if you want your information back, then you are
going to have to pay some money. And this was a
friend of mine who has extremely sensitive information
in the business that they do of —
Hon. E. Da vid Burt: It could also be a scam.
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Sorry?

1344 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. E. David Burt: It could also be a scam.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, yes. So, you know,
we need to, we need to be getting . . . I was pleased
by the fact that the Premier is saying that they are
looking to get information out there to the public. I
would like to see more in this area. We will go through
it as we go through some of this subjective analysis
and the performance measures about that —

Yes.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, Head 67, and just
referring to the general remarks t hat the Premier was
making.
And I will give even a personal story when you
are talking about cybersecurity. Everyone knows that
unfortunately one of my service stations, I will declare my interest, was robbed at gunpoint. And, you know,
we have got wonder ful safes and the like, and we
were looking to purchase some new ones. And lo and
behold, three weeks later a company abroad calls us and says, We understand that you need new safes
and we are sending them to you. It was all a scam. A
complete . . . I coul d not believe it! A scam! I am cal ling technical officers abroad because, of course, you
know, we work with Sol [Petroleum] as a franchise
company and they knew nothing of it.
And so, what they were after was our safe
numbers so that they could programme them into the
new safes that they supposedly were going to be
sending to us from Sol. So someone was involved
locally with this cyber scam as well, so that once it
was programmed, they would just come to the shop and go right into the safe. I could not bel ieve it! And
this is how sophisticated things have gotten. How
scary it has gotten that even a little bye from St. D avid’s, like me, is having to deal with these kinds of i ssues. It is rather scary.
So, I can imagine what we are going through
as a Governm ent. And I would encourage the Premier
to do as much as possible to secure us. I know that he
understands and probably is aware of where some of those vulnerabilities are and that we are strengthening
ourselves in that particular area. So, I appreciate that.
Now, if I move on down, Mr. Chairman, to
Head 67, page B -72, to the expenditure business unit,
again, you can see this allocation —

Page B -72.
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: At the ver y bottom, their
total of $1,475,000 under the revised . . . under the
original the same amount. And of course, under 2019/20 estimate $1,475,000.
Now, based on some of the things that I did
hear that the Premier was looking at in this particular
head, aga in, I would say that this is probably one of
the areas that I would have thought to see the expenditure of more money. However, he did also say
that they recognised some economies of scale. Certainly, those economies of scale are not in place as
yet, as we start looking at some of the software pr ogrammes that will work together with other areas to
save money. But that has not been realised yet. So,
the amounts are stagnant there.
I will move on down to the . . . there was quite
a bit of time spent on admi nistration. So, we have got
that, e -Commerce and committees, et cetera, where
these monies are being spent. But under 77003, Pol icy and Legislation, I guess I thought we would be
spending more there because the Premier mentioned
that much of this had to do with putting in the legal
framework that is needed and the like, knowing that we are seeking to be a hub for FinTech and a place where people will consider to come when it comes to
new technologies, that we would be spending more
money in this area to ens ure that we are up to par
with our legislation —and forward thinking with that as
well, as we move forward. Now, usually under policy
and legislation, a lot of that work is being done maybe
some in -house, some outhouse. How much of this
policy and legislati on is being done in- house and how
much of that is outside of Bermuda expertise?

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Outhouse —

[Laughter]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, yes —
If you look underneath there—

You are too young to remember
outhouses!

[Laughter]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes. I do not think there
are too many still left on the I sland, actually . I know
there is still one down in St. David’s on show.
But, anyhow, if I move down to 77004, tec hnology, market, promo, outreach, the Premier mentioned about promoting Bermuda, which was . . . if he
could speak again to some of that as well, it would be


Bermuda House of Assembly nice for the public to know how we are getting out
there to the rest of the world and looking to be leaders
in this parti cular area and to give an idea of some of
the promotions that we are doing.
I think he mentioned some publications. It
would be nice to know some of the publications, ma ybe some of the commercials that we are doing. Bermudians can look out for these things knowing that
many of us do travel. We can let our friends know to
be looking at some of these publications that are being put out. Maybe the publications are just in Berm uda, but I do not believe so if it is promoting Bermuda,
it would be abroad.

[Microphone i nterference]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Where those areas . . .
yes, my light keeps coming on. I do not know what is
going on here.
But what areas are we concentrating in? Is it
the Silicon Valley -type areas that we are concentrating on where we find many of the tech- type people?
So, it would be interesting to hear a little more about
that.
And then under Telecommunications, Mr.
Chairman, 6703 on page B -72, Cybersecurity, 77015,
Cybersecurity. And this word has been around for a while now. When you say “cybersecurity,” you know, it
immediately puts you on guard. I need to protect m yself here, do I need a robot or . . . what exactly do I
need here?

[Laughter]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: But under cybersecurity, if
you look at the allocated amounts, t he original is
$194,000, the revised is $194,000, and the estimate
is, of course, $194,000.
The Premier mentioned first strategies. And I
was curious [and wanted to know] a little more about
what that first strategy is as we move into this area
here. When will this first strategy be implemented?
When he was talking it sounded as if it was a process
in the making. I just wanted to make sure that I understood exactly what he is saying when he said “first
strategy,” and when we can expect that first part of that strategy to be implemented.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, yes, yes —
cybersecurity, you mentioned.
And then also in that same breath, the Premier mentioned about Cybertips. Maybe I have not been
paying attention as much lately , but I am not sure
where locally we are doing that, or how we are doing it
through Lunch and Learns, whether or not we are going out to businesses and speaking to them. But when
you think about how we are now moving more t o-wards communicating electronical ly with, like e -
payments [eID] as you mentioned, with the public, this information once it gets out there certainly needs to be
secured. This is personal information, not only on behalf of the individuals that are doing business and businesses that are doi ng business with Government ,
but certainly Government ’s business as well, and its
details need to be protected.
So, I want to just go to the subjective analysis.
The Premier highlighted particular areas there as he moved through which was very, very helpf ul in understanding exactly what it is that we are doing. I will
again emphasise that for this particular area, the su bjective analysis, I just feel personally that if we are
making this a concentration then more monies do
need to be spent in this area her e. Now, that is not to
say that I am telling the Premier to go pull it from
somewhere else overnight, but this seems to be very,
very important.
And I recognise it as a very important factor
and fabric of our moving forward, of this country forward, this Island forward to being not just leaders in
the reinsurance world, but in the data world, tech
world. [I recognise] that we need to spend quite a bit
of time in advertising, getting out there to the public to
attract the right types of people here, but at the same
time people understanding that, just like with reinsur-ance, it is secure, it is well -thought -out and people do
not have a problem working with us electronically.
So, if we go down to the . . . I mentioned
about the advertising and promotion already. We can see that we are spending a healthy amount there, which is important. So, again, as I mentioned, it would
be nice to hear a little more about where we are putting all of these publications, what kinds of ads we are
doing, commercials we are doing, not just locally, but
abroad as well.
Professional Services is pretty constant there.
You will see under the original amount there is
$200,000, revised amount $200,000 and, of course,
the estimate for 2019/20, again, is $200,000. If the
Premier can giv e us a breakdown of those professional services and what those professional services
consist of. He also talked about . . . I was curious
about this rental, if you look at rental there. It is only
$4,000, maybe we had to rent a machine or som ething like that. It is not a biggie.
[Laughter]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: So, I will move on over to
performance measures, page B -74, not much was
said about the performance measures for Head 67. If you look under 77000, certainly those target outcomes
have been elim inated there. I do not see a star next to
them, so I guess it is just discontinued. But it does not say discontinued. So maybe we can hear a little more about that.
1346 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly If you come down further under business unit
77003, policy and legislation, initiate the adoption of
the identified cybersecurity framework for Bermuda—
both the private and public sector. These performance
measures will be discontinued, I recognise (if you look there, you will see a star by it). Would the Premier tell
us a little more about that?
On page B -75, at the very bottom, business
unit 77015, cybersecurity, again, strategy: initiate the development of a National Cybersecurity Strategy and
I already asked the Premier if he can give us an idea of the implementation time and the likes, what this
strategy going forward is. Number two is assess sec urity and privacy plans related to the Government of
Bermuda Information Systems, if he can explain that
as well.
But, again, with that in mind . . . sorry, I wan ted to go right over . . . sorry, my apologies. On page
C-9, capital acquisitions. We are actually spending
more than the revised amount. But if you take a look at the original amount of $2,380,000 we wound up spending almost $500,000 less for this 2018/19. So,
what we were thinking in the original estimate? What
was our approach to these capital acquisitions here?
What were we thinking, and what happened as to why
we were not able to—

What departm ent? IT or —
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Information and digital
technologies, flipping over to . . . yes, it was just the
one . . . I was finished with Head 67. I forgot about this
one particular area. And then, again, we go back up to
$2,175,000. So somethi ng happened within the year, I
do not know what that was. I know that we were con-centrating very much so in this area, but we wound up
spending less than we thought. What was happening
there, and give us a bit of a subjective analysis on the
take there.
And with that in mind, Mr. Chairman, I am
looking forward to hearing the Premier expound.

[Microphone interference]

You just knocked it off. There you go.
We are considering Heads 43 and 67, and the
Chair recognises the Honourable Member from co nstituency 23.
Honourable Member , you have the floor.
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I just have a couple of questions on this.
I am going to start with Head 43 and I am going to go over to the subjective analysis . . . sorry, to
the performance measures on page B -64. And the
one thing that I noticed is that under business unit
53030, whic h is device support, 53035, which is network support, and 53040, which is service support, there is a reference to resolving tickets within service level targets. And we have a percentage. We have
percentages there that the idea is that we are going to
resolve 100 per cent of some things and we are going
to resolve repair tickets within service level targets.
We have got a targeted outcome of 85 per cent. But
we do not have any indication as to how many.
What kind of volume are we dealing with? It is
easy to say we have got 100 per cent, but are we tal king about 100 items? Are we talking about 1,000 items? Are we talking about 5,000? Just an idea as to
what the volume of tickets that would be normal to be expected and serviced and that would give us a better
indication in terms of what these output measures r eally mean. If you have got 5 or 10, you can get
100 per cent of 10. You can get 100 per cent of 100 of
them, but can you get 100 per cent of 1,000 or 5,000?
That would give us a better idea if we had some indi-cation as to how many actual tickets, you know, would
be normal.
I also wanted to go back to page B -72 in r espect of information and communication technology,
under cybersecurity. And that is under programme
6703, business unit 77015. Now, my Leader indicated
that he had a few questions, and his questions bas ically tied with the questions that I have. But what the
Premier did say in his presentation was that cybers ecurity had effectively been moved over, or parts of it had been moved into National Security. So, by having
that transition I kind of flipped over to the budget for
National Security, and I am just wondering if the
Premier would be able to give us some idea as to
where in national security that addition might be hi dden—
Hon. E. David Bur t: In headquarters.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: In headquarters,
okay, because there was $94,000 worth of increase in
headquarters. So, presumably $194,000 being spent
and retained under the business centre of the Cabinet Office for cybersecurity. It gives me a little bit of cause
for pause from the perspective that cybersecurity is a
very real and present danger to our systems. And it
would seem to me that we would be focusing a little
bit heavier on cybersecurity and perhaps putting a
little bit mor e—

[Inaudible interjections]


Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Well, I can tell you
that there are some things —

[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: —it is about —

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: It is ab out what is
important —
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: It is about focusing—

[Laughter]

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: I do not want to
answer that interpolation.

[Laughter]

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: It is about f ocusing, Mr. Chairman, and it also—

[Laughter and i naudible interjections ]
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: And it is about
being robust, because if we go back to page B -75 and
look at the output measures in respect of business
unit 77015, page B -75 cybe rsecurity, the Premier
spoke to initiating the development on a national c ybersecurity strategy, but I believe that it is important to
note that cybersecurity is something that we must be
robust with. It is ongoing. The challenges that occurred yesterday are outdated. They are completely
defunct. So, we have a new challenge to deal with
tomorrow, and I note here that the targeted outcome
for 2019/20 in terms of the development of a strategy
has been discontinued. So, I am just wondering how
we are going to stay on top of an effective cybersec urity regime if we are not putting the resources towards
ensuring that it is seen to.
So, those are my concerns. And I can just
point out that very recently, you will recall, Mr. Chai rman, that we had a clerk attachment here from the
UK. And I received an email from John Rankin. Now,
we know John Rankin to be the Governor. And I was
responding to that email and effectively he said . . . I
let him know that the information concerning the appointment that this gentleman would have with Go vernment House was going to be a certain date, and it
was understood.
And then I got a response back which effectively said, Can you let me know when I will get information concerning the actual appointment? And I just went back, and I said, If the clerk
did not send it . . . if the assistant clerk to the House,
to the Legislature, did not send it over the weekend, you should receive it later on today.
And then he came back and asked about a
particular programme, asking whether we had taken advantage of this particular programme, to which I
responded, I am not familiar with the programme, but I
will forward the query to the spokesperson for the E nvironment. And this conversation was going . . . and
then there was something that came back in t he reply
which made me just question it, and I thought, I am
not even going to answer this anymore, because the
Governor knows me well enough to pick up the phone
and call me if he is not responding —

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pampl in: Cybersecurity. So,
with that, I was just concerned because as innocuous
as a correspondence might be, there are methodol ogies by which people can actually get to you and get
you to respond and communicate. Fortunately, there
was no money involved or an ything like that, but then
as you go back to the correspondence, the subs equent messages that I refused to answer had ult imately been deleted because they had been identified
as either being abusive or marked as spam. And I find
that things like this happen so frequently in which you
can get a duplicate of something, of an account that
might appear to be coming from you, Mr. Chairman,
when it might be coming from me because somebody
has duplicated or stolen identities and the like.
So, with that threat in mind, that very real
threat, I am just concerned that the development of the national cybersecurity strategy is not showing a
targeted outcome, that these output measures have
been discontinued. And I just wonder if the Premier
could speak to explaining how this particular function has been absorbed in the Ministry of National Security
so that we can be confident that there has been a r obust determination in terms of where we are in respect
of cybersecurity. Those are my questions.
Thank you, sir.

The C hairman: Thank you, Honourable Member.
The Chair recognises the Opposition Leader.
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I just want to reflect back on page B -72 when
we were talking under administration, policy and legi slation and also awar eness, tech awareness. The
Premier mentioned about taking advantages of econ-omies of scale and that rather than buying name
brand type of computers or the likes we were looking
at different . . . well, looking at generic computers.
Have we started that process already?
And I am curious as to whether or not the warranties and the policies and the likes behind it would
1348 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly be similar to what [currently exists], as well, because
certainly if there is economy of scale to be had there,
this is a good thing. The Premier also mentioned as
we transitioned on the same area, about 31 policies
[sic] that were on hold when we were going through
performance measures and the likes. And I was just curious as to, with those policies [sic] on hold—
Hon. E. David Burt: Projects .

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Oh, projects . . . projects.
With those projects on hold . . . sorry, with those pr ojects on hold, will it in any kind of way affect performance at this particular time going forward? Because
these projects are on hold, will it affect performance in any kind of way? I will suspect, obviously not, but it
would be nice to get that assurance from the Premier.

I need to go down and get my glas ses down in the corner.

Hon. E. David Burt: No problem, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I will answer the number of
questions which have been asked.
The first question was what is happening with
airport systems, and I can say that IDT is assisting the
Department of Immigration with the implementation of
the new border security system, which I thi nk may
have been talked about this morning. A question from the Opposition Leader, I think
it was under disaster recovery systems for selected
departments, which departments and why just some,
not all. The answer is that the E1 system in the A ccountant G eneral’s Chambers . . . sorry, Account
General, not Chambers, but Accountant General, is the primary focus for disaster recovery. The Dame
Lois Browne- Evans building is the disaster recovery
site for all other IT systems including email and file
shares. And just so we are clear, we do not just have
disaster recovery for the Accountant General. We have disaster recovery for most government systems
that exist because there are now virtualised servers
as opposed to individual servers. And with virtualised
servers you can have backups and different redundancy items there which will certainly enable recovery from disaster to happen a lot quicker than would have happened in the past when we did not have virtualised
systems but we had individual servers.
On item number three, it says, is Government
still meeting with other stakeholders on the issue of
disaster recovery? IDT meet with key departments on a routine basis and with the suspension, or pos tponement, or putting on hold of the thirty -one IT pr ojects IDT can focus on introducing new systems to the
disaster recovery plan. I think that is the key point
when we are talking about those 31 projects.
Resources at IDT were being possibly spread
far too thin, and it was important for me to make sure from this level, from the ministerial level, that there
would be focus that could be given so that we could
actually achieve certain items and tick them off as op-posed to having ourselves with multiple different pr ojects at the same point in time.
It says, how are all p rojects going to happen
with a stagnant capital development budget? I am not
entirely certain if it is fully stagnant. I think there may
have been a small increase in the capital development
budget. But as you can see, there are . . . I think that
IDT has a proven track record of choosing projects
and planning that do not necessarily require additional
funding.
As you can see, there are a number of things
that are happening inside the IDT budget where we
are seeing reduced spending. For instance, we are doubling the bandwidth to all government depar tments, yet we are saving $70,000 (I think that is correct). So the fact is that as you renegotiate service
level agreements, as you look at consolidating efforts,
as we are talking about going to a single phone system as opposed to multiple separate phone systems,
those are places where you can identify efficiencies.
And I think that those efficiencies have been demonstrated through, not only the efficiency committee
which is chaired by the Junior Minister of Fin ance, but
others where we are actually identifying places where savings can be had and putting that money to work in other places which will boost efficiency going forward.


Bermuda House of Assembly So, that is a good example of those particular
issues where, for instance, we are doubling bandwidth, yet we are spending less money while we double bandwidth.
There was a question regarding business sy stem support, $621,000 revised, and why was it r educed. It was reduced in line with the salary for a
business analyst which is not goi ng to be funded [so
as] to achieve the 2 per cent salary uplift. We know
the challenge that exists in various government departments where we have a spending freeze. However, we have increases in salaries, so those increases
in salaries, those [costs], hav e to [come] from other
places. So, that is where that particular money for the
uplift was met. The next question was training initiatives,
what are they, what is required and why was the trai ning budget reduced? The focus on training is to su pport the following: training for the portal, which is trai ning for Drupal , voice services, advanced security, a dvanced service support and Project Management Pr ofessional.
Why was the training budget reduced? The
training budget was most likely reduced to try and fi nd
money to stay inside the budget ceiling. However, one
of the things which we found this year is that we are
viring additional money to IDT, as I had mentioned to colleagues that they had come to see me at the Cabinet Office with a number of concerns, and we found
additional monies for them from other departments
which will be vired to assist.
So, that is just to make sure that we can meet
the training needs because there is a need for training
with IDT because we want to make sure they feel as
though th ey are being supported. There are lots of
new things that are coming out and we want them to
have access to those items.
Moving on to the next question, item number
eight, professional services, what is it? Explain the
original and revised budget. And the reduction is the
result of conducting more in- house support with less
emphasis placed on using external support services. That is the reason why.
There was another question, What caused the
change in communications budget? The change in communications budget was due to the increase of new sites, in some cases an increase in bandwidth
that resulted in carrier renegotiation.
Another question that was asked, was 33060,
business systems support, please explain the change
in employment number. I think I covered that before,
and the same issue about cost cutting measure for the 2 per cent salary uplift —contrary to the popular opi nion of the Shadow Minister of Finance.

What ever.

Hon. E. David Burt: We stayed inside our budgets,
came with $29 million less than anticipated in spending. That is a pretty good thing, when you look at it.
There was another question about what was
the modernised process for resolving tickets? I think I
covered that, but as the Opposition Leader said I went quickly, so I will try to go slow. It was a self -service
tool for account password resets. Over 70 per cent of
the tickets that are lodged with the service desk are due to account management —someone has forgotten
their password, someone has been locked out. So the
way that you can make that more efficient is if you put
in self -service consoles.
The way you do self -service consoles, if ind ividuals are registered with, for instance, their phone number, you can then do a reset and it can send them
a text message via their items or other self -service
tools, where you can go online, verify different pas swords or security questions that you may know and it will unlock your account and allow you to manually reset your password. The same thing as if you were
losing your password in any type of online service, as
opposed to having to call the service desk, wait to the
wonderful music that is playing while you are on hold
and get the individual. It is just a quicker way of r esolving that particular situation.
There was a question as to when will the new
telephone system will be implemented? The new tel ephone system will be phased in over a period of three to four years. There are 5,000 users. But the base system will be installed in the 2019/20 budget year —
three to four years, it will be a relatively long transition. There are a lot of sites and all the rest. But the new
internal base system will be installed in this fiscal
year.
There was a question about online services
and how those were particularly measured, as you
had said, 70 per cent and 60 per cent. And that is
feedback from the user base via email and general
feedback from business systems owners. So, for i nstance, online services with a portal, et cetera.
Moving on to ICT policy innovation. The question which asked how much policy and legislation is
being done internally and externally —

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes.

Hon. E. David Burt: I will try to get back to that particular question, or that particular answer.
There was a question asking me to speak to
the marketing and promotion programme, more things required as to where those things were. I think what is
important, Opposition Leader, is to recognise that
most of government ’s external mar keting is done by
the Bermuda Business Development Agency. So,
there is not a significant amount of external marketing
1350 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly that would be done on the business development side
from internal government departments.
However, regarding the publications specif ically for this, the publications were The European ,
which has included content on Bermuda for the World
Economic Forum, and we will be in the World Bus iness Forum edition, and the other publication has
been The World Commerce Review and has carried
an editori al quarterly.
On the question about when will the first strategy for cybersecurity be expected? I had spoken with
the Minister who has overall responsibility for cybersecurity and he said that the plan is finished and is in
execution phase. It is one of t hose things that as
much as we would like to table here, it is not som ething that we are going to put inside the public domain, letting everyone know what Bermuda’s cybersecurity strategy is. But it is a public sector and also
private sector and also, as I said, there are the go vernment ’s assets which need to be secure. But there
is also a broader level on a national level of making
sure that private assets are secured.
We have seen other places where there have
been blackouts, and those blackouts have been due
to computer intrusions and otherwise. So, there are
lots of different systems; but that is a plan or a strat egy that is both with the public sector and with the pr ivate sector.
There was a question regarding Cybertips, I
believe. Cybertips has been in place since 2007, with
major programmes. A team goes out to schools reg ularly to speak to students, the teachers and parents.
There is the annual Digital Leadership conference for students which will take place on the 27
th of March.
Last year, 600 middl e and senior school students attended, and then there is the annual Safer Internet
Day for seniors, and this was the fifth year of that particular initiative. And I was pleased to attend as the
Minister for that one, specifically.
Regarding cybersecurity funding, there was a
question on that. In the IC policy budget we are coordinating the [Cybersecurity] Governance Board. Also,
we will provide funding for Cyber Essentials which
crosses over with privacy and also will work on the
policy development to ena ble the development of c ybersecurity legislation.
There was a question about the change of
money for cybersecurity between National Security and ICT Policy Innovation, regarding performance
measures on page B -74. Cybersecurity was moved
from 77003 and 77005. A discontinued item was
achieved in its proper fiscal year and, as was stated,
the National Security retained the responsibility for
cybersecurity. But Head 67 is providing secretarial
support for the Cybersecurity Governance Board . . . I
am sorry, not secretarial, secretariat support.
The first question was, How much policy and
legislation is being done internally versus externally?
We develop policies internally; however, there is a contractor that is working with the Department of ICT
Policy and Innovation on the development of the pr ivacy legislation and the advancing of that. And I believe that the advertisement went out for the selection
of a privacy commissioner, and I know those inter-views are taking place.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. E. David Burt: Yes.
There was a question about disaster simul ations. Disaster simulation also relates to work being
done in the Disaster Risk Reduction and Mitigation
Team [DRMMT] under National Security, in collabor ation with the Bermuda Cybersecurity Str ategy and
there is a critical national infrastructure component of
the strategy that would provide cybersecurity simul ations and the focus of such simulations would vary.
And just as a final matter on cybersecurity, the
Cybersecurity Governance Board had its first meeting
in February. So, as I said, they have moved to the implementation stage as opposed to the discussion
and formulation stage.
Those are most of the questions which I have.
I am sure if I have missed any questions, I will be asked those questions again. However, I will just f ocus, going back to Head 43 talking about ITO, because I think that it is important. I am happy that today
I heard the Government say where they would spend
more money . . . I am sorry, the Opposition say where
they wou ld spend more money. And I would sincerely
hope —

[Inaudible interjection]

[Mrs. Renee Ming, Chairman]

Hon. E. David Burt: I would sincerely hope that in the
exact same place where they are saying they could
spend more money that I hope they will be as t ransparent to say in which place they wish to cut money,
because you cannot spend more unless you wish to
cut. And I think what we have done is demonstrate that you can keep spending frozen, increase spending
in certain areas while reduce spending in other areas,
while continuing to make sure that you are efficient .
And I want the listening public to remember
that we were given a budget in 2017/18 that estimated that as a country we would spend $923 million of the
capital account. And despite giving public sector pay
increases for the first time in many years to public sector workers, we ended up coming in $29 million
below that figure. Again, we said we are going to
spend $923 [million], coming in $29 million below that
figure.
So, we hear a lot of noise about spending and
all the rest, but you have to look at the facts. And the facts are that in this [brief] time that we have been in
office we have been very effective in spending the


Bermuda House of Assembly money and we have managed to make sure that we
can reassign the prioriti es properly and also take care
of our public sector workers, Madam Chairman.
[Inaudible interjection]

It has been moved that Heads [43]
and [67] under the Cabinet be approved. Is there any
objection to that motion?
No objection.
Agreed to.

[Motion carried: Non- Ministry, Cabinet Office, Head 43
and Head 67 were approved and stand part of the
Estimates of Rev enue and Expenditure for the year
2019/20.]

[Pause]
[Crosstalk]

Hon. E. David Burt : Madam Chairman, I move the
following heads to be approved as printed. Heads 1,
2, 5, 56, 85, 92, 98, 101, 9, 74, 75, 88, 10, 11, 12, 28,
38, 39, 58, 59, 49, 68, 81, 82, 97, 71, 93, 29, 50 and
95 together with the heads already approved during
the debates on the Estimates of Revenue and E xpenditure for the year 2019/20.
[Crosstalk]
[Pause]

Members, we are just sorting out a
matter. We will be right with yo u.

[Laughter and crosstalk ]

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Madam Chairman, I did move that those
heads be approved. Shall I move on?

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. E. David Burt: Okay. Thank you, Madam
Chairman.
Madam Chairman, I move that the Current
Accounts Estimates, the Capital Development Est imates, and the Capital Acquisition Estimates be approved.

So ordered.
The Committee rises and the House resumes.
The Chairman reports the approval of the Estimates of
Revenue [and] Expenditure for 2019/20 as printed.

[Gavel]

[Motion carried: The Estimates of Revenue and E xpenditure for Financial Year 2019 /20 were considered
by a Committee of the w hole House and passed.]

House resumed at 5 :57 pm

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

REPORT OF COMMITTEE

ESTIMATES OF REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
FOR THE YEAR 2019/20

Good afternoon, Members.
Is there any objection to the hea ds that were
moved to bring conclusion to the annual budget debate being reported back to the House?
No objections.
Mr. Premier.

BILL

FIRST READING

APPROPRIATION ACT 2019

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you very much, Mr.
Speaker .
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Minister of Finance, I am introducing a Bill entitled the Appropri a1352 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly tion Act 2019 with the Governor’s recommendation
signified.

Are there any objections?
No objections.
So moved. It is passed.

[Motion carried: The Appropriation Act 2019 was read
a third time and passed. ]

MESSAGE TO THE SENATE

APPROPRIATION ACT 2019

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I move that the following message be sent to the Senate:
“To the Honourable President and Members
of the Senate: The House of Assembly has the honour
to forward herewith the undernoted Bill for the c oncurrence of your House, the Appropriation Act 2019.
Copies of the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure
for 2019/20 are also forwarded for the information of
your House.”

Thank you, Premier.
That brings us to a conclusion of the annual
budget debate. We now move on to the other Orders
of today, and I believe that there are two items that
are going to be dealt with today, but I understand that
you would like to do the [Order] No. 7 first, instead of [Order] No. 3. Is that correct?
So, [Order] No. 7 is the second reading of the
Dental Practitioners Amendment Act 2019 in the name of the Minister of Health.
Minister.

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 29(1)

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker .
Mr. Speaker, I move that Standing Order
29(1) be suspended to enable the House to proceed
with the second reading of the Bill entitled the Dental
Practitioners Amendment Act 2019.

Are there any objections to that?
There appear to be none.
[Motion carried: Standing Order 29(1) suspend ed.]



Bermuda House of Assembly BILL

SECOND READING

DENTAL PRACTITIONERS AMENDMENT ACT 2019

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker .
I stand before this Honourable House this
evening to present the Bill entitled the Dental Pract itioners Amendment Act 2019.
Mr. Speaker, the Ministry of Health is responsible for the legislation that provides the framework for
the regulation of health care professionals. The Dental
Practitioners Act 1950 is the legislation that guides the
regulation of dentists, dental hygienists and dental
technicians. The Bermuda Dental Board is the regul atory authority charged with ensuring high standards of
professional competence and conduct for the dental
profession and to advise the Ministry on issues per-taining to them. Accordingly, the Board and the Ministry’s efforts to advance standards for professional
practice are ongoing.
Mr. Speaker, the Bill entitled the Dental Pract itioners Amendment Act 2019 proposes to improve the regulation of dentists by making explicit provision for
appropriate indemni ty insurance coverage and regi stering dentists for special procedures.
Mr. Speaker, the Board has registration crit eria that sets forth what is required to satisfy an appl ication for registration as a dentist. Required documentation includes those documents that attest to the e ducation, professional qualifications, experience and character of an applicant. Additionally, the Board r equires proof of indemnity insurance coverage for practice as a dentist and this requirement is currently outlined in the stand ards for the profession in their stat ement of conduct.
Mr. Speaker, indemnity insurance is a best
practice standard for health care professionals, and it
serves to protect the practitioners and the public from
claims of negligence and malpractice. The Bil l will u pdate the Act and make indemnity coverage an expressed legal requirement for dentists. Most recently,
this requirement was established in the Psychological
Practitioners Act 2018. The proposed amendment for
indemnity insurance coverage will not req uire any additional change to current practice because dentists
already have a requirement for indemnity insurance
coverage through established standards for their pr ofession.
Mr. Speaker, the Bill clarifies that the stat ement of conduct prepared by the Board includes
standards for ethical conduct, standards of practice,
and scopes of practice for the dental profession. This
amendment aligns the Act with the Ministry’s other
legislation for health professionals.
Mr. Speaker, the Bill proposes that the B oard
has authority to register dentists for specified proc edures and to enter these qualifications on the Regi s-ter. The Board has identified, Mr. Speaker, several
procedures that require additional oversight in order to maintain high standards of professional competence
and conduct. These specific procedures include dental implants and restorations, sedation, sleep medi-cine, and cosmetic procedures involving Botox and
dermal filler injections. Some of these procedures carry an increased level of risk for patients that may r equire an increase in the level of indemnity insurance
coverage. Additionally, the Board needs to assure that
dentists have received adequate education, training and continuing education to perform these proc edures.
Mr. Speaker, the Boar d has best practice
standards drafted for each of these specified proc edures that I have just mentioned, including the stat ement of conduct for dentists, and it is important to note that the proposal for the addition of standards will u ndergo consultation with the dental profession. This
consultation process allows the Board to receive
feedback and set reasonable and realistic timelines for compliance. Dentists who plan to perform or are
currently performing these specified procedures will
be given the opportunity to be a part of the discussion
before they are held to any new standards.
Overall, Mr. Speaker, the Bill entitled the De ntal Practitioners Amendment Act 2019 ensures that
the Board can continue to uphold high standards of
professional competence and conduct, essentially
safeguarding matters for public health.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker .

Thank you, Minister .
Does any other Member wish to speak?
I recognise the Honourable Member from
constituency 23. Honourable Member Pamplin, you
have the floor.
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Thank you, Mr.
Speaker .
Mr. Speaker, we have no objection to this Bill.
I just wanted to point out, by way of general debate,
that, very clearly, professional standards and protec-tion of the public are tantamount in our responsibility
to ensure that the public is safeguarded.
I noted as the Minister gave her brief that it
will now be mandatory for malpractice insurance to be
held by dentists such that the indemnity arrangements
and the appropriate cover ensure that anybody pra ctising dentistry will be able to have that coverage. So,
very clearly, we want to ensure that our people are
protected.
I had to say that during the Minister ’s brief,
she mentioned some of the cosmetic things that de ntists are permitted to do under their present codes of
conduct. And I have to say that it was quite surprising
to me to hear that dentists can actually administer B otox. It just does not seem to me to be a synergistic
relationship. But with that being said, presumably the
1354 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly necessary education and underlying training is a pr erequisite in order for them to get that necessary permission in order to do so. But it just seemed like a
strange bedfellow here, Mr. Speaker .
But, with that said, we have no objection to
the, you know, for the approval of this particular Bill.
Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Honourable Member.
Does any other Honourable . . . we recognise
the Honourable Member from constituency 19. Ho nourable Member Atherden, you have the floor.

Hon. Jeanne J. At herden: Mr. Speaker, through you
to the Minister , I just wondered . . . there is an indic ation that there will be consultation with the persons,
with respect to specialised people who will be, if you
will, just being specialised practitioners. And there is
an indication that there would be consultation with
those persons already practicing these particular specialised items. And I just wondered who will make the decision as to whether a person will go forward to
continue to be a specialised dentist, and on what b asis will they decide that a person who is already doing
it might or might not be able to continue?

Thank you, Honourable Member.
Does any other Honourable Member wish to
speak?
No other Honourable Member?
Minister?
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker , and I
thank the Honourable Member s for their comments.
With respect to the question that was asked
just recently by the Honourable Member from [consti tuency] 19, as I indicated, the Dental Board actually
will be consulting wit h the dentists that are providing
those types of procedures right now, and that they will
be looking to identify special requirements as it relates
to academic requirements, continuing education r equirements and the like. That consultation process will
take place with all of the dentists, but the first, I guess,
tranche of consultation is with the dentists that are
currently performing the Botox and the implants. So,
there is heavy consultation.
In addition to that, those four areas that I note,
the Botox, implants, those particular areas that I
spoke about, the standards are already addressing that. But in furtherance to that . . . because section
12B speaks to the standards already, which I will speak about in a moment because that addresses another quest ion concerning indemnity insurance.
However, the Dental Board will continue . . . the consultations have already commenced, and they will continue with consultation, particularly with the indi-vidual dentists that are providing those particular [pr ocedures] , dental implants, restorations, sedations, and cosmetic procedures as well. And the procedures will
also require that they have indemnity insurance.
I know you have a question, but just to answer
the other question . . . I am sorry, Mr. Speaker, just to
make it clear to Members and the public as well, currently they do have to carry indemnity insurance. But it
is under their standards pursuant to section 12B of the
substantive legislation. But like other practitioners, we
wish to add like we did for the Ps ychologists Pract itioners Act, the recent amendments, we want the sub-stantive Act to have a requirement that they carry i ndemnity insurance as opposed to being referenced in
their standards in the Act.
So, they do have to have it now, but it is part
of their standards pursuant to section 12B. But we want the Act . . . this amendment will say in the body
of the Act that they must have a requirement for
providing indemnity insurance.

Continue.


B ermuda House of Assembly Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, this Bill seeks to
amend the Dental Practitioners Act 1950 to make appropriate indemnity insurance an express requirement of registration as a dental practitioner and would also give the Bermuda Dental Board express power to i mpose on dental practitioners additional registration requirements in respect of specified procedures where
it believes that this is necessary to safeguard the
health of patients.
Clause 1 provides a citation for the Bill.
Clause 2 inserts definitions and expressions
used in the new section 6A (indemnity arrangement s)
and 7AA (registration in respect of specified proc edure).
Clause 3 inserts section 6A in the principal
Act, which provides for mandatory malpractice insur-ance. It defines “indemnity arrangements” and “ap-propriate cover” and provides that a registered de ntal
practitioner who is practicing dentistry in Bermuda
shall have in force in relation to him or her an indemnity arrangement which provides appropriate cover for practising as such.
Clause 4 amends section 7 to make it clear
that documents evidencing indemnity arrangements
and, where applicable, suitability to carry out specified
procedures must be submitted with an application for registration.
Clause 5 provides that, after consultation with
registered dental practitioners, the Board may specify a procedure (a “specified procedure”) —namely, a
specified procedure —that shall not be carried out by
any registered dental practitioner after a day that is set by the Board unless the practitioner meets the standards and requirements of the Board in respect of that particular procedure, if the Board believes that
such standards and requirements are necessary to
safeguard the health of patients. And it also provides
for registration in respect of specified procedures.
Clause 6 amends section 7A to make it clear
that documents evidencing indemnity arrangements must be submitted with an application for reregistration.
Clause 7 amends section 12B to make it clear
that a statement of conduct under that section may
contain guides to ethical conduct, standards of prac-tice or scopes of practice.
And clause 8 is a consequential amendment
to the Dental Practitioners (Registration) Regulations 1950 to provide for registration of a specified proc edure to be entered in the register.

Are there any further speakers ?
The Chair recognises the Honourable Member Pat Gordon- Pamplin.
Mrs. Gordon- Pamplin, you have the floor.
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Thank you, Mr.
Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as I said while we were in the
debate of the whole, we have no objection t o this Bill.
But I just had one quick question and that is in respect of clause 5 on page 3, when it speaks to registration in respect of specified procedures, that this registr ation is required.
Is it going to be necessary for the practitioner
to display their licence to do certain procedures as
one would do in certain circumstances, or is it just im-plied based on the fact that their licence is current?

Any further speakers? The Chair recognises the Honourable Member , Mrs. Atherden.
You ha ve the floor, Mrs. Atherden.
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
This is also getting, I guess in terms of
[clause] 5, and it comes down to [clause] 6, in terms of the indication that a practitioner shall not carry out a
procedure unless he meets the standards in respect
of the procedure, and I do not see anything in here
that indicates how the Board is going to make sure that the procedure is . . . that the person meets the [standard], and I do not see anything that indicates if
the person does not meet it and is aggrieved, how
they would, how the Board would be able to stop them.
Thank you.

Minister?
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, with respect to the last question, just for clarity, the Dental B oard will actually be
the one that will make the decision as to what are the qualifications required for providing the specialised
procedures. And the Dental Practitioners Act, similar
to other pieces of legislation that speak to the 28 or so professional boards that come under the Ministry of
Health, also have the professional conduct commit-tees provisions as well. So, if a person is aggrieved by
a decision that the Board has made against their l icence, their practice, et cetera, then they have the
appeal processes that are contained within the pr ofessional conduct committee’s provisions.
In addition to that, Mr. Chairman, as it relates
to the licence itself, the licence will lay out the p arameters of what that particular dental practitioner is
able to practice. So . . . I am not speaking to you, of
course, but if somebody wanted Botox, and they went to the dentist and their dentist did not provide it in their licence, then they may shop around and go to som ebody that has the licence listed to say that the y are
allowed to provide Botox.

All right. Mrs. Gordon- Pamplin.
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: I just needed clar ity to say if the licence itself was required to be di splayed with respect to its conditions. So, one could
have a licence but, like an elevator, you go in the ele-vator it says my licence can be seen in the head office or something. Does it have to be displayed at the point of service or in the office?
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Yes, the licence does have to
be displayed publicly so that the persons that are coming in to the facilities can see the licence.
Th
e Chairman: Any further speakers?
There appear to be none. Minister, you want
to move these clauses?
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to move . . .

It has been moved that the Bill be
reported to the House as printed.
Are there any objections to that?
There appear to be none.
Approved. The Bill be reported to the House.
[
Motion carried: The Dental Practitioners Amendment
Act 2019 was considered by a Committee of the
whole House and passed without amendment.] House resumed at 6:18 pm
[Hon. Dennis P. Lister, Jr., Speaker, in the Chair]
REPORT OF COMMITTEE
DENTAL PRACTITIONERS AMENDMENT ACT 2019

Continue on. Continue on.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Speaker, the Bill now
before the House is the Land Tax Amendment Act 2019. This Bill provides for revised land tax rates for various annual rental value (ARV) bands.


Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Speaker, land tax is charged under the
authority of the Land Valuation and Tax Act 1967 and
the Land Tax Act 1967 . It is assessed on the annual
rental value of each valuation unit depending on
whether the unit is a private dwelling or a commercial
property. The Tax Commissioner’s land tax officer
calculates the amount of land tax charged on all val uation units and demand notes are issued to taxpayers
half-yearly. The amount of tax is determined by mult iplying the ARV by the appropriate tax rates. A nnual
rental values are established every five years and are updated periodically to reflect improvements to property. The owner of each valuation unit is liable for tax.
Mr. Speaker, private dwelling units are taxed
on an extremely progressive scale of t ax rates. Let me
emphasise that again: Private dwelling units are taxed on an extremely progressive scale of tax rates. There
are seven annual rental value bands with a minimum
rate of 0.8 per cent and a maximum rate of 47 per
cent. Bermudians who are 65 y ears or over, who own
and occupy a private dwelling are exempted from tax
on the first $45,500 of the annual rental value. Commercial properties are currently taxed on the single
rate of tax at 12 per cent.
Mr. Speaker, the progressive rate structure for
private dwellings is heavily skewed to higher value properties, making the property tax highly sensitive to reassessments in value. To illustrate the tax structure
is heavily skewed. The assessed value of properties
up to $44,000 ARV accounts for 84 per cent of the tax
base—84 per cent of the tax base, but only 18 per
cent of the tax revenue —while properties at the higher
band , which is roughly 1.6 per cent of the properties ,
account for 43 per cent of the taxes collected.

[Is that] 16 per cent? Or was it
6 [per cent]?

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: No. It is 1.6 per cent of the
properties, of those properties. I can answer that in
Committee if you want me to.
Mr. Speaker, currently, the land taxes range
from $28.80 per year —per year, divide that by 12, two
dollars -something a month—to $228,720 per year
(Thank God that is not my house, Mr. Speaker ), further illustrating the highly progressive nature of the
system.
Mr. Speaker, in the report presented to the
Government , the Tax Reform Commission recommended that the land tax structure for residential
property should be amended by levying a flat rate of
$500. You will recall that the Reform Commission was made up of Members, myself on this side and Ho nourable Member Jeanne Atherden on their side. We
had suggested a minimum of $500 for an ARV under $22,000. This procedure would replace the bands un-der $22,000 with a flat $500 rate which would have
provided for a more equitable distribution of the land
tax burden. The view of the Tax Reform Commission was that the existing rate structure is not fairly
weighted. It is clear from this proposal that the TRC
considered that the tax rates for the two lowest bands
were too low. An important principle in any tax system
is the ability to pay and from this proposal, it appears that the TRC are of the view that persons owning
properties of $22,000 or less could afford to pay
$500.00 per year, or $41.66 per month for their properties. The TRC expect that this proposal for a res idential tax rate reform to yield an increase in revenue
of approximately $8 million, before seniors’ exem ptions.
Mr. Speaker, Honourable Member s will recall
the TRC also proposed a tax on residential rents, which would have yielded $26 million. During the pr ebudget consultation process, t he Ministry carefully
considered all land tax proposals and it was a nnounced in the 2019/20 National Budget that Go vernment would be amending the land tax rate structure for residential properties to generate additional
revenue. The proposal is as follows:
• All properties with an ARV of one dollar to
$22,000 will pay a flat rate of $300.
• All properties with an ARV above $22,000 pay
a flat rate of $300, plus the rates below.
In other words, Mr. Speaker, if it is over
$22,000, then the tax band . . . and it is going to be
hard to explain because people will not be able to see it. But, there is a variation of tax rates from
0.8 per cent up to 50 per cent.
Mr. Speaker, this proposal will yield an add itional $12.6 million in land tax revenue per annum.
And, Mr. Speaker, I thought it was important that at
least Honourable Member s would be able to see . . . if
you see this graph here, that the graph—

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: If they can see the graph,
the Honourable Member s will see that the high bands
pay the most taxes.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Yes, I will lay it on there so
Members can see it if they want to. The lower bands
pay very little land tax. You can see that. So, I will put
that on the table so people can see it.

[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: The maximum dollar exem ption afforded to seniors under the new rate structure,
which will be effective July 1
st, is $1,941 per annum.
So, the seniors will get $1,941 [exemption] per annum on that, which is roughly $45,400 ARV.
Mr. Speaker, the reality is that to maintain
government services at a reasonable level and to
avoid financial failure, the Government needs to i n1358 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report
B ermuda House of Assembly crease revenue. Mr. Speaker, the Minist ry of Finance
is confident that this approach will provide the go vernment with additional revenue from land tax.
Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me just read this
part out so Members can see it:
•The first band runs from zero to $11,000, th e
gov
ernment will collect roughly $617,000.
•The second band, 11,001 to $22,000, they will
collect roughly $4 million— $4,130,400.
•The third band, which is $22,001 to $33,000,
they will collect $5,822,777.
•The fourth band, which is $33,001 to $44,000,
the government will collect $4,226,623.
•The fifth band, which is $44,001 to $90,000,the government will collect $17,162,158.
•The sixth band, which is $90,001 to $120,000,
the government will collect $7,162,350.
Here is the striking thing, Mr. Speaker, the
seventh band, which is approximately about . . . and I
can give this list to you also, Mr. Speaker .
•The seventh band, which is only roughly 400
homes in that band, will collect $21,052,970.
[
Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Right. That is 420 . . . roughly 420 homes.
And this is interesting, if you look at the graph
here, this is studio, one bedroom, two bedroom, three
bedroom, four bedroom, and these are the small bands —400 [homes] right here. Those two bands
alone collect roughly $29 million. That is why the
graph goes up there in the revenue. When we talk
about progressive land tax, it is progressive.
[
Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Amounting to roughly about
just over 400 homes, also. And that is one of your
homes is it not, Cole? So, you are in that top league, Cole.

Mak e sure y ou are factual.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: There may have been some
misunderstanding among the public relating to these
new land tax rates.
Mr. Speaker, in regard to commercial land tax,
Honourable Members are aware that in the 2018/19 budg
et, as a temporary measure, land tax rates on
commercial properties were increased by 5 per cent,
which raised an additional $15 million in land tax re venues. This provision will expire on June 30, 2019,
and the legislation provides for the rates to revert back
to the 7.0 per cent. It is now proposed to amend the
land tax on commercial properties from 7 [per cent] to
9.5 per cent, and the land tax on tourist properties will go from 7.0 per cent to 8.0 per cent.
Mr. Speaker, Government has always mai ntained that everyone in Bermuda needs to do their part in helping to pay off the deficit. Therefore, the
primary purpose of this Bill is to amend the land tax
rates to ensure additional revenue to the government
so that this Government can continue to do the work
the people elected us to do, which is to provide a better and fairer Bermuda.
Mr. Speaker, just before I close, I will just give
you some more data so Members can be aware of it.
In the first band, Mr. Speaker, which is roughly about 2,000 homes, zero to $11,000 ARV (there are roughly 2,000). The average person paid about $25 per month. In the second band, which is one- bedroom
apartments, roughly, it is just under 14,000 in that
group, and they pay on average about $25 per month.
Interestingly enough, most of the people that
rent are between studio/one- bedrooms and some twobedrooms. In the two- bedrooms, there are just under
8,000 rental units, and the average person paid
rough ly, in that bracket, $63 a month. And again, in
the $33,000 to $44,000, roughly under 4,000 homes, they paid on average $107 per month.
The $44,001 to $90,000 (this is in Cole’s
bracket), paid on average $365 per month. And the $90,001 to $120,000 paid on average $1,136 per month. And the $120,000- plus, on average they paid
$3,540 [per month], although they said the highest land tax in their bracket is just about $240,000 for the
year.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, Honourable Member s
are advised that the land tax valuation department is
in the process of conducting the quinquennial revaluation of land, which is due to go on deposit 31
st of
March 2020 and will come into effect on January 1,
2021. During this process, the Ministry will have to make further adjustments to rates to maintain levels of tax collecting. Also during this time, the Ministry will
look to transition the land tax structure so that it is less
susceptible to large changes in valuation.
With these introductory remarks, Mr. Speaker,
I now ask Honourable Members from that side if they
have anything to say. Thank you.

Thank you, Junior Minister .
D oes any other Member wish to speak?
I recognise the Honourable Member from
constituency 23. Honourable Member, you have the floor.


Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Thank you, Mr.
Speaker .
Mr. Speaker, the Junior Minister in his r emarks indicated that Government ’s responsi bility is to
increase revenue in order to be able to provide services to the taxpayers, which they demand. What the
Minister has failed to say . . . and persistently
throughout the course of this financial season we
have not heard about our Government ’s responsibility
to trim its sails, to cut its costs. And the minute we say cut costs, Mr. Speaker, we hear people jumping up
and down saying show us whose paycheque you want
to slash.
And I say again, Mr. Speaker, that with effective and progressive thinking in terms of how a Go vernment can cut its costs, it does not automatically
follow that Mr. or Mrs. Smith has to go home without a
paycheque. We have smart minds in this Honourable
place. And I do believe that we can determine how to
cut costs without putti ng people out of work. So, that
is said.
Mr. Speaker, we have the quinquennial reva luation process for which the initial review will go on
deposit on the 31
st of March of 2020. And that will give
individuals the opportunity during that process to be able to have a look at the valuation that has been applied to their particular property to determine whether it is appropriate, given the circumstances of the amen-ities that they have, the location in which their property
exists, and various reasons that they m ight decide, or
they may determine that they might want for the Land
Valuation Department to have a second look.
So, we understand. It is important for the public to understand that the deposit of the quinquennial review revaluation process is an integral part of their
responsibility to ensure that they are being fairly represented, because once that review is completed,
there is little chance that the department will have the ability to go back and change anything if somebody
believes that they are being hard done by in respect of
the amount of tax to which they have been ascribed.
Mr. Speaker, the Junior Minister also indica ted that the commercial rents had an increase that was
temporarily in effect, and that it was going to go down,
or that that increase expires at . . . I believe he said
March—

June.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: I am sorry, June
30
th. The increase expires at June 30th. So, it should
revert back to where it was before, but they are going
to put it up a little bit, in the commercial rent space.
And I think that most of us have an appreci ation that to the extent that commercial owners may have a better stream of revenue, we can almost understand that if you are going to tax the commercial
sector, you would tax those people. If you are going to tax any sector, you are going to tax those people who
have a better stream of income.
But as I warned a few days ago, in another
segmental debate, to the extent that commercial ow ners have their costs increased, it follows, jus t as sure
as night follows day, that those increased costs are
going to be passed on to the tenants and, ultimately, if
the tenant is in a retail public environment, those costs
will ultimately passed on to the consumer.
I cannot stress that enough, Mr. S peaker , because as we have seen little bits of taxation added on to another, added on to another, added on to another,
collectively it starts to add up to real money. And that
real money impacts, Mr. Speaker, when people at the
struggling end of the econom y just do not have the
revenue to be able to support the consistent increases—small increments, as the Government would have
you believe. But every small increment adds on to the
next small incremental onto the next small increment
and, ultimately, it becomes a fairly large increase. And
it is costing the struggling taxpayer more and more
and more because we have not seen any pay cuts.
Now, in respect of this particular Bill, Mr.
Speaker, the Minister indicated that 84 per cent of the
houses reside in bands one through four, which are contributing by way of the aggregate only 18 per cent
of the amount of revenue.
He then said 1.6 per cent of the other houses
fall in the other bands. So, I would ask the Minister to
confirm —

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Point of order —

Thank you.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: That is helpful,
because I wondered when the Minister was speaking
when he said 84 per cent . . . I said you mean
16 per cent being the rest? Because I thought when
he said the rest, I thought he meant all of the rest ot her than the first four bands.
So if, at the top end, band seven of $120,000
ARV and above . . . and the Minister indicated that
1360 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly there were only 400 houses in that band. But those
400 houses actually accounted for $21 million of the
land tax. So one can see that, yes, it is progressive.
And, presumably, if there is someone who can afford
a house that is in that range of $120,000 ARV, then the amount of the billing that they might have for their
land tax is not something that the average person,
that somebody like me, would be overly concerned about in terms of, Do I have the money, to meet this
bill? when it comes every six mont hs.
But it is critical to say, Mr. Speaker . . . as we
get into Committee we will be able to discuss it a little
bit more. But if I go back to the Budget Book, the
Budget Book had indicated that there was a base
charge on every single band of $300. And th at kind of
gave cause for a little bit of mathematic confusion,
because it just did not seem to tie in with what the
Minister was intending. So, what was listed in the
Budget Book was wrong in terms of the Schedule, but
it seems to have been corrected in t he actual Bill that
we are debating today.
But one of the things that gave me cause for
concern, Mr. Speaker, in this Bill is when your valu ation unit is in excess of $22,000, which is, you know, we are sort of in a band, . . . well, for bands one and
two the Budget Book had indicated a base charge of
$300 all the way down the line.
But it would seem to me that if we are in this
particular situation in which we have $22,000 being
the amount for which there will be a $300 charge,
which the Minister include d in his brief, that this $300
base charge ought to become the base, and I am not
sure that I am understanding why people whose
houses go over that next level ultimately appear to be
paying twice by having a specific percentage appen ded to bands one and tw o, and that is giving an amount
that they would have to pay for band one, band two,
and the Bill that we have now is saying as well as the
base rate of $300. So, it seems as though they are
paying twice.
Now, in the Budget Book, Mr. Speaker, the
proposed tax rate for bands one and two were listed
as zero in terms of the proposed tax rate, with a base charge of $300. But according to the legislation that
we have bands one and two have a 0.8 [per cent] and
a 1.8 per cent rate of tax, as well as the $300. So, I
am not sure if that is what the Government intended. It
would seem to me that the Government would have
intended to have no additional tax other than the flat $300 on the first two bands, and then the progressive
calculations on the other bands as we go higher.
So, I would be curious to hear, you know, how
the Government is intending to resolve this. But I will
end where I began, Mr. Speaker . The Government ’s
responsibility is not only to raise revenue. The Go vernment also has a responsibility to show that it can
expend the revenue that it raises from the taxpayers in a responsible way. And we cannot, Mr. Speaker,
have to find ourselves in a situation where we are raising extra money, extra money, extra money, extra
money, and paying extra consultants, extra consul tants, extra consultants, extra consultants, and the man on the street has got to pay for it. And he is now
struggling because his land tax is going up over and over and over again, little bit by little bit by little bit.
Mr. Speaker, it is Ch inese torture. It is a drip
of water being dropped in the same place over a con-sistent and persistent period of time, and it is bound to
make an indentation. We must realise that with this
process, one day our taxpayer is going to break. Thank you, Mr. S peaker .

Thank you, Mr. Speaker .
I recall when changes to land tax were impl emented by the previous Government ; there was a
considerable amount of confusion. And because the Honourable Junior Minister pointed out to the House
quite recently that I am not an accountant, I hope he
permits me a few stra ightforward questions just to
make sure that I have understood what is going on.
And, for the benefit of the House and the listening
public, I have three questions.
Mr. Speaker, all of these arise from the box
that is the chart under [clause] 5 of the Bi ll, which has
the annual rental value bands one to seven, and then
an amount of the Annual Rental Value and then a rate
of tax. So, that is the chart I am looking at. I know that
the Honourable Junior Member has provided two ot her charts, and I might refer to them in a minute, but I
really have three questions and they are these:
Firstly, I have compared the “Rate of Tax” in
the right -hand column with the “Rate of Tax” in the
existing 1967 Act, as previously amended. And as I
understand it, the rate of ta x is not going to change at
all in bands one, two, three or four. It is going to r emain the same. And then in bands five, six and seven,
the rate of tax will go up.
Previously in band seven, the rate of tax was
47 per cent; it is going up to 50 per cent. Previously in
band six, the rate of tax was 25 per cent; it is going to
30 per cent. And previously, under the Act . . . band
five is going from 12 per cent up to 17 per cent. And
as I have understood it, that means an increase in percentage terms for band seven of 6.3 per cent; an
increase in percentage terms for band six of
20 per cent (25 [per cent] is going to 30 [per cent]);
and in band five a 41.6 per cent increase in payments.
So, that is my first question, if I have understood that
correctly.
The second thing . . . and this was a matter
that cropped up previously. What is happening with


Bermuda House of Assembly bands one and two? If you read the amending la nguage in the Bill up at [clause] 3 (and we will come to
that in committee), it seems to suggest that bands one
and tw o pay a base rate of $300. So, my second
question of three questions is this: Do they only pay a
base rate of $300, or does band one pay $300 plus
0.8 per cent; and does band two pay $300 plus
1.8 per cent? That is my second question.
And my third and final question . . . I think
when the Honourable Junior Minister presented his
opening to the House, I think what he said was the
land tax increases are going to be $12.6 million. So,
we know that the increased taxes in this budget are
$39 million. Have I cor rectly understood the Honour able Junior Minister to say of those $39 million in tax
increases, $12.6 million are land tax increases?
And those are my three questions. I would be
grateful for answers for at some point in time.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker

Thank you, Honourable Member.
Any further speak ers?
No further speakers. Junior Minister?

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Let me answer, I believe the
second to last question first.
I think you asked, Were bands one and two
$300 only. Yes. So bands one and two will be $300.
Band one will be $300; band two will be $300. It
changes in band three.
Band three would be—

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: No. The $300—

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: No. Band three would
be . . . it would probably be best to get in Committee
to discuss this type of information.

Okay, well, you can move us to Committee.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Well, let me just say, before I
do that, Mr. Speaker, the Honourable Member s keep
on ta lking about the Government ’s raise in taxes. I
have not seen a Minister of Finance yet that has not
raised taxes. And that starts with the former Minister
Bob Richards.
We talked about raising [the rate] from
47 per cent to 50 per cent. Do you know that t he Honourable Member raised the land tax, the top end, from
23 per cent to 47 per cent? Did you all forget that?
The second band he raised from 19 per cent to
25 per cent. Do people forget those things? Is it short
memory? Every Government has raised taxes . And what they failed to share, Mr. Speaker
. . . normally the Minister of Finance who speaks for
the Opposition would at least come and give his ideas
to the country of what they would do. This Opposition
has failed—

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Wayn e L. Furbert: —has failed to . . . oh, they
are talking about cut.
And what they have not said is what they
would cut. We know what they cut. The furlough days
. . . would they have gone back to furlough days? You
just cannot get up here and just shoot th e breeze like,
you know, you do not live in the real world.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: You have just . . . you ca nnot say I am not going to raise taxes.

They are presenting their viewpoint.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: And we understand that, Mr.
Speaker . We understand the politics of it. And that is
why the Honourable Member keeps on talking about
Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Always talking about Mr. and Mrs.
Smith. I understand Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Right? My
parish if full of Mr. and Mrs. Smiths. But the parishes
that some of them live in are in that top bracket, in the top last two brackets, in particular.
So, Mr. Speaker, you know, we understand
that at the end of the day, because we clearly have
the gli de path of what they had planned to do and
raise payroll tax on the employee and the employer, taxing labour, once again. We all knew they were going to put the general service tax in place which would increase the cost of doing business in Bermuda.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Point of order, Mr. Speaker.

—so we can go to Committee and di scuss the clauses.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: It was not about a crystal
ball, because in their last budget they projected their
rates. The evidence is there. It is not about any cry stal
ball. The evidence was there of how they planned to
raise their revenue from . . . sorry, if they had won
2018/19 and 2019/20. That is why they talked about
balancing the budget on the back of labour and of i ndividuals! It is not about any crystal bal l. It was clear.
Goods and services would have been increased for
the average Bermudian. The payroll tax on the employer . . . so we understand that.
So, Mr. Speaker, with those few remarks, I
would love to get into Committee and talk more in d etail if t hey want to.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker .

Continue.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Chairman, this Bill seeks
to amend the rates of tax payable under the Land Tax
Act 1967, called “the principal Act.”
Clause 1 is self -explanatory. Clause 2 amends section 1 of the principal
Act (interpretation) to insert a definition of “tourist unit”
which excludes vacation rent al units as defined by
section 15A(1) of the Bermuda Tourism Authority Act 2013 , and makes a consequential amendment to su bsection (2).
Clause 3 amends section 2 of the principal
Act (rates of tax). New paragraph (a) introduces a base rate of $300—a base rate—to be paid in respect
of any valuation unit which is a private dwelling with
an annual rental value not exceeding $22,000. In r espect of any valuation unit which is a private dwelling with an annual rental value exceeding $22,000, new
paragraph (b) applies the base rate of $300 in addition
to the percentage of ARV payable in accordance with
the rates specified in the table in the Schedule (which
is replaced by clause 5). New paragraph (c) modifies
the land tax payable in respect of valuation units othe r
than private dwellings from 12 per cent of the ARV of
the unit (applied by Land Tax Temporary Amendment
Act [2018]) to 8 .0 per cent in the case of tourist units,
and 9.5 per cent for all other units —that is, commercial units.
Clause 4 inserts new section 2A into the pri ncipal Act. This provides for a rate of tax of 7 per cent
of the annual rental value of any valuation unit (other
than a private dwelling) which is situated in any of the
economic empowerment zones [EEZs] designated under section 2A of the Economic Development Act
1968 . This maintains the status quo as such units
were exempt from the increase from 7 per cent to
12 per cent made by the Land Tax Temporary
Amendment Act 2018 .
Clause 5 amends the Schedule to the princ ipal Act by replacing the table (land tax on private
dwellings) so as to modify the percentage rate of land
tax payable in respect of such portion of the annual
rental value of a private dwelling unit as falls within
each of the seven ARV bands. As provided by clause
3, the percentage rate, in addition to the base rate of $300, will be payable in respect of private dwellings
with an annual rental value exceeding $22,000.
Clause 6 provides for commencement on 1
July 2019.

Any further speakers? The Chair recognises the Honourable Member Pat GordonPamplin.
Mrs. Pamplin, you have the floor.
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I want to go to clause 4 . . .
well actually clause 3.
Clause 3 [amendment to section 2] (a) says
“the bas e rate of $300, where the valuation unit is a
private dwelling with an annual rental value of the unit
not exceeding $22,000.” So, $22,000 is effectively


Bermuda House of Assembly band one and band two. Band one goes up to
$11,000 and band two goes up to the $22,000.
So, what this is saying (my understanding
from what is listed here) is that bands one and two will
pay $300 total. Not $300 for band one and $300 for band two, but just $300 for bands one and two.

Anything up to $22,000.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: So, up to $22,000.
So, that is $300.
So, at the moment, if somebody has an ARV
at the top end of band one in which the rate is now 0.8 per cent, and he is paying $88 a year, that $88 is
now going to be $300. They will go from $88 a year to
$300 a year. A nd it just seems that this is an inord inate increase for somebody on the lower end.
We have heard the Government say they
want to make sure that they look out for the little guy,
and the little guy who just about is struggling to pay
his $88 a year . . . we have to hope that they can
reach senior -hood so that that part of it is exempt, because other than that you are going to find people are going to be struggling. It is a lot of money —the difference between $88 and $300.
And even on band two, if an indiv idual is in
that band, band two would cost them $198. So that, combined with the $88, would take them up to $286.
And while it might be okay to say from $286 to $300 is
not a big leap, but from $88 to $300 is quite a leap for
somebody who is already struggling and is just about
managing in that rate.
The other question that I have is, when it
comes to the bands in excess of [$22,000], it seems as though we are double- dipping, based on how the
legislation is worded.
This is in [clause 3, amended section 2] su bsection (b), which effectively says that if your unit is in excess of $22,000, you are going to pay according to
the rate specified in the band. So, is the Minister saying that if you are at the $33,000 mark, you are going
to pay 0.8 per cent on band one, 1.8 per cent on band
two, 3.5 per cent on band three plus the $300?
That is what this is saying. And I am not sure
that this is what they intended, to double up on the
person who is just over the $22,000 mark and they find themselves having to pay that extra $300 as well.

Minister, do you want to elaborate on
that a bit?
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Well, I thought the Honour able Member just asked a question, were the first two
bands $300, which is correct —zero to $11,000, the
band will be $300, which is roughly $0.83 per day.
And let me just say this, Mr. Chairman . . . and
I see the Honourable Member Jeanne Atherden, who
is missing from this Honourable House , was on the
Tax Commission —

Stay tuned to this here.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Yes, but my point is that it
was supposed to be $500 based on the Tax Reform
[Commission] suggestion. And the reason why we suggested $300 . . . ($500, so that is why I am getting
$300), the $500 . . . because the average person who
rents a car —

Okay. That is what we need to understand that.
Mrs. Gordon—

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Thank you. Thank
you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, as I said, I fully understand the
higher bands and the higher leve ls. But this differential
at the lower end with having that $300 minimum band
up to $22,000, plus you are paying on band one another $88 and on band two another $198 on top of the
$300 that they are charging you. So, they are char g1364 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report
B ermuda House of Assembly ing you twice for bands o ne and two when you reach
over into band three.
You are paying $300 plus —

I hear you.
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: This says that
where the valuation is in excess of $22,000, in respect
of such portion that falls within a band specified in the first column, the rate scheduled in the second column
in relation to that band, plus the base rate of $300.
So, that really is saying that if you are . . . to
my mind, this is saying that if you are at $25,000, as an example, you will be paying the 3.5 per cent on
that $11,000 . . . I am sorry, that $4,000 band (if you
are $25,000), plus the $300 for bands one and two.
To me, if the Honourable Member says that
the . . . if the valuation up to $22,000 is a flat $300, over $22,000 you are going to pay these rates and not
have the rate of tax of 0.8 [per cent] and 1.8 [per
cent], which is the way it was described in the Budget Statement. The Budget Statement indicated that there would be zero per cent on bands one and two —

The way it was laid out in the book
was a mistake.
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon- Pamplin: Okay. So, I am
just . . . you know, I mean we have to abide by what
the Government says they want to do . But I can tell
that from the complaints that have come to me—the comments that have been made to me by a person in
the street who has to pay and fork up this extra money—it is creating financial hardship. And I just want
the Government to let . . . I jus t want my constituents
to know that we have stood in this House to make rep-resentations on their behalf, to express our concern
with this amount of increase in their land tax.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Honourable Junior Minister invited me to
speak and put my questions in Committee, and I do
so.
I have a question, but it will involve us quickly
looking at [clause] 2 of the Bill first and then looking at [clause] 3. And then I will pose the question. But I think it is helpful if I just look at the two [clauses].
At [clause] 2, under subsection (a) of the Bill,
we see the definition of “tourist unit.” And I think it is important just to point out that the definition of “tourist
unit”—

Thank yo u, Mr. Chairman.
I think it is important just to recognise before I
put the question that the definition of “tourist unit,” we
can see it expressly excludes vacation rental unit as defined in the Bermuda Tourism Authority Act. So, a
tourist unit is a tourist unit, but it is not a vacation
rental unit, which is sort of an Airbnb type.
And we see further down at [clause] 2
[amended section] 1(2), at the end of that, “no tourist unit is a private dwelling.” So, there are three different categories of house here. There is private dwelling,
tourist unit, and vacation rental.
If we turn over then, Mr. Chairman, to [clause]
3, we then see (a), (b) and (c), and in (c)(i) and (ii)
how these various types of dwellings are going to be dealt with —(a) and (b) are straightforward. These are
private dwellings. Both (a) and (b) are private dwel lings, (a) is those not exceeding [$22,000]; (b) is those in excess of [$22,000]. That is easy enough. We park that.
Moving on to (c), we see “subject to section
2A” (and 2A is economic empowerment zone exem ptions which do not apply to my question) “in respect to the valuation unit not falling within paragraph (a) or (b)—” (i.e., not a private dwelling) “(i) the rate of 8% of
the annual rental value of any tourist unit;” (now, r emember we looked at the definition of tourist unit and
it did not include rental units, annual rental units), and
“(ii), the rate of 9.5 % of the annual rental value of any
other unit.”
And my question for the Honourable Junior
Minister is this: One would logically presume that the 9.5 per cent rate that applies to “any other unit” can
only apply to annual vacation rentals. Have I correctly understood the legislation?
Is it 8.0 per cent of ARV for tourist units and
9.5 per cent of ARV for vacation rental units? Or is
there some other type of unit to which the 9.5 per cent
will apply?

At what percentage rate do we
find from this section will be applicable to vacation
rental units if it is not 9.5 per cent at [clause] 3
[amended section 2](c)(ii)?

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Okay, so a tourist unit is not
a vacation rental unit. That is what the definition says.
The definition in 2(a) —and I stand to be corrected by
my technical people —that a tourist unit is not a . . . we
only considered a vacation rental unit a tourist unit,
but does not include vacation rental unit. Okay?
But a vacation rental unit is taxed on the ARV
as any other unit is.

I am grateful to the Honourable
Member.
So, if I have correctly understood you, then
the land tax payable by an annual vacation rental unit
would either be under [clause] 3 [amended section 2]
(a) or (b) depending on the ARV value of that annual
rental unit. Is that correct?
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: It could be under . . . it could
be run from ARV one to seven, depending on what
the . . . it is like a private dwelling. So, there are people in Tucker’s Town that have vacation rental units.

Mrs. Gordon- Pamplin.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Yes, if I could just
help the Minister , or the Junior Minister , with this, with
respect to vacation rental units such as Airbnb. I will
declare an interest because I have one. The rate is
4.5 per cent. It is charged by the Tourism Authority,
but it is determined on the rack rate, not the ARV.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chai rman— Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: So, the property
itself—
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Point of order, point of order.

Continue.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Yes, that is . . . it
is a 4.5 per cent vacation rental tax on the rack rate of
the property, not the ARV. The unit itself would be
subjected to land tax depending on its annual rental
value for the property itself. So, as a vacation rental
property, you actually pay two taxes. You pay your
land tax based on where you stand on the ARV scale,
and then you also pay your vacation rental tax of 4.5 per cent to the BTA based on the rack rate.
I pay it painstakingly, Mr. Chairman. I know.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Point of order.

Minister —

POINT OF ORDER

Hon. Way ne L. Furbert: The Honourable Member is
incorrect. You do not pay . . . the owner does not pay
4.5 per cent. The person who is renting out the unit
pays 4.5 per cent. There is no—
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: But you said that there i s an
average rental value plus 4.5 per cent. But it is implied
that the owner pays it. The owner does not pay
4.5 per cent.

Mr. Chairman, as it happens I
happen to have the Bermuda Tourism Authority Act
[2013] in front of me. And section 15A . . . it actually
says that the proprietor of a vacation rental unit or a holder of a vacation rental or an agent shall pay.
So, respectfully, I think the owner does pay.

1366 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: Okay, we are not —

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, my final point, and it was a
question that I posed in the debate, was that the Ho nourable Junior Minister in respect of the tax increases
referenced the figure of $12.6 million. And the ques-tion I posed in debate, and I would be grateful for an
answer, is that . . . of the $39 million in increased taxes, is the $12.6 million reflective of the land t ax increases?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

No, you opened introducing this
Bill and you read out a figure of $12.6 million of tax
increase, and I was just wondering if that is the c ollective land tax increase. What that number was is what I
asked in the debate, and I was told to wait until Committee, and I have done so.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: All right, let me just —

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

[Motion carried: The Land Tax Amendment Act 2019
was considered by a Committee of the whole House
and passed without amendment.]

House resumed at 7:13 pm
[Hon. Dennis P. Lister, Jr., Speaker, in the Chair]





Bermuda House of Assembly REPORT OF COMMITTEE

LAND TAX AMENDMENT ACT 2019

Good evening, Members.
Is there any objection to the second reading of
the Land . . . sorry, any ob jections to the Land Tax
Amendment Act 2019 being reported to the House as
printed?
No objections.
So moved. It has been reported back to the
House.
I understand that brings us to a close of the
matters on the Order Paper for today. Would you like to do your third readings, Ministers?

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 21

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Speaker, I move that Standing Order 21 be suspended to enable me to move that
the Bill entitled the Dental Practitioners Amendment
Act 2019 be now read a third tim e by its title only.

Any Member wish to speak to that?
No Member wishes to speak to t hat? We
stand adjourned until Friday morning at 10:00 am.
Members, have a good week.

[At 7:1 5 pm, the House stood adjourned until
10:00 am, Friday, 22 March 2019.]

1368 18 March 2019 Official Hansar d Report

Bermuda House of Assembly


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