February 26, 2018

Thank y ou, Minister.
Supplementary? No further supplementaries
and no more questions. So we now move on to que stions in relation to the Statements that were given this
morning.
And, Minister Burch, there is one Member
who has indicated that he has a question re garding
your Statement on Cross Island, and that is the Honourable Member Gibbons. Honourable Member.

QUESTION 1: CROSS ISLAND INTERIM USE

I do not have that i nformation, and I do not think it has been established, Mr. Speaker. It will, obviously, be based on those people who actually rent it out to record. And while
there has been some indication of artists who wish to
utilise the facility, first it has to be built. And then it will
be contingent upon how much time is left in this fiscal
year.

Yes, good morning.
I would like to send congratulatory remarks
out to the Outstanding Teacher of the Year 2018, Ms. Sharmaine Nusum. She is an M3 teacher at T. N. Tatem Middle School. She lives on the ethos that, Every day is an opportunity, every day is a good day for growth, and every day is a good day to improve my
craft. Mr. Speaker, she was going to be a child ps ychologist, and so she cares for each child individually.
There was a testament on TV with some of
the comments from her students, and they said, She
is very posi tive. She cares for us one -on-one. She
knows our strengths and weaknesses, and she helps
us understand what needs to be done. These are
comments made by her students. They said that she
is the best teacher that they have ever had. So, with
that type of motivation from the students, I think we
need to applaud her for her contribution, her profe ssionalism, and her dedication to her profession. And as she said, she loves coming to school. She loves dealing with her students. And we need to ensure that we have other teachers of that calibre to support our
young people. So again, on behalf of the House, I would like to send congratulatory remarks to Ms. N usum for a job well done.

Thank you.
Does any other Member wish to speak?
We recognise the Honourable Premier.

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you very much, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning to extend or
to ask the House, of course, to extend the condolences for a stalwart of the Progressive Labour Party who recently passed away. That, of course, would be Mr.
Eugene McDonald Phillips. And Mr. Phillips was the
father of Noreen, Mindelle , Audrey, McDaniel, Philip,
Colin, and Erskine. And as we know, he was a well -
dressed and well -spoken supporter of the victorious,
of course, as always, Somerset Cricket Club.

Yes.
Hon. E. David Burt: For the PLP, of course, Mr.
Speaker, Mr. Phillips was always a very strong me mber. Not only was he a strong member of the PLP, he was also a strong and valued member of the Bermuda
Industrial Union. And he played a vital role in our central committee. I remember when I first joined the Pro-gressive Labour Party after I returned from university
in 2004, and Mr. Phillips, as I am sure you may r emember, Mr. Speaker, was always a constant pre sence in our central committee meeting and always argued for better health care coverage for the senior
population.
As part of his a dvocacy, in 2007 during the
election campaign that the PLP ran, we said that we would introduce FutureCare to provide for our seniors. And that was a promise made and a promise that we
certainly kept. And we know that, 10 years on, there
are many seniors w ho are benefiting from FutureCare
and a better standard of health insurance than they
previously had. That is Mr. Phillips’s legacy.
He, of course, will be missed. He lived a very
long and fruitful life. And I would just like to ask that
condolences be ex tended to his family, and of course,
I would like to associate all Members on this side of
the House regarding the passing of Mr. Phillips.
Secondly, Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask that
condolences be sent to the family of a relative of mine who passed away last week, Ms. Glenda Burt. Known
to me as Aunt Glenda, she was the beloved wife of
Bermuda House of Assembly
1148 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

the late A rthur Edmund Eugene Burt, and of course,
was a loving mother to Linda Ree Gaylord, Betty Lee
Smith, and Emily Jean Swan. Her funeral services
were held on Saturday. There was an extraordinarily
large turnout at the viewing on Friday, and in addition, I guess, at the viewing after- party, which took place a
little bit after that. And, of course, the services were taking place on Saturday. But I just ask that the House
send a letter of condolences to her family, as her
daughters travelled here to see her.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I also rise on a sad note this
morning and ask that the House extend condolences to the family of the late Gloria Lawrence, who many
Members will know was the wife of Charles “Scrat-chie” Lawrence, who r an Scratchie’s Barber Shop for
many, many years. Mr. Commissiong and Ms. Wilson would like to be associated.
Mr. Speaker, I personally knew and worked
with Gloria Lawrence for many, many years. She a ctually was a member of the Gibbons Company family, if I can put it that way, for almost 55 years. Many, I
suspect, of the older Members will remember the fa bric department at Gibbons Company, originally in the
front of the store, probably one of the largest depar tments we had, certainly when I came back in the late
1980s. And Gloria Lawrence ran that department for
many, many years. It was not an easy department,
when you think about notions and fabrics and ordering quantities and things of that sort. But Gloria did an
absolutely superb job.
She was also a devoted aunt to Tammy and
Andrew Richardson, and also is the sister of former Cabinet Secretary Ken Richardson. His wife Brenda,
and her sister Jacqueline, as well. I thought it was a ctually very touching that Proverbs 31 was selected as
one of the readings, which refers to a woman clothed
in strength and dignity. And I think Gloria Lawrence
certainly lived up to, and surpassed, that particular description.
I have got one more thing, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you.
While I am on my feet, I would like to ask that
congratulations be extended to Tucker Murphy, who, as some Honourable Members will know, competed in
the South Korean Olympics recently in the 15-kilometre freestyle cross -country skiing. Actually, it
was the third time that Dr. Murphy has actually competed for Bermuda. And I would like to ask that co n-gratulations be extended to him. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you.
Does any other Member wish to speak?
I recognise the Deputy Premier. Deputy P remier, you have the floor.

Hon. Walter H. Roban: Thank you very much, Mr.
Speaker, and good morning to everyone.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to pass on a congratulatory comment, and ask that it be reflected in the record, congratulating the Lorraine Rest Home for
their fundraiser that was held this weekend. It was an
excellent event, with a line- up of fantastic Bermudian
talent. Present at that was also the Leader of the O pposition and David Burch, the Honourable Minister for Public Works. It was held at the Bermuda Institute
Auditorium. It was well attended. I believe that all a ttendees enjoyed the line -up of talent, all -Bermudian,
that was featured. And I do hope that there will be an opportunity for that talent to be circulated throughout the Island so that we can, as always, be graced with
what God has blessed many of our citizens with in the
area of music and the arts.
I look forward to seeing so many of them
again, and I also wish to congratulate Ms. Grant and others at Lorraine Rest Home and the team that put
together the event. And I do hope that people will co ntinue to support Lorraine Rest Home with the work that they are doing for our seniors. As we know, we all
will be at that point one day. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Good morning, Mr. Speaker and
listening audience.
I rise today on a sad note, to just extend condolences to some of my St. George’s families. We are not having a good time down there right now. It seems
like I am rising so often to give the condolence notes.
But, to the family of Valeria Steede. Her chi ldren are Sherrita, Sheldon, Sissy, and Cory. I assoc iate MP Swan with that. Also, to the family of Rose
Burchall. And her children are Erica, Cain, and Tim othy. I am going to associate MP Swan with that, as
well.
I just wanted to add my own comments to the
condolence note for Eugene Phillips. He definitely was a die- hard Somerset supporter.

But he did spend his last days
down in God’s country, down at the Dorothy Crane [Nursing Home] facility. So I thought it would be fair to
Bermuda House of Assembly


mention that, as well. We got to know each other from
my vi siting the facility, and we talked politics, but we
could not talk Cup Match. I do not think that any of us
were waving . . . he was not in any way contemplating
moving to St. George’s, I know, and there was def initely no way that I would go for the Somerset side. But I did honour what would have been his wish, and
his daughter’s and his children’s wish, at his funeral. I had a Somerset ribbon in my hair.

But I just wanted to just add to that
that he was a wealth of knowledge. And there were
some things that he imparted to me that I did not
know. So, I am thankful for my short time of getting to
know him. And I can definitely say that he was a man of integrity. Because this was one of the things that he
made sure to say to me all the time. He said, R emember to leave with integrity. So I just wanted to make sure that I put those comments out there, Mr.
Speaker. Thank you very much.

Mr. Speaker, thank you.
You know, during our absence from the
House, well, quite often, we have a number of indi viduals who have passed. And, of course, a number of
them we wish to offer condolences to their families. I
just noticed that, during the time when we were away, there was a significant number of persons. For exa mple, myself, I may have to extend it over t wo days,
maybe come back Wednesday and do some of the others.

Yes, yes, exactly. Thank
you, sir.
Well, I just want to say, firstly, with respect to
the wife of the legendary “Scratchie” Lawrence, Gloria
Lawrence, great friend of the family. And I have asso-ciated with the comments of the Member from consti tuency 22. She was a great friend of the family, so much so —both to my mother and my father—that, as
a little boy, I was required to call her Aunt Gloria, for example. A great woman, I know she is going to be sadly, sadly . . . representing a great loss to her hu sband, Mr. Lawrence. Those two were inseparable, as you know.
Secon dly, just moving on, the other passing of
note, for me anyway, was my former constituent, Mr. Eugene Phillips. It was noted that he was so debonair
in the way he carried himself, the way that he
dressed. He represented a traditional black “mal ehood” in this country who goes back for generations in
the way, again, that they dressed, the way that they
were so debonair. And that was just the way that they presented themselves.
But he also, of course, had a firm commitment
to progressive principles, as a membe r of the Pr ogressive Labour Party. And as has been stated, he
was one of the key, dare I say, “architects ” behind the
scenes with respect to the then- PLP Government d ecision to implement what became known as F utureCare. And it happened none too soon, I might
add. And so, our hearts go out to his family. Moving on very quickly, and I will finish with
this and come back on Wednesday, Mr. Speaker, with your indulgence.

I just want to acknowledge
the passing of Ms. Patricia Astwood, from Spanish
Point. For us who grew up born and raised in Spanish
Point like I was, on behalf of the Member who is now
the Opposition Leader, she was one of the matriarchal pillars of that community by her loving kindness and
grace. You know, when you went over to her house at
age four, five, or six, it was like you were home with your mother. That is the type of Bermudian woman
she was. She was the former wife of Mr. Norman
Astwood, bus driver, who was also a noted jazz gui-tarist, again a great member of the Bermudian family.
And she was related to, of course, Mr. “Bummy” S ymonds. They just lived only three or four houses away from each other out in Spanish Point. And my heart
goes out to her family, her children.

[Timer beeps ]

Does any other Member wish to
speak?
I recognise the Honourable Opposition Leader. Madam, you have the floor.

Bermuda House of Assembly
1150 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, as the Member who just sat
down indicated, Mrs. Astwood was one of my consti tuents. And I must admit, when you go out in Pe mbroke West, you start to see people whom you had
not seen for a long time. And remembering her hu sband, Norman Astwood . . . and I just saw her recen tly. And I think this is what happens when you see people recently, and then all of a sudden you read
something about them in the paper; you are just really
saddened.
And I am also saddened because I just read
in the paper of the death of Chesley White. Now, for a long time, I was the General Manager of Appleby’s,
and Chesley . . .
[
Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Yes, “Chummy,” as we
called him, and Chesle y, F. Chesley White. His death
notice was in the paper. And I must admit, Mr. Spea ker, I only started reading the death notices when my
father was quite old. And you started to look at his
friends to make sure that, if you had to take him to a
funeral or w hatever else . . . now I am reading the n otices and I am thinking, Oh, no. These are people that
are our ages and stuff, and even younger.
And that brings me down to another person
whom I would like to have condolences sent to the
family of. And that is t he family of Philip Cook, the son
of George and Jo Cook. Philip had a long battle, and he was very courageous. And when you see young
people who have battled, and then when you finally realise that they have gone, you all realise . . . and I
say to everybody here, hug everybody whom you know and love. And never go to bed angry.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you.
Any other Member?
I recognise the Honourable Member from
constituency 36. Honourable Member Scott, you have the floor.
Hon. Michael J. Scott: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, continuing with the offers of
condolences to family members, may I ask this House to send condolences to the family of Elder Roland Leroy Hill, who was the distinguished father of Daniel
Hill and his siblings. He was one of the founding
members of the Seventh -day Adventist Church in Mi dland Heights and helped to build that church. His f uneral service was a revelation of a gentleman who was led by the spirit, led a good family, raised wonde rful children, who fought the good fight and finished his course. And he kept the faith. So, a wonderful father, spiritual leader within his church community, and I ask
that his family be recognised with a condolence note
from the House, sir. Taking from t he Leader of t he Opposition the
observati on of “ Chummy” C hesley White’s pa ssing, I
would like to be associated with my dear f riend
Chummy’s p assing. I hav e lost t ouch with him, an d
now, al as, I hav e lost hi m from ou r midst. B ut Chummy and I gr ew up together, and w e were i n London
together. Wit h the Shadow Attorney General a nd I, we
were all over ther e together. Chummy was a wonde rful man, and I ask that his dear widow, Gillian, and his
children receive the House’s condolences on
the passing of this gentleman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and
good morning to everyone this morning.
I just wanted to stand this morning to reco gnise a parent expo that actually happened back in January. And it was a parent expo that was organised by many of the principals across the Island, both pr ivate and public. And it was an opportunity for parents to get to . . .
[
Inaudible interjection]

Mr. Simmons wants to be ass ociated with it.
It was an expo that was held for parents
across the Island. I do believe that, once we have the connection and communication between parents and educators, that will also help improve our students’
performance academically and socially. And so, they
did an awesome job with providing workshops for pa rents in the community. I myself got to attend some of
their topic areas. One particular topic which was very
good was what we are talking about, or we will be talking about this week, and that is budgeting. And
they spoke about budgeting for the family. And I just thought that it was a good pathway for parents and
educators to get together to make a closer connection
with our students and our children.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We will now move on to the Orders of
the Day. And just for the listening audience, let me
say that today starts the actual Budget debates on the
respective heads. And for those members of the public, there are eight hours a day set aside for these d ebates and a total of 56 hours.
Today we start with the Legal Affairs and Public Works. So we will then have this moved, and in a
few minutes we will go into Committee so we can start that process.
So, Minister, are you going to move us?
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Yes.

Thank you. Minister Wilson, I recognise
you so you can move us into Committee.
And again, for the listening audience, once
the House goes into Committee, the Speaker cannot
be in the Chambers. So I will be out for the next eight
hours. And I expect the House to continue in the same decorum as if I were there. Thank you.
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Speaker, I do now move
that the House do now resume in Committee of Sup-ply to consider the Estimates of Revenue and E xpenditure for 2018/19.

Honourable Members, as the Speaker has indicated, we are now in Committee of Supply for further consideration of the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the year 2018/19.
We will be considering the following heads
under Legal Affairs in this period—those Heads are 87 and 4. There are two hours reserved for our conside ration of those respective heads.
Minister, are you ready to proceed? You may
proceed, Minister.
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I
move the following heads, Head 87 and Head 04, Ministry of Legal Affairs Headquarters and Attorney
General’s Chambers, be now taken under consider ation.
MINISTRY OF LEGAL AFFAIRS
HEAD 87— HEADQUARTERS
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, the Ministry of
Legal Affairs, under the direction of the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Senator the Ho nourable Kathy Lynn Simmons, is charged with the r esponsibility for upholding the Constitution and the l egal system of Bermuda. The mission statement, d epartment objectives, and current account expenditures
can be found on page B -76 of the Budget Book.
Mr. Chairman, the mission statement is as
follows: To pr ovide and promote the fair administration
of, and access to, justice. Department objectives: The
objectives of the Ministry headquarters are (1) to advance government policy initiatives under the direction of the Minister of Legal Affairs; (2) to ensure the government’s legislative framework is updated and cu rrent with policy directives; and (3) to effect synergies
amongst ministry departments to ensure that overall
policy objectives are met.
Mr. Chairman, the departments that come
under the umbrella of the Ministry are Legal Affairs
Headquarters, Judiciary, Attorney General’s Cha mbers, Department of Court Services, and the Depar tment of Public Prosecutions.
Bermuda House of Assembly
1152 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

Mr. Chairman, current expenditure. The Mini stry’s budget commences on page B -75 of the A pproved Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the
Year 2018/19, the Budget Book.
A budget ceiling of $27,678,000 was allocated
to the entire Ministry for the 2018 fiscal year. This amounts to a 2 per cent increase from the 2017/18
revised estimate. A comprehensiv e analysis of mini stry expenditure was undertaken to strike a balance
between spending limits, without compromising the
efficient delivery of services. Out of the $27,678,000
allocated to the Ministry, specific allocations are as
follows: Headquarters has been allocated $5,718,000. The Judicial Department has been allocated
$8,473,000. The Attorney General’s Chambers has
been allocated $5,309,000. The Department of Court Services has been allocated a budget of $4,675,000.
And finally, the Department of Publ ic Prosecutions
has been allocated $3,503,000.
Revenue, Mr. Chairman. The only department
under the Ministry’s portfolio that has a mandate to
generate revenue is the Judicial Department. Rev enues are projected to be $8,806,000, which is
$518,000 more than the revised estimate.

Okay. Thank you.

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Turning now to page B -76, cu rrent account expenditure for 2017/18 versus 2018/19.
The revised estimate for 2017/18 was $6,203,000. The estimate for 2018/19 is $5,718,000, which repr esents a decrease of $485,000, or 8 per cent.
Is the Chairman with me now?
The current account expenditure estimates for
Head 87, the Ministry of Legal Affairs Headquarters,
begins at page B -75 of the Budget Book. A total of
$5,718,000 has been allocated to Ministry Headqua rters. This represents a decrease of $485,000, or 8 per
cent, from the 2017/18 revised estimates. The de-crease is mainly due to resources being diverted to
increase the grants given to the Financial Intelligence
Unit and the Justice Protection Programme. Net of a
decrease is the funds allocated to Legal Services u nder the Legal Aid scheme.
Mr. Chairman, of the $5,718,000 allocated to
the Ministry Headquarters, $1,480,000, or 26 per cent,
of the budgeted amount represents the allocation for
salaries. This includes salaries for Ministry Headqua rters, the Legal Aid Office, and the Anti -Money Laundering (AML) Sanctions Unit, and is detailed as fol-lows, Mr. Chairman:
• $650,000 to Ministry Headquarters; • $505,000 to the Legal Aid Committee;
• $325,000 to the AML Sanctions Unit.
Mr. Chairman, $1,991,000, or 35 per cent, of
the budget of the Ministry Headquarters is allocated to Professional Services, largely consisting of the budget
allocation for external legal counsel retained by the
Legal Aid Office, of $1,256,000. Also included in the
Professional Services allocation is a budget of
$551,000 for the Justice Protection programme. This progr amme continues to produce excellent dividends
for the Bermuda Government and the country as a whole, by aiding in the successful prosecution and conviction of criminals.
Mr. Chairman, the Ministry of Legal Affairs
Headquarters is furthermore divided funct ionally into
five fiscally independent programmes. Line item
97000, Administration; line item 97010, Financial Intelligence Agency; line item 97030, Legal Aid; line item
97070, Justice Protection; line item 97080, AML Sanctions Unit.
Mr. Chair man, I will proceed to address them
individually, as follows: t he first one, Administration,
again line item 97000. I am at page B -76, Mr. Chai rman. From the 2017/18 versus 2018/19, the revised
estimate of 2017/18 is $716,000. The estimate for
2018/19 is $949,000, an increase of $233,000, which represents a 33 per cent increase. Mr. Chairman , this
programme provides for the administrative costs a ssociated with Ministry Headquarters, to which $949,000 has been allocated. This represents an i ncrease of $233,000, or 33 per cent, from the 2017/18 revised estimates. The increase is mainly due to fun ding allocated for three pupils to commence employment in the next budget year.
Included in the Administration cost centre are
salaries and related costs for Ministry Headquart ers.
Administrative support for the Minister and Permanent
Secretary is provided by one seconded executive assistant and one administrative assistant. Policy fo rmation for ministry legislative initiatives and project
management is provided by a policy anal yst. Fiscal
and financial control is provided by a ministry control-ler.
Mr. Chairman, the Ministry Headquarters i ntends to focus on delivering Throne Speech initiatives. One initiative pertains to reform of the Legal Aid pr ogramme, to minimise outsourcing by maximising in -
house capacity. The other pertains to training pupil barristers through a targeted programme aimed at enhancing our in -house legal services capacity. In
keeping with Government priorities, this will allow us to offer increased opportunity for Bermudians to enter
the legal profession.
Legal Aid Office, line item 97030. Again, Mr.
Chairman, I am still on page B -76. The current e xpenditure for 2017/18 versus 2018/19 , the revised
estimate of 2017/18 is $2,755,000. The estimate for 2018/19 is $2,073,000, a decrease of $682,000, which
represents a decrease of 25 per cent. Mr. Chairman,
Bermuda House of Assembly


the purpose of the Legal Aid Office is to ensure that
legal advice and representation are readily avai lable
to those who need it most and, too, because of limited
financial means, can least afford it. The mission
statement of the Legal Aid Office is , To provide quality
legal representation for Bermuda’s residents . Its mi ssion is to provide the residents of Bermuda with a ccessible, confidential , safe, and profession al legal
services in a timely and efficient manner.
The Legal Aid scheme, which is administered
by the Legal Aid Committee, under the authority of the
Legal Aid Act 1980, for 2018/19 is allocated
$2,073,000, which represents a 25 per cent decrease,
or $682,000 decrease, from the 2017/18 revised est imate allocation. The decrease in the cash limit from 2017/18 is mainly due to less funding allocated to Le-gal Services due to cost -cutting measures and the
restructuring of the Legal Aid Office. Of the 2018/19
allocation, $505,000, or 24 per cent, represents sal aries for administrative and management staff. A total
of $1,256,000, or 61 per cent, represents costs all ocated for Legal Services. The remaining $312,000, or
15 per cent, represents administrative expens es, other than salaries , for the Legal Aid Office.
Mr. Chairman, the Legal Aid Office has f ocused primarily on increased operational and admini strative efficiency, and the reduction of expenditure where possible. Given the limitations in budget and small staff size, coupled with the high demand for se rvices, the largest area of expenditure within the Legal Aid budget remains legal fees, which is in keeping
with historical trends. The office was able to contain
spending within its budget in 2017/18 through prudent
management, coupled with the cost -reduction and
budget -control initiatives outlined in the previous
Budget.
Mr. Chairman, Legal Services. Between the
period of 1
st of April 2017 and 31st of August 2017, the
Legal Aid Office managed a combined total of 109 new matters, 6 domestic matters, 5 matrimonial ma tters, 25 civil matters , and 73 criminal matters. The
Legal Aid Office continues to maintain a general roster of counsel from private practice, who provide legal
services to persons granted legal ai d certificates. For
the period 1
st of April 2017 to January 31st, 2018, 80
counsel, including two Queen’s Counsel , representing
40 law firms, were listed on the Legal Aid roster. The
current initiative to reform the Legal Aid services de-livery model will ( 1) increase sustainability; (2) provide
employment and training opportunities for Bermudian counsel; (3) improve succession planning; and
(4) significantly reduce expenditure on legal fees,
which has historically been an area of budget ove rspends.
The Legal Aid Committee continues to be a
major stakeholder in the specialist court programmes
such as drug court, mental health treatment court , and
juvenile plea court, providing defence counsel for these courts. In addition to the traditional rosters of counsel participating in the legal aid scheme and duty counsel managed and maintained by this office, small rosters are also in place for these specialist courts. In
the event that in- house counsel are not available, pr ivate practice counsel who have expressed interest in
providing representation in these areas will be r etained.
Continuing specialised treatment for defence
counsel appearing in drug treatment and mental
health treatment courts is provided for in- house cou nsel through both local and overseas training. Practical training is provided to counsel listed on these rosters.
The counsel may accompany in- house counsel for a
minimum of three times to both the drug treatment
and mental health treatment courts before being co nsidered ready to attend on their own. The counsel also
have access to local training workshops that are per iodically sponsored by the Department of Court Se rvices.
These initiatives have contributed to the i mprovement and quality of representation provided to client s participating in these courts, as well as the n ational capacity to provide this representation.
The Legal Aid Office also produced a co mprehensive Legal Aid Policies and Procedures Guid elines document, which was released to the Bermuda
Bar Association for circulation to its members in Se ptember 2017. This provides a useful reference guide
to counsel who currently participate in the scheme
and those who may wish to join. The bar has also i ncluded a designated legal aid section on its webpage, for ease of reference and ease of access.
Mr. Chairman, the Output Measures. The Legal Aid Office retains the ability to process applic ations for legal aid certificates within 14 working days.
However, achieving this objective is dependent on whether applicants have submitted the required info rmation in a timely manner. The average cost of each legal aid matter is currently $5,419. The Legal Aid O ffice continues to process applications for temporary
certificates, commonly known as emergency certif icates, within three working days once all relevant f inancial information is submi tted at the time of the a pplication.
Mr. Chairman, Staff. The Legal Aid Office is
currently operated with a limited staffing complement. The staff establishment consists of five permanent
posts ; one senior legal aid counsel, one legal aid
counsel, one office manager, one accounting assi stant, and one administrative assistant. Recruitment is
underway to fill the vacant posts. These vacant posts
have been filled in the interim by means by secon dments from the At torney General’s Chambers and the
Parliamentary Registry. These actions achieved the objective of obtaining operational capacity and have
provided development opportunities for seconded
staff.
Training and Development. Training opport unities not only enable staff to improve their skill set,
Bermuda House of Assembly
1154 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

but also increase opportunities for upward mobility
within government. Legal aid counsel was provided
with growth and development opportunities by acting
as a magistrate and a senior legal aid counsel. Admi nistrative s taff attended training at the Department of
Human Resources. The office manager also attended the Administrative Professionals Workshop, held at
Southampton Princess on the 24
th of April 2017. Trai ning on the office’s case management system Legal
Files, has been conducted for all staff to develop their
competency on this system, as well as to keep them
abreast of updates.
The diversity of legal work in the Legal Aid
Office makes it an attractive option for pupils, law st udents, and summer students. It is integral in facilitating
the Ministry’s thrust to train and retain competent and
qualified Bermudians. The office has one summer
student, who has worked in the office the previou s
summer, over the period of June to August 2017.
Mr. Chairman, Other Initiatives. Legislati ve
Amendments. Amendments to the legal aid legislation
will be considered with respect to the calculation of
disposable income and to take into account the cost -
of-living increases.
CLE [continuing legal education] requirements
for counsel participating in a legal aid scheme. Mr.
Chairman, an agreement between the Bermuda Bar
Association and the Legal Aid Office has been
reached that will ensure that counsel participating in
this scheme will be trained to have a full understan ding of the legal aid policies, procedures , and general
expectation of counsel undertaking legal matters. E xisting counsel who wish to undertake legal work must
attend one mandatory continuing education training
session per year, hosted by the association, in order to remain on the legal aid roster. Attendance at this training will also be tied to counsel continuing to receive a discounted bar membership rate in respect of
their practicing certificate. This will take effect in Oct ober 2018, when applications for the practicing certif icates for the 2019 year are issued.
The Office of National Anti -Money Laundering
Committee (NAMLC), line item 97040. The Office of
the National Anti -Money Launderi ng Committee is
now transferred from the Ministry of Legal Affairs to
the Ministry of Finance.
Line item 97070, Justice Protection Programme. Fiscal 2017/18 versus 2018/19— revised
estimate of 2017/18, Mr. Chair man, is $466,000. The
estimate for 2018/19 is $551,000, which represents an increase of $85,000, or 18 per cent. Mr. Chairman, the
Justice Protection Programme has been allocated a
budget of $551,000 for fiscal year 2018/19, which, as I
said previously, is an $85,000 increase, which was
more than the 2017/18 revised estimate. This pr ogramme is operated pursuant to the Justice Protection
Act 2010 and provides protection for witnesses who
support the prosecution process and meet the legisl ative requirements for entry into the programme. The success of this legislative initiative is apparent from
the increase in successful prosecutions, particularly those that are gang related and involve violent offen ders.
The AML [anti -money laundering] Sanctions
Unit, Mr. Chair man, line item 97080. A gain, I am still
at page B -76. The estimate for 2018/19 is $340,000.
Mr. Chair man, the AM L Sanctions Unit is the new unit
being formulated subsequent to the transfer of the
Office of NAMLC to the Ministry of Finance. Of the
2018/19 allocation, $325,000, or 96 per cent of t hat,
represents salaries for administration. The remaining $15,000, or 4 per cent, represents overhead costs for setting up the new unit. This unit is being established
to provide an avenue for the Government of Bermuda
to have a regime in place to implement targeted finan-cial sanctions effectively. This will enable Bermuda to
comply with global standards, thus strengthening the
regime to combat the financing of terrorism.
Currently, the Governor is the competent authority in Bermuda responsible for the im plementation
of financial sanctions, and his powers are set out in various Overseas Territories Orders that are enforced
in Bermuda pursuant to the International Sanctions Act 2003 and the International Sanctions Regulations 2013. As such, there are procedural requirements to
obtain the transfer of the authority to the ministerial
level. The creation of this unit will serve to assist the Governor by providing support to the Attorney General
and Minister of Legal Affairs when the Governor del egates certain powers, as mentioned. The unit will therefore provide the necessary infrastructure to effectively implement targeted financial factions.
Grants. Revised estimate for 2017/18 was
$1,657,000. The estimate for 2018/19 is $1,805,000, which represents an increase of $148,000, or altern atively, 9 per cent. Mr. Chairman, the budget allocation
for grants for fiscal 2018/19 can be found at page C -
16 of the Approved Estimates of Revenue and E xpenditures for Fiscal Year 2018/19, the Budget Book.
For fiscal 2018/19, a grant will be provided to the F inancial Intelligence Agency. No grant will be given
towards the upcoming Caribbean Financial Action
Task Force (CFATF) financial assessment, since this
is part of the Office of National Anti -Money Laundering
Activities Commi ttee, and this funding has been tran sferred to the Ministry of Finance.
Financial Intelligence Agency, or the FIA. In
continuation of Bermuda’s efforts to combat money -
laundering and terrorist financing, the FIA was esta blished under the Financial Intelligence Agency Act
2007. The FIA is the independent agency authorised
to receive, gather, store, analyse, and disseminate
information relating to suspected money -laundering
and terrorist financing, which is received in the form of a suspicious activity report. The FIA is empowered to
disseminate such information to the Bermuda Police
Service and foreign intelligence authorities. The sum
of $1,805,000 was allocated for fiscal 2018/19, an
Bermuda House of Assembly


amount that has increased by $205,000 for fiscal year
2017/18. Additional funding is required by the agency
to allow it to undertake its new supervisory function in
relation to dealers in high- valued goods who are now
subject to the AML- ATF regulations. The statutory
mandate of the FIA dictates that the agency must u phold international regulatory standards. The FIA, as
required by law, reports its quarterly expenditure and provides an annual audited report to the Minister of
Legal Affairs.
Capital Expenditures Estimates. Mr. Chai rman, the budget allocation for capital expenditures is
found at page C -9 to [page] C-10 of the Estimates of
Revenue and Expenditure. The Ministry has been allocated a total of $21,000 for fiscal 2018/19. Funding
is intended to be used to purchase fully depreciated assets with no residual value for departments under
the Ministry.
Mr. Chairman, it is anticipated that the Mini stry of Legal Affairs Headquarters budget allocation of
2018/19 will enable the Ministry to successfully fulfil its
mandate with careful monitoring and the exercise of financial prudence. That completes Head 87.

HEAD 04— ATTORNEY GENERAL’S CHAMBERS

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Moving on now, Mr. Chairman,
to Head 04, Attorney General’s Chambers. Mr.
Chairman, the mission statement, department obje ctives, and current account estimates for the Attorney General’s Chambers, Head 04, begin at page B -88 of
the estimates book. The mission statement is as fo llows: As legal advisors to Government, the Attorney
General’s Chambers is committed to providing high -
quality legal advice and litigation services, and to drafting sound legislation, ever mindful of the need to protect the public interest and to safeguard and pr eserve the fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in our Constitution. In doing so, we also pledge to up-hold the traditions of equity, fairness, and justice i nherent in the legal profession, whilst simultaneously remaining on the cutting edge of legal trends and technologies to ensure that we are abreast of, and in
accord with, global trends.
The Expenditure. The revised estimates of
2017/18 are $4,808,000. The estimate for 2018/19 is $5,309,000, which represents an increase in the sum
of $501,000, or 10 per cent. Mr. Chairman, the Attorney General’s Chambers objectives are fivefold: (1) to provide quality legal services to the Government of Bermuda; (2) to advise
all government ministries, departments, and entities on the law applicable to their operational requir ements; (3) to draft legislation as required to implement
the government’s legislative agenda, to maintain Ber-muda’s legislative database, and to support law r eform; (4) to draft contracts, international instruments
for mutual tax information exchange, conveyances
and other documents required for public purposes, and to provide advice on private Bills; and, finally, (5) to conduct litigation in the civil courts of Bermuda on
behalf of the Government of Bermuda.
Mr. Chairman, the Attorney General’s Chambers is functionally divided into six programmes a ccounted for as follows: (I am at page B -89, Mr. Chai rman.)
Administration, line item 14010. The revised
estimates for 2017/18 are $410,000. The estimate for
2018/19 is $405,000, a decrease of $5,000, or 1 per
cent. Administration provides administrative support to the Attorney General, Solicitor General, and crown
counsel. This cost centre provides salaries for an of-fice manager, a receptionist, records management
clerk, and an administrative assistant in the accounts;
and also supports the purchasing of office supplies that are common to all sectors of the department. The
modest year -over-year decrease is due to a change in
the salary grading funds allocated for an administr ative post.
Line item 14020, Advisory. The revised est imate of 2017/18 is $1,929,000. The estimate for
2018/19 is $2,148,000, an increase of $219,000, or
11 per c ent. Mr. Chairman, the Advisory Section,
which is commonly referred to as the Advisory, is r esponsible for providing quality advice to all gover nment departments and to conduct litigation matters
brought by or against the government. Additionally, Advisory is responsible for recovering debts owed to
the government. This cost centre provides salaries for one solicitor general, one deputy solicitor general, two
senior crown counsel, six crown counsel, and three
administrative assistants. The year -over-year bu dgetary increase of 11 per cent is due to the 2.5 per cent
increase in salaries, the funding of a pupillage post,
and funding for any cost awarded against the Attorney General as party to any civil suit.
Line item 14030, again still at page B -89, pr ovides estimates for 2017/18 representing $1,897,000.
The estimate for 2018/19 is $2,114,000, which repr esents an increase of $217,000, or 11 per cent. The Legislative Drafting Section advises regarding pr oposals to introduce or change legislation, drafts prim ary and subordinate legislation for all government d epartments, and provides advice and support to Mini sters in the House of Assembly and Senate as their
respective legislation progresses. This section also
provides advice to Ministers and the Governor on l egal and constitutional issues, and matters of Parli amentary procedure.
The salaries provided for in this cost centre
include the chief parliamentary counsel, deputy chief
parliamentary counsel, five parliamentary counsel, two assistant parliamentary counsel, a legislative dat abase manager, a legislative editor, a legislative admi nistrator, and a legislative database administrator. The increase in this cost centre is to provide funding for
two new parliamentary counsel posts, which will be
established in 2018.
Bermuda House of Assembly
1156 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

Line item 14040, Revised Laws of Bermuda,
at page B -88. Revised estimates for 2017/18 are
$133,000. The estimate for 2018/19 is $193,000, an
increase of $60,000, or a 45 per cent increase. Mr.
Chairman, this cost centre supports the consolidation, periodic revision, and publication of the laws of Be rmuda. It is responsible for providing Members of both Houses of the Legislature, businesses, lawyers, and the general public with access to the revised statutes
and regulations of Bermuda. It also supports the ongoing consolidation of primary and subordinate legi slation. The increase in this cost centre is to cover technical support for enhancement of the security fea-tures of the website of Bermuda Laws, which is
www.bermudalaws.bm
, and other improvements; and
additional licences to allow new staff to draft, using
the customised legislative information management
system; and, primarily, for additional expenses pe rtaining to the implementation of ProLaw data management software system for the Civil Advisory Se ction of the Attorney General’s Chambers.
Line item 14050, Debt Collection. The revised
estimate for 2017/18 is $315,000. The estimate for
2018/19 is $325,000, which represents an increase of $10,000, or 3 per cent. Mr. Chairman, the Debt E nforcement Unit within the Attorney General’s Chambers was established by the Government to assist the
Department of Social Insurance and the Office of the Tax Commissioner in the recovery of unpaid social
insurance contributions, payroll tax, land tax, and ot her taxes owing to the government. The cost centre provides salaries for one crown counsel and one ju nior crown counsel, an d an administrator. The marginal
increase in this cost centre is due to an incremental pay increase for the junior crown counsel.
Line item 14060, the Law Library, again still
remaining at page B -[86]. The revised estimate of
2017/18 is $124,000. The estimate for 2018/19 is
$124,000, representing a zero increase, 0.0 per cent.
Mr. Chairman, this programme provides for the cost of
maintaining the Law Library in the Attorney General’s
Chambers, which includes the purchase of books and periodicals, and the provision of access to leading
online legal information sources such as LexisNexis
and Westlaw.
Capital Acquisitions. Revised estimate for
2017/18 is $26,000. The estimate for 2018/19 is $2,000, which represents a decrease of $24,000, or 92 per cent. The budget allocation for capital expend itures can be found at page C -9 of the Estimates of
Revenue and Expenditures. The Attorney General’s
Chambers has been allocated a total of $2,000 for
fiscal 2018/19. Less funding has been given to the Chambers for capital acquisitions. This funding is i ntended to purchase furniture and computers for fully depreciated assets with no residual value.
Output Measures. During the 2017 calendar
year, Mr. Chairman, 50 Acts were enacted and 126 statutory instruments were made. In addition to the Annual Budget legislation, there were a number of new and amending Acts to give effect to the Gover nment’s legislative agenda, including amendments r elating to companies, tourism investment, quarantines, tax information exchange, residential care homes, land title registration, parks, et cetera. The Bermuda
Laws website, which contains all of Bermuda’s laws
and subordinate legislation, is updated in real time from within Chambers. And we are continuing to make
improvements to the sites. A recent improvement was
the addition of the Ministry’s page to include a link to the detailed chart of portfolio responsibilities.
Since the implementation of the Proceeds of
Crime Act Amendment (No. 2) 2013, establishing the Enforcement Authority, there has been an increase in
the number of requests for mutual legal assistance.
Notwithstanding this increase, the number of days for
us to respond has remained constant.
Staffing. Mr. Chairman, there are currently
four vacant posts within the Attorney General’s Chambers: one deputy solicitor general, one crown
counsel, one administrative assistant, and one pupil post within the Civil Advisory and Litigation Section of
the Attorney General’s Chambers. The vacant post for
the deputy solicitor general will remain unfunded for the budget year 2018/19. The current staffing levels of
the Civil Advisory Section are one solicitor general,
one deputy solicitor general, two senior crown coun-sel, six crown counsel, two administrative assistants,
and one paralegal to the Solicitor General. There have
been no staffing changes in the Debt Enforcement
Unit.
In the Drafting Section, there are currently no
vacancies, as one new assistant parliamentary coun-sel was recruited in December 2017. At the Drafting
Section of Chambers, there are currently seven parliamentary counsel, including the chief and deputy
chief; one consultant parliamentary counsel; and two
assistant parliamentary counsel. In addition to these dedicated lawyers, who are responsible for drafting all
Government B ills and statutory instruments, the se ction is fortunate to have an excellent administrative
team comprising of four persons, each of whom plays
a vital part in the timely production, publication, and
consolidation of legislation.
Training and Development . Mr. Chairman, the
Attorney General’s Chambers includes, within its mandate, the development of its professional and ad-ministrative staff. Members of the Civil Advisory and
Administrative Section of Chambers attended training,
management, and personal development courses offered by the Department of Human Resources. Me mbers of the Advisory Section also received overseas
training and provided in -house presentations on adv isory and litigation matters.
The Deputy Solicitor General and the Solicitor
General attended a [plenary] session of the Caribbean
Financial Action Task Force [CFATF] in Guyana in
November 2017. CFATF is an organisation of states
Bermuda House of Assembly


and territories in the Caribbean that have agreed to
implement common countermeasures against money -
laundering, and it is a regional organisation that is associated with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). They attended various sessions, including the obser-vation of the activities surrounding the mutual evalu ation process of Barbados, current risk assessments and the level of effectiveness of Barbados’s AML/ATF [anti-money laundering/anti -terrorist financing] system.
The plenary sessions provided valuable technical guidance, as Bermuda prepares for its own intern ational evaluation process of its anti -money laundering/anti -terrorism financing regime. In addition, the
Solicitor General participated in the CFATF assessor
training course held in January of 2018 in Guyana.
Senior Crown Counsel and Deputy CPC
[Consultant Parliamentary Counsel] attended the FinTech conf erence on cryptocurrency and digital a ssets in New York. This professional development will
assist with their responsibilities on the legal and legi slative committee pertaining to cryptocurrency and the drafting of the necessary legislation.
Mr. Chairman, a crown counsel attended the
2
nd Inter-American Meeting of Central Authorities and
International Hague Network Judges on International Child Abduction in March 2017 in Panama City, Panama. This professional development will assist with
her responsibilities on behalf of the Attorney Gener al
under the International Child Abduction Act 1998. The
Deputy CPC attended the biennial conferences of
both the Commonwealth Association of Legislative
Counsel and the Commonwealth Association of Law
Reform Agencies held in Melbourne and Sydney, Aus-tralia, in April 2017, and gave a summary to the draf ting team of some of the presentations. Members of the Drafting Section also attended training, manag ement, and personal development courses offered by
the Department of Human Resources.
The Assistant Parliamentary Counsel attended five days of legislative drafting training in Ottawa in September 2017, hosted by Canada’s Department of
Justice. And she has commenced an online drafting diploma offered by the University of Athabasca. Members of the drafting team take turns in giving in -house
monthly presentations and lead roundtable discu ssions on drafting matters. The CPC, Deputy CPC, and other members of the Drafting Section were able to
take advantage of the learning opportunities offered by attending sessions of the recent Conference of the
Attorneys General of the Overseas Territories held at the Fairmont Southampton.
Initiatives in the Forthcoming Year. Concer ning the Advisory Section, Mr. Chairman, a principal focus will continue to be on the development of Be rmudians in Chambers, particularly in using senior counsel to assist junior counsel and pupils, with ad-vice and guidance on advisory and litigation matters.
The agency intends to fill the vacant posts of pupils
shortly. It is anticipated that the posts of administrative assistant and crown counsel in the forthcoming fiscal year will be filled. Improving the personal development of staff will remain paramount by providing them with
the opportunity to attend training courses offered by
the Department of H uman Resources.
The unit will continue to review contracts for
the various ministries and departments to aid the same in making better decisions in contract negoti ations. They will continue to review the assignment of
specific counsel to provide advisory and litigation representation to ministries and departments. They will seek to improve their case management system to
reduce demand for paper resources and provide more in-house presentations by counsel on a variety of legislative topics. With respect to the legislative drafting staff
and training, Mr. Chairman, a principal focus will co ntinue to be on the development of Bermudians in le gislative drafting. Experienced drafters, including the
Consultant Parliamentary Counsel, will continue to
mentor the two Assistant Parliamentary Counsel so
that they will be able to draft independently.
Legislative Information Management System,
or LIMS. The legislation is produced quickly and accu-rately, using LIMS, which is customised to our Berm uda drafting style. This, combined with the important
role of the legislative editor, has kept the number of
errors and inconsistencies found in legislation during House and Senate debates to a minimum, thereby
expediting the legislative process. The maintenance of
LIMS is throu gh a Canadian vendor, who provides
timely professional assistance whenever necessary, and regularly updates our software with the latest ver-sions and technical support. It is intended to continue
to improve the database of Chambers and aim to post
new laws within a week of enactment on the Bermuda
Laws online website. Again, that is
www.bermudalaws.bm
, which is hosted locally by
Fireminds, Ltd.
Consolidation, which is the incorporation of
Amendments into existing laws, is more time consuming, since the Amendments are checked by the draf ter, as well as the legislative database manager. The
goal is to complete the process within one month of
the enactment of the amending legislation. Subject to resolving all outstanding technical and security issues,
with the assistance of the Information and Digital
Technology Office, it is anticipated that legislation will be introduced in 2018 to declare the electronic online
version to be the official Law of Bermuda.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

You have the floor.

Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: First of all, I would like to re cognise in the Chamber the presence of the Senator, the substantive Attorney General, together with the Permanent Secretary, the Solicitor General, and the
Comptroller of the department.
I also thank the substantive Attorney General
for allowing me to have a copy of the brief, and hopefully that sets the tone, going forward, so we have a smooth debate on the Estimates of Revenue and E xpenditure.
Mr. Chairman, I will try to follow the Minister’s
brief. So I will follow along the way she did it, try and
keep it in some sort of reasonable order.
The Minister started at page B -76, with the
mission statement of the Headquarters of the Ministry of Legal Affairs, which is the brain and the mind of the
Ministry, whose aim is to advance Government policy
under the direction of the Minister of Legal Affairs . . .
With respect to that, I will just repeat the departments that come under the umbrella of the Ministry, which are the Legal Affairs Headquarters; the Judiciary,
which obviously is independent in its operation, but
the funding is covered by the Ministry; Attorney Ge neral’s Chambers, which is the other head we are d oing, Head 0 4; the Department of Court Services; and
the Department of Public Prosecutions— again, Public
Prosecutions is functionally independent, but its budget comes through the Ministry.
I see that there is some small increase there.
And, generally, with respect to this Ministry, we see that there have been very good budgetary controls, so there are relatively small changes year on year in
terms of —a broad statement, in terms of the personnel.
And we see that, in terms of the general rev enue that is generated, the main revenue generated,
the Judicial Department generates $8,806,000, which is an increase of $500,000. So there is some good
news with respect to this Ministry. I see that it is kee ping its cost down and it is increasing its revenues as
we go along.
With respect to that, you will see that, at page
B-77, there is a provision under Head 87, Ministry of
Legal Affairs, for Professional Services. And you see
there that a provision of $1,991,000 of the Ministry
Headquarters budget is allocated to Professional Se rvices, which consists of both budget allocations, i ncluding for external legal counsel retained by the L egal Aid Office. Now, here we are seeing that also i ncluded in there is a budget of $551,000 for the Justice Protection Programme.
Now, if I might address the Legal Aid Office,
and perhaps the Health Minister, who is speaking in the House on this head . . . with respect to the Legal Aid Office, my understanding is that there is the inten-tion to hire two additional staff to be in-house legal representatives —as it were, public defenders —so that
the aim is to reduce the expenditure on Legal Aid to private attorneys by hiring more in -house attorneys.
And just if I might give a history of that, you know,
there has been for a long time a desire to reduce the amount of money. The Legal Aid budget seemed to be getting out of control. It was getting larger and
larger each year for a variety of reasons.
And there was initially a proposal to create a
number of posts. And clearly, when I became Attorney
General (in 2014), and when the OBA became the Government (at the very end of 2012), there was a
desire to reduce excess expenditure and to control the
number of employees in the public system. And so,
some of the policy issues there were, Well, do we hire
more public defenders to take that money away from outside criminal lawyers, who are defending people in the courts, and bring it on board?
And at that time, we were reluctant to do that.
Obviously, by putting people on board, you not only
see the expense that you see here in terms of the a dditional salary in the Legal Aid Office, but what you are also going to see is the pension liabilities, the health insurance liabilities, et cetera, that c ome on
long term. As we are all aware, there are unfunded pension liabilities with respect to that.
So, all I am saying here is that this is som ething that we will watch closely, this initiative. It has its pros and cons, bringing people in- house. Some of the
difficulties with this programme is that, if you have in -
house counsel, will you have multi -hand criminal ca ses? You might get a case where, yes, you have two,
three, or four in- house criminal defenders, but they
cannot go to a multi -hander case because people may
object and say, Well, no, because this person’s d efence is completely different from that person and you guys work in the same office. So there is always the
thinking that there is going to be objection to public
defenders working out of the same office, acting for
different counsel, in multi -handed criminal cases.
And perhaps the Minister could address those
concerns and see what the intention is, going forward, with this programme. My understanding was that, if it was successful in reducing costs, that the objective
would be to expand it from perhaps two extra counsel in the Legal Aid Office up to five or six. So, perhaps the Minister could address that when she is able to
rise to her feet.
The Justice Protection Programme has a
budget of $551,000. And that has been, from what we
can see, a very successful programme. I would agree with the Minister there, would agree with the brief. The
brief says that this programme continues to produce
excellent dividends for the Bermuda Government, and the country as a whole, by aiding in the successful
prosecution and conviction of criminals. And this is a very important programme run through the office. The
Bermuda House of Assembly


staff are very dedicated there. I think it is the Deputy
Solicitor General working also with staff from the office
of the DPP [Department of Public Prosecutions] and
doing an extremely good job in keeping that pr ogramme going at what is effectively a very reasonable
price, and to keep criminal behaviour within this juri sdiction under control.
I think, in recent years, there have been very
good results, which we can see, as the Minister said,
from the successful prosecution and conviction of
criminals in those areas.
There is also an initiative under Administr ation, [cost centre] 97000, to increase funding for p upils. There was a period of time within which we had a
moratorium on pupils within Chambers. For a period
of time, we were able to provide pupillages for some people who came from different parts of government,
whose salaries were covered by their own areas —for
example, if we get someone seconded from, I think,
the Customs Department, and they do a pupillage, but
the cost of it is covered by the Customs Department.
So we were able to do some pupillages at no cost; but otherwise, we had a moratorium on pupillages in order
to reduce that cost in line with the necessity of the
Government as a whole to contain costs.
Now, under this new Government, there is an
allocation for three pupils to commence employment within the next budget year, under that Administration.
Now, as with this again, there are pros and cons attached to it. There is a bit of an assumption that if
someone does a pupillage in Chambers that they are
going to stay in Chambers. And that does not necessarily follow.
Obviously, people want to follow their best
opportunities. It is a situation where there are not ne cessarily as many opportunities for pupils as there are people who would like to be pupils. So you have ci rcumstances of a short supply. You do get situations where people come into Chambers and do a pupi llage; there is no immediate post within Chambers that
suits their aspirations, their skill set. And there may be
better opportunities they may view for broadening their skill set outside of Chambers. So they may come
in and w ork within Chambers. They may do civil litig ation work or work in other areas within Chambers. But
at the end, they may say, Okay. I’ve done that. And now I want to expand and try and go into a corporate area, get a different background, get a different look.
So I would not be too content with the fact
that, All right. We’re going to have people in Cha mbers, and they’re automatically going to stay. It does
not follow.
But having said that, I am supportive of having
those pupils come to Chambers if the budget is able to bear that. Again, on the broader picture, of course,
is that the present Government have said, Well, we’re
not aiming to balance the budget this year, but in a
year’s time we’re going to have to crack down and balance the budget. So we will see how the estimates of future revenues and expenses work out for that
programme within the Attorney General’s Chambers.
I think, generally, they were very successful
programmes. We talked about it in the Legal Aid pr ogramme as well, that they have capa city to take st udents, and that is something I approve of.
Certainly, just talking to that head again of
Legal Aid, Mr. Chairman, the Legal Aid scheme, there is a long history to that. Now, just if you do not mind
my going back in history with the then-Mi nister of
Health, Nelson Bascome, back in around 2001 –2003,
we had worked together while I was President of the
Bar to increase the level of legal aid fees. I think we doubled them at that time. There were very, very low
levels, historically low levels. An d we increased them.
But what had happened since that time is that the e xpenditures on legal aid have gone through the roof.
One of the difficulties with Legal Aid is that,
obviously, in some cases you are representing people
who are guilty of criminal offences. And some of those
people are drug dealers. So when they come in to fill
in a Legal Aid form, they might be millionaires. They might have all sorts of ill -gotten gain. When they fill
out their form, they say their income is zero. They say they have no resources. You know, usually, when they go in the office, they take off their bling. They
take off the gold chains and the diamond rings when
they go in to claim legal aid. And sometimes, you know, broader society may wonder, Are we really e xtending free legal aid services to people who have made lots of money in ill -gotten gains?
And luckily now, I think, as a society, we have
caught up with getting—starting, beginning to get on line with confiscated assets, to try and chase . . . but it
has been very slow. It has been very slow to catch up
with that, and we are behind the curve. And we are working hard at it. But it has been very difficult to contain those costs for legal aid. Whereas at one time
they were very much behind the curve; then they started to get way ahead of the curve. And people, in
my humble view, were gaming the system. Hopefully, we are beginning to put a stop to that.
Now, we heard that the Legal Aid Office . . . I
congratulate them. Their major stakeholders are the specialist court p rogrammes. I will repeat them. They
are very, very, very good programmes. We have the
Drug Court, the Mental Health Treatment Court, Juv enile Plea Court —all of those things, as well as provi ding duty counsel in the regular Magistrate’s Court. Those are all extremely successful programmes, and I
would not like to see them suffer at all.
Generally, on the training measures within
those departments, I approve of people keeping up to
date. I do not always know how the voters take it, you
know, of increasing taxes. And people say, Oh, well,
I’m going off on a training course to Melbourne in Au stralia, or somewhere like that. I’m going off . . . You
know, it is sometimes kind of hard to convince the
public. And certainly, while I was Attorney General, I
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1160 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

kept my travelling to a bare minimum and did not take
any of these long- distance trips. I was constantly b eing told, Well, you should go here or there, and I was
saying, Well, no. I’ll take the absolutely necessary
trips and no others.
I would just like to again s ay that it is very
good that they have an agreement nailed down b etween the Bermuda Bar Association and the Legal Aid Office with respect to legal counsel participating in the
Legal Aid scheme, and that there will be a discounted
member rate, coming forwar d this October. Certainly, I
urge younger counsel who are interested in those a reas of the law to take part in those schemes.
I see from the Minister’s brief that the Office of
NAMLC has been transferred out of Legal Affairs over to the Ministry of Finance, which is a major change. And I understand that this is part . . . now we are really getting down to very urgent measures as we . . . not to reflect on the debate Friday, but it was mentioned that it is a very important matter now with respect to
Bermuda’s assessment by the OECD and by FATF
[Financial Action Task Force] that we are going to get that going. And I approve of those things, but we have
got to be careful that we keep it properly coordinated
throughout government. There is an issue with r espect to anti -money laundering, that it impacts on so
many areas of government that, somehow, som etimes, it is difficult to get people to focus together.
So, you have the NAMLC office, and we had
the committee that was run by Cheryl -Ann Lister, who
did an extremely good job. I understand now that the
Commissioner of Prisons, Eddie Lamb, is being s econded over to assist. I know that there are people
like the Bermuda Monetary Authority, which is i nvolved. So it is a huge coordination effort to get that involved. Hopefully, we will keep on top of that.
Under cost centre 97080, there is a Sanctions
Unit. And again, sanctions is, you know, very much related to all of those areas with respect to anti -money
laundering. There is an allocation of $325,000. The
Sanctions Unit is a very important unit, and what was
happening there. As the Minister said in the brief, the
Governor is the competent authority in Bermuda r esponsible for the implementation of financial san ctions, and the power is set out in the various Overseas Territories Orders. And these orders are coming
through constantly, in particular, as we will be aware,
for places like North Korea or Iran. There are Russian sanctions out there. They are coming through on a
regular basis.
And the necessity for appropriately funding
this section in order to have it work smoothly, partic ularly when we are being assessed, in a year that we
are being assessed, that is what we need. And the
brief talks about [how] the creation of this unit will
serve to assist the Governor by providing support to
the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs
when the Governor delegates certain powers, as me ntioned. The unit will therefore provide the necessary infrastructure to effectively implement targeted fina ncial sanctions. Now, the need here in all of these areas, because their impact is across government, and it
is also across the community, the necessity for proper
coordination of activities —and from feedback.
You know, one of the areas with respect to
banks —well, of course, you k now the process between the Governor and the Attorney General’s Chambers, you need an effective communication that
this sanction needed to be put in place. The Chambers would be putting this sanction in place. The
Monetary Authority would be involved in order to issue
notices to the banks. And then you needed proper coordination and feedback loops so that the banks
would be coming back to the BMA [Bermuda Mon etary Authority] to say, No, we don’t have any accounts
for any of those individuals. Or, if they do, to report that back. And that is one of the areas where we def initely needed to raise our game and get better coord ination.
Now, I see again from the Ministry, because
that area of anti -money laundering is being stripped
out of the Ministry, there was, at page C -16 (with r espect to grants), that no grant will be given toward the
upcoming Caribbean Financial Action Task Force f inancial assessment because that office has moved
over to the Ministry of Finance. But it is important that
we keep on top of that .
The other area which is a very important part
of anti -money laundering and which is still a part of
Chambers is the Financial Intelligence Agency, which
is established under the Financial Intelligence Agency
Act of 2007. So, as the Minister said, that is an inde-pendent agency authorised to receive, gather, store,
analyse, disseminate information related to suspected
money laundering and financing of terrorism. And this is received in the form of a suspicious -activity report,
which is called a SAR.
They are empowered to disseminate such
information to the Bermuda Police Service and to the
foreign intelligence authorities. And again, Mr. Chai rman, this is an area where there needs to be very
good coordination and cooperation. And it is an area that did give me pause for thought, if not concern.
There was, at a point in time, a delegated police of-ficer who was the liaison between the Police Service
and the Financial Intelligence Authority. And there
was a point in time when that was taken away. And that definitely needs to be reinstated.
So, you have the Financial Intelligence Agency, who issues SARs, suspicious activity reports. And
then, what happens to those reports? Well, they are
disseminated to the responsible agenc ies. And in the
case of the police, there needs to be very tight and
close coordination. The CEO of the Financial Intell igence Agency —I believe it is still Sinclair White, who
is a retired police officer. And that is one area where it might be worth spending some budget —I guess it
would come out of the police budget —but to make
Bermuda House of Assembly


sure there is some proper liaison between the Financial Intelligence Agency and the Police Service.
And we see there that there is some of that
additional funding. It was increased by $205,000 for the incoming year, to allow the agency to take on its new supervisory functions in relation to dealers in
high- value goods, who are now subject to AML/AFT
regulations. Now, with respect to that, that is controlling people who sell things, high- value goods. I think it
is like automobiles, people who are selling cars. I guess there are other high- value items. So, it is basically items which, I do not know, I cannot remember the level we arrived at, you know, $10,000 or $15,000.
Somebody might come in, obviously, you
might g et . . . in our case, more than being someone
supporting terrorism, it is more likely to be a drug dealer who is going to come in and buy a car with
cash. You know, the old thing of somebody coming in
with a Piggly -Wiggly bag full of cash and saying, I
want to buy a $40,000 car , and here’s the payment.
And those things are being stopped at this time, and obviously, we need to allocate the appropriate budget to enable these agencies to have proper oversight of
those areas. And the Minister might be able to just
refresh my mind as to what those levels were.
There were also, obviously, ongoing concerns
with respect to controls on betting shops, et cetera.
Remember the recent contretemps between the Mi nister of Tourism and the ex -senior officers over at th e
Gaming Commission about their being included on the AML Board, et cetera. But we have been working hard
in order to be more inclusive to make sure we have
covered all areas. And obviously, that needs more budget when you are trying to make sure that all of
these areas are covered —the high- value goods and
places like betting shops. Betting shops were some of the areas that we were very concerned about and
came to our notice. And there needs to be new legi slation in order to cover them. There needs to be ne w
regulation, which is a serious undertaking.
With respect to pages C -9 and C -10 of the
Capital Expenditures, I praise the Ministry. They are
certainly keeping those expenditures under very tight
control. I think the Ministry has been allocated a total
of $21,000 for fiscal 2018/19, which, as stated in the
brief, is intended to purchase fully depreciated assets
with no residual value for departments within the Mi nistry. So I applaud the Ministry for its control of costs. I
certainly believe, generally, where they are spending
money, it is money well spent at the areas that we
need it. And they seem to be fully justified.
If I might move over to Head 04, the Attorney
General’s Chambers, at page B -88 of the Budget
Book of the Estimates of Revenue and Expendi ture.
Again, the Minister went through the mission stat ement of the Attorney General’s Chambers, To be legal
advisors to Government. This is, obviously, a very
serious Ministry, and does a very difficult job. I mean, when you are in this job, you are in a hot seat. Now, it may be that you are not always in the public eye. O bviously, a lot of the advice which is given out of Chambers is confidential advice; it is privileged advice. But suffice it to say that, when the most serious
situations come up in Government, normally the phone of the Attorney General rings, and they call
their urgent meetings, and it is a 24/7 operation. You
do not really know when these things are going to o ccur. They come at you from every which direction.
And I know that the Honourable Member who
sits in this House as a spokesman held this responsibility, I think, in total for something like four years. And
that is a pretty heavy responsibility. And the new A ttorney General is carrying that mantle. I wish her the
very best of luck in a very difficult job.
Now, with respect to these estimates, I think
there is an increase there of $500,000 allocated to Chambers. We saw there we were going through, not
just in terms of the legal services given, but the oper ational requirements. You are talking about the legisl ative database and law reform.
Now, with respect to that, just to give a little
warning from my experience, in all of these jobs there
is a tendency, because it is thought to be politically
popular to say, Oh, well, we are going to come in and
we’re going to Bermudian- ise all the jobs. But, you
know, that is unlikely to be the case. You very often need people with very special skill sets to do very special jobs. And they are very difficult to find. And,
quite often, what you will find in areas like government
is, if someone comes along and they are in certain
areas, of course, what happens is you will get a pr ivate firm that will come along and poach them, saying,
Oh, well, we can offer you a lot more money. You
won’t get a government pension, but we’ll give you a
much more attractive salary. You’ve got all these op-portunities to go higher in the corporate world, the
corporate ladder, than you would here.
Even within the bar, you know, you quite often
saw lawyers who were working in— even the larger
firms, if you were not at the very top —you saw people
migrating to insurance companies. Because, to be a
general counsel at an insurance company, or even a
lower level, just to be a counsel at an insurance co mpany would pay much better than it would be to be a
relatively senior person at a law firm. Perhaps not at partner level, but just below that, at senior associate
level, a lot of those people are poached away by i nsurance companies. So there is that challenge. So do
not think it is easy to Bermudian -ise. It is difficult to
find people with those skill levels, and often when you do find them, they disappear to what they view as
greener pastures.
We are very lucky. We have Bermudian staff
in Chambers who are both very good and very ded icated and loyal, and stay there performing an e xtremely valuable public service. And, hopefully, we
can engender in people that sort of loyalty.
Bermuda House of Assembly
1162 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

Now, with respect to legislative drafting, the
Legislative Drafting Section, under the head there,
Cathryn Balfour Swain does an amazing job under
very, very difficult circumstances. They are very dedi-cated people in that section. You end up having some quite interesting meetings debating all sorts of things,
obviously. Some of the signature achievements while I
was t here included a complete reform of the criminal
law. A lot of Bermuda’s laws get very out of date. We
managed to completely update Bermuda’s criminal
law. It was a signature achievement of Chambers du ring my time there. We moved forward with modern techniques.
There was a lot of resistance from the older
members of the bar, unfortunately. I think it was a big mistake on their part. But, of course, anyone who has trained in the UK in the last 20 years has trained u nder the new criminal procedures. So, that is what they are used to. And that is very much managing cases.
You do not have these long- form preliminary
inquiries. You know, when I came in as Attorney Gen-eral, they were still having long- form preliminary i nquiries in criminal cases, which means you have a
mini- trial before you have the actual trial in the S upreme Court. So you are sitting down there for a week
or two weeks. Quite often, you have witnesses who
are brought at enormous expense, an enormous
waste of everybody’s time. And now we have moder nised the procedure so that you do all of that by way of
paperwork. You do not have any live witnesses giving
viva voce evidence. You save enormous amount of
time in Magistrate’s Court.
And it streamlines that justice system, because, of course, justice delayed is justice denied. It is
not only justice delayed for the defendant. Obviously,
the defendant quite often wants it delayed as long as possible. In many cases, they do not want to face ju stice at all. But for the victims —too often, we forget the
victims. They have to go through horrible situations. And we are still working on the situation with child wi tnesses, child victims. We have been trying to struggle to get through on that, and there are still budgetary problems. Recently, you know, they had the opening
of the Legal Year, which I was not able to attend. But I
watched the video on TV. And it is very easy for peo-ple to start pointing fingers and saying, Well, we didn’t
have evidence via video link, because we were not
giving them the okay. And of course, the truth was that it was not the case. You know, there were difficu lties within the Attorney General’s Chambers in terms of getting upgrades and then deciding what sort of
upgrade they wanted.
And that was quite often the issue with a lot of
areas that we worked in. Even with breath samples for drink drivers, you know, we waited a long time for the
Police Service there to tell us which machine they wanted to be the nominated machine to take breath
samples. And then when someone says, Well, why
haven’ t you done it? They blame the Attorney Gen-eral. They say, Oh, we’re waiting on the Attorney
General. Well, likewise with respect to those, a lot of
the delay came out of the courts. I know they faced
enormous problems with respect to their premises.
And th ey had one of those mould situations. But
again, it is an area that we need to work on, cooper ation and coordination between all of those parties.
The other very important thing, when we talk
about legislative drafting, we have to keep driving this
forward. You know, another signature reform while I
was there was the Bribery Act, where we adopted
what is generally regarded as the world gold standard
of the UK Bribery Act. We managed to get that into force. And that has set us on a very good stage with
respe ct to these assessments by anti -money laundering by the OECD, by CFATF —all of this has put us on
a very good stage. We still have more to do.
Last July, before the election, I had tabled in
this House, for information purposes, a copy of a
Fraud Bill. And, you know, I still would like the Go vernment to say what they are going to do with that, because the Fraud Bill, obviously, ties in with all of these areas of white- collar crime and with anti -money
laundering. The fraud laws we presently have are not fit for purpose. You are not able to obtain convictions.
So we need to update the Fraud Act, and we need to
do it as soon as possible. It fits into that framework of
criminal law with those criminal procedural reforms. The Bribery Act reform, the fraud reform w ill go with
that. And I encourage the Government and the Attor-ney General to move forward with that post -haste b ecause I see it as part of that package.
And I see there are costs provided there for
new parliamentary counsel, established in 2018, for
parlia mentary draftsmen. Again, it is a very specialised job. I salute the Ministry because they have been
able to largely Bermudian- ise these posts. And again,
I am not sure you need to, or you will be able to, en-tirely Bermudian- ise the posts.
And I am not sure that you really want to, because you want people with a breadth of experience. And you get people who come to parliamentary draf ting from around the world and have a wealth of experience from different legal jurisdictions, different governmental jurisdictions that they bring to it. And we want to keep that. We need that. People need to rea lise that, as an offshore financial centre, we need to be prepared for anything. We need to know how things go on. And we must not be too insular. It is one of the
traps we sometimes fall into, being too insular. Then
we lose sight of the bigger picture and the bigger world.
I salute the revised Laws of Bermuda there. I
totally salute the service that they are doing. They are doing a fantastic service. They kept it up and running,
sometimes under challenging circumstances. And that
service is an excellent service. Hopefully, they can
continue to improve that. I see that the intention also
is to make that the official source of Bermuda Laws to
Bermuda House of Assembly


be the online version. I think we are almost there—
with some difficult areas while I was serving as the
Attorney General. I think those have now been r esolved.
There is a Debt Collection Unit, [cost centre]
14050, and there is a small increase there. Now, with
respect to debt collection, there had really been not hing done with debt collection for a long time. Certainly,
when I arrived in Chambers, I used my best efforts
personally to get involved and to try and improve c oordination. The unit in Chambers is in no way able to address the $200 [million] or $300 million of arrears
owing to government from things like payroll tax and social insurance. It is a very small unit. And generally,
when they are given cases by the department, the
cases are very difficult. They are very old. So they have got a lot on their plate.
What I had tried to do when I was there was
to outsource some of that collection . . . Not outsource the Debt Collection Unit, to keep the Debt Collection
Unit, but to give them additional resources by having
someone on the outside collect debts at a negotiated and favourable rate to government. But I could never
get it off the ground. There was ultimately too much
resistance from within the civil service, from within social insurance, within the Tax Commission. There
was just resistance to doing it. I think the way that it
was going was that they started hiring more staff to chase funds, certainly within the Social Insurance Department. And I wish them the best of luck with that.
But I think, at the end of the day, the mountain
of debt owed to Government is so large, you are going
to need all hands on deck. All right, so you hire some more staff over there. And we know we heard from the
Minister of Public Works, Colonel Burch, how hard it is
to get new staff on board within the civil service. It seems to take forever, if you can do it at all. But if they
get more staff over there to collect, you are still going
to need lawyers on board to collect that money. And the Debt Collection Unit is not large enough to make a
dent in $200 million. It is just not big enough. They
use their best efforts.
And I do not think the answer is to hire more
people in Chambers. I think the answer is to ou tsource it at a favourable rate, with someone who has a good track record for collecting funds. As I said, we
tried to do that, but we were just unable. There was too much resistance within the system to get it to work.
And I am going to salute . . . certainly, while I
was in Chambers there, I think they instituted the ProLaw data management software s ystem. And that was
partly an initiative, I think, from the new DPP [Director
of Public Prosecutions], who was very familiar with it,
Larry Mussenden. And it seems this was successfully
done. It was a great success, and I think they have also adopted the same system within the Supreme
Court Registry. I am just flipping through the end of this. I will
be finished very shortly.

[Pause]

Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: Those are my comments, Mr.
Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Shadow Minister.
Are there any other Members who wish to
make any contributions to these heads?
The Chair now recognises the Opposition
Leader.

Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I have just a few questions and comments.
Taking up from where the Shadow Minist er for
Legal Affairs left off, I am obviously very concerned
about the debt collection. Recognising that, if you stop and think about how much money the Government
has in accounts receivable and the fact that we are
starting to go and talk about getting into new avenues of raising revenues, I always believe that if you have a
point of failure, you should clear it up because the
single point of failure becomes the single point of fai lure when you change and you put something new.
So I would be intrigued to find out whether
any suggestion had been made as to actually going out . . . there was an indication that there were some
vacancies in the unit, but as to whether those posi-tions will be filled and whether there had been any
decision taken as to using outside agencies. Because
there are, obviously, outside agencies out there. And I know, going forward, looking at the SAGE [Spending
and Government Efficiency] Commission and other
places, there had been suggestions that maybe some things would be better done outside of government so
that you could keep the size of government down. So, something like this might be worthy of at least consi deration.
When I go to look at [page] B -90, this is tal king about performance measures. And I have to say, Mr. Chairman, that, for me, as we go through this
Budget Debate, performance measures are going to
be my thing. Because I believe that performance measures should show how well a department has
carried out its mandate, and should also reflect the
type of things that you would want to see being meas-ured so that the public can understand clearly that it is
doing what it is supposed to do.
As I say, it is not about the money; it is about
actually making sure you get the results so that when I
turn around and I look at the per formance measures,
this is talking about things, talking about the business,
the Advisory, and then the legislative drafting. I am
always very concerned when I see comparative num-bers there, and the comparative numbers look like
there was no change, because then you wonder
whether one [measure] really was a no- change or
Bermuda House of Assembly
1164 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report
whether people just did not appreciate the benefit of
understanding and letting the public know.
And the reason I say that is because the Mi nister who was dealing with this Ministry on the behalf
of the substantive Minister indicated in her brief a number of statutory instruments drafted, made to give
effect to the Government’s legislative agenda. She
indicated that, during the year which has just gone by, there were actually 126. Well, the document here says
that it was only 100. And the reason I was concerned
about it was because it was showing 100 now, and
100 going forward as the targeted outcome. And I
know from my time as being a Minister that if we do not start to get the turnaround and the volume of i nstruments being increased, then it is going to impact on all the departments that are out there trying to ut ilise their services.
Similarly, with the number of Bills drafted, this
50–50–50 which was there, causes me some concern
because, as I say once again, I know departments are
looking for the Bills to be drafted, and to be drafted in a timely manner. Because in many instances, by the time you have determined that there is something that
you want to action, the thing that is the holdup is getting the legislation drafted. So I would like to think that
that 50 is just something that has not been updated,
as opposed to what one could expect to happen, to
come from that department. Bearing in mind we have an indication that there are going to be more staff
added to that department.
If I go back to B -79, and I am not going to be
long, because I know the Attorney General wanted us
to finish. If I go back to B -79, there are some other
performance measures in here. And it is just amazing.
This department only has one performance measure.
And I cannot believe that there are not other perfo rmance measures that should be in there to reflect what the department does. And the ones that come to
mind are things like the sanctions. There is a San ctions Unit. No sort of indication is given as to how
many sanctions have —
[
Inaudible interjection s]
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: I am looking at the . . .
[Page] B- 79 is the only place where the Ministry’s performance measures are listed. There is only one pe rformance measure. And what I am saying is that I cannot believe, for that whole department, that there
are not any more performance measures. There is
only one. And that is why I am going back to say that,
if you look at it, there is an AML Sanctions Unit, which
is part of that department. —
[
Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Pardon?
[
Inaudible interjection] Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Well, even if it has not
started. Even if it has not started, when one starts to
put departments in, you normally start to put in some
performance measures that you are going to task and target during the year to say, This is how you will ind icate that yo ur department has carried out its mandate.
And, similarly, with respect to the suspicious activities report. Now, I know that sometimes there might be
things that you do not want to report, because there is
a degree of confidentiality or whatever else. But , to
me, indicating how many suspicious activities reports have been generated is a way of indicating what the department has done.
And I am mindful of the fact that, when we
have our review in other places, like banks and other places, they have suspicious activities reports that
they list in terms of how many things they have followed up, et cetera. So I cannot believe that this is not something that we might want to do. All I am saying is
that I just believe that it is important that there should
be some more performance measures.
And with that, I will take my seat.

Thank you, Opposition Leader.
Members, as you know, we traditionally break
for lunch at 12:30. I am going to propose a couple of options for the Minister, the Shadow Minister and the
Members to consider. And those are as follows: We
can continue with the debate, which is for two hours.
And we can then wrap up the consideration of these
heads at 12:52. That would mean that we would r esume after lunch at 2:22, going immediately into Pu blic Works. That is one option. Or we can break for
lunch, come back after lunch and then finish up on
Legal Affairs at 2:22.
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: Mr. Chairman, I am happy
that we finish a bit early on this one. And I would say,
at two o’clock we can start on Public Works.

Oh, okay. Fine then.
Bermuda House of Assembly

A nd then we will resume right after lunch with
Public Works, at probably around 2:10 or so.
You have the floor, Minister.
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Thank you, thank you. Real
quickly, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, there was a question that was
raised with respect to a point concerning CFATF and the fact that there was the grant that, under the Mini stry of Legal Affairs, there was no issue concerning the grant transferring to CFATF. And I would just like to
point out to my honourable colleagues, as indicated in the brief, the NAMLC has actually been moved to the Ministry of Finance. And as such, if you look at
Schedule 1 at [page] C- 16, the grant to CFATF in the
sum of $57,000 is carried and entered under th e Ministry of Finance.
There was another question, concerning the
FIA, and in particular as it related to the fact that there
seemed to be no police officer liaison with the FIA.
And in fact, Mr. Chairman, in keeping with the FATF
requirement three, which will be the subject matter of
Bermuda’s mutual evaluation in the fall, there is close
coordination between the Bermuda Police Service, as
well as FIA. And that continues in operation.
There was also a question concerning the
performance measures and the representation in the Budget Book versus that in the Statement. I will have to get that information, and I will undertake to provide
that to the Honourable Opposition Leader.
And there was one other question concerning
the emphasis that is being placed by this Honourable
and Learned Attorney General and her Chambers,
Kathy Simmons, with respect to hiring Bermudian
counsel. And I can inform the Honourable House that,
both of the pupil counsels that were hired within the Parliamentary Drafting Section, have remained within
Chambers.
And with that, Mr. Chairman, I would like to—
can I move Heads 87 and 04, please?

The Minister has requested to move
Head 87 and Head 04.
Are there any objections?
No objections.
The heads are passed.
[
Gavel]
[
Motion carried: Ministry of Legal Affairs : Head 87 ,
Headquarters , and Head 04, Attorney General’s
Chambers were approved and stand part of the Est imates of Revenue and Expenditure for the year
2018/19. ]
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, I move that we
now adjourn to lunch until two o’clock [this afternoon].

Good afternoon, Members. Be sea ted.
Honourable Members, we are now in Commi ttee of Supply for further consideration of the Est imates of Revenue and Expenditure for the year
2018/19. Heads under Public Works, 36, 49, 53, 81,
82, 97 are now to be debated.
I call on the Minister in charge to proceed.
Minister, you have the floor.
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: Madam Chairman.

Okay. Thank you, sir.
Have a seat.
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: I think that it is unfortunate. I
think this is how etiquette in Houses across the world
is carried on, that people share the bri ef. It makes it
much easier for everyone. I do not know if the Minister can give us a reason why he is not willing to supply a copy of the brief to the Opposition.

Madam Chairman, I
move that the following Heads, 36, the Ministry of Public Works Headquarters; 49, Land Valuation; 53, Bermuda Housing Corporation; 81, Public Lands and
Bermuda House of Assembly
1166 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

Buildings; 82, Works and Engineering; and 97, Land
Title and Reg istration be now taken under consider ation.
Madam Chairman, the Ministry of Public
Works is responsible for maintaining Bermuda’s crit ical assets and infrastructure. In fact, Public Works is
the lead agent in delivering the infrastructure requir ements upon which so many of the services provided to
this Island depend on. Some of the assets and infr astructure that the Ministry is responsible for building
and maintaining include:
• 617 roads amounting to 225 kilometres of road surface;
• 751 buildings maintained by Public Lands and Buildings with an insured value of over $1.5 billion;
• 85 public docks and purpose- built berths servicing cruise ships, cargo ships, and hundreds of private vessels and yachts each year;
• 5 reservoirs with a capacity of 2.5 million gal-lons of Bermuda’s precious and very limited fresh water resource;
• 75 amenity parks, beaches, and school
grounds protected under the Bermuda N ational Parks Act 1986; and
• Ocean View and Port Royal Golf Courses,
starting with the 2018/19 Budget.
Madam Chairman, it cannot be overstated
how critical this vast and diverse Ministry is to Berm uda and why it is so important that every possible opportunity must be grasped to maximise the economic
benefits that the capital expenditures of this Ministry
provide. This includes establishing private sector partnerships to ensure the government’s assets and infra-structure are maintained while simultaneously gene rating economic opportunities within the construction sector of our Island community.
Therefore, the maintenance and enhanc ement of our infrastructure and facilities must remain a priority, because infrastructure development is a vital component in encouraging a country’s economic
growth. For example, infrastructure development will:
• help provide the adequate capacit y for future
growth Bermuda so desperately needs;
• help enhance visitors’ experience when they come to Bermuda; and more importantly,
• help provide a key source of job creation and
economic empowerment going forward.
Madam Chairman, the budget allocation to the
Ministry for 2017/18 [sic] is found on page B -207 and
the allocated amount . . . let me just correct myself,
Madam Chairman. The allocation for 2018/19 is found
on page B -207 and the allocated amount is
$73,968,000. This represents a decrease of $1,050,392, or 1.40 per cent decrease from the original 2017/18 budget.
Madam Chairman, the anticipated revenue for
the Ministry is $20,268,000, a decrease of $2,415,000, or 10.6 per cent when compared to the 2017/18 original revenue budget.
The Ministry’s Capital Budget for 2018/19 is
$41,649,000. This includes the Capital Development budget of $37,011,000, and the Capital Acquisitions budget of $4,638,000.
The Ministry’s budgeted number of employees
which is referred to as full -time equivalents [FTE] for
the fiscal year 2018/19 is 707, an increase of 7, when
compared to the current fiscal year, as seen on page B-207. I must note, Madam Chairman, that the actual
number of employees is 581, or 119 under strength.
Madam Chairman, the overarching objective
of the Ministry Headquarters (Finance and Administration) Head 36 is to provide centralised support to the departments within the ministry which includes Public Lands and Buildings, Works and Engineering, Land
Valuation, Parks, and Land Title Registration to e nsure delivery of their varied services and operating
programmes.
The services provided by the Ministry of Public Works Headquarters are organised into the follo wing six programmes which are found on page B -209.
They are:
1. Head Office Administration—3601;
2. Accounts —3610;
3. Purchasing —3611;
4. Telecommunications —3612;
5. Human Resources —3613; and
6. Architect and Design —3614.

Head Office Administration Programme—3601

Madam Chairman, the
Head Office Administration Programme, 3601, is
comprised of Headquarters Administration (including Safety and Health) and Central Filing. Headquarters
Administration, under the direction of the Permanent
Secretary, provides oversight and management sup-port to the entire Ministry of Public Works. It also ensures that the Minister’s policy objectives are met and,
specifically, is responsible for the implementation of the Ministry’s Throne Speech Initiatives, yearly Bus iness Plan, management of Safety and Health matters, compliance, and numerous special administrative pro-jects.
Madam Chairman, during 2017/18 financial
year, the Safety and Health Office provided safety and health training to staff by offering a total of 234 hours
of safety training which was attended by 365 employees. The Ministry also conducted documented risk
assessments to ascertain the risk that Ministry e mployees and the public are exposed to as a result of
our activities. The training and assessments will co ntinue into 2018 so as to be in compliance with the r equirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1982 and the Occupational Safety and Health Regul ations 2009.
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Madam Chairman, the second area of support
under the Head Office Administration is Central Filing,
which provides records management for all human
resource records; Cabinet conclusions, capital pr ojects and contracts, and maintains records for the Mi nistry’s legislated functions.
The operational budget for the Head Office
Administration Programme, 3601, is $2,120,000 for
fiscal year 2018/19, an increase of $984,942 over the
current year. This increase is attributed primarily to
the new responsibility of golf courses which was tran sferred to the Ministry in November 2017.

Public Works Accounts Programme —3610

The Accounts Pr ogramme, 3610, provides accounts payable, accounts
receivable, payroll, capital asset recording, nonfinancial and financial reporting functions for the ope rating departments within the Ministry. This section
also prepares and distributes weekly payroll, vendor cheques, and invoices for services provided by the Ministry’s operational areas, as well as collection and
recording of online bank payments, credit card, cash
and cheque receipts. Through the us e of the centralised accounting system, this section manages the
yearly budget preparation and provides monthly ma nagement reports, a process that enables the effective
and efficient monitoring and control of the Ministry
current account budget along with the Ministry’s cap ital development and capital acquisition budget.
Madam Chairman, the Accounts section’s f ocus for the fiscal year 2018/19 will be on improving the
project and work order reporting system, improving
the debt collection for the Ministry, and working with
Accountant General on improving processes involving the E1 accounting system. This includes payroll pr ocess, debt collection, vendor payments, and general reporting. This section will also be formalising policy that will enable contractors, truckers, and other se rvice providers that owe government money to provide services for the government and obtain credits to r educe their indebtedness.
The operational budget for the Accounts Pr ogramme, 3610, is an amount of $936,000 for fiscal year 2018/19, an increase of $18,000 from the original
fiscal year 2017/18.

Purchasing Programme —3611

Purchasing Pr ogramme, 3611, provides a centralised procurement, inventory management, warehousing, disposal, and tendering function to the other departments and pr ogrammes within the Ministry and to other external d epartments from time to time. The principal purchasing and supply officer position was filled in 2017 and the
assistant purchasing and supply officer -quarry will be
filled in early 2018. Both of these positions are con-sidered critical to the purchasing department and were
vacant for a considerable period of time and proved a challenge to fill, therefore a trainee purchasing officer
position will be created for succession planning purposes.
Madam Chairman, the Purchasing section’s
focus for the fiscal year 2018/19 will be on creating supply chain -related policies, procedures, and end -
user instructions for the Ministry, further refining and
centralising the tendering function, establishing supply
contracts through competitive bidding, and working
with the Accountant General to maximise use of se ction-specific functions and capabilities of the E1 sy stem with a specific focus on inventory control, contract pricing, and Key Performance Indicators [KPI] repor ting.
Madam Chairman, the Purchasing Programme, 3611, operational budget, is $1,224,000 for
2018/19, a decrease of $17,000.

Telecommunications Programme —3612

Telecommunications
Programme, 3612, provides a suite of services such as replacement of telephones and related equipment and management of mobile service contracts for the
Ministry. The programme also provides advice to department heads regarding call flows resulting in great-er efficiencies a nd managing the implementation of
new technologies to maximise cost savings.
Madam Chairman, the Government owns and
operates a portfolio of seven telecommunication tower sites across the islands and the towers are located at Somerset Police Station, Prospect, Alton Hill, the
Quarry, Sentinel Hill, Fort George, and at Commops.
Historically the telecommunication tower facil ities have been managed by the Bermuda Police Se rvice [BPS], as they were primarily installed to support
their operational telecommunication requirements. In support of this use, the Department of Public Lands
and Buildings assisted the BPS in managing the le tting enquiries from third- party telecom operators seeking to locate their own telecommunication equipment on the Government’s tower portfolio. The department
also manage any lease arrangements for third-party operators who have approached Government to use
their buildings or land for their own telecommunication
installations. In April 2017 the Ministry took over re-sponsibility of the towers and commissioned structural
surveys for each tower to establish their current condition and also conducted surveys of each equipment
cabin, air conditioning, and generator set.
Madam Chairman, the structural surveys highlighted a lack of regular maintenance of the telecom towers, which has resulted in every tower displaying
various stages of corrosion. The recommendation of the survey was the adoption of an aggressive maint enance programme with a focus on rust identification and remediation. In some i nstances, the safety
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1168 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

equipment for climbing the towers is in such a poor
condition that it poses a risk to life for anyone who may climb the tower. Additional issues identified i ncluded improper air conditioning design and maint enance in equipment rooms, lack of a backup gener ator at the Quarry site, and a lack of regular maint enance of the generators at the other sites. As these sites and infrastructure are critical to operations, we have implemented a programme to carry out remedi ation works during this budget year for the issues iden-tified and a proper planned maintenance schedule to
minimise the risk of failure in the future.
Madam Chairman, the Telecommunications
Programme, 3612, has been allocated an operational budget of $883,000 for fiscal year 2018/19, a d ecrease $137,500.

Human Resource Programme—3613

Human Resource Pr ogramme, 3613, provides recruitment, employee rel ations, training, and development services to the var ious departments and staff within the Ministry. The role
of the Human Resources team is to liaise and partner
with the Department of Human Resources to provide human resources advice, and guidance, as well as
provide administrative support, throughout the Mini stry.
Madam Chairman, in 2018/19 the Human Resources Section will continue to focus on the Mini stry’s Basic Employee, Foreman, and Superintendent Training Programme (known as BeFAST), succession
planning for difficult -to-fill jobs and retirements, and
the management of the Trainee and Apprentice Programmes.
Madam Chairman, the BeFAST Programme is
now in its fifth year and has proven to be successful. The programme objectives are to advance training,
create career opportunities, and build new working relationships with peers and staff, ultimately creating a
team that speaks the same language, resulting in
providing better service to our internal and external customers. The Effective Team Member and Leading
Effective Teams are the two core courses under B eFAST and they are delivered by the Bermuda College’s Professional Adult Career Education Depar tment [PACE]. This year the Ministry wil l also offer the
Certificate in Leadership and Management course which is a comprehensive course designed to give
practicing first line managers a solid foundation in
their formal development as a manager.
Madam Chairman, other training that will continue to be offered internally include computer training
on the Microsoft Office suite of programmes, and the
Ministry will continue to partner with the Bermuda I ndustrial Union to coordinate the workshop on Unde rstanding the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Ministry’s Safety and Health Officer will also coordinate courses on Safety and Health in the work place, emphasising the correct way to report incidents and accidents, CPR, and first aid training.
Madam Chairman, it is a fact that our wor kforce is ageing, therefore our Ministry will focus heav ily on succession planning to ensure we have sufficient employees trained and prepared to fill core and diff icult-to-fill critical positions in the future. The Quarry
Vehicle Maintenance and Operations and Highways Sections continued to be the main areas of focus. The
Ministry of Public Works also has in place a Trainee
Programme in which two trainees are currently enrolled. This programme focuses on training Bermudians for professional positions that are difficult t o fill:
Allanette Hayward, a former bursary student,
is in training as a civil engineer. She joined as a gra duate member of the Institute of Civil Engineers, UK, and is currently assigned to the Highways Section of
the Ministry.
Ricardo Graham -Ward, another former burs ary student, is in training as a civil engineer and has joined as a graduate member of the Institute of Civil
Engineers and the Institute of Structural Engineers, UK. He is currently assigned to the Structures Section
and recently commenced a year -long secondment
programme with Ramboll UK, an engineering company that has been contracted by the Ministry for the
design and engineering work for the new Swing and
Longbird bridges.
Madam Chairman, in addition, the Ministry also plays a part in the government -wide bursary
scheme and we currently have two bursary students,
one in Land Valuation, Ms. Andesha Busby, who is
presently studying for a bachelor’s degree in real es-tate, and Tabia Butterfield, who is presently studying
for a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. The Mini stry is in need of bursary students in the areas of valuation, estates and building and surveying for the
2018/19 year.
Madam Chairman, the current account budget
for the Human Resources Section, 3613, is $594,000 for the fis cal year 2018/19, a reduction of $12,000.

Architect Design Programme—3614

The objective of the
Architect Design Programme, 3614, is to deliver arch itectural design support for Government’s capital d evelopment projects in a professional, fiscally prudent and timely manner. Further, it provides opportunities
for Bermudian graduates in architecture and related
disciplines to obtain the necessary experience and
training to acquire professional designations in their
chosen field. The total budget for the Architectural Design Programme, 3614, for the 2018/19 year is
$174,000, which includes Capital Project recharges. This represents a reduction of $89,000, as a result of a one- year secondment of an employee to the Bermuda Airport Authority.

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Full- Time Equivalents (FTE)

With regard to the m ajor capital projects being managed by the Ministry of
Public Works Headquarters, the overall 2018/19 Capital Expenditure Plan for the Public Works Headqua rters is $9,606,000. Details of this are found on page
C-5 of the Capital Accounts Estimates and the capital
developments include:
• Cost centre 75050, Minor Works —$50,000;
• Cost centre 75053, Miscellaneous Small Pro-jects—$150,000;
• Cost centre 75054, WEDCO Capital Grant —
$1,106,000;
• Cost centre 75099, Office Reloc ations/Alterations —$2,000,000; and
• Cost centre 75334, WEDCO South Basin Land Reclamation—$6,300,000.
Madam Chairman that concludes my presentation for the Ministry of Public Works Headquarters,
Head 36. I would now like to move to Head 49, the
Department of Land Valuation.

HEAD 49— LAND VALUATION DEPARTMENT

Madam Chairman, the
Department of Land Valuation is mandated under the
Land Valuation and Tax Act 1967 to maintain an up-to-date and accurate valuation list of all properties on
the Island for land taxation purposes, including the five yearly revaluation of all properties. Additionally,
the department provides accurate and timely valuation
advice to other government departments, upon r equest.
The department’s work ethic, culture, and expertise are aptly summarised in their maxim, “We val-ue Bermuda.” Thus, the Land Valuation Department
strives to be a model of appraisal and assessment
administration with a reputation for delivering impar-tial, accurate, and understandable assessments that
exceed statutory requirements, guidelines, and inte rnational best practices.

Programme 4901 —Valuation

The Land Valuation
Department has the single Valuation Programme, 4901, with the accompanying cost centre of 59080, as shown on page B -214 of the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure. The single Valuation Programme comprises three primary ar eas:
1. maintenance of the valuation list;
2. appraisal service;
3. revaluation;
The Land Valuation Department is one of the
smallest departments in government, as seen on page B-215, with a total of eight full -time positions budgeted
for in fiscal year 2018/19. There is presently one v acancy in the department, comprising the assistant di-rector –revaluation position. It is anticipated that this
key senior management position will be filled during the first quarter of the 2018/19 fiscal year.

Current Account Expendit ure 2018/19

Madam Chairman, the
Current Account Expenditure Estimates for Head 49, the Land Valuation Department, is found on page B -
215. A total of $783,000 has been allocated to the
Land Valuation Department for this fiscal year. This
allocation represents a decrease of $8,000 compared
to 2017/18 original estimates.
The department continues to be financially
prudent and creative in the provision of their legisl ative mandates and services. This is evident in their
2018/19 Current Account Expenditure Estimates, of
which I will now mention a few highlights.
Madam Chairman, salaries once again const itute the bulk of the department’s expenditure, and the allocated $732,000 equates to approximately 92 per
cent of the department’s total expenditures.
Professional Services is estimated to be
$5,000 for fiscal year 2018/19. This includes payments to the members of the Land Valuation Appeal
Tribunal for attendance at hearings, and professional membership fees for the staff who are members of the
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Madam Chairman, the significant reduction in
Professional Services for fiscal year 2018/19 is a r esult of the transfer of the bulk of the funds which were
previously allocated for legal expenses for potential objection and court hearings, to Repair and Maint enance, which is estimated to be $37,000 for this fiscal year.
Madam Chairman, the Repair and Maint enance expenditure covers the four maintenance agreements for items such as the department’s print-er, digital drawing software application, hosting of the
Valuation List online search facility on its website, and the service level agreement for the department’s IT
database.

Revenue 2018/2019

Madam Chairman,
Revenue for the 2018/19 fiscal year can be found on
page B -215 and is estimated at $6,000. This is rev enue in respect of fees that are paid by an objector to
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1170 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

have their objection heard before the Land Valuation
[Appeal] Tribunal in the case where the objection was not resolved during negotiations with the department.
This fee is increased for fiscal year 2018/19 as part of
the biennial increases in government fees.
Whilst it is unknown the number of objections
the department might receive during the upcoming fiscal year, and how many, if any, will go before the tribunal for a hearing, the estimated revenue is based
on a total of 10 tribunal hearings.

Capital Acquisitions 2018/19

Madam Chairman,
once again, the department does not have any funds allocated for capital acquisitions for the upcoming fi scal year.
The Department of Land Valuation has yet
again had an extremely busy and challenging year. Despite numerous constraints and obstacles, the department met the demands placed upon it head on
and without hesitation. I will now mention a few of the department’s highlights for fiscal year 2017/18.
July 2017 marked a milestone for the Land
Valuation Department, as it celebrated 50 years of producing and maintaining valuation lists for Bermuda
on which property taxes are based.
[There was] $63,186,000 in land tax revenue,
or 6.1 per cent of Government’s total estimated rev enue for fiscal year 2017[/18] is calculated on the a ssessments in the 2015 valuation list. La nd tax, which
represents government’s fourth largest direct revenue
stream for the current fiscal year, behind payroll tax, customs duty, and company fees, continues to remain
a secure revenue stream. This is due to the efforts of
the Land Valuation Department in maintaining an up -
to-date and accurate valuation list, with the asses sments contained therein, being both fair and equit able.
Madam Chairman, the commitment and dedication of the Land Valuation team is to be commen ded. The department continues to grow from strength to strength with each successful revaluation and is a
pivotal component of our civil service and taxation
regime.
The department’s statutory mandate includes
the revaluation of all properties in Bermuda for land taxation purposes approximately every five years. The department conducted its ninth Island -wide revalu ation in 2015, with the 2015 draft valuation list coming into effect for land taxation purposes on 1
st January
2016. Taxpayers had six months in which to make a formal objection i f they believed that their entry in the
2015 draft valuation list was incorrect.
Madam Chairman, at the closure of the obje ction period in June 2016, the department had received a total of 30 objections. This represented less than
1 per cent of the, then, 35,823 units in the valuation
list. This is the lowest number of objections received to a draft list in the history of the department and is a
testament to the veracity and accuracy of the as-sessments in the valuation list following the analysis
of the collected rental data by the Land Valuation D epartment.
Madam Chairman, I am delighted to report
that during fiscal year 2017/18, all 30 objections to the
draft valuation list have now been completed. Add itionally, all 30 objections were resolved without the
need for a tribunal hearing, with half of the objections
being withdrawn following negotiations with the d epartment, and agreement reached with taxpayers for the other half. This speaks volumes to the diligence of this small department, especially when factoring in the
vacancy of the assistant director position during this
period.
Madam Chairman, despite being under
staffed for the whole of fiscal year 2017/18, the achievements of the Land Valuation Department are notable. The performance measures for the depar tment can be found on page B -216, and I would like to
speak to these noteworthy achievements now.

Maintenance of the Valuation List

The legislated function
of maintaining the list utilises the majority of the de-partment’s resources. This work entails inspecting, reassessing, and making a corresponding alteration to
the valuation list on any residential, commercial, or
tourist property that is built, altered, or demolished.
At year end, there were a total of 36,016 units
in the valuation list with a combined assessed rental value of approximately $1,000,300,000.
A total of 714 Maintenance of the List cases
were completed by the department by year end, r esulting in 738 proposals to amend the valuation list.
These figures represent an increased output of 19 per
cent and 15 per cent, respectively, when compared to the preceding year. The cases were generated from a
combination of certificates of completion and occ upancy from the Planning Department, enquiries from
the public, and proactive cases generated internally
by the department.
Madam Chairman, the department makes
every effort to amend the valuation list for property
alterations within 20 working days of receipt. However, with the vacancy of the assistant director –
reval uation position, a realistic turnaround target of
60 per cent was set. Despite the vacancy in this se ction, the department exceeded this target with 473, or
66 per cent, of the Maintenance of the List cases
completed within the 20 working- day turnaround ti me.

Appraisal Services

Madam Chairman, as
aforementioned, the Land Valuation [Department] also
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provides accurate and timely valuation advice to other
government departments, upon request.
For example, the Stamp Duty Section provides valuations to the Tax Commissioner and Regi strar of the Supreme Court for voluntary conveyances of property and probate purposes, respectively, to e nsure that the correct amount of stamp duty is levied on each document.
Of the 63 probate cases received from the
Registrar of the Supreme Court during the year, 47, or 75 per cent were completed and returned within the
turnaround target of 10 working days.
Madam Chairman, the department aimed to
complete 90 per cent of the stamp duty cases r eceived from the Tax Commissioner within 20 working days of receipt. I am pleased to highlight that this tar-get was exceeded by the department. For the year,
99 per cent of the 171 cases received were reported
within 20 working days of receipt, with the exception
of 2 cases meeting this target.
Madam Chairman, the Land Valuation D epartment also provides advice to the Immigration D epartment in relation to sales of property to restricted
persons. The department reviews the purchase price,
on which the government licence fee is calculated, to determine if the price is an “arm’s length” transaction,
and thus a fair reflection of the open market value of
the property. During the year 64 land acquisition ca ses were received from the Immigration Department
and all were completed within the turnaround target of
five working days.
Madam Chairman, additionally, the depar tment provides appraisal advice to other government departments, when requested. The department r eceived three requests for appraisals during the year and all appraisals were provided within the service target of 10 working days. The achievement of these
targets is quite impressive when one reflects on the
small size of the Land Valuation Department and staff shortages.
Madam Chairman, the very reason for the department’s creation and continued existence is that of maintaining an up -to-date and accurate valuation list,
upon which land tax is charged, with Island- wide r evaluations every five years as property values change over time. Properties are altered on a daily basis as a
result of mergers, splits, demolitions, and new builds, and the maintenance of the valuation list remains the department’s core business function for fiscal year
2018/19.
Historically, the bulk of the maintenance of the
valuation list work is in response to completion certif icates issued by the Planning Department for works
done to properties. Last summer, Planning notified the
department that some 13,000 historic building permits
dating back to the 1970s were to be signed- off in
preparation for their migration to a new IT system.
Madam Chairman, in response to this unpre cedented volume of work, the Land Valuation Depar t-ment used this obstacle as an opportunity to revisit the way they conduct their core bus iness. Customar ily, the department undertook a property inspection in
response to the completion certificates signed off by
Planning, irrespective of the type of work carried out. This could include works that would not affect the a ssessed annual rental value of a property, such as r ebuilding a wall, adding solar panels, plumbing, and electrical work. The department still conducted an i nspection in these instances as it provided an oppo rtunity for the department to update its survey records
and to create digital survey drawings for properties.
Since the notification from Planning last summer, the department has put in place a programme of targeted inspections to deal with the receipt of an a dditional 150 Planning certificates per month.
The department has recently completed the
scanning of all its property survey records into its IT
database. Consequently, changes to a building’s foo tprint can now be checked right from the desktop with
the aid of aerial imagery. The department can ther efore be more selective with its property inspections,
and only properties where there have been changes
to the footprint are now being inspected by the department. This effectively eliminates property inspe ctions where there have been no changes to the buil ding footprint and, thus, better employs the depar tment’s limited resources. A targeted inspection pr ogramme guarantees land tax revenue generation as
property inspections will result in an increase in the
assessed annual rental value and more efficient use
of the time and resources of the Land Valuation team.
Madam Chairman, the department is rapidly
shifting to this new way of doing business and will continue with its programme of targeted inspections
for the forthcoming fiscal year. Furthermore, the d epartment is placing less reliance on the completion
certificates issued by the Planning Department for
case generation and is moving more towards genera ting their own proactive casework as they continue to
leverage technology in maintaining the valuation list in
respect of property alterations.
Madam Chairman, the Land Valuation D epartment is using technology to create differentiating ways of doing business with the aim of increasing eff iciencies in processes and, additionally, revenue generation for government. This work model aligns with
the Ministry [of Public Works] new mot to: “Business as
usual just won’t do!”
Madam Chairman, providing a high level of
service to the Tax Commissioner and the Registrar of
the Supreme Court for stamp duty appraisals and
probate purposes will als o continue to be a priority of
the department for the upcoming fiscal year. The d epartment will continue to provide advice to the d epartment of Immigration and other government d epartments, such as the Estates Section of the D epartment of Public Lands and Buildings on property
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and appraisal matters as required and within agreed
service targets.
Madam Chairman, as I conclude my present ation of the Estimates of Expenditure and Revenues for the Department of Land Valuation, Head 49, I would like to draw your attention to a few, often overlooked
facts.
The department which currently has only seven members of staff has the second smallest current account expenditure in the entire government for fiscal
year 2017/18. For the upcoming fiscal year, the department will once again have one of the smallest cu rrent account expenditures, with a budget of less than
$800,000.
The assessed annual rental values in the valuation list for land tax revenue of $78,330,000, or 7.19 [per cent] of government’s estimated revenue for
the upcoming fiscal year. This revenue is calculated
on the assessments in the 2015 valuation list that are maintained by the department.
Madam Chairman, I am sure you will apprec iate the relatively low cost of the Land Valuation D epartment when compared to the significant revenue
generated by the maintenance of the valuation list and appraisal services it provides. However, much more can be achieved with adequate resources for this
small department.
Madam Chairman, Henry Ford, the founder of
the Ford Motor Company, is chronicled in the annals of history as revolutionising factory production and is
renowned as one of America’s leading businessmen
and industrialists. It was he [Henry Ford] who said:
“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress , and working together is success.”
Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity
to thank Ms. Diane Elliott, Director, and her Land Val-uation team for their steadfastness, tenacity, and pe rseverance. The department “came together” in 1967, it has “stayed together” for the last fifty[ -plus] years,
and despite the countless challenges faced, the Land
Valuation team continue to “work together.”
Thank you, Madam Chairman. I would now
like to move to Head 53, the Bermuda Housing Corp oration.

HEAD 53— BERMU DA HOUSING CORPORATION

Madam Chairman, as
you know, the Bermuda Housing Corporation, Head
53, is not a department within the Ministry of Public
Works, it is a Quasi -autonomous Non- government
Organisation, commonly referred to as a “quango,”
which receives financial support in the form of a grant from the Government. Therefore I will provide a high
level and succinct summary of their operation.
The mission statement of the Bermuda Hou sing Corporation is: “To provide accessibility to ad equate, affordable housing and promote independent
living to enhance the quality of life in Bermuda.” The vision statement of the Bermuda Housing
Corporation is: “Every Bermudian will reside in an a dequate and safe environment.”
Madam Ch airman, the Bermuda Housing
Corporation’s grant allocation for fiscal year 2018/19 is $6,050,000, which is no change from the current
year.
The Bermuda Housing Corporation’s Head
Office is located at the IAS Park Building, East Entrance, 44 Church Street, and presently consists of 41
personnel. Of that total, four H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck members operate from office space at the Harmony
Club and four staff members under the direction of the Support Services Department operate off -site at a
satellite office in th e Southside complex.
The current structure of BHC consists of seven departments;
1. Project Management —2 staff;
2. Property Operations —10 staff;
3. Finance, Collections, and Home Ownership
Services —8 staff;
4. Support Services —10 staff;
5. Administration —5 staff;
6. Human R esources —2 staff; and
7. H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck —4 staff.
Madam Chairman, the primary functions of
the Bermuda Housing Corporation are to provide
housing in Bermuda, to promote home ownership, to undertake and carry out housing schemes, and to undertake such other functions in connection with hou sing as the Minister responsible for housing may r equire. The Corporation continues to provide methods
for Bermudians to gain entry into the housing market, whether it is by way of becoming first -time home ow ners or renting affordable units that are available. The Corporation continues to strive to provide adequate, achievable, and affordable housing which will benefit
the residents of the islands of Bermuda.
The Bermuda Housing Corporation admini sters a number of programm es in pursuit of its mission
including:
• Managing and leasing a large inventory of
properties comprising houses, apartments,
and building blocks. Some of these properties
are owned by the Corporation and others are leased from their owners.
• The BHC manages 530 government and pr ivate sector residential units Island- wide, and 7
transitional homes comprising 182 rooms.
• The BHC also manages and controls the H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck Programme, acronym for
Helping the Unemployed Sustain Themselves
with Limited Employment, which has been in
successful operation since 2007.
The Rent Geared to Income [RGI] initiative
gives real relief to clients by assisting them with re-quested payment of only 25 per cent of their co mbined household income to be paid to the Corporation
as rent, regardless of employment status of family
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members. Part of this programme includes an add itional mandatory 10 per cent savings portion of the
monthly household income to guide clients into pos itive saving habits.
Madam Chairman, the BHC continues to o perate seven rooming or transitional houses that co ntain a total of approximately 200 beds. The various houses are located throughout the Island and provide a safe habitat for BHC clients. The rooming houses
cater to households that need immediate, safe, or
emergency accommodation.
Madam Chairman, in concluding my brief
summary I would like to thank the Board of Directors and the management and staff of the Bermuda Housing Corporation for their continued commitment to
provide housing options for Bermudi ans.
Madam Chairman, I would now like to turn to
Head 81, Public Lands and Buildings.

HEAD 81—PUBLIC LANDS AND BUILDINGS

Madam Chairman, it is
the responsibility of the Department of Public Lands
and Buildings to: “Efficiently manage the Government
property portfolio to enable the delivery of effective public services.”
The Department of Public Lands and Buil dings is responsible for managing the government e state of over 2,000 acres and some 751 buildings. The
land and building uses are diverse and range from
arable lands to a zoo with all manner of land and
building use in between. The department provides a
critical support role to ministries and departments to ensure that their real estate needs are met in order for
them to provide services to the public. Without the real
estate there are no public services.
Madam Chair man, I will highlight throughout
my presentation the four programmes or sections within the department as well as the plans for the u pcoming fiscal year that are designed to meet that r esponsibility.
Madam Chairman, on page B -224 you will
note that there are four main programmes for the Department of Public Lands and Buildings and are as follows:
1. Administration —8100;
2. Buildings —8101;
3. Estates —8102;
4. Land Surveys —8103.
Madam Chairman, the total budget allocated
to the Department of Public Lands and Buildings is
$19,507,000 for fiscal year 2018/19, as compared with
$19,641,000 for expiring fiscal year. This represents a decrease of $134,000. This decrease reflects the
Governments drive to increase efficiencies whilst r educing costs.
Madam Chairman, the total number of staff or
FTEs for the department remains at 155 for budget
year 2018/19. The Estates Section is responsible for the
management of the government estate, the Buildings Section is responsible for its maintenance and repair,
and the Land Surveys Section is responsible for mapping and cadastral surveys. The fourth programme is Administration, Training, and Apprentices Programme
which comprises mainly the director of the department
and the trainees and apprentices.
Madam Chairman, the budget for those programmes are as follows:
• Administration, 8100, $406,000;
• Buildings, 8101, $8,834,000;
• Estates, 8102, $9,978,000;
• Land Surveys Management, 8103, $289,000.
This compares with budget for the same pr ogrammes for fiscal year 2017/18/ of:
• Administration, 8100, $604,000;
• Buildings, 8101, $9.1 million;
• Estates, 8102, $9.5 million;
• Land Surveys Management, 8103, $288,000.
The reason for these changes included some
of the apprentices in 8100 graduating and moving into
substantive posts in 8101. The reduction in the 8101
Buildings programme was required to make savings across the board including the 2.5 per cent salary i ncrease and this was done by reducing the budget for overtime, so that only emergency call -out is budgeted
for.
The increase in the Estates programme of
8102 is owing to frozen posts being unfrozen to allow recruitment and specifically three additional building
surveyors who will assist with condition surveys and
planned maintenance to reduce the risk of building failure and interruption in services. This is particularly
important owing to the age of our buildings. In addition to the increase in salaries, there has been an increase budget of $100,000 for electricity costs.

Administration, Training and Apprentices

Madam Chairman,
Programme 8100 [Administration Training and A pprentices] has a total budget of $406,000. This pr ogramme is split between two cost centres, namely:
• Administration, 91000, $158,000; and
• Training and Apprenticeship, 91001,
$248,000.
The Admin istration programme’s objective is
“to provide administrative support for the Estates and
Buildings sections” and it has a budget of $406,000,
split into two cost centres. When compared with the $604,000 allocation during fiscal year 2017/18, this
budgeted amount represents a decrease of $198,000,
or 32 per cent.
Madam Chairman, the Administration cost
centre 91000 has a specific budget allocation of
$158,000 for this fiscal year, as compared to the $170,000 for fiscal year 2017/18. This represents a
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1174 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

decrease of $12,000, 7 per cent. These savings were
made in office supplies.
Madam Chairman, the Building Section, 8101,
has a total budget of $8,834,000. The Buildings pr ogramme is split between two cost centres, namely: 91002, Services Management at $1,125,000; and
91003, Maintenance at $7,709,000.
The Buildings programme as seen on page B -
224, has a mandate “to effectively manage the
maintenance, repair, and minor renovation of all Go vernment buildings.” This programme has a total bud get of $8,834,000. When compared with the
$9,187,000 allocation during fiscal year 2017/18, this represents a decrease of $351,000, or 4 per cent.

Achievements 2017/2018

Madam Chairman, I
would [like] to highlight some of the achievements of
the Department of Public Lands and Buildings during
the 2017/18 financial year and the plans for the
2018/19 financial year.
Madam Chairman, the Buildings Section ca rried out a number of capital projects during the prev ious financial year in addition to the day to day
maintenance and repair tasks. The capital projects
included major works at the K. Margaret Carter Centre
including the construction of a new handicap ramp and extensive repairs with costs totalling $175,267.
Capital works at the St. George’s Community Centre
involved repairing cracks in walls and roof, and pain ting the exterior totalling $111,742.
Madam Chairman, this very House has received some attention in order to relocate the Senate
Chamber from the Cabinet Building. These works
have been completed and the space formerly used as the Court of Appeal has been refitted to accommodate
the Senate Chamber so that the Legislature are now
all housed under one roof.
Madam Chairman, while I am happy to report
the success of the relocation, I must also advise that the refurbishment to this House is far from over. This aged facility, like many other buildings in Bermuda, is
long overdue for refurbishment. To address this, one
ongoing project involves the replacement of most of the windows in the building, at a cost of $682,617.
The Buildings team has engaged the services of a
local company to supply the windows, keeping in mind the significance of the historic elements and features
of the building. Other projects scheduled include the
remodelling of the House Library to accommodate a
new office for the Opposition and a new bathroom for
the visiting public.
Madam Chairman, I also note the renovation
of the Cabinet Building has been completed during this financial year. The building has been sealed and painted externally and new windows have [been] i nstalled. Internal remediation for asbestos and mould was all completed to the standards set by the Ministry of Health. The quality of the work is second to none, and I would like to thank the team for their dedicat ion
to this project.
Other completed projects include the refu rbishment of the Marine and Ports building located along East Broadway. These works began when a
serious structural issue was identified and our inhouse staff had to take immediate action.
[Also], the refurbishment of the old Maritime
Administration Headquarters on the third floor of Global House, which will house the expanded Ministry
of National Security, who are currently in temporary
accommodation on the ground floor of Global House. The total budget for this project is $450,000, including
furnishing, and will be completed before this financial
year ends.
Madam Chairman, during the off season the
Horseshoe Bay bathroom facilities received a much-needed makeover and health and safety improv ements. These works were completed by both in house
[teams] and private contractors.
In fiscal year 2017/18, capital funds were all ocated for works at Government House which requires a major refurbishment project. Some works were
completed to address immediate health and safety concerns and prevent any further deterioration of the
building. Works completed in this current fiscal year
included asbestos abatement, mould and lead paint remediation works, fire doors and smoke alarms and
detector installations totalling some $423,000.
Madam Chairman, over $2,500,000 has been
spent in 2017/18 on schools. The works were managed by teams from both the Ministry of Education and Public Works. The works included the interior and
exterior painting of St. George’s presch ool, East End
Primary, Prospect Primary, West Pembroke Primary,
and Heron Bay Primary. Contracts were also awarded
to companies to refinish the wooden floors in gymnasiums. Bathroom renovations were carried out at T. N. Tatem, Lyceum preschool, and Warwick preschool.
Roof repairs of some $137,000 were completed at Elliot Primary alone. In addition to these works, each school had a list of maintenance and repairs that were
tackled over the summer vacation to prepare the
schools for the new school year.

Plan s 2018/2019

Madam Chairman, for
2018/19 there are a number of planned capital works that will take place.
Two million dollars has been budgeted to
complete the refurbishment of this House. The works will include the upgrades to the electrical, plumbing
and HVAC, and the installation of new windows. There will also be some internal layout changes, as I mentioned earlier, and the exterior of the building will
be sealed. This project will be managed by the arch itects section.
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Madam Chairman, some $2,000,000 has
been budgeted for office relocations. Funds will be
used to relocate the Parks Department Headquarters
in the Botanical Gardens. The Headquarters of the
Parks Department was within a former residential unit that no longer meets the operational requirements of
the department. It had also reached a point where it
required major capital works to maintain operations within the building. The department is currently temp orarily housed in Global House whilst a redevelopment of the Visitors Centre is completed in 2018/19 to pr ovide a new Parks Headquarters.
Madam Chairman, once the Parks Depar tment have vacated the ground floor of Global House
the space will be refurbished to bring in departments
currently renting space in the private sector.
Madam Chairman, the schools will continue to
be a high priority with major works being currently planned for the Easter and summer breaks. Some $3,000,000 have been budgeted for these works.
Schools to be painted included Dellwood, Harringto n
Sound, Gilbert Institute, and T. N. Tatem. Major roof
works will take place at Port Royal and Dellwood
schools. A new air conditioning system will be pr ocured and installed at Clearwater Middle School to
replace the existing system that has reached the end
of its natural life.
Madam Chairman, in addition to these works,
the scope of works at each school is being developed between the facilities team at Education and the Mi nistry of Public Works. A comprehensive list of works for the holidays is being developed from three
sources. A Health and Safety Officer has inspected each school and provided a list of works to be completed. Facilities management teams have inspected
and are compiling lists of works as well. A tender has been placed for private companie s to conduct condition surveys of each school within the system. These surveys will provide a benchmark for the current co ndition of the schools and identify and prioritise short -,
medium - and long- term works together with costs. In
addition, each school will complete a suitability a ssessment to assist in a long- term plan for schools.
Madam Chairman, the condition surveys will
not stop at schools, but will be rolled out to key gov-ernment buildings to minimise the risk of building fai lures and government service interruptions. To support this focus on planned preventative maintenance, three Estates Officer posts have been converted to building
surveyors. These posts will assist with the inspection
of properties and the creation of a schedule of conditions, and budgeting and planning of remedial and
preventative maintenance work. One post has been filled and interviews are currently underway to fill the
other two posts.

Estates Section

Madam Chairman,
programme 8102, Estates, has a total budget of
$9,978,000. The Estates programme is split between
[two] cost centres, namely: 91004, Property Asset
Management, $4,131,000; and 91005, Insurance, $5,847,000.
The mandate of the Estates programme is to
effectively manage the government estate, to provide insurance cover on all government buildings, and to
facilitate and secure office and residential accomm odation for government departments as needed.
The Estates Section provides property and
land related management service to all government
ministries and departments. This service includes i nsurance, acquisition, letting, rental, and disposal of land and property across the Island. The section is the custodian of the foreshore and seabed and is responsible for licences and leasing of sam e.
Madam Chairman, the Property Asset Management, cost centre 91004, together with the Insur-ance, cost centre 91005, have a total allocation of
$9,978,000 for fiscal year 2018/19, as compared with $9,562,000 for fiscal 2017/18, as seen on page B -224.
This represents an increase of $415,000, or 4 per
cent.
Madam Chairman, Property Asset Manag ement, cost centre 91004 has a total allocation of $4,131,000 for the upcoming fiscal year. When co mpared to the $3,676,000 for the expiring year, this
budgeted amount represents an increase of $455,000,
or 11 per cent. The reason for the increase is due to staffing, electricity, and air quality testing.

91005—Insurance

The budget for Insurance is $5,847,000, and this is decreased by $39, 000.
The decrease is largely due to recharging the insu rance premium to the quangos and other entities that are on the government insurance policy.
Madam Chairman, the core objective for asset
management of the government’s property resources is to support the more effective delivery of public services to the community. Property is a frontline r esource and can make a difference between good ser-vice and poor service delivery. A key priority for the
department is reducing expenditure on rents paid to
the private sector for office accommodation, together with savings by the more efficient use of space in
government -owned accommodation. The budget estimate for rental accommodation across all depar tments has been reduced for fiscal year 2018/19 to
$8,971,000 from $9,074,000, a nominal savings of
$103,000 from the 2017[/18] financial year. This has
been achieved by both changes in accommodation
and market conditions and it is hoped to continue this trend.
Madam Chairman, to rationalise use of office
space, the department has reviewed the space standBermuda House of Assembly
1176 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

ards for government accommodation. The traditional
office layout with workstation cubicles in a central area with perimeter private offices for managers is now
considered outdated and inefficient. A more efficient
modern style with a flexible and agile working env ironment with shared meeting rooms and common f acilities can achieve space savings in the region of 25 per cent to 30 per cent. This will be the standard
for all moves to new office accommodation. The working prac tices of each department will be reviewed with
the objective of providing more efficient accommoda-tion and ultimately less costly public services whilst
maintaining or improving service levels.
The department is converting the Estates O ffices in the Government Administration Building into a new model office using the new space standards and furnishings and finishes. This work will begin before
the end of this financial year. The department will lead
by example.
Madam Chairman, with the objective of i mproving management and communication, the d epartment will be entering into “Occupancy Agree-ments” with all departments occupying government
accommodation. These agreements will clearly define
occupancy responsibilities and budget liability be-tween the Department of Public Lands and Buildings
and the occupying department. It is important that o ccupying departments are aware of the facility’s costs for providing their services. They will be required to
work in partnership with the Department of Lands and
Buildings on these agreements and ensure value for
money from their premises.
Madam Chairman, the department will conti nue to look at opportunities to rationalise and share
property resources across the government. If property
resources are deemed to be surplus to current and future requirements, then they will be considered for
disposal. Sales of surplus properties either by sale of
freehold or long full repairing lease will generate rev enue and also reduce maintenance costs and provide
economic opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Madam Chairman, accurate and up- to-date i nformation is the basis for informed decisions and helps identify opportunities to improve performance.
To this end, Public Lands and Buildings is using a new comprehensive web -based Public Sector Prope rty Asset Management System, called “Concerto.” The system is now the working platform for the gover nment’s property -related management processes, i ncluding land and building records, leasing, the tracking of reactive and planned maintenance, and the Capit al
Works programmes.
Concerto allows for a standard format of condition surveys to be carried out which will be the basis
of setting buildings on five- year planned maintenance
cycles, which I spoke to earlier, with the schools being
the first properties to be addressed.
Land Survey Management

Madam Chairman, I
now move to programme 8103, Land Surveys, with cost centre 91007, on page B -224.
This programme has a budget allocation of
$289,000, with three employees or full -time employees for fiscal year 2018/19 as compared to a 2017/18 budget of $288,000, again, with three full -time e mployees. This represents a minimal increase of $1,000, or 8 per cent. This is attributable to a pay
grade increase for one employee and an increas e in
software licence fees.
This section provides traditional and specialised land surveying expertise and guidance for the
Bermuda Government. For example, they establish, maintain, and update a National Control Monument
Network across Bermuda, ensuring that private land
survey companies have a standardised and intern ationally compatible coordinate system to utilise. They
also perform and advise on hydrographic surveying
and survey projects pertaining to the Global Position-ing System which includes modelling the gravity field
under Bermuda.
Madam Chairman, there are daily many small
projects undertaken and completed by the depar tment. Many go unnoticed by the public and are ca rried out with little or no disruption to government services. Irrespective of size or scope, great emphasis is
placed on ensuring that the work is carried out to the
highest possible standards by the staff who take great
pride in their work.
Madam Chairman, as I conclude the Budget
Brief for Head 81, the Department of Public Lands and
Buildings, it is important to note that charismatic leadership alone does not get the job done. It is the hard work, professionalism, and dedication of the staff. I
am known to be fair and praise staff when they do well
and bring them back in line when they don’t. I would like to take this opportunity to recognise the staff at
Public Lands and Buildings, starting with their chief
surveyor, and thank them for their hard work over the year.
And now I will turn to Head 82, Mr. Chairman,
Department of Works a nd Engineering.
[Mr. N. H. Cole Simons, Chairman]

HEAD 82— DEPARTMENT OF WORKS
AND ENGINEERING

Mr. Chairman, the
mission of the Department of Works and Engineering
is: To ensure the effective and prudent management
of all o perations and engineering services relating to
the construction, erection, improvement, maintenance, and repairs of government infrastructure.
The Department of Works and Engineering is
responsible for the provision of essential services to
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the Bermuda public and the maintenance of highly
visible major elements of the government infrastruc-ture which are extremely important to the way Berm uda functions as a civilized and modern society. The range of varied and unique activities covered by the department includes: garbage collection and disposal,
road maintenance and repairs, bridge maintenance,
government vehicle maintenance, as well as safe wa-ter extraction, treatment and distribution.
Services such as safe disposal of hazardous
substances, disposal of vehicles and construction m aterials, recycling, composting, the maintenance and repairs of the government’s infrastructure, which i ncludes roads, bridges, docks, and street lighting, are
also carried out by this department. The professionalism and commitment that the staff and workforce has demonstrated throughout the year needs to be applauded and I would like to take a moment to reco gnise the men and women of the Department of Works
and Engineering.
Mr. Chairman, there are seven operational
sections of the department: Highways, Structures,
Electrical/Mechanical, Solid Waste, W ater/Wastewater, Tynes Bay Waste -to-Energy Facility,
and the Quarry Facility, all of them are critical to the effective operation and maintenance of the gover nment’s infrastructure. It is within this framework that I present the Department of Works and Engineering’s Budget Brief for fiscal year 2018/19.
The seven programme areas, each with a
number of sub- programmes or cost centres, as shown
on pages B -228 and B -229 are namely:
1. Programme 8200, Administration;
2. Programme 8201, Engineering;
3. Programme 8202, Highways;
4. Programme 8203, Waste Management;
5. Programme 8204, Quarry Transport;
6. Programme 8205, Quarry Products; and
7. Programme 8206, Water and Sewage.

2018/2019 Operational Budget

Mr. Chairman, the e stimated budget for the Department of Works and E ngineering for the 2018/19 fiscal year is $30,588,000, which represents a decrease of $1,691,000, or 5.2 per
cent from the 2017/18 original budget level. This siz able decrease represents budget reductions in several
sections: including the Electrical/Mechanical Section, Highways and Waste Management, the details of
which will be forthcoming in the section updates to
come.
Programme 8200, Administration (page B -
228) provides for the salaried senior management team of the department. In the past this included the
chief engineer, assistant chief engineer, and an a dministrative assistant. The mandate of the senior
management team is the efficient management of the
seven sec tions of the Ministry, including: • Highways;
• Structures;
• Electrical/Mechanical;
• Solid Waste;
• Water and Sewage;
• Tynes Bay Waste- to-Energy Facility; and
• Quarry Operations.
Mr. Chairman, $237,000 budget has been allocated for fiscal year 2018/19 and this represents a decrease of $11,000, when compared to the 2017/18
original budget allocation. This is due to a small reduction in the overseas training budget attached to
this cost centre.
Referring to the performance measure under
business unit 92000, Administration (page B -231) for
fiscal 2017/18 the total Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) accident frequency rate
for the department is currently 3.5. This is comparable to last year’s score of 3.1 and meets the desired outcome of five or less. The average number of training
days per managerial staff member is forecast to be only three, as opposed to the targeted five. This is due
to the large number of vacancies within the senior
ranks of the department.
Mr. Chairman, the full -time equivalents for the
cost centre 92000 (page B -231), Administration is
one. This is no change from the revised 2017/18
budget.
Programme 8201, Engineering (page B -228).
Mr. Chairman, the mandate of the Engineering Ser-vices programme is to provide quality electrical, m echanical, and structural engineering services. A budget of $1,665,000 has been allocated for this pr ogramme. This represents a decrease of $430,000, or 20 per cent, as compared to the 2017/18 original budget. This programme includes cost centres 92001,
Electrical and Mechanical Management; cost centre
92002, Electrical Support; and cost centre 92003,
Structures. The reduction was primarily in the Electr ical Support cost centre.
The Electrical/Mechanical Management and
Electrical Support (92001 and 92002) manage the
provision of planning, design, construction, install ation, and maintenance services for electrical and m echanical systems associated with the government's
facilities. This includes areas such as electrical power
distribution, lighting, fire protection, security, teleco mmunications, heating, ventilation and air -conditioning,
as well as energy conservation, and acting as go vernment's functional authority in these matters.
Cost centre 92001, Electrical and Mechanical
Management, is estimated at $537,000, representing a decrease of $10,000 from the original 2017/18
budget. This section provides support on electrical
and mechanical issues to other sections and depar tments throughout government.
Referring to the performance measure (page
B-231) for co st centre 92001, the percentage of hours
billed to projects for other government departments is
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1178 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

forecasted to be 15 per cent for fiscal 2017/18. The
performance target for 2018/19 is an identical 15 per cent and should be achieved with the additional staff
member.
The full -time equivalent for the cost centre
92001 is six. This is three less than the revised est imate for the fiscal year of 2017/18 and represents a proposed organisational change that will add two co ntrols technicians and one electrical super intendent
post to the section, by reclassifying existing posts and abolishing one to create a net zero change in cost to
government for the additions.
Mr. Chairman, cost centre 92002, Electrical
Support is mainly used to provide the budget for street lights. Cost centre 92002, Electrical Support has been
reduced by $412,000 to an allocated amount of
$504,000. This further significant decrease represents
the cost savings achieved by the LED lighting project
which is phasing out the use of high -pressure sodi um
lighting to utilise far more energy efficient LEDs to i lluminate Bermuda’s roads. Further reduction is antici-pated as the street lights across the Island continue to be replaced.
Mr. Chairman, referring to the performance
measure (page B -231) for cost centre 92002, Electr ical Support, the number of new street lights to be i nstalled in fiscal 2017/18 is forecast to be 20. The pe rformance measure for the average number of street-lights out of service remains at 4 per cent, which is
under the desired target of less than 5 per cent per
year. The full -time equivalents for the cost centre
92002, Electrical Support are zero, as all personnel in the electrical section are now coded under cost centre 92001, Electrical and Mechanical Management.
The Structural En gineering Services (92003)
manage the provision of structural inspections, d esign, construction, maintenance, project and contract
management services, as well as acting as the go vernment’s functional authority on structural and rela ted civil engineering m atters.
The budget for this cost centre is $624,000,
which represents a decrease of $8,000 against the
original 2017/18 budget. The Structures team has
continued to operate throughout fiscal 2017/18 with
limited human resources as there is currently only one professional engineer in the section where, in the
past, there have been up to seven. The Ministry will
hopefully soon welcome a new principal structural en-gineer within the coming months. In the meantime,
work is being progressed through the use of a l ocal
structural engineering firm that was hired through a competitive open tender.
Mr. Chairman, with regard to the performance
measures within business unit 92003, 6 inspections have been carried out on bridges and 14 on docks
during the year to date. The full -time equivalents for
the cost centre 92003, Structures are 6, representing
no change from fiscal 2017/18. Programme 8202, Highways. The mandate of
the Highways programme is to develop and maintain
the public road infrastructure to ensure the safe pa ssage of motorists and pedestrians. This entails all work associated with the planning, design, and con-struction of road schemes and includes activities such
as resurfacing, drainage, signage, road markings, r etaining walls, and bus shelters. They are also mandated:
• to provide technical advice to other Government ministries and agencies on highway -
related matters;
• to manage the improvement of public roads;
• to assist citizens with their private road i mprovement needs under the Private Roads (Improvement) Act; and
• to act as the government functional authority on highways engineering- related matters.
Mr. Chairman, a $3,856,000 budget has been
allocated to this programme. This programme has
decreased by $452,000, as compared to the 2017/18
original budget.
Cost centre 92004, Management, has a
budget of $561,000, which represents a decrease of $14,000, compared to original 2017/18 budget.
The performance measure for cost centre
92004, Highways Management, indicates that the forecast amount of communications r eceived by the
team from members of the public during fiscal 2017/18 is an incredible 1500, and the forecast for 2018/19 is the same. To better service the public in
this regard, the Highways Section has developed a
management system for its roads infrastructure that will record and triage complaints. The full -time equiv alents for the cost centre 92004, Highways Manag ement, are nine.
Cost centre 92005 Road Asphalt and Signs,
budget is $777,000, which represents a decrease of $307,000.
Mr. Chairman, the performance measure for
business unit 92005, Asphalt and Signs, shows that the amount of road centre line marked out during fi scal 2017/18 is likely to reach 22 km, however the target expectation for 2018/19 is 31 km.
The forecast for the road resurfacing is 10 km,
which is in line with projections, and the full -time
equivalents for the cost centre 92005, Asphalt and
Signs, is 17, the same as in fiscal 2017/18.
The budget for cost centre 92006, Public
Roads Maintenance, is $813,000, which represents a decrease of $18,000, when compared to the original
2017/18 budget. This unit is responsible for the
maintenance of retaining walls, sidewalks and other masonry works, as well as the highways drainage sy stems. For 2018/19, the department will focus on the mainte nance of boreholes to mitigate the effects of
flooding experienced during heavy rainfall.
Mr. Chairman, the performance measure for
cost centre 92006, Public Roads Maintenance, shows
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four new bus shelters were erected during fiscal
2017/18, two more than planned. Also 500 feet of new sidewalks is expected to have been completed, which
was above the estimate of 300 feet. The full -time
equivalents for the cost centre 92006, Road Maint enance, are 25.
The budget for cost centre 92007, Public
Road Cleaning, is $1,705,000. This represents a d ecrease of $113,000 over the previous budget year.
Mr. Chairman, the performance measure for
business unit 92007, Public Road Cleaning, indicates that the target for fiscal 2017/18 was some 11,000 km
of public road cleaned by mechanical means. This
was in line with estimates. There were also 20 eme rgency call -outs for fiscal 2017/18, again in line with
estimates. The full -time equivalents for the cost centre
92007, Public Road Cleaning, are 25.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for co st centre
92008, Private Roads, remains unfunded due to
budget constraints. The Ministry was therefore, unfortunately, unable to progress any works under this in itiative for fiscal 2017/18. The performance measure
for cost centre 92008, Private Roads, indicated that
the number of private roads on the waiting list for i mprovement under the Private Roads (Improvement)
Act (1969) is 37, same as the previous year.
Programme 8203, Waste Management, as
found on page B -228. Mr. Chairman, the mandate of
the Waste Management programme is to arrange for
the collection and safe disposal of Bermuda’s solid
wastes. The aim of the Waste Management Section is
to serve the people of Bermuda by providing a co mprehensive waste management programme, utilising
the best technologies for disposal, recovery of materials and energy resources, protecting public health and
safeguarding the environment. This includes:
• education regarding waste reduction, reuse, and recycling;
• waste recycling;
• waste collection;
• composting;
• land creatio n;
• high temperature mass burn incineration with energy recovery (waste to energy);
• special and hazardous waste disposal;
• the management and maintenance of the Tynes Bay Waste- to-Energy Facility in a reli able, safe, and cost -effective manner; and
• acting as the government functional authority
on all matters relating to solid waste, env ironmental engineering, waste- to-energy and
process engineering.
A budget of $18,202,000 has been allocated
to this programme for fiscal 2018/19. This represents
a decrease of $567,000 as compared to the 2017/18
budget. This decrease is accounted for by lower ele ctricity costs at Tynes Bay due to the installation of the
new turbine. (The old turbine will be used as a backup
to avoid electricity purchase during maintenance times.) And also a reduction in overtime for the colle ctions section that will result from the hire of additional staff.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for cost centre
92009, Management, Education, and Enforcement is $327,000, which represents a decrease of $37,000.
The performance measure for 92009, Solid Waste
Management, was forecasted in fiscal 2017/18 to have carried out 45 educational lectures during the
year. These include both schools and corporate ent ities and target such aspects as waste reduction at source. This helps to keep Bermuda in line with global
trends.
The Solid Waste Section is also forecasted to
place 1000 advertisements for 2018/19. All prom otional activities such as radio advertisements, interviews, and print advertisements are targeted specif ically for waste -related events. The full -time equiv alents for the cost centre 92009, Solid Waste Manage-ment, are three.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for cost centre
92011, Recycling, is $1,290,000, which is a decrease of $2,000, when compared to original fiscal 2017/18.
The performance measure for 92011, Rec ycling, indicates that the amount of recycling materials collected per month for fiscal 2017/18 is projected to
be 60 tons and the amount of e- waste picked up in the
year also 60 tons, in line with estimates. Compared to estimates, recyclables were down by 25 per cent but
e-waste up by 100 per cent. The targeted outcomes
for 2018/19 are 80 tons for recyclables and 60 tons for
e-waste. The full -time equivalents for the Recycling
plant are five, the same as fiscal year 2017/18.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for cost centre
92012, Airport Disposal Facility is $1,296,000, which
is a d ecrease of $48,000 from last year’s original
budget. The performance measure for 92012, Airport
Disposal Facility, shows that it is forecasted that
20,000 loads of materials will be delivered to the Ai rport Disposal Facility and the number of cars
scrapped will be around 1,600 during fiscal 2017/18,
on par with estimates.
The full -time equivalents for the cost centre
92012, Airport Disposal Facility are six; no change
from 2016/17.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for cost centre
92013, Composting Operations, is $1,804,000, which represents a decrease of $156,000 when compared to the original fiscal 2017/18. The full -time equivalents
for the Compositing Operations are 10.
Cost centre 92014, Special and Hazardous
Waste, has a budget of $1,397,000, which represents a decrease of $83,000. The performance measure for
cost centre forecasts that for fiscal 2017/18, sixty 20foot containers will be exported overseas for pr ocessing. The full -time equivalents for the Hazardous
Waste section are six; this is the same as the e stimate
for the expiring fiscal year.
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1180 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

Mr. Chairman, the budget for cost centre
92029, Collections, is $4,419,000, which has decreased by $105,000 when compared to the original
fiscal 2017/18. This is an essential service to ensure
that garbage is collected in a timely manner to protect the health and safety of Bermuda residents. The d ecrease is anticipated through reduced overtime throughout the year by the hiring of additional staff.
The performance measure for cost centre
92029 indicates that on average 425 tons of domestic waste continues to be collected during the week. The
section has had many challenges during fiscal
2017/18 primarily due to a combination of aged equipment and low staffing numbers. The Ministry has
plans to improve service delivery by tackling both of
these issues.
The full -time equivalents for the cost centre
92029, Collections, are 59. It should be noted that currently only 44 of these required positions are filled. This illustrates some of the challenges we are having
with waste collections.
Mr. Chairman, the Tynes Bay Waste- toEnergy Facility provides refuse disposal and renew able energy for the country. It is anticipated during fi scal 2017/18 that there will be 12 tours of the facility as
indicated in the performance measure for 92016,
Tynes Bay Administration, (page B -232). These tours
are typically taken up by schools both local and ove rseas universities. The facility is also forecasting that there will be no complaints from the members of the
public from the public drop -off facility, and the number
of employed power engineers has decreased to 16 from 19 last year. This was due to plant engineers leaving government for better opportunities both ove rseas and locally, and highlights the challenges faced by government to retain highly trained talent in what is becoming an increasingly competitive field.
The budget for cost centre 92016, Tynes Bay
Administration, is $542,000 and represents an i ncrease of $12,000 from the previous year. The full -
time equivalents for the Tynes Bay Administration Section are five. This is the same as fiscal 2017/18.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for cost centre
92017, Tynes Bay Operations, is $4,734,000, repre-senting a decrease of $204,000 [from original fiscal 2017/18]. The performance measure for 92017, T ynes
Bay Operations, anticipates that 63,000 tons worth of solid waste will be treated at the Tynes Bay Waste -toEnergy Facility during fiscal 2017/18. This is an i ncrease of 5,000 tons from the original forecast.
The amount of electricity generated and sold
to BELCO is forecasted to be 39,000 kilowatt -hours in
2017/18, closely in line with estimates, and the output for 2018/19 with the newly installed turbine is 42,000
kilowatt -hours.
The revised forecast for the amount of ash
concrete the facility produces is 4,500 cubic yards. This is below estimates due to the deteriorating condition of the cement trucks. However, the Ministry is pleased to report that in January this year the section received three new cement trucks to remedy this problem. The trucks are also larger to provide better
efficiency for the process. The full -time equivalents for
Tynes Bay Operations are 31. This is the same as for fiscal 2017/18.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for cost centre
92018, Tynes Bay Maintenance, is $2,326,000, a d ecrease of $11,000 from the original fiscal 2017/18.
The performance measure for cost centre
92018, Tynes Bay Maintenance, indicates that the
availability of stream one, stream two, and the turbine
is forecast to be 85 per cent, 85 per cent, and 95 per
cent, res pectively, for fiscal 2017/18, with all three
performance measures being increased by 5 per cent in 2018/19. The full -time equivalents for Tynes Bay
Maintenance remain the same at 16.
Programme 8204, Quarry Transport, and
8205, Quarry Products (page B -226). Mr. Chairman,
the mandate of the two Quarry programmes is, collectively, to manage the fleet and equipment leasing,
mechanical maintenance, quarry operations; and to act as the government functional authority on all matters related to fleet management, vehicle, and other
mechanical engineering and maintenance activities.
Programme 8204, Quarry Transport, is all ocated a budget of $2,478,000 for 2018/19, represent-ing a decrease of $268,000, as compared to the orig inal 2017/18 budget.
The budget for cost centre 92019, Quarry
Administration, is $586,000, representing a decrease
of $30,000 from the original fiscal 2017/18. The full -
time equivalents for the Quarry Administration remain
at two.
The budget for cost centre 92020, Quarry V ehicles and Equipment Operation, is $2,762,000, which has increased by $5,000 from the original 2017/18.
The performance measure for cost centre 92020,
Quarry Vehicle and Equipment Operation, forecasts that in fiscal 2017/18, 5 per cent of the Government
fleet remains out of operation. The full -time equiv alents for the cost centre 92020, Quarry Vehicle
Equipment Operation, are 32.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for cost centre
92021, Quarry Vehicles and Equipment Maintenance, is $4,630,000, which is a decrease of $243,000.
The operation and maintenance of the Government vehicle and equipment continues to be ham-pered by outdated facilities and an aged fleet. I am
happy to report that a large investment is being made
to purchase needed equipment to both increase the
reliability of the fleet and decrease the amount of
breakdown work now being performed by this unit, which is both inefficient and costly. Action is also being taken on a new maintenance facility in this next
fiscal year.
The performance measure for cost centre
92021, Quarry Vehicle and Equipment Maintenance, indicates that it currently takes on average four hours
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to carry out a full service on a government vehicle,
which is an improvement over last year. This includes all types of vehicles and construction equipment.
The full -time equivalents for the cost centre
92021, Quarry Vehicle Equipment Maintenance, are 49. This is two more than the estimate for fiscal
2017/18 and represents a return to full complement
following the unfreezing of two posts that were prev iously frozen for early retirement.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for cost centre
92034, Quarry Receipts, (an internal recharge budget
with a negative value) is set for $5,500,000 and is the
same as for fiscal 2017/18.
Mr. Chairman, a $2,168,000 budget and a
$3,140,000 rechargeable budget for quarry products have been allocated to programme 8205.
The performance measure for cost centre
92023, Asphalt Plant, shows that unplanned downtime on the plant was 90 hours. This is an improvement over last year; however, only 80,000 [sic] tons out of a
projected 15,000 of asphalt . . . okay, let me correct
that . . . 8,000 tons out of a projected 15,000 tons of
asphalt is anticipated for fiscal 2017/18. The full -time
equivalents for the Asphalt Plant remain unchanged at seven.
Mr. Chairman, the mandate of the Water and
Sewage programme, programme 8206, found on page B -229) is:
• to provide planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the Government
water extraction, treatment, and distribution systems, and the wastewater collection and
distribution systems;
• to produce potable water on a cost recovery
basis to meet demand;
• to provide septage receiving facilities for private sanitation truckers and for limited public
facilities; and
• to act as the Government functional authority on all matters related to water and wastewater
engineering.
Mr. Chairman, a $5,122,000 budget has been
allocated to this programme and represents an i ncrease of $53,000 as compared to the original
2017/18 budget.
The budget for cost centre 92025, Water and
Sewage Administration, is $1,025,000, which repr esents an increase of $32,000 as compared to the ori ginal 2017/18 budget.
The performance measure for cost centre
92025, Water Section Administration, (page B -233)
indicates that there are forecaste d to be 1,044 m etered customers for fiscal 2017/18, [which is] 16 above the estimate. The intentions for fiscal 2018/19
are to increase the number of metered customers to
1096.
The administration area within the section has
so far achieved 98 per cent res ponse within 24 hours
to enquiries by customers during fiscal 2017/18. Mr. Chairman, the full -time equivalents for the cost centre
92025, Water Section Administration, are five.
The budget for cost centre 92026, Water
Supply and Treatment, is $2,817,000, which is a d ecrease of $8,000. This budget ensures that there are sufficient funds allocated to pay for contractors who
supply supplementary bulk water, remote monitoring
and control systems support, and to pay for the ele ctricity charges associated with water treatments plants
within the infrastructure.
The performance measure for cost centre
92026, Water Supply and Treatment, (page B -233)
forecasts that 220 million gallons of potable water will
be produced during this fiscal 2017/18, and the for ecast for 2018/19 is 250 million gallons. The full -time
equivalents for the cost centre 92026, Water Supply and Treatment, are nine. This is one more than the
estimate for fiscal 2017/18 and is due to the moving of
a post from cost centre 92027 to 92026.
The budget for cost centre 92027, Water
Sewage and Distribution, is $844,000, which repr esents an increase of $7,000 to address an anticipated increase in mains breaks due to the age of the distr ibution network which is slowly being upgraded.
The performance measure for cost centre
92027, Water Storage and Distribution, is forecasting
for fiscal 2017/18 that the average lost service hours
due to a main’s break are 48 hours, which is in line with target. The number of mains repairs made for the
year was six.
The full -time equivalents for the cost centre
92027, Water Storage and Distribution, is seven. This
is one more than the estimate given for fiscal 2017/18 and again is due to the moving of the post to the pr eviously mentioned cost centre.
The budget for the cost c entre 92028, Sewage Collection, is $436,000 and has been increased
by $21,000.
The performance measure for cost centre
92028 gives the amount of time as a percentage that the Tynes Bay receiving facility is operational. For
2017/18 this figure was 96 per cent, which was a very good figure for the year. The performance measure
also tracks the number of blockages experienced in
sewer mains across the Island, and that number was 15, on par with estimates. The full -time equivalent for
the cost centre 92028, Water Sewage and Distribu-tion, is one. This is the same as fiscal 2017/18.
Mr. Chairman, total staffing levels within the
Department of Works and Engineering are shown on page B -230. Employee numbers estimates for the
2018/19 budget are 343.

Review of Major Capital Projects

I will now provide
Members of this Honourable House with a summary
of the status of the major capital projects being managed by the Department of Works and Engineering.
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1182 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

The overall 2018/19 Capital Expenditure Plan
for the Department of Works and Engineering is
$15,655,000. Details are found on pages C6 and C -7
of the Approved Estimates of Revenue and Expendi-ture 2018/19. This highlights the range and variety of activities that the Ministry is working on.
Swing Bridge Refurbishment , CEP cost centre
75096. The 2018/19 estimate for this cost centre is $1,500,000. This budget will be used to continue fe asibility and engineering design work to facilitate the construction of a new crossing. The feasibility study
has now been completed. Plans and specification will
be completed by the end of this year for the Swing Bridge and Longbird Bridge.
Road Works, CEP cost centre 75042. Est imate for this cost centre is $3,350,000. This budget comprises major maintenance work to the road ne twork, which includes road resurfacing, as well as road improvement schemes such as junction improv ements, road widening, and new sidewalks. We will
also improve safety at several crossings by adding
flashing beacons and create new crossing for targeted areas.
In 2018/19, in addition to the continued highway maintenance, we will thus focus on roads where road deterioration is critical like:
• Middle Road, Warwick;
• Cobbs Hill [Road], Warwick;
• Sound View Road, Sandys;
• Middle and South Road, Southampton;
• Serpentine Road, Pembroke;
• Tee Street, Devonshire;
• North Shore Road, Hamilton;
• St. David’s Road, St. George’s.
Water Projects, CEP cost centre 75044. Mr.
Chairman, this programme is for planned and unfor eseen small to medium water and sewage projects,
including a requirement every year to provide equi pment and general facility upgrading to meet ongoing treatment, environmental, and safety -related issues.
The 2018/19 estimate for this cost centre is $1,100,000. This budget will be used to compl ete
phase two of the septage facility upgrades at Tynes Bay, implement an advanced water metering infr astructure, and rehabilitate the Parish of St. George’s
potable water infrastructure, [as] well as provide new
membranes for the Tynes Bay Sea Water Rever se
Osmosis Plant.
Improvements in Street Lighting, CEP cost
centre 75046. Mr. Chairman, the estimate for this cost centre is $540,000. This budget is used to cover the
ongoing LED modernisation project currently being
delivered by BELCO. As mentioned previously, the project has already realised a long -term savings in the
form of energy reduction costs as well as providing better quality lighting for the major roads in Bermuda.
Bus Shelters, CEP cost centre 75048. Mr.
Chairman, the 2018/19 estimate for thi s cost centre is $50,000. This budget will be used to build at least two new traditional looking bus shelters.
Private Road Street Lighting, CEP cost centre
75051. The Estimate for this cost centre is $25,000. This budget will, as in previous years, be us ed to pr ovide extra lighting on private roads which can help
with the safety of an area.
St. George’s Sewage Plant, CEP cost centre
75061. The estimate for this cost centre is $165,000. This budget supports implementation of water and
wastewater servicing governance structure reco mmendations borne out of the Strategy for Sustainable Water and Wastewaters Servicing, St. George’s Par-ish. The majority of water and sewage infrastructure in
the Parish of St. George’s is in disrepair and obsolete.
Asbestos Disposal, CEP cost centre 75064.
Mr. Chairman, the 2018/19 estimate for this cost ce ntre is $400,000, which will be used to continue the
repacking of containers that have deteriorated too far at the government quarry, and also to ship adequately
packed materials to the United States for permanent
disposal. We have started the disposal process with a total of 30 sea containers of asbestos containing m aterial sent to a US landfill so far. It is estimated that the Ministry will ship a further 60 sea containers of t his
material during fiscal year 2018/19.
Structural Refurbishment of Bridges, CEP
cost centre 75116. Mr. Chairman, the 2018/19 est imate for this cost centre is $1,000,000. This budget
will be used to carry out repair work on Watford Bridge
as well as a survey of all bridges across the Island.
Refurbishment Ferry Docks and Public Lan dings, CEP cost centre 75117. The 2018/19 estimate for this cost centre is $2,000,000, which will be used
to carry out maintenance and development of several
docks around the Island. Some repairs at Kings Wharf and Ordinance Island Wharf will also be included.
Reconstruction of Retaining Walls, CEP cost
centre 75127. Mr. Chairman, the 2018/19 estimate for this budget is $400,000, which will be used to reconstruct many small wall s that are part of a repair list
that is maintained by the department. As many walls
as possible will be addressed each year as funding
allows.
Stabilise Road Side Rock Cuts (Structures),
CEP cost centre 75142. The 2018/19 estimate for this budget is $100, 000. The areas slated for stabilisation
are the Winton Hill Railway Trail and the Railway Trail
at Wellington Lane.
Foreshore Protection Work, CEP cost centre
75144. Mr. Chairman, this cost centre is used to carry
out repairs and for mitigating measures to the for eshore. The 2018/19 estimate for this budget is zero
dollars. No work is planned due to prioritisation of ot her works.
Causeway Refurbishment, CEP cost centre
75207. The 2017/18 estimate for the cost centre is
$250,000. This will enable the Ministry to carry out
further work to fix some important undermining under
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the structure. A complete assessment of the structure
will be carried out this year.
Tynes Bay Waste Treatment Expansion, CEP
cost centre 75210. Capital funding of $150,000 will be used to carry out a feasibility study of the plant’s f uture sustainability and determine whether a further
refurbishment is possible or if a third stream is now
eminently required.
Dangerous Walls and Rock Cuts (Highways),
CEP cost centre 75258. Mr. Chairman, the estimate
for this cost centre is $350,000 and it will be used to
carry out repairs to collapsed walls and rock cuts. The
department has spent a significant part of the fiscal year repairing walls that were damaged by storms or
as a result of poor construction or damaged by vehicle
accidents.
Quarry Refurbishment, CEP cost centre
75264. The 2018/19 estimate for this cost centre is $500,000 which will be used to carry out upgrades at the Quarry Depot, which has buildings that now r equire complete replac ement.
Pembroke Canal Upgrade, CEP cost centre
75293. Mr. Chairman, this programme is for the upgrade of the Pembroke Canal. The 2018/19 estimate
is $100,000.
Reverse Osmosis Plants Electrical Systems,
CEP cost centre 75294. Mr. Chairman, this pr ogramme has been created for the as- needed upgrade
of all the electrical control and remote monitoring sy stems in each of the water facilities. The 2018/19 est imate for this cost centre is $50,000.
Tynes Bay Capital Maintenance, CEP cost
centre 75308. The 2018/19 estimate for this cost ce ntre is $2,700,000 and will be used for the purchase
and installation of a new Ash handling crane and the
refurbishment of the administration building lights and HVAC system.
Morgan’s Point Works, CEP cost centre
75324. The estimat e for this cost centre is $25,000.
These funds will be used to address any further contamination discovered during the Morgan’s Point site
development and to progress, as much as possible, works that still exist on the government retained lands.
Solid Waste Capital Maintenance, CEP cost
centre 75043. Mr. Chairman, the 2018/19 estimate for this cost centre is $650,000, and will primarily be used
to replace ageing equipment and infrastructure at four
sites: Special Waste in Sally Port, recycling at the government quarry, composting at Marsh Folly, and
the land reclamation at the Airport Waste Management Facility.

Review of Major Capital Acquisitions

I would now like to
provide you with a summary of the status of the m ajor
acquisitions being managed by the Department of Works and Engineering, the details of which can be
found on pages C -12 and C -13. Quarry: Vehicles and Equipment, CEP cost
centre 76495. The vehicles and equipment to be r eplaced under the 2018/19 budget are those that have
surpassed their useful economic life and are in poor and/or dangerous condition. The focus for next year will be investment into the waste management fleet
with the purchase of an additional two new garbage
trucks and one skip truck. In addition, the budget will replace essential heavy equipment such as pay loa ders, pavers, and crane trucks that are essential to the Ministry’s road maintenance and cleaning services.
The 2018/19 estimate for this annual alloc ation is $3,802,000. This inj ection of new capital into
the government equipment fleet will result in better
service to the public in many areas, especially in
waste management, and highways where service has been suffering for years.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, that concludes my
present ation on the Department of Public Works. And
let me finally turn to the last department head of Land
Title Registration and Registration, Head 97.

HEAD 97— DEPARTMENT OF LAND TITLE
AND REGISTRATION

Mr. Chairman, the
Land Tit le and Registration and mission statement is:
To build a sustainable future for Bermuda by effectiv ely providing a service for ownership of land and facil itating property transactions.
And the department’s objective is to: To cr eate and maintain an electronic register of legal estates and interests in land so providing legal security for owners and third parties.
The Land Title and Registration Department
has two programmes, as seen on page B -234, they
being, 9701, Administ ration; and 9702, Land Title
Management.
The total current expenditure for the depar tment is estimated to be $1,297,000 and this repr esents an increase of $228,000, or 21 per cent higher than the original budget for 2017/18.
The cost centre for the Land Title Registry O ffice [LTRO] is, 107030, Land Title Management, and this has been allocated a total budget of $1,031,000, an increase of $225,000. The increase will cover e mploying additional staff.
Mr. Chairman, buying property can be quite
challenging, but you can be sure of a smooth sailing
when you follow due process. The simplicity and st ability of getting one of nature’s most important r esources right without hassle is priceless, and the only way you can protect your land from future adversity is to have a land title registration system in place. Gone
are the days when owners could be intimidated by people pressuring them to do something with their land. With proof of title to your land, you can be a ssured that it is safe, and you have the right to sa y
“No.”
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1184 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

The proof of title to land comes into play to
support a claim of ownership to land. Title registration
protects the property rights, and also facilitates any
transactions that might take place on the land. It also
qualifies the land to be used as collateral for a loan.
Mr. Chairman, title registration provides a
unique number for each parcel of land and the gov-ernment, in turn, confirms that the person named in the register has a guaranteed right to its ownership.
The land title registration system offers numerous
benefits which include: a significant component of land information for the government; it offers an av enue to assist in land use, such as in planning and development; it also creates a basis for land taxation
and stimulates investment.
For an individual it offers access to credit. It
creates an avenue for simpler land transactions, and future prospective buyers can be sure that the regi stered owner is the legal owner of the property.
Without an open and accessible land registry,
we would be left in the dark on key information needed to take a realistic view of our market and therefore tackle its inadequacies. The more people have access
to Land Registry data, will better inform their valuations and buying decisions, and in turn the fewer i nefficiencies in the system.
Mr. Chairman, when it comes to transparency,
accessibility and affordability , technical and online
services are revolutioni sing the way the entire prope rty sector interacts with itself and its stakeholders. I nnovators in the private sector are continuing to tran sform the land registry industry for the better through new services that utilise the land registry data. Be rmuda as a forward- thinking country intends to embrace technology and plans to be a part of the pr ocess in secur ing better protection and security for title
information.
The Land Title Registration Office has one
central administrative cost centre, 107000, Admi nistration. This program me’s objective is to provide
administrative support, and it has been allocated a budget of $266,000. This represents an increase of $3,000 from the original 2017/18 budget .

Revenue

Mr. Chairman, the d epartment’s workforce is expected to increase by three;
two additional land title officers and a finance admin-istration clerk. The original staff structure of the Land
Title Registry Office w as comprised of seven emplo yees. A huge amount of research was carried out prior
to the setting of this structure, and as a result the structure was deliberately streamlined to contain the minimum number of skilled staff to discharge the fun ction of the Land Title Registration Office . Since taking
over the deeds from the Registry General in 2017, the
department has been able to gauge the correct number of staff required to facilitate the transition from the deed based system to a land title registry system in a
manner which will reduce any disturbance to the re gistration process for our stakeholders.
Mr. Chairman, the need for good succession
planning has been recognised from the outset. The
Bermudianis ation of the team as a means of facilitating the sustainability of the department and building
organis ational capacity is a priority . Currently, Berm udians hold the land title mapping officer, the land title
officer and the land title administration positions . It is
intended as we go forward that we will continue to
offer training in other crucial areas.

Performance Measures

Business Unit 107030—Land Title Management

Mr. Chairman, t he
LTRO has been working hard to scan the paper deeds
dating from the year s 2000 to 2017 and over 11,659
deeds have been scanned thus far. This will not only
provide improved service to stakeholders but it will
also assist with streamlining sear ches for deeds and
allow the o ffice to eventually become a paperless office.

Plans for the Upcoming Year

The key projects for
2018/19 are as follows:
• For the LTRO to become operational and
commence registering private land.
• To commence amalgamating all land information such as judgment debts relating to property and deed information held at the
Registry General.
• To place all land information in one el ectronic
register as this will create a “ one-stop shop ”
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which will be open to the public and other
stakeholders.
Mr. Chairman, let me just add that originally
we had an April 1st go-live date. It is unlikely to be met
in order to ensure that we get it right rather than meet an unrealistic deadline
So, in closing, I would like to express my si ncere thanks, particularly to the Registrar and the staff
from the Department of L and Title Registration for
their hard work and continued dedication to this pr oject that will significantly help the people of Bermuda.
And before I close, Mr. Chairman, let me also
offer my thanks to the entire staff of the Ministry, in particular the retiring Permanent Secretary, Mr. Francis Richardson, for their commitment and support of
the Ministry and me in this current posting to the Mi nistry of Public Works.

[Desk thumping]

Thank you , Minister.
Do we have anyone else from the floor that
would like to speak to Heads 36, 49, 53, 81, 82 and 97, Public Works and Land Title Registry? The Chair recognises the Shadow Minister,
the Honourable Trevor Moniz.

Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, just
to show that we have not all been rendered into u nconsciousness over here by the reading there.
As I mentioned at the beginning it is unfort unate we did not get a copy of the brief, but the nu mbers that the Minister was reading out in one very i mportant and pivotal respect do not accord with what is
in the Budget Book. And he was, instead of . . . when
you arrive at the difference, the way you do it is it is
the difference between the estimate for 2018/19 and
the revised number for 2017/18. The numbers in his brief were taking the difference between the estimate
for 2018/19 and taking it from the original for 2017/18
instead of the revised. So of all his differences in his book were out of kilter. I just point that out for the re cord because in some cases that means negatives were positives and positives were negatives and in all cases the numbers were wrong, so . . .

Thank you, Honourable Member.
Your comments have been noted.
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: Thank you.
Let me start in a good way. I will start bac kwards and start with Land Title Registration, the last one that the Minister did, while that one is fresh in my
mind. This is obviously a . . . so this is on page B -
234 of the Budget Book, it is Head 97, Land Title Registration. And there were said some . . . it is interesting
that there are two programme numbers, I guess, 9701, which is Administration, and 9702, which is Land Title Management. That seems to be progres sing reasonably well.
Early on I was a bit disturbed that at the end,
before the last election, we seemed to have arrived at
a meeting of the minds between the Land Title Regi stry and the Bermuda Bar. And I am hoping that that was met. W hen we saw the last Bill come to Parli ament it seemed a little bit out of kilter, again. I am ho ping the outstanding issues can be peacefully resolved for the good of everyone.
There were a number of outstanding issues
that I mentioned before. There was obviously the question of conveyancing lawyers giving land title i ndemnities, you know, a title opinion and having insu rance for that . . . all of those issues had to be in place.
So I was very glad to have achieved during my tenure
as Attorney General that the Land Title Registry had
included in their electronic register all the things that
we needed, which included the Judgment Register at
the Registrar of the Supreme Court and the two regi stries from the Registrar General, in particular these
two—the Voluntary Conveyance Register and the
Mortgage Register. And I commend the Land Title
Registry for having done an enormous amount of work
to put that registry into a useful form where it can a ctually serve some use to the community.
Now the thing to be rememb ered, of course, is
that originally it was . . . you know, I do not argue the
idea of a land title registry. I think it is a good thing to
do. I do not argue with that. But for individuals who
own land it is going to be an additional expense, be-cause the first time you do it there is going to be an
expense. So for people doing it, they are going to
have to hire a lawyer. You have to get a lawyer’s title letter. And you are going to have to hire a surveyor.
And you are going to have to have the usual plans
and everything drawn. Particularly it is important to get
that first registration correct. After that it will become
much easier.
And I give kudos to the department. I think the
Minister said they have scanned the deeds from 2000 to 2017 which are some 11,000 deeds scanned for
the electronic register, which is very useful. So, you know, I think that will be of some use.
The Minister did say —which was no surprise
to anyone—that the date of 1
st of April was unlikely to
be met. That is the statement that I made at the time, I
believe, when it was said it would be put in force. But you have got to get it right. That is not a criticism, and
I applaud the Minister for coming up front today and
saying that that is the case.
Now the Premier took it upon himself to go
public and say that the Land Title Registry was going to use blockchain. Perhaps, when the Minister gets a
Bermuda House of Assembly
1186 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

chance to answer some questions he can tell us
something about blockchain with respect to the Land Title Registry. I do not claim to be an expert, but the
people I have asked have said, Well, if you’re going to
wait for blockchain you are going to wait three or four years. I do not know, but hopefully the Minister can
supply an answer to that.
Now dealing with . . . and I am going bac kwards here. I am dealing with Head 81, Public Lands
and Buildings . . . sorry, Head 82, Works and Engineering, [page] B -227. It starts out at B -227 and there
[it] speaks to the mission statement, to ensure the effective and proven management of all operations and engineering services. And this is, obviously, one of the
things that most people run up into. But it is what they
think of when they think of Public Works; they think of
Works and Engineering. And the Minister discussed a
variety of things there including, you know, there are
issues of water, there is sewage, there is trash colle ction, there is hazardous waste disposal, there is the
public water system, there is Tynes Bay. There are all
of these items. And there were a variety of issues.
I would like to start off . . . and perhaps I can
start off and just throw some questions out with r espect to asphalt. The Minister gave a number of fi gures for asphalt. They always try to do the number of
kilometres to be done. I know they have a thing there
for painting the signs on the roads, I think it was 92005.
One of the issues which I have always had a
bit of a complaint about is that when the government
hires a private contractor to do the roads, the private
contractor has to grade the road first. So he has to take it down to grade. He has to take the old asph alt
off before he puts the new asphalt on. Thus, when the new asphalt is finished it is the same level as the road was originally. Now when government does the roads
it tends to not bother doing that. It just comes along . .
. it may scrape the asphalt, but it lays asphalt on top. So you end up with a new level that is higher than the
old level. For example, you can see it on South Road
in Smith’s Parish —

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Point of order, Mr. Chai rman.

Thank you , Mr. Deputy Speaker.

Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: Mr. Chairman , I just invite the
Members to just ride along South Road by St. Patrick’s Church. You can see where the road has
reached the top of the pavement on the side. Each
time they do it, it comes up higher. And many other roads . . . you go around Bermuda and you will see
the same thing. In some places they do mill the road, but quite often they do not. And that is the issue, it is very spotty.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Point of order, Mr. Chai rman.
The Honourable Member is certainly mislea ding the House, because I think that stretch of road was done when he was Minister. So is that what he is
saying?

Thank you , sir.

Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: I have no idea what that
Member is talking about.
Mr. Chairman , the se are some of the que stions. The Minister is talking about the amount of road
that can be asphalted. Now one of the problems is the
asphalt plant quite often is down. When the govern-ment plant was bought there was great . . . it was du ring the PLP time, before the Member jumps up again. It was during the PLP. They bought a continuous plant and, of course, they were not able to do that. The
plant is constantly breaking down because it is designed to be running on a continuous basis; it is not a
batch plant. So the Minister, when he got up and
spoke, he spoke about the down time on the asphalt
plant, and that is why there are so many issues. So,
perhaps, he can speak to whether there is some
thought there . . . I see there is no idea of increasing
the number of kilometres or the number throughput on
it, so I just wonder if there is some sort of thought about the operation of the plant in that regard.
Bermuda House of Assembly


Now while I am on Works and Engineering,
perhaps I can speak to one of the success stories.
And that is on that same page B -228 under Head 82,
Electrical Support (92002). The Minister was talking about the streetlight project, and that was the LED streetlight project. I do remember. I was the Minister
when we started with the pilot project on Trimingham
Hill, and it was such a success we chose to just keep going.
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Point of order, Mr.
Chairman. The Chairman: Point of order.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: That Member is mi sleading the House. The LED project started in St.
George’s under the PLP Government.

Thank you , sir.
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: I beg to differ, Mr. Chairman ,
thank you. I think most people will remember
Trimingham Hill.
But anyway, now it is through most of Berm uda and it is showing the effect now. You are seeing
major savings. I think what the Member is getting co nfused with is all the LED lights they put in Global House that had to be removed.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Point of order, Mr.
Chairman.
That Member continuously misleads this
House. The LED project started in St. George’s —
Barry Road in St. George’s.

Thank you .

Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: Maybe they took the lights out
of Global House. Maybe Devree took them out of
Global House and put them down in St. George’s, I do not know, Mr. Chairman .
Now we have some concerns here in Works
and Engineering. We see on that same page B -228
under Waste Management, 8203, it is 92011, Rec ycling. Now, I think the Minister said there that rec ycling was down by 20 per cent. And that is something that we should be very concerned about. And people
recently have gotten very confused. We know the Mi nister was unable to do the two collections a week, so it
is now down to once a week for at least a period of
time. I think the projected period was 10 weeks. But
now, of course, people are very confused, Well, when is my recycling day? And you have got to go and tell
people that the recycling day has not changed. It is still on the same day. That whole recycling obviously
needs to be reviewed, and I invite the Government to redouble its efforts on that side to get recycling up and running again. We obviously need to get it working
better and, you know, with the confusion in the recent
trash collection it is not going to help.
I know the Minister is hiring more people. I
think in that area he is hiring something like . . . I think
they have 15 people, and I think that he admitted ea rlier that last September he tried to hire five people (I
think it was) in the next four or five months and no-body appeared, which is unfortunately standard for
government. Hopefully he will soon have some su ccess in that area and be able to get things up and
running.
The trash area is a very complicated one and
the scheduling of the trucks is complicated. I know there was always a lot of overtime and there was a
catch -up day on Wednesday and even on Saturday
for them to get up to speed. One of the problems was
that there were so many different types of trash
trucks. And trash trucks have a front and they have a back, and there were different fronts, different backs; and some of them were European, and some of them
were American. We were constantly running into the
problem with where it was being said we cannot repair
these trucks, and the parts for those trucks do not fit
these trucks. The most recent ones purchased under
the PLP in mid- 2012 did not work from the get -go.
They had difficulty with the hydraulic arms at the back, and I am not sure whether t hey could ever be pe rsuaded to work correctly in the conditions in Bermuda.
Perhaps the Minister can speak to that because,
again, I think they are sending people away to look at trash trucks to see if they can get some new trash
trucks. And I think there were a variety of issues with
the last ones that were purchased which made them unsuitable to the conditions in Bermuda.
On that same page, again B -228, we are loo king at Tynes Bay Operations, which is 92017.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Point of order, Mr. Chairman.

Your point of order?

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: I think the Honourable
Member is misleading the House yet again. When he
talks about, you know, the trash trucks that were bought in 2012, they were bought mid -2012, and as
you know, Mr. Chairman , when you buy a vehicle as
substantial as a trash truck it has a warranty period. The Honourable Member should know that. And I am
not sure, because they had so many different Mini sBermuda House of Assembly
1188 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

ters in their first six, seven, months . . . I cannot r emember who the Minister was —

Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: Is this a speech . . . are we
hearing a speech, Mr. Chairman , or is this a point of
order? I have no idea what he said.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Mr. Chairman , I am sure
you are quite capable of running this House —
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: Is he making a speech?
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: —you do not need his i nterpretation . . . interpolation. But anyway, let me fi nish.
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: I am running out of time.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Mr. Chairman —

Point of order.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Mr. Chairman, let me fi nish, if I may, because it is very important.
When the trucks were bought under the PLP,
all these vehicles, when they were bought, a substa ntial amount of money was paid. And when you do that
you have a warranty period. By the time that the OBA
won the election, Mr. Chairman, those things were still
under warranty. So if you had problems with hydrau-lics, they should have been able to be repaired under
warranty.

Thank you , sir.
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: Well, the gentleman, Mr.
Chairman, he thinks he is a lawyer. But obviously if
you buy a truck that is not suitable for the purpose for
which you bought it, then you are out of luck.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Point of order, point of order, Mr. Chairman .
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: You take it as it comes.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: The Honourable Member
is—

Thank you , sir.
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: And, again, we will have to
agree to disagree, I guess.
One of the other great improvements that
have been made is in the reduction in the cost of the
Tynes Bay Operation through the installation of the
new turbine, which reduced costs up there. And that was a great step forward. These are areas where we
can see that there were improvements of technology that resulted in real savings, real benefits to the pe ople of Bermuda.
One of the concerns that we have on this side
of the House is that the Government has rushed for-ward to say that, Well, you know, there is an employment shortage and, therefore, we need more staff.
And you know I just mentioned that I think there were going to be 15 new staff in the area of solid waste collection. And I think there is something like 129 new
staff overall. And I think on the front page of the paper
today it gives the total number of new staff that the
government hopes to hire this year, somewhere
around 250.
So, Mr. Chairman, what we on this side wanted to see is a Bermuda operating more effecti vely.
There certainly are areas where you need to fill pos itions, but government also needs to be streamlined. I know it is not in the budget today but, of course, the example—the clear example— was the public transportation system with the buses. I do not want to go there today, but there is that issue. So you can find more efficient ways to operate to reduce the requir ement for more and more manpower constantly.
And I sympathise with the Minister. The Mini ster has got a big job there in Public Works. Whil e
there are bright spots, like that new turbine, like the LED streetlights, there are also serious problems he faces. The condition of some of the bridges, some
issues with sewage . . . you know, we have to put our
shoulder to the wheel, use technology and get these
. . . we have new methods of work. And I think my
own view was that a great opportunity was missed
with the union agreement.
I think we need to sort out a lot of the problems that we have with the unions in terms of the working conditions and the working hours. I know with
respect to the solid waste collection it was said that
too many people were . . . they were short -handed.
But then too many people were off sick, too many
people were taking vacations. So there were clearly
management issues involved. You may have had a skeleton crew, but then you ended up with some form
of management issues that need to be resolved.
Bermuda House of Assembly


In my tried -and-true fashion I will continue
going backwards. Go to Head 81 on page B -224
which is Public Lands and Buildings. On this one, I
think, there is concern with what the intention is with
some of the buildings. I do not know if the Minister spoke to them individually. It is on page C -6, Capital
Development. Maybe he can give us some more de-tails.
We have, for example, under programme
75173 under Public Lands and Buildings on page C -6,
Teucer House, which the older Members among us
will remember as the old Department of Education
over towards the Tennis Stadium on Cedar Avenue. Now that building . . . there was a fire in the building.
The roof was severely damaged. There was insurance money. I think there was $3 million of insurance mon-ey, but I see zeros there. So I do not see anything
happening this year with Teucer House. So I just
wondered if the Minister could give some expression to any thoughts that the Government has as to what
they are going to do with Teucer House.
And there is a situation there with . . . I see
with Horseshoe Bay Beach, 75327, I think there is $250,000 that is going to be spent on it this year. P erhaps he could just say what is happening at Hors eshoe Bay Beach this year.
And Sandys 360. I know in the House some
documents were tabled about a proposed sale and
purchase agreement. It has got a zero there, so I am
not sure whether it is that the leases which were t abled in the House, or the land which adjoins a portion, or whether that is the Government land. Perhaps the
Minister could give some explanation of what the i ntention is with Sandys 360.
Down there we also have Allen Hurst, the old
police station, 75330. Now that has been empty for
some time. Now, you know, the Minister may honestly
. . . the Government may not have firmed up its plans
on these items. But I am just putting the question to
see if there are plans which we could share with the
public or whether these matters are still under review.
I noted what he said about the asbestos di sposal and that was very interesting to hear. That was 75064, the repacking containers which had rusted out.
And I am pleased to hear that we have been shipping containers off to the US and finding a way to deal with
those items now, although I suspect that there is
some tale of liability there in the longer term.
I noted he said there seemed to be some rel atively small . . . on page C -7, with Morgan’s Point ,
75324, talking about contamination. I guess that may
be some small residual thing. It is a small amount we
are talking about $25,000.
I know we are only talking about this year, but
there are some concerns about manpower. I think rightly there are some concerns about manpower. I am looking on page B -230 at Head 82, Works and
Engineering, where it is talking about an increase of 67 in manpower in the Department of Works and E n-gineering, just below the Solid Waste Collection there where it shows that there are 15. That is at the bottom
of page B -230—15 new employees to join into Solid
Waste Collection department during this coming f inancial year, that is 92029.
In going back to the Ministry of Public Works
Headquarters, which is Head 36 (which starts at page B-208) . . . I am over at page B -211. There again, with
the employee numbers and full -time equivalents, I see
an addition of some 14 staff. And I wonder if the Mi nister could speak to those increases in employment in
his Ministry. Again, he may say it is too early at this stage to tell, but he is talking about hiring an extra . . .
the number, I think, is 129 staff in this coming financial
year. I wonder whether that is the end of it or whether
he is expecting more still, or whether he feels that he is topped off at that point. Does he feel that is the end
of hiring more people and that will solve any manpo wer issues that he has?
We are clearly concerned with . . . the context
of that is the SAGE report, which obviously built on earlier reports from the National School of Gover nment in the UK. And I think one of the accounting
firms did a manpower report for government which
said that the level of government was unsustainable and now we need to reduce it. So the OBA Gover nment was successful in reducing that manpower. It started under the previous Premier Paula Cox and continued under the OBA to try to get it under control.
So I think the public would be interested to know from
the Minister, with respect to his Ministry, at what point
he feels he will have right-sized his Ministry in terms
of employment.

[Ms. Susan E. Jackson, Chairman]
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: Madam Chai rman , I think I will
stop there and let someone else take their turn and I will be ready to rise to my feet again in a while.
Thank you.

Yes, yes.
Let me draw attention to page B -207. I just
want to start off by thanking the Minister for his brief. I do know that it is difficult. This is a mammoth task and a Ministry that is huge. Thus far I throughout his te nure I have appreciated his candour and his bringing to
the House the many things that, I believe, we had
Bermuda House of Assembly
1190 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

started that he has continued to do, and to listen to
some of the other items that he might have taken on under the PLP Government that may be new initi atives.
I do want to take the time also to thank the
many people within all of the Ministry of Public
Works —the workers, I see the PS sitting there as well,
there is the financial manager there, and the work that
they do to continue to keep Bermuda operating as it
does.
If I take a loo k . . . and I just have a few que stions that I wanted clarification on. I was attempting to
listen very clearly to what the Minister was saying, but I think I may have missed one or two things and maybe even to refer back to him.
There was a lot of talk. And if we look on page
B-207 we can certainly see where the former Shadow
Minister Moniz got up and was talking about the number of employees, that he sees here an increase of 126, on the very bottom of the page here on B -207. I
do know that it is very di fficult, and it was a difficult
task even while I was there in the numbers that we had. But as historical information I know that from the
2015/16 financial year to the 2016/17 financial year,
which you have in front of you there, of 598 employ-ees we had, quite frankly, increased the numbers because I knew it was difficult to operate with the num-bers that we did have. And having to fuss and fight with the then Finance Minister to get more numbers,
we were able to start looking at some areas that we
could increase the employee numbers. And at that
particular time we increased it by almost 100 emplo yees because so many gaps were there.
But I want to refer back over to page B -209,
under 3610, Accounts, as you see there, collecting
debts. And I just wanted to . . . with the department
46030 Finance Management . . . and the Minister was
talking about being able to collect debts and one of
the challenges they were having in having those pe ople who had debts be able to work them off. And I am
very glad to hear that the administration is moving in
that direction. I know that that was a real challenge.
I can recall one of the truck drivers when the
gravel and the likes came in down in St. George’s and
dumped off. He called up and said,
Well, look, you guys won’t let me take my truck down
there because I owe you money. And I immediately
went to the administration to say, Well, listen, it makes
no sense. You are not going to get the money if you
do not allow him to work. So I am quite excited to see
the fact that the Minister is continuing with that. I know
that we, at that time, were doing it in isolated areas,
looking to how we could reduce the debt. So I am glad now to hear that, as a policy, they have moved fo rward with that and helping to reduce that debt by en-suring that those who owe can certainly get work to
pay that debt off. So I tip the hat to the Minister and
the administration for continuing to do that. I also notice at the top there, 3601, under the
head Office Administration, 46111, that we see an
increas e of $1.2 million. I am assuming that that corr elates to the increase in numbers of staff. I am hoping that maybe you can give me a little more information as to why the administration is being increased by that
amount. If we could get some details there that would
be wonderful. I would appreciate it.
Also, going down to Telecommunications, and
I realise that those telecommunication poles are in some pretty bad shape. But there was another area
which involves the telecommunications that I found
interesting as well, and that was under this depar tment that many, within government itself, even just
within Public Works, there were different phone sy stems within the Ministry and it was difficult sometimes
communicating. I am hoping that the government will
start moving into a direction of having a phone system
that is unilaterally, across the board, comprehensive
. . . the same. For some you can just dial four numbers; but with others you have to dial seven and eight numbers. It was quite confusing, I found, for many of
the staff. And then the system was going down. So I
know that that can be frustrating. And I am hoping that
the Minister will be able to highlight that at some point in time we need to move to a very comprehensive
system that allows for everyone to be under the same
telephone system.
He also mentioned under heading 3613, Human Resources . . . and I tell you, man. It was tough
to be in that Ministry to watch so many good people that had found work elsewhere. The Ministry was ha ving a bit of brain drain, actually. The very good people
that were there . . . there are still good people there.
But some of the expertise was being, quite frankly —

[Inaudible interjection]

Yes, yes, taken from us
quite literally by the private sect or.
And that goes and commends to the actual
work that is being done by civil servants and how well and well -groomed and well -educated they are in their
discipline that they would be sought after by the pri-vate sector. And so it was one of those tough, tough, areas. In fact, I remember losing people in Human
Resources itself.
But he mentioned the BeFAST. And this is a
real highlight. I know why he highlighted that, because training seems to be, as I look in the Budget Book
here, an emphasis by the Minis try. And I must say it
was incredible to see Allanette and the likes, Ricardo (as I called him), coming along through this BeFAST
programme that, quite frankly, was taking Bermudians
to newer heights. Hopefully, as the Minister talked
about a succession plan that he was looking to put in . . . I know that I was seeking that out. To see now
that the Minister is going to be implementing a su ccession plan is vital to us as Bermudians and having
Bermuda House of Assembly


that happen as we groom our young people coming
along, especially in some of those areas like enginee ring and structures and the likes where it is difficult to
get Bermudians and find Bermudians in those areas.
I do want to point out that I was . . . I do not
know . . . not concerned, but under 3614, Architect
and Design, department 46040, if we could get a little
more information as to the $308,000 decrease there. I was not quite sure; I did not hear any answers coming
from the Minister as to exactly why that was. But
maybe he can share with us as to exactly what that
entails. I kind of started making some assumptions. I
think I might know, but I do not want to make the assumption there.
If you turn over to page B -210, I wanted to
almost stomp on my feet to see that he has increased travel. And I agree with it, actually . I know the first
year that I was in the Ministry I did not travel at all, trying to figure out the lay of the land. But it was vital as I went into that second year. If Bermuda is going to
compete on a worldwide scale and Bermuda is going
to get its infr astructure where it needs to be, we need
to know what the latest is out there. And I am sure
that already the Minister probably has been inundated
with all kinds of new ideas that are out there, especia lly with asphalt. I know in some countries they are beginning to use plastic bottles and mixing them with
asphalt actually to fill holes that last a lot longer than what we do right now. So I was quite pleased with
that. And with the travel, I am assuming that that
means for training as well, going abroad, which is i mportant.
If you go down a little further on the page
there from Travel you will see Professional Services.
And it says it is an increase of $320,000. So I am tr ying to understand exactly what it is that we are doing
with Professional Services. Ma ybe it is due to the i ncrease in staffing, I do not know. But there is no corre-lation really to help me there, so I am hoping that we can get some answers to that. I do see that on page
B-211, 4601, under Architect and Design, there is an
increase of five employees, and maybe that equates .
. . I do not know if it breaks down amongst the five
employees that it would be a $320,000 increase and
maybe we can find out from there.
Just above that in Finance Management I
know that it is needed—an increase of thr ee people
there. It was always a challenge watching the ladies and men that were within that department struggling
to keep up. So I am glad to see that that also is act ually happening.
I will turn over from there and go over to page
B-224, Public Lands and Buildings. The Minister me ntioned about the Concertus software and the pr ogramme. I had the privilege of being able to see [that].
One of the questions that was asked, and mainly the question I had was if we were really going to be able
to implement this management software, because if
you do not put the information in, then you are just going to get bad information out, basically. And I hoping that they have been able to come up with some systematic way of ensuring, training our management
to ensure that they get the information right.
A large part of that was being able to ensure
that the managers are clocking -in people, that they
are at particular sites, and the likes. It is very, very,
detailed, and if it is used correctly it would go a long way to bringing about efficiencies within the Ministry.
But I do know that with the size of the Ministry that it is
going to be a mammoth, mammoth, task to get it right.
Now a lot of times these tools and equipment
. . . sometimes they can do wonders for us. But w e
have got to ensure that management moves from using Excel spreadsheets, which they put together
themselves, and use the actual software that is there. And I know that we wrestled sometimes with some
folks with new things within the Ministry to get them t o
take on the new skills that were necessary so that we
could be more efficient. So I am glad to hear from him
that this is continuing, and I wish him well in getting
this management programme software together.
I noticed also under Estates, 8102, on page
B-224, 91004, Property Asset Management, that there
is an increase there of $469,000. Again, I am looking for some correlation as to exactly what that might be,
whether it falls under the employee numbers for trai ning and increasing the numbers that we do have. B ecause if you look on B -225 you also will see the sal aries have increased and wages have increased and
there is a difference, obviously, between the two. But
then down further where it says professional services
there is a decrease. So there may be . . . I know there
is a reason for it. I am just looking for some answers
as to exactly how that is going to work. The Minister
did answer a few questions I had on that page so I do not need to go into that any longer.
I will invite us to now look at Hea d 82, Works
and Engineering, which there is always a lot of talk around Works and Engineering. Really the lifeline, the
bloodline of what really brings the infrastructure to life
in Bermuda is the Works and Engineering. And under Highways, 8202, on page B -228, this was a pretty
tough area for me with the asphalt machine continu-ously breaking down; in fact, having to fly in engineers to look at it to try and get it back up to par so that we
could get rolling with the 10 kilometres that we wanted
to get done throughout the year.
And I must say that we were able to get quite
a bit of asphalting done. There was a lot of talk, I r emember at the time, that we were just moving along
with this asphalting just because the America’s Cup
was here. But if you take a look in the performance measures it is the same amount that is being predic ted for the next fiscal year as it was in the last fiscal year, and the one before that. And I must say that the . . . you know, I will take some credit myself in heading
up and trying to get the stuff going. But I must say u nder this Minister the work is continuing.
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1192 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

The Island is beginning to really, really, look
good. As I am driving my car . . . you know how it
feels when you are driving your car and you have got
a 13- , 14-, 15-year old car (which I do), and you hit
that smooth road? Man, it makes up for all the
squeaky breaks and shocks and things. So I am happy to see that. And I am sure that the taxi drivers are
praising the fact that the good work continues there in that area.
I would like to get an answer to the question
under this particular area. Are we looking at all at a
new asphalt plant? Because this one that we do have
is a second -hand one and has been showing signs of
deterioration. Of course, when I was the Minister th ere
it was breaking down quite often, and is costly to r epair. So I would like to know if there is any intent of looking at new asphalt machinery for down at the
quarry.
I will move down on the same page B -228, to
8203, Waste Management. And, you know, there has always been a lot of talk around solid waste. If you
look down at the very bottom there, 92029, Solid Waste Collection, I notice there is not much change in
the budgetary allocation there. It is a tough area. I can
recall having numbers down in the 30s actually as far
as employee numbers. And I was not quite sure if, at
the end of what the Minister was saying, they were
getting new trash trucks or not. I was not quite sure about that. If I could get confirmation about whether or
not the intent is to purchase new trucks in this upcoming fiscal year, I would like confirmation of that.
I do recognise that we did have some problems with the trucks. And one of the major problems
was maintenance, which is why we are in a cycle right
now with the one day a week. I would like to know,
after having started it already, whether or not . . . or the extent of time . . . how far into this fiscal year do
we believe we will go with one day a week? I do rec-ognise also that we had, at the time . . . I do not know if it is the same now, but we did have at the time 10
trucks that were continuously in rotation, being used. Obviously they were breaking down. We had made recommendations and made moves within the quarry
to ensure that maintenance was happening but, obv iously, these trucks are . . . some of them are wearing
and tearing. How many trucks are we talking about if we are going to purchase new ones?
One of the complaints that I used to hear on a
regular basis was that the wheelbase of the trucks, the newer ones, was a bit long. So from the front tyre
to the back tyre it was a little longer than the other
five-ton trucks, which the newer ones were in the
range of the three or four tons, I believe. Some of the
time, with Bermuda’s small roads and corners, it was
difficu lt for them to get around so people had to bring
their trash down. I would like to also know, in that
consideration with Bermuda roads, which I know
many times trucks are running into difficulties because
people do not keep up their maintenance on their trees and the likes, whether we are looking at a co mprehensive programme changing how we do pick up our trash.
There was talk about stations being allocated
within midsections of the Island . . . I am sorry, b etween Hamilton and Somerset, a drop -off area, and
between Hamilton and St. George’s, a drop- off area,
so that trucks could continue on the road picking up waste and then be transferred by these much larger
. . . probably Mack truck type things that can hold tons
and tons more, if we plan on heading in that direction as far as collection is concerned.
One of the other recommendations from staff
that came up within the area that I remember hearing was that we needed to ensure to get everyone . . .
rather than everyone throwing plastic bags of trash on the road was for them to use bins. Require a law to
say that everyone uses a bin for trash collection. So it would be interesting to hear some of the things . . .
and maybe they have not gotten to that yet. I do not
know. But if they have, it would be nice to hear a little
more about that.
One of the real highlights that I was really glad
to see was at the top of page B -229, 8206, Water and
Sewage. The water section was always underserved
and needed more people. We had started putting in
new systems. So I am really, really, really pleased to
see the numbers here because I know for some time they were having quite a bit of a challenge in keeping
up with the demands of the water that we supply to
the public. So all of the numbers there in the plus . . . I
must sa y that I was pretty pleased to see that they are
getting the assistance that they need, especially with water being . . . and going to continue to be a challenge if we continue to do larger infrastructure pr ojects.
If you look lower down on page B -229, I am
looking at the Subjective Analysis of the Current A ccount Estimates. Again, I see the Professional Se rvices of $1,298,000, almost $1.3 million increase. If I
could get some details as to exactly what that is referring to . . . I can see wages increase th ere as well as
salaries, if we could get an understanding of the Pr ofessional Services increases there or if it is off -setting
something else, we would appreciate getting infor-mation on that.
If you turn over, Madam Chai rman , to B- 230,
Electricity, and the Minister did highlight the increase
there. I know that we were working with BELCO and
did do that, actually, to get an increase on the electri city that we were providing. So I can understand why that number is the way that it is.
Further on down, on Employee Numbers on
that particular page B -230, Head 82, at the very end,
92029 Solid Waste Collection, I see that we are i ncreasing the numbers by 15. And I do understand
that. I must say I spent quite a bit of time wrestling
with the Minister to see how we could get more people
there. But one of the things that I did see that I believe
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. . . and I am sure they are probably looking at, at
least I hope they are, is that when you take a look at
the amount of vacation time that staff have there, and
the agreement —the unionised agreement —is that
they can carry over their vacation time. Quite frankly it
is astounding.
If some of the employees actually took all of
their vacation time they would be gone like four months of the year. Some have 80 [days], 50 days, 60
days, and so somehow the Ministry is going to have to
find a way to wrestle this down. I do not know what
the answer is. But I think that they need to get to the
table with the unions and figure out how we can get that to a manageable area, because if we onl y add
staff to it we are not fixing the challenge that we are having. Invariably, you will always have way too many people out due to sick and vacation time that is ca rried over, which I think financially is unsustainable.
I think that we need to sit down with the u nions and figure out how we renegotiate that and, of
course, ensure that the 80 days . . . for instance,
some of the employees that have had that, 60 [days], 30 days, they are compensated. But how can we start
removing that from the finances of the Works and E ngineering finance spreadsheet? Hopefully the Minister
will take, maybe, that recommendation on. And I am
sure that he is aware of the challenge there in just
managing the time schedule for the staff.
I will move over to B -331 under the Perf ormance Measures. And I highlighted the fact, under business unit 92005, Roads, Asphalt and Signs, that
the Ministry will be concentrating on bore holes. One
of the challenges Bermuda has, because we are small and we have low- lying areas, is that there are flooding
areas. Areas flood out very quickly. And if these bore holes are not maintained well enough then we have major problems of flooding in differing areas. I hope to
see that some of these areas will be relieved by the
fact that we are actually boring those holes. So I was happy to hear that he highlighted that.
I also draw down to business unit, 92008, Private Roads. I know that we did not have a budget for private roads, asphalting and repairing some of these
roads. I am just curious as to whether or not there is
going to be a budget established there. I can recall several . . . when we were Government, Shadow Mi nisters calling and looking for assistance. So we were looking for creative ways to help some of the folks on these private roads who did not have the finances to
be able to get some of this much -needed work done.
Just as our public roads, many of them are decades overdue for maintenance, these private roads are
probably in worse condition than we would like to have seen.
If we turn over to page B -233 . . . well, he a nswered some of the questions I had about the to nnage there. Oh, I also wanted to ask the Minister if the
new trucks that they are looking to purchase . . . those
new trucks. What tonnage would those new trucks be? Exactly what would that tonnage be? Because we do know that we have a challenge with some of the new trucks with a smaller tonnage than the old Heil
trucks, whether these new trucks would be of the five -
ton area.
It is interesting to see, also on the very bottom
of page B -233, that the average number of working
garbage trucks available for work each week is 10,
which I think is aggressive. I wish him well in that. Until the new trucks come along I know that this wi ll be
difficult.
For two reasons that will be difficult:
(1) maintenance of the trucks and being able to keep
up; and then (2) not having the staff. Because one of the challenges that I found within the Ministry is [that]
trying to get staff is very, very, very difficult. And when I say “difficult” you may have qualified people out
there, but the process of getting new employees is so
long- winded. I hope that human resources can shor ten that process up so that employees can be hired on
in a fairly quick ma nner as opposed to the process
that we have right now. Sometimes it was taking five
and six months just to get someone within the Mini stry, which led to the many woes that I had trying to get the proper staff in place.
So if they have come up with a new m easure
of being able to do that, I would like to hear about that. But I believe the challenge of maintaining the 10, until he gets new employees and until he gets . . . because
invariably some of those will be in the maintenance area, and until you get new trucks that will be a diff icult thing to maintain. Which leads me back to the question that I asked earlier, how long do we believe we may have to remain on the one day a week trash
pickup programme?
I will move, then, over to C -6, Madam Chai rman. And on page C -6, looking at the Capital Development for Public Works, one of the big challenges
that I do know the Ministry has had is getting capital projects when they are tendered out, out and the work
done. It takes a long time sometimes to get the specs
done so that it is put out to tender, then it is put out to tender, then approved by the Minister, then approved
by Cabinet, then sent back to the department heads to
both through the process of having it all specked out properly and all the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed,
sometimes this process takes a very, very, long time.
And invariable we allocate the funds in our Capital Development, but in actually getting the work to the
table it takes a long time.
So I would encourage the Minister with the
PS, and understandably with the PS that existed is
moving on, the new PS . . . I wish Francis Richardson
well in his new endeavours, but with the new PS that
they find a way to shorten that process up because
people will be looking for work and if the Government is serious about creating jobs, this is one area that we
can get more work done to increase the number of
jobs created by having this process streamlined wit hBermuda House of Assembly
1194 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

out compromising it. And I know that it can be done. I
did spend quite a bit of time with the PS in looking at
that so I am looking forward to this Minister being able
to continue with that.
I checked off many areas under here because
he did go line by line, item by item, with this here. So I do not want to go through all of them. But there was
one item, 75127, Restructuring Retaining Walls. And it
brought to mind one of the challenges that the Ministry
was having is when the public was out driving at two
o’clock in the morning for whatever reason, I do not
know why, if they fall asleep or they are not just pa ying attention, they knocked down some of the government walls that had been built up. And invariably
the public has to pay for that.
Now, if that were to happen on a private wall
or the likes, or if there were an accident, the police would be involved, insurance would be involved, and
some of that money could be recouped from the i nsurance to rebuild that thing. The challenge we were
finding within the Ministry was that many of these a ccidents were happening. They were without any wi tness at all, so we were having to go out and expend money on repairing these walls and did not know who
knocked them down, had no clue. And we could not even rely on their insurance because we did not know
who they were.
So, somehow we need to forge a better rel ationship with the police, maybe we might need to put up more cameras along the roads so that we can
identify when these things happen, get to the individ uals and the insurance companies —which is why they
pay insurance, private car owners and companies —
you know, because our roads are small many of their
private businesses are responsible for this as well, where these walls are knocked down. And the private sector, meaning the public, the taxpayer, does not
have to continue to foot the brunt all the time for these
things and lessen the cost of Public Works and Works
and Engineering in having to go out to repair these
walls that invariably the insurance companies should
be covering. So I would encourage the Minister to somehow take a look at that.
I think I ha ve kind of highlighted some of the
areas that I was looking at and, again, on the Capital Acquisitions the Minister did talk about them. I will go
back to what I started out with, the Minister did talk
about trash trucks, but I apologise Minister, I missed exactly what you were saying there, whether you were
buying the trucks within this fiscal year or this was
going to be coming up in the next fiscal year, if you
could qualify that for me.
Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Madam Chai rman , and thank you to the Minister for the
comprehensive brief which he has provided.
Let me say that some of the questions as I
prepared for this debate were predicated on the numbers that existed in the Book. And I know throughout
the entirety of the Minister’s brief he referred to the
original 2017/18 estimates as against the 2018/19 estim ates as opposed to the revised, which is how we
normally handle the budgets here. As an example, one of the comments that he made in terms of doing
an overview of, let us say, the Works and Engineering
department, which appears on page B -229 in which
the aggregate cost of the expenditure for the Ministry
at $30.588 million, was, according the Minister’s brief,
a reduction of $1.691 million. Whereas the Budget Book shows that there was actually an increase of
$725,000. So we are not really comparing in the
presentation of the brief, like with like, because that, in
and of itself, is almost a $2.5 million swing when you
get from a positive $725,000 to a negative $1.691
[million]. So I do not think that the Minister has been
well-served in terms of how the comparatives have
been evaluated and articulated for him to be able to share that with the House.
But with that said I am going to perhaps . . .
so if my numbers, as I mention them and question them, are more focused on what is in the Budget Book as we have it, it will perhaps differ from what the Mi nister has indicated in his brief. But that would be the reason that I am making these comparisons that may
sound to be a little different.
I want to go to page B -251, which is my star ting point, which is under Head 49. I did not have many comments to make on the actual Ministry Headqua rters. I do not think that what we had seen was partic ularly earth -shattering in terms of the numbers relating
to that particular head of the Ministry, Head 36. I do
note that the Minister indicated that there was a differ-ence of 34 . . . no, sorry, he said 46 to 48 to net employees there. But the revised 2017/18 actually had dipped the original 46 down to 34 because of some . . . albeit they were funded. But they were unfilled pos itions, some of which there was clearance to fill the
positions, but there was difficulty or a time lag in terms of the actual application of ensuring that those pos itions were filled. So I am going to leave the Headquar-ters for the moment. I may come back with one or two other questions once the Minister has responded, to
the extent that he will, on any other questions that we
have.
But I want to go to page B -215 on Land Valuation. And let me say that the Minister referred several times to the vacant post of the assistant director
and that this position will be filled in the first quarter of 2018/19. But it would certainly be remiss if I did not stop to say a big hearty thank you to Diane Elliott who
leads that team and the work that she has been able
to do i n making sure that the targets that have been
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set for the department have not just been met, but in
some instances, surpassed. I think she has done yeoman service with the limited [staff] that she may
have had in terms of resources.
But let me just also say that the salaries that
were going to increase by $104,000, again, it is kind of difficult because the revised . . . I am sorry, the ori ginal . . . the Minister had indicated that there was a
$2,000 salary increase. So it does not quite tie in that
if you are intending to increase your full -time equivalents by one person that you would only have a $2,000 increase. So when you look at the compar isons that were articulated in the Minister’s brief they
do not make financial sense in terms of it does not
add up. I think therein lies the importance of ensuring
that there is consistency —

Both the current
speaker and the Shadow Minister have mentioned that the figures were wrong and that I got them wrong. Let me just say that as far as I am concerned the fi gures in the book are wrong. If you look at last year’s figures, you cannot compare the revised figures to the
new budget. The year has not ended; it is an estimate. And if you look at last year’s book and every book b efore, the figures are compared with the original a pproved amounts by the Legislature. And that is what I have done, because otherwise if you take it to its nat-ural conclusion in comparing it with the revised, I
should be saying that my budget has increased over
last year and it has not. It has, in fact, decreased.

I accep t the Mini ster’s explanation. I think that somewhere along the
way somebody has to get it right. The numbers as
they are, if we are looking at what the differences are
and the percentages that have been put forward in the actual Budget Book, something does not tie. So either
the Finance Ministry has to change the numbers that are in the Budget Book, as the Minister has just sug-gested, but somewhere, somehow, we are comparing
apples with oranges and the numbers that are in the
book and the numbers that the Minister has shared
with his brief just do not tie.
So I am not saying which is wrong and which
is not wrong; I am just saying that they are inco nsistent. And I just think that if I make mention of a
number that is different from that which the Minister has indicated, then the reason is because I am going
by what they have put in front of us in the book. So if the Finance Minister is wrong, then we have to accept
the fact that the Finance Minister is wrong.
So let me go back to my comment . . . and I
do thank the Minister for his intervention, his interpol ation . . . I am sorry, his point of order . . . point of i nformation.
It is important also to mention on page B -215,
as the Minister indicated, that it is the 50
th year ann iversary for the Land Valuation Department. It is a d epartment that provides significant revenue. I think he said it is fourth overall in the amount of revenue that is
generated. So the work that is done by the Land Valuation Department has serious implications in terms of how we fund the Government. And the one thing that
was pointed out in the Minister’s brief was that there
were 30 objections to the valuation listing, of which 15 had been dismissed by communication with the appe llant, and the others were satisfactorily determined. I think that this speaks to the work and the commitment
of that department for the level of revenue that is gotten and the numbers of employees that they have, I
think that it is very positive. And I thank Diane Elliott and her team.
The other thing that the Minister indicated,
and I think it is worthy of note and worthy of under-scoring, was the fact that within that department they
have committed the footprint of buildings to an ele ctronic filing system, whereby they would only have to
go out and do inspections and evaluations on anything that has had significant changes. And therein
lies how we can actually get away with doing more
efficient work by using technology and not necessarily
having to rely on saying you need more people b ecause we have got all these places that have to be
inspected and, therefore, you need more bodies to go
do the inspections, when in fact this new technological solution is far more efficient and is a far better way of
doing things. So I have to applaud the department on
that.
I am going to go now to page B -224. And on
page B -224, which is on Public Lands and Buildings
and under 91005 (let me just see) . . . under cost ce ntre, programme . . . sorry, 8102, for programme
91005. There is an expenditure of $5,847,000 in r espect of insu rance. Now I do know that over time, and
certainly during my period of oversight, there is usual-ly an external individual who will come and have a
look at your buildings and what needs to be insured and whether the insurance programme that is in effect
is sufficiently adequate for the buildings, for the go vernment buildings, in terms of the risk that is posed by either hurricanes or whatever the case might be, fire
or whatever. And the premium that is paid by the gov-ernment is a function of that particular assessment
that is made usually by, as I said, an independent a ssessor to determine whether the insurance coverage
is what it ought to be on balance.
There has been number on number from last
year to this . . . actually indicating that there was no
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1196 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

change on the revised 2017/18 budget versus the
2018/19 budget. The Minister did indicate that, based
on original to new 2018/19 estimates, there was act ually a reduction of $39,000. And he indicated that this reduction was a function of individual departments being charged back for the cost of the insurance that
they bear —$39,000. If that is the logic behind the r eduction that the Minister indicated, $39,000 did not seem to me too sufficient of a chargeback given the
numbers that we have got. If we have got $5.8 million
being paid for insurance premium and we have only got a $39,000 reduction being shown as a charg eback, it would seem to me that as opposed to the Mi nistry . . . if we are going to go on the cost unit basis,
then there should be a far higher chargeback of insu rance premium to the various other departments that
are utilising the benefit of the insurance.
I am just a little curious as to how the
$39,000, to which the Minister referred, had its gene-sis.
In addition to that I do know that there was . . .
and I will say that from a financial perspective, on consolidation, if you have expenditure in one department and you take some out of this department and
you charge it back to that department, you have less here and more in the other department. On a consol idated basis from a governmental consolidated fund perspective it really does not make any difference. The money has to be spent in some way, shape, or
form. But , having said that, the money needs to be
spent. The question begs as to whether there ha s
been any further consideration . . . and I know that it is
something that has been discussed before, but has
there been any further consideration in terms of i ncreasing the SIR —the self -insured retention —by
Government so that the cost of the premium can a ctually be further reduced?
And I say that because the more risk that you
keep . . . and forgive me for wearing an insurance hat, but that is an industry with which I am fairly intimately
familiar. But if you keep more of the risk and basically
insure a higher level, then you are paying premium over a certain amount as opposed to a ground -up
premium, you are paying premium over and above your retention. And that would, obviously, reduce the amount of premium that would have to be paid in
those circumstanc es.
So I am just questioning whether . . . I know
during the general debate (if I can reflect back for one second without being particularly onerous in so doing)
there was a suggestion that we look in terms of was it
feasible or even efficacious to be able to have a captive. We want a captive insurance market and can
Government somehow be able to capitalise on that.
But I believe that increasing the self -insured retention,
especially when we stop to consider what the loss
experience has been over the last significant periods
of time . . . we had major losses during hurricanes,
when we had [Hurricanes] Fay and Gonzalo. We had pretty significant losses during that period of time. But on balance, if we look at what we have paid out in premium over the course of the last, let us say 8 or 10
years to give yourself a reasonable curve of experi-ence, versus what we have made in terms of claims, we could almost have covered our claims out of the
consolidated fund if we had a higher self -insured r etention. We could have saved some of that money in
terms of having to pay it out in insurance premiums.
I do not want to belabour that anymore. I think
I have just taken the time to try to explain what I
meant in that regard and whether it is worth considering, whether the Government deems it to be worth considering increasing the self -insured retention on
insurance.
Let me go also to page C -12. And I think this
is probably where I am going to start going from the
back and coming forward a little bit . . . maybe, yes, I
think so. And if I go to page C -12 and that is for the
Ministry of Public Works, the Headquarters, business unit 76495, for Vehicles and Equipment. I know the
Minister indicated that there would be mostly trash trucks and the like. But I wonder if the Minister c ould
indicate what . . . I mean, it says “Vehicles and
Equipment” that were going to be purchased. And I am just wondering what kind of . . . what is the depr eciation factor or approach or attitude that the Gover nment takes in terms of writing off the value of the capi-tal costs? Because, obviously, when you buy som ething new you have the cost of it sitting on the books and then every year that value depreciates. And I am
just wondering whether we do five- year on capital . . .
on vehicles and the like. And is it a straight -line d epreciation? I am just curious as to what the depreci ation is.
The other thing that I wonder is that, if I look
at the original estimates for 2017/18 for that same line item of $4,060,000, if we are talking about the pu rchasing of trash trucks and the like, this would su ggest to me that there was money in the budget in the 2017/18 original budget of $4,060,000. And this is
where we kind of run into problems because I could say there is $2.5 million or $4.060 million, depending
on which number you want to choose, the $2.5 million
being the revised estimate and would be closer to
what the Minister might want me to have to question.
But according to the original estimate there was
$4,060,000 that had been designated under 76495 for the purchase of vehicles and equipment. And my
question would be, how much of that was spent?
What we have heard is that the significant
challenge that we are now experiencing with respect
to garbage collection is a function of nobody bothered to put any capital expenditure. But if the money is
there, you have to . . . it begs the question, how much
of it was spent, if it was available? And is it a really fair criticism to say that there were no garbage trucks purchased when the money was sitting in the budget?
Bermuda House of Assembly


So this year we have $3.8 million assigned to
the 2018/19 budget for the purchases of these trucks.
But you just have to beg the question, have we, will
we, spend any of the $4.060 million from last year?
Has somebody gone to sleep on the job and not o rdered the things that were accounted for and made
available by the $4 million that was set out there be-fore? And is this $3.8 million going to be in addition to or in place of what was out there from before? In other
words, do we have a roll forward on the bu dget
amount or are we going to . . . is the $3.8 million effectively new money on top of the $4.06 [million]? Or are
we going to spend both lots of money? I am just cur ious.
And I will say, for clarity, that the revised est imate according to the book was $2.5 million. So while I say that there was $4.060 million that was there and
available, the revised estimate, based on the book in
front of us, is in fact $2.5 million. So I do not want an-ybody saying that I am trying to cherry -pick the numbers that have the greatest disparity, I just want to be fair in my evaluation and my questioning. So that is on page C -12.
Now, I will go back to pages C -6 and C -7. And
page C -6 under Public Lands and Buildings, and, of
course, because these are capital development items
so, obviously, it may not necessarily flow very smoot hly in terms of how the Ministry heads have been done. But these are kind of going backwards and forwards a
bit. So with Public Lands and Buildings there are two
figures for which I would like the Minister, if he could,
to give us a little bit more information.
One of which is 75309 which is the All
Schools Maintenance. There is a $3 million allocation that has been made for that particular purpose. And I
am just wondering if the Minister would be willing to share or whether the plan has reached that level of
advancement that he could give us how that $3 million
allocation would be prioritised. In other words, this is All Schools Maintenance, but are we spending, you
know, $50 on one, $1,000 on the other . How will that
$3 million be divvied up within the All Schools Maint enance programme under 75309?
The other question that I had is under 75326.
This is capital development. I guess it can probably go
under capital as opposed to capital acquisitions b ecaus e capital acquisitions are more inclined to be
smaller items. But I wondered if the Minister could give us some indication, because I do know that he
has tabled something which we will obviously debate
in due course, and I will not go into any great detail
about that, but there is a zero set aside for Sandys 360 under 75326. And I just wondered whether: (a) there is likely to be any capital costs relating to the
acquisition of that property that we find that we are not budgeting for that we will have to come back for a supplementary; or (b) alternatively you will recall,
Madam Chai rman , or you may recall, I do not know
whether it was before your time, but you may recall that there was an Auditor General’s report respecting Sandys 360 in which there had been, I want to say,
$750,000, $800,000 duplicate payment that had never
been recouped. And the question will beg whether we
would be looking at any particular offset between what we might be paying out and what we may be able to
recoup for that double payment that had been made
for Sandys 360, and whether, in fact, that effectively accounts for having a virtual zero for capital acquis itions here. So I am just curious as to how that will be determined.
The other comment that I have is on Works
and Engineering on page C -7, 75293, on the Pembroke Canal Upgrading. And that gives us . . . I am
sorry, there is a budget for $100,000. Now in the overall scheme of things $100,000 is probably not even worth asking about when you are dealing with
capital development in terms of it being relatively
de minimis in respect of what the overall budget for
capital development is. But the question has to beg
that, given the significant flooding challenges that o ccur in the Pembroke Canal coming into the Mills
Creek area, whether $100,000 . . . what is the thought
process behind what effectively is this $100,000 going to be spent on?
I know that there were serious situations such
as, you know, the sluice gates and things like that in which it was questioned before whether we had enough money in the budget to take account of that
additional flooding. Did we need new sluice gates?
Did we need sort of major clearing out of the silt that
kind of develops? Because we can do nothing about
the tides. The property is the property and the tid es
are the tides. But $100,000 does not seem to be . . . it
is not going to make a major impact in . . . you know,
we probably might be able to find a pump to pump out some water out of Mills Creek Road for $100,000 if
you do it a couple times over the course of a year.
The $100,000 is not going to make any significant di fference. And I just wondered whether there is likely to
be any relief for the tenants who operate in that area.
And it is not just the Mills Creek area, because that particular flow of water follows its path all the way back and . . . I mean, I can perhaps go as far
as Perimeter Lane down below Bishop Spencer and the challenges that they have all the way through to
Bernard Park and then Woodlands Road and then all
the way out and onto Mills Creek. So these are cha llenges that $100,000 just did not seem to me to be
sufficient. And I just wondered if the Minister could
give us some indication as to what the intent was for
the expenditure of the $100,000.
Now also on Capital Maintenance on 75308,
Capital Maintenance for Tynes Bay. The question that I have . . . it is $2.7 million, which is quite a hefty sum.
And I certainly understand the necessity for that cap ital maintenance. But there was one issue that reared
its head, and I wondered whether this was going to be
included in this figure of $2.7 million. And that is the
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1198 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

situation with respect to the deposit or the handling of
oil waste, of commercial oil, when you have got oil that has been collected from businesses. At one point
in time th ere was some machine (I forget the name of
it), but it was supposed to be some kind of power
grab, power -eater -kind-of-machine, that was meant to
mulch oil. And I think it was determined after a while that that was just not an effective way of doing it b ecause the oil and stuff was clogging up the works.
So I am just wondering if this capital maint enance budget for Tynes Bay is likely to have any i mpact on the disposal of the grease and oils that have been collected from the Hamilton businesses, or whichev er businesses, and deposited there and
whether the machine that was acquired for effective processing of that, is it still effective or will it need something more? And does this $2.7 million cover
that?
I also have a question on 75043 which is Solid
Wast e Capital Maintenance. And the Minister in his
brief indicated that this was in relation to . . . or some
of it. And this is a figure of $650,000. Some of this was in relation to Sally Port. And I just wondered, only
because the question begs . . . and I just do not r emember, but Sally Port is in Dockyard. And I just
wondered whether WEDCO has any responsibility for
Sally Port, and whether there is any contributing part
of the $650,000 Solid Waste Capital Maintenance r elating to Sally Port that might be cla wed back, as it
were, from WEDCO.
I know WEDCO have their own financial challenges. But I am just wondering whether the consol idated fund is going to pick up the whole $650,000 or whether there is any sort of contributing money co ming from the quango of WEDCO in respect of the costs relating to the Sally Port waste capital maint enance budget.
I also have, under 75064, which is the Asbe stos Disposal . . . Now I will declare an interest, as I do every time I mention the word asbestos, that in a former life I actually was . . . because it is a certification
that you have to maintain on an annual basis, and I did not renew my certification. However, with that
said, the knowledge does not go away. And the one
thing that was good to hear was that there has been some kind of solution found in terms of ensuring that
we take asbestos -containing materials and repack
them. Because we had taken a decision many, many,
years ago, I want to say as far back as probably the
mid-1990s if I recall correctly. So quite a few admi nistrations back there had been a decision taken that ACM (asbestos containing material) would be stored
in containers. And those containers would be stacked in varying places. Ultimately, I think a significant number of those containers ended up in the quarry. And
as time has gone on the containers have eroded.
There was talk before of whether these things
should be buried at Port Royal under some green . . .
whether they should be sunk in the sea. There have been all manner of recommendations over time in
terms of how ACM was going to be disposed of. And during that period of time containers were rusting and
rusting and rusting. So we are at a stage now where
the good thing about it is that asbestos is required to be wrapped and double- wrapped in 6 mil poly and put
in containers that are lined themselves, double -lined,
with 6 mil poly.
So, on the face of it one would not expect that
you will get any sort of leakage or any danger coming into the community as a result. But when the outside
rusts, obviously, these containers have to be r epacked and the contents will probably still be well i ntact because of the protections of the 6 mil poly wrap-ping. So they will be taken from the containers that
are rusted and put into new containers to make sure that they are still well fortified.
However, the one thing that we did learn
through the OSHA (occupational safety and health act) in the United States is that whoever the generator
of an asbestos containing material is, if it is going into
a landfill, the generator owns the material. And so the question begs, if the generator, i.e., Bermuda, owns
the fill that is being sent to a US landfill, which will be
tagged with the origin of the waste, what is the liability that we will face in sending the ACM to a US landfil l
under their regulatory environmental protection acts that they have? I think it is important. I think it is great to be able to get rid of it, but we need to understand
what our long -term liabilities are in terms of the di sposal of those asbestos containing containers.
Let me move on to 75046, which is Improv ements in Street Lighting. And the Minister gave us an
overview, basically saying that this was the LED pr ogramme with BELCO. But I wondered if the Minister could share with us what the next stretch is that is likely to be done. I think that once the former Minister
for Public Works, the Deputy Speaker, indicated that it all started in Barry Road and then there was a pilot programme that I know with the new LEDs in
Trimingham Hill. And I think that as that programme
has expanded, people have been quite excited to see
the impact of what the lighting does, how [much]
clearer the road sightlines can be. So I am just wondering, just for the edification of the public, if the Mi nister could possibly share with us what the next plan
is. What next stretch of road is likely to get the benefit of the LEDs in conjunction with BELCO? Let me go to page B -226 on Public Lands and
Buildings. And I just have a question on the Perfor-mance Measures. And that is with respect to business
units 91002 to 91003. It is the second business unit
down the page. And the second item therein mentions [the] number of capital projects to be tendered to the
private sector. And it was indicated that . . . and I am
going to go back to the actual outcome for 2016/17.
There were 24. The original forecast and the revised forecast for 2017/18, there were 20 in each of those
columns, but for 2018/19 there is indication that that
Bermuda House of Assembly


programme has been discontinued. So I am just wondering how that ties in with the Government’s co mmitment that they will provide 20 per cent of gover nment capital projects through their new sort of OPMP protocols to ensure that businesses will be able to benefit from small projects like this if this project has
been disc ontinued in terms of tendering them to the
private sector.
So I am just wondering, you know, if the Mi nister can perhaps share that, because that seems to
be a dichotomy in terms discontinuing a programme
on the one hand and, on the other hand, indicating
that that was going to be something that the public could look forward to by being able to get a portion of
some of the contracts that are out there. So that is
page B -226, Public Lands and Buildings and commi tment to small businesses.
On page B -228 on p rogramme 8202, on
Highways for business unit 92008. Now, interestingly, the Minister gave an overview on 92008 when he said
that there was no expenditure anticipated for this year
and, therefore, there was nothing included in the budget. But the line item of 92008 was not even i ncluded in the Budget Book. So I was a little confused when he mentioned 92008 when it is not there. I think the Minister did say that there was no allocation in
2017/18, and there was none going to be done because of what he said because of priorities in 2018/19. But I would be curious to know what the actual was in 2016/17, if there was any, or if this is a
programme that really needed to have been deleted.
And, if so . . . I am just curious why the Minister
brought up the 92008 in his brief when there is no reference to it actually in the Budget Book. So, I just
need some help in that regard.
[Programme] 92005, which is also under
Highways, is Road Asphalt and Signs. And the amount that has been allocated to that is $777,000, as
against $1,084,000 original, $597,000 revised in 2017/18. There is a difference of $180[,000] more or
$307[,000] less, depending on which number you
choose. But the question is, on that Road Asphalt and Signs, will all the asphalt that is required still . . . will it
all be provided by the quarry? Or is there the possibi lity that we have to purchase asphalt from East End?
Is the plant that we have at the quarry suff iciently adept to ensure that the volume that is r equired, the cubic capacity that is required, for produ ction of asphalt? Is [it] sufficient with just the quarry
machinery, or is it likely that we need to purchase any
from, I think it was, East End Asphalt, which was sort
of like the secondary provider of choice or of, not even
choice, availability at the time? So I would just be c urious as to . . . because I do know that there were
questions respecting the ageing plant, which my ho nourable colleague Craig Cannonier from [ constituency] 12 brought up about the state of the machinery at
Works. Is th at machinery there likely to be able to
make sure that we have sufficient capacity to make the asphalt, to be able to blend it with bitumen and
whatever else goes into it to provide the demand for
the . . . I did not actually make a note of the actual . . .
I think for the 31 . . . sorry, that was roads being lined,
. . . for the 10 kilometres of public roads that we are
scheduling to asphalt? Will that plant be able to man-age that capacity and that demand?
Under 8203 on Waste Management, the Mi nister did indicate that the installation of the new turbine
engine had resulted in significant savings in electricity.
So that, obviously, is a good thing. The turbine engine was a tremendously expensive proposition. But when
capital expenditure starts to show that it is paying for
itself, then all you can do is breathe a sigh of relief and say, you know, may it long continue.
So I just wondered, and I think my honourable
colleague Cannonier did also ask the question, whether . . . while the generation of electricity has r esulted in significant savings, is there any plan to e nsure that this plant is able to power the national stadi-um—and I know it is going to take capital expenditure
in order to be able to get the piping and whatever else from Tynes Bay up to national stadium —but to be
able to fund the cost of that major expenditure that is
required there, which we will probably see under a
different Ministry when we debate it, but whether that cost is likely to, you know, be ameliorated by the
availability of capacity coming out of the new gener ation of electricity provided since the new turbine e ngine has come into being at Tynes Bay.
My next question is on page B -231 and that is
with respect to Output Measures, Performance Measures, under business unit 92003. And i t spoke to
the number of bridges that have had an inspection,
either in general or in principle, during the year. And
there is anticipated . . . there were four in 2016/17,
there were six forecast in the revised forecast for
2017/18, and also six is the targeted outcome for
2018/19. And the question that I have is, will we, by
the time we get to 2018/19, be seeing some repetition of bridges that have already been inspected to see
whether there has been any deterioration in any of
them subsequent to the last inspection? Or will these
six that are planned for this coming year all be brand -
new inspections that, perhaps, have not been i nspected prior to that? So I wonder if we can just have some information on that.
On page B -231 as well, I have another question. And I just wrote the page and I did not write what
the question was. So I have to pass by that and may-be just when the next speaker speaks I will probably be able to have a little quick look and see what other
question I was planning on asking on page B -231.
But I do have two more questions. One of
which . . . the vacation days to which my honourable
colleague from [constituency] 12 spoke when he was
on his feet, in terms of how can we find a solution to
Bermuda House of Assembly
1200 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

the fact that you can have some people who have
been able to save up their vacation days and, ther efore, have so many accrued days that they could conceivably be off for significant periods of time, hence,
creating a scheduling challenge, an administrative challenge. And the question is that in trying to look at
this, is there a possibility that we can look at paying employees for some of the accrued vacation that they have?
Obviously you do not want them to lose out on
any of the time that they have built up. So can we pay
them for some of the accrued vacation time that they
have had and maybe have a cap on the maximum amount that can be carried forward? So if you get to
the end of a year and say you have maybe 30 days
that you can carry forward, but anything that you have in excess of that we are going to pay you for it. So that
helps with planning and it helps with being able to manage availability of staff and it actually will help to put some additional funds in people’s pockets as well.
Now I realise that this may take a significant
funding outlay. But it is certainly worth considering if the challenge that we have, especially within the sanitation department, if we have a problem of pickup b ecause we do not have sufficient personnel. We hear
that some of the personnel are burnt out. And if they
do not have the ability to take their vacations, then,
obviously, that is going to exacerbate the situation. But the question is, can we consider maximum carry -
forwards, but ensure that nobody loses out?
And I have to, at this point in time, also make
one othe r comment . . . one other question that I have.
The Minister spoke of the reduction of the cost of waste collection and he said, in Solid Waste Colle ction under 92009 on page B -228, which is a cost of
$4,419,000, in which the Minister indicated that some of the reduction will be a function of a reduction in salary due to additional staff coming on board and less overtime. Now I do know that a significant number of employees within that department rely on that overtime. You can see times when, whether it is just b ecause of the way the runs have gone during the
course of the day . . . I have gone home sometimes at
10:00, 11:00 at night after working, and the gentlemen
from that department are still out collecting. So I know that it is wonderful to say that . . . I mean, they do a
fabulous job. I mean, I have to stop and applaud the work for the sanitation engineers who out are there collecting under some very adverse circumstances,
sometimes in the heat of the summer, and with some
of the conditions under which they are required to
work [that] are not ideal. But we want to ensure that we have . . . you know, I just want to applaud them for
the work that they do, for the work that they continue
to do, as I said, under some extremely adverse ci rcumstances.
But ar e we realistic in saying that you bring
one or two more people, or eight . . . I am sorry, there
is a significant number more coming on board—15 new people on board—for solid waste collection. Is it
realistic to expect that the cost of salaries will actual ly
go down? Will we be able to get buy -in from the exis ting members who historically have relied on overtime in order to supplement their family income to, Now we
have got 15 new people coming on board we are g oing to pay them and it is okay, I am going to share
what I have, I am going to take less money so that
you all can have more? Which is why I think that if we
tie in somehow a maximum carry forward in terms of
vacation so that in the immediate, and maybe in the
medium term, the compensation that those workers
would be able to have in terms of being paid for their approved vacation time may help to ameliorate some
of the challenges that they might have if they now
have to lose out on their overtime because there are going to be 15 new people coming on board at
straight time.
So those are my initial questions for the m oment, Madam C hairman , and I will take a seat and
allow other Members to contribute to the debate.
Thank you.

Thank you very much, Member.
Would anyone else like to speak to the heads
under Public Works?
The Chair now recognises the Member from
constituency 19, the Leader of the Opposition, J. J.
Atherden.
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Thank you, Madam
Chairman .
I guess I have to start off right away with addressing a question that was posed to the Minister
and he did respond, but I believe that . . . I think I have
to ask it again because it makes a lot of difference as
we try and deal with this.
This is this whole question of which numbers
you use. I appreciate what he was saying with respect to, yes, the year is not over and, therefore, you are
going to turn around and say the year is not over. But
one knows that the budgets have been predicated on
the basis that certain things have happened. And I am
talking specifically with respect to head count. I am
not talking about any other things because head count is something where, unless you know you have got
something in the pipeline, that you have got jobs coming in or people being filled, head count is pretty si mple to calculate and pretty easy to turn around and talk
about whether there are vacanci es or whether the job
is going to be filled.
The reason I say that is because if you go
around and we look at the whole budget and then if
you go down and specifically look at the Ministry
budget, on the one hand it says the original estimate
for 2017/18 is 5,017 people. If you then go and look at the 2018/19 budget —

Bermuda House of Assembly

Yes.
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Okay, look at B -207, it
says Employee Numbers. And I am going to deal sp ecifically with the Works and Engineering as a Ministry.
But it is the same thing for the entire Government
budget.
This says that the employee numbers, in
terms of the original budget was 700 people. If we go on the basis of what the Minister just said a minute ago, then based on the new estimate for 2018/19,
there are only going to be seven more people hired.
And then it says, hey, well, there was not any shor tage in all of these areas because you only need to
bring seven more people on board. But we know . . .
we know, based on what has actually happened, that
on the one hand they are turning around and saying
that the revised estimate is 581, which is indicating
that there is a belief that there was a shortage, that there were 581 people that they had on board and
that they should have had 700.
So what I am saying is we cannot keep doing
this game of turning around and when you choose to, say that you had shortages because you are looking
at the numbers and then, when you choose to, turn
around and say that you are not bringing as many
people on board.
It is really important because if you reflect
back onto the SAGE Commission, which was talking about right -sizing government, if you talk about right -
sizing government, potentially it says that in the Mini stry of Works and Engineering that the people that you have had for the year, that you will finish up at the end of the year, is 581. If that is true, then it means that
there has been shrinkage and, therefore, there is the
opportunity to look at the efficiency of the departments and look at the rationalisation of the services before
you go and add more people. That is if you turn
around and look at what the numbers say.
And the reason I say that . . . and I am sorry,
Madam Chairman , that it seems to be confusing to the
Minister, but if you turn around and look at . . . and I
am going to say this clearly, that if you turn ar ound—
Lt
. Col. Hon. David A. Burch: Point of clarification,

Yes, Minister.
POINT OF CLARIFICATION
Lt
. Col. Hon. David A. Burch: Clearly the employee
numbers throughout the Budget Book are . . . the r e-vised numbers are actually what employees there are. Nobody is going to argue that.
My point was in relation to the actual amounts
and figures . . . those . . . my comparison was with
what the original amounts were last year.
Now, if you refer to any Budget Book you
like—last year’s or the year before—that is how they
were compared. They were compared to the original figures. This year, as far as I am concerned, the
Budget Book is wrong in its comparison. But the act ual figures in terms of employee numbers throughout
the Budget Book are correct.
There are 581 employees currently employed
in the Ministry. The 700 figure would be the esta blished number that was budgeted and funded for last
year. What we are saying is we are going to look to
budget and fund for 707 this year, but I can tell you
that we are going to get nowhere near that number
. . . deliberately.
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Perfect!
That is what I wanted to hear from the Mini ster. And the reason I wanted to hear that is because it
enables me to then pose the rest of the questions. If
we go on the basis that there are 581 people on staff now—that is the budget —then I cast everybody’s
mind back to the SAGE report.
If we go on the basis that there are 581 people on staff now, that is the budget, then I cast ever ybody’s mind back to the SAGE [Spending and Go vernment Efficiency ] report. The SAGE report that su ggested that Government should try and right -size itself
and basically was saying that if you get down to a lev-el, before you start to add on new posts, that the department should look to see whether those functions could be done differently; (1) whether you could do
them through efficiency; (2) whether you could do
them through outsourcing; or (3) whether you could do
them through privatisation
And the reason they said that is because if
you do not bring those heads on board, that does not mean that the services are not rendered to the people of Bermuda. The people of Bermuda want the service.
They want the service; but they also want to make
sure that we keep the cost of government down. That is why I have a real concern when I start to look at
some of these areas, and I am just going to go back
and I am going to use . . . if I go and I ask the Minister
if he could go and look at Public Lands and Buildings.
Public Lands and Buildings which was . . .

Yes.
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Okay. Now, if you turn
around and you look at that, Property Asset Manag ement, there is an indication there that there is going to
be three more heads put on. If I am going on the basis
that the actual . . . and I am going over to [page] B -
225. If you see 91004, Property Asset Management, the original was 13, the revised is 13, and you are g oing to have 16 during this year. So three heads ar e
being added.
The reason I am making this point is the fact
that, to me, if you are going on the basis of what
SAGE was trying to have us do, this becomes one of
those areas where one would hope that the Ministry
would have looked at this to say, Is this something that possibly could be actually outsourced? Because
that would mean that you do not have to bring the actual three heads back on board.
Also, if I turn around and I look at [page] B -
226, unfortunately, this says that for last year, Bus iness Unit 91004, percentage of Government -owned
properties inspected to ensure their proper use, maintenance, and that they are adequately insured.
So last year they only looked at 40 per cent. So we
knew that they did not come up to what they should
have come up with. So it is showing that there is not
adequate performance. And if that is the case, it begs
the question of, Should this be looked at as an area
that could be potentially outsourced?
Then, afterward, if you turn around and if you
go up on that same page, it is under [Business] Unit
91002, number of Government -owned buildings to
have a schedule of conditions and maintenance plan
completed. Up until last year there were only two, al though this year they are turning around and talking about 26. So this is saying there is something that is
happening in that area where it is not performing ef-fectively and efficiently.
This is what SAGE was trying to say to us. If it
is not performing effectively and efficiently, before you go and add manpower there, look to make sure that it
cannot be done differently.
And the reason I say that is because SAGE
even went further. They said [that] in some cases maybe you could turn around and decide to outsource
it and say to some of the people that were even ope rating in the department, Look, why don’t you go out
and start your little business. You can turn around. We might even give you some of the equipment that you
might need and you can come back and you can offer the business to us. And I am saying that because this
is the type of thing that we have to ask the question as to whether it is occurring. Because not only is it my
question that I am asking, it would also tie in to your Government’s suggestion, where you say that you
want to get people from off the sidelines and hav e
them turn around and have jobs and you want them to
do stuff. This is what would happen. Somebody would
be able to decide to go out, create their little business,
get off the sidelines, grow jobs, and then the size of government would not grow.
[
Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: I am going to go on to the
next one.

Opposition Leader, you are treading
on a thin line. We are talking about debate statistics.
The Minister has not mentioned anything about SAGE
or about privatis ation. You must stay within the co nfines of this budget.
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: I am staying within the . . .
within the question of, one, the efficiency of the d epartment. If you have only produced 40 per cent of the
schedules, if you have only produced two of the schedules of government that had to be reviewed, all I
am saying is that it raises the question of how efficient
or effective . . . and I do not have to use SAGE. I do
not have to use SAGE. I can just use my own mind
and say that this is demonstrating that the department
is not operating as efficiently as it could.
I am questioning whether the Minister, before
he goes and adds three more heads, which is going to increase the size of the government, increase the size
of his department, whether it has been looked at. That
is my question to the Minister. Has that been looked at?
I will go on now to the next one.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: I am going on to the
next one.
Bermuda House of Assembly

[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: I am going on to the next
one. Mr. Chairman, I think what we are all trying to
suggest is that if you turn around, and before we just
say that there are some vacant heads, vacant heads
give you the opportunity to re -examine how you ope rate. Okay? I want to make that clear. It is the oppo rtunity to see how you operate.
I now go on to [page] B -230, which is Highways. B -230 is what is in Engineering, and Highways
is 8202. And it is showing there that there is an indica-tion that the roads maintenance and—

Okay.
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Okay. There is an indic ation that there is going to be eight staff added to roads cleaning and six staff added to roads maintenance.
And all I am asking . . . because there is a concern
about growing the size of government, I am asking
whether the Ministe r has examined whether this is an
opportunity for these areas to be potentially outsourced? And the reason I say that is because some
of the performance measures are indicating that the
schedules have not been met. Some of the perfo rmance measures, and if I go to . . . we were talking
about the roads marking and there was an indication that the percentage that one required had not been up to the performance measurement. If I look at B -224
. . .

B-2 ?
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: [Page] B-2 30. The Chairman: Yes.
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: There is an indication that
15 more people will be added.
All one asks, if there is a concern that with the
number of heads that you have right now that you are not able to keep up with the performance measures . . . the Ministry is setting their perform ances; I am not
setting it. If there is a concern that they are not kee ping up with it, then one wonders whether instead of
just adding more heads—

Members, the Minister has answered
this by telling you that all heads are short of staff [and]
they have got equipment problems. That will affect performance measures.
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Sorry, Mr. Chairman. With
all due respect, I have to ask this question. I am as king the question of the Minister with respect to asking him to answer me as to whether, before he has added staff, whether he has considered whether this depar tment that I am raising, whether that is a department that could be considered for outsourcing or privatis ation? I am asking that question of the Minister, and I
believe that it is an appropriate question for the Mini ster to answer.

Well, Madam Opposition Leader, the
Budget Statement from the Government is quite clear. They have not mentioned privatisation or outsourcing.
You have got to take the lead from there.
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: A question is able to be
asked of any Minister, if they are adding heads as they are, whether they have looked at any other option. I am sorry, Mr. Chairman, I do not understand
why that is not an appropriate question.
And then I will go on to the next one. If you
then look at [page] B -224, which is the Public Lands
and Building . . . I think I have asked this question. The Property Asset Management, 91004 . . . I think I
have asked that.
[
Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Yes, I did. I asked that, so
that is fine. Let me just see if there was a last que stion. B- 228 . . .
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: I will give you some notes
in a minute.
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Mr. Chairman?

Any other speakers?
The Chair recognises the Member from constituency 6, Mr. Furbert.
Hon.
Wayne L. Furbert: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, let me clarify something. We
are talking about employment summary of depar tments, B- 12, and we are talking about . . . the Me mbers had mentioned something about 5017. Let me
just stick with the Ministry of Public Works. Let me
stick with the Mi nistry of Public Works on page A -12.

Mm-hmm.
Hon.
Wayne L. Furbert: Okay. So if you see, Mr.
Chairman, the 126 is a comparison of the estimate for this year with the revised figure. It does not mean that
the total amount of new additional staff is 126. As a
matter of fact, the only number that is going up is sev-en new staff, when you compare original with origin al.
That is the original 2017/18 of 700 to the estimate of 707.
Now the Budget Book was done a little different this year comparing the original with the estimate and so there was some confusion. We have to reco gnise that. But the Leader of the Opposition has said,
Well, why did you not reduce the numbers based on
the SAGE Committee? That is what I heard. The
SAGE Committee came out in 2013. The Chairman: Let me say this, Member. We are not
here debating the SAGE Commission’s findings. And I
am not going to allow anyone to bring it up here. We
are dealing with this book here.
Hon.
Wayne L. Furbert: Well, I understand, Mr.
Chairman, but I have got to compare numbers. And
the reason why the numbers . . . if you look at the
number for the number of staff . . . I will just deal with
this book then. [Page] A -12, under Ministry of Public
Works, the actual amount in 2016/17 was 598. Do you know what was originally budgeted in 2017/18? [It
was] 700. Does that mean there was an additional 102 additional staff in Works and Engineering? No.
And they know that! That was the actual—598 in
2016/17. And when the Budget came out it was 700. It does not mean the Ministry increased it by 102.
It is the same situation here. The only thing is
that when we compared the 707 estimate of 2018/19 with the revised of 581 . . . that was what it was co mpared with. But the actual amount, when you compare the original budget of 2017 with the estimate of this year, there is only seven additional staff for this year.
Now, I hope that clarifies that the Ministry is not going
out and hiring an additional 126.
Now, I understand that by looking at A -12, the
complement of staff, that there is some confusion.
So when the Leader of the Opposition was
talking about . . . I think it was Head 82, and cost ce ntres B- 2006 . . . sorry, 92006, roads and maintenanc e,
and 92007, roads cleaning. She mentioned about it
going up by eight. But you have got to compare the
original 25 (2017), with the estimate. This is B -230.
You got that?
Hon.
Jeanne J. Atherden: I know what I did—
Hon.
Wayne L. Furbert: Well, it was wr ong.

Member, speak to—
Hon.
Wayne L. Furbert: When you compare page B -
230, roads and maintenance of 25 original, with the
estimate of 25, that means only 25 staff. There is no
new staff. There is zero staff from roads and maint enance. And there is zero staff for roads cleaning.
So I do not want anyone to go around here
and say that the Ministry is increasing the staff by 126. We accept that the employment summary of the d epartment is a little confusing. As I said, it was done differently this year. But you have got to compare the
original of last year with the estimate of this year. That
is the number we should be looking at.

I am going to respond
in some order or fashion. I guess if I miss some they
can repose them .
Let’s star t with the one -week garbage collection. The question was, How long is it going to be in
effect? And some suggested that it would be perm anent. It is 10 weeks; it ends on the 27
th of April. What I
would like to say is that we will not wake up on the 26
th of April and figure out how we are going to not
continue this. In fact, we have had some discussions
already internally about how it is that we address the
challenges that we are facing in terms of how we stick
with the 10 weeks of one -week garbage collectio n.
Clearly, the new trucks will not be here by
then. We know that going in. What the 10 weeks will allow us to do, Mr. Chairman, is to. . . well, first of all,
let me just say that I am greatly encouraged by the
response of the community at large to the one- week
garbage collection. I live in the west and a number of
people have produced their own signs for the neighbours, garbage collection is on this day , in case they
bring out their garbage as normal, and they did not get
the word. But as a general rule, coming from Sout hampton to Hamilton, Monday is normally our garbage day. And this morning I can say without fear of co ntradiction that I was greatly encouraged by the partici-pation of people in terms of recognising that if they put out their garbage and they get those little pets, those
four-legged pets, that it is as a result of their own negligence in their own neighbourhoods. So there is a
recognition of that.
What we intend doing is the 10 -week garbage
collection . . . I can say also that last week f or the first week of implementation, I would say that the latest that people were back in the yard having completed their runs was about 3:30 in the afternoon. So the i mmediate effect is a reduction and an elimination of overtime. So that is a good thing. What we have done, though, in relation to those funds that we would have
normally paid for overtime is allow the mechanics at
the quarry to work overtime. So what they will be able to do with the trucks that we do have is not just fix
what is immediately w rong on any given day, but they
will be able to do comprehensive service and maint enance of the vehicles so they will be back in service
longer.
We will look at some other options about how
we manage this going forward in terms of meeting the 10-week dead line. But I am also encouraged by the
increase in the number of residents who have taken
advantage of the extended hours at Tynes Bay public
drop off and are dropping off their own garbage. I, b eing one of them. For the last week or so I could not
remember what day my garbage was being collected
so rather than contribute to the challenge I could not
find the notice, and I was the one who requested a
map, because, you know, all of that. So I just threw it
in the back of the car and took it to Tynes Bay on my way to work. I find that this is a painless process, so I
did not contribute to the challenge that we are facing.
Increase in staffing levels for solid waste
management. This was probably one of the last que stions. I am trying to read the PS’s handwriting. There
are 15 vacant posts in that area. At the same time,
there are a significant number of long -term sick in that
area. So we are always faced with challenges. But I
can tell you that the expectation is that we are unlikely
to fill all 15 of those posts. We will manage them. Two
of the five people that should have started months ago started last week. The remaining three started this
morning. I have had an additional request to hire two
more from the people who had applied to the Ministry previously, and we will certainly consider that this
week.
What we are looking at now is, I mean, two
days last week we had more vehicles than we had staff. And so it is trying to strike that balance that we
are able to meet the commitment that we have under-taken. But I do not anticipate hiring all 15 staff. That is
our position at the moment. We will monitor how we are managing that and if there is not a need then we will not hire those staff, but if there still is a need on
occasion to do overtime, then we will utilis e the staff
that there is so that they do not lose all of the income that they would have gotten over the last period in
times of overtime.
There was a question in relation to the trash
trucks and the unsuitability of two of them. I can report that . . . Isuzu is the truck I think the former Minister
was referring to. There are some issues with that
truck, but they are the most reliable. The experts, i.e.,
the engineers and the mechanics, were likely to order
Bermuda House of Assembly
1206 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

some more of them and they will be able to wor k
around the challenges that we are facing. (I think all of
these are covered in the responses I have here.)
Are we getting new trash trucks this year?
The short answer is: Yes. Two were received already this year, one in July and one in September, and we
are ordering three additional ones. Bearing in mind that there is probably a six -week lead time so it will be
the end of the year. What we are doing in terms of the
selection of the trucks is, as I had indicated previou sly, that both the driver and a worker will be joining the team that are going to select these vehicles because
they are the ones that actually use them. So what that does is close the circle of all the key players in this
whole exercise so we should not have any pushback
in terms of challenges with trucks because they will have been the ones who selected them.
The increase in admin costs for Ministry
Headquarters of about $950,000 (or slightly more than that, I think) was as a result of the transfer of golf
courses to the Ministry effective November last year.
In relation to the telephone systems . . . well, I
would not like to tell you what I would like to do with them. Because the former Minister Cannonier is in
fact correct. It is a source of some significant frustr ation to me having to use them and so what I end up
doing is that . . . certainly the staff in headquarters get
tired of seeing me because it is easier for me to walk
around and find them than to try and use the phone
system. I cannot figure out whether you dial four digits
or seven, and I would like to put into stocks, perhaps,
the individual who chose to purchase them. (That is not you, is it, Ms. Smith?)
[Inaudible interjection]

What is happening
with Sandys 360? You will be aware that we tabled a
. . . it is not actually a purchase and sales agreement,
but it is a form of that agreement because the terms have not yet been finalised other than we know that we are not going to pay more than $1 million.
There is a significant amount of money that is
owed to the HSBC (I believe), and so we are purcha sing the facility for $1 million.
No capital funds have been budgeted in the
next financial year for work on the facility, but once the
purchase is complete a thorough survey of this stru cture will be carried out. Any minor works will be co mpleted on the major building upgrades, code 75112. Any major capital works will need to be properly
scoped and budgeted, and will appear in the following financial year.
In respect to the use and the future of the
building, as an alumnus of Sandys Secondary School, Mr. Chairman, I take a keen interest i n this, and one
source of some significant irritation to me during the previous iteration of Sandys 360 was the inability of
the students of the school to have full use of the facil ity. So we shall be looking to see how quickly we can
provide them with acc ess to it.
What is happening with Teucer House? The
architect section has completed drawings and submi tted an in- principle planning application to bring the
property back into use. While there is nothing specific budgeted in capital works, for this project there is $2.7
million in insurance funds that will be used for the in itial project to try and bring it back on line. And it will go
back into the government’s stock.
What is happening with Allen Hurst? This is
the former Hamilton Police Station building. No capital funds have been budgeted for Allen Hurst in this u pcoming budget, albeit there were funds in the current budget. A number of options have been put forward for bringing this historic building back into use. It is
anticipated that final plans for this building will be
completed in the next financial year with a view to
budgeting for the works in this financial year.
I might also add, Mr. Chairman, that there
have been at least two private entities that have a pproached the Ministry with a view to entering into
some type of arrangements where they bring the
building back on line at their own costs and the government repay them through rental income over a period of time. Those discussions have not advanced
anywhere as of yet, but I can tell you that I am encouraged and will certainly be entertaining them.
There was a question on blockchain technology for the Land Title Registration Office. The bloc kchain technology can be efficiently utilised in Bermuda
to provide additional security to enable unchangeable
land title registry that can be made publicly access ible, to simplify the arduous manual process involved with proving ownership before business transactions can take place, and to increase overall transparency.
I might also add, Mr. Chairman, that when the
Premier announced that this was to be incorporated
into the Land Title Registry Office, I had a convers ation with the Registrar, who advises that the plan for implementation now can proceed in parallel with the implementation of blockchain technology, and thus it
will not delay the ultimate implementation and opening
of the office.
There was a question, why the 469 increase
in the operational budget in 91004, Property Asset
Management? I think this was under Land Title Regi stration. This increase includes $100,000 for increased electricity costs, $20,000 in new funds for air quality
testing and an additional $35,000 for contractors, and
the balance in salaries to reflect the 2.5 per cent pay
increase and an increase in three FTEs [full -time
equivalents] in the programme.
There was a question about a $300,000 i ncrease in the budget. This figure actually should only
Bermuda House of Assembly

be $89,000. It is $300,000 if you compare it with the
revised figure. And this is a good example of why it is not good to do that. In fact, it should be $89,000, and
that r eduction is as a result of a secondment [of] an
architect to the Bermuda Airport Authority, for a year.
The question about the Sally Port. WEDCO
has nothing to do with the Sally Port. As you know, we
pay 100 per cent for this site. And technically, we are
on our own land, even though it is in the West End.
And you will know, Mr. Chairman, that it is used for
. . . (what waste is that?) hazardous waste —that is the
word I was searching for.
In relation to the Pembroke Canal, we are still
waiting. Basically, the $100,000 is a reasonable fi gure. A significant amount of money has been paid al-ready in terms of doing work on the canal. The chal-lenge right now rests entirely and squarely with
BELCO, who must do something on their side in terms
of removing baffles on the Cemetery Road. They have
agreed to do so. It is just a question of when they are
going to agree to do so. So we are looking at ways of
how we can encourage them to expedite that work.
A question was, will the Tynes Bay maint enance be used to addres s greases and oils? The a nswer is, greases and oils are already handled ad equately by the current system. Any system that does
not handle greases well is the contingency system. So
in other words, this system wraps and bales the ga rbage when the plant is down for maintenance. When
used, greases and oils are stockpiled until normal
burning resumes. So they can be burned in Tynes
Bay.
And just as an aside, we are doing an a ssessment now in terms of whether we go to a third stream or can we refurbish the streams we have. And
so, if the decision is made to refurbish, I think that we will be doing the same process that we did a number
of years ago, of baling and storing trash until it can be
burned.
Insurance and chargeback and keeping more
of the risk. The Ministry of Finance hired an insurance consultant in 2015 to do a complete review of the i nsurance policies. The review included advising on
whether or not a captive would be a better model for
the Government. The terms of the policy are deduct ible to the values, based on the review and reco mmendations. So policies were put back out to tender with revised valuables and deductibles, and some $4 million was saved in premiums. Whilst the insurance
book was tendered for five years, each year there are
changes to t he property policy, as properties are revalued. Some are demolished, and new ones built. In respect to the recharges on premiums, the recharges for premiums this year include, as I indicated in the
Statement, quangos —i.e., Bermuda College, Ceda rBridge Academy, Bermuda Housing Corporation,
BLDC [Bermuda Land Development Corporation], and
Port Royal and Ocean View Golf Courses.
Could the Minister indicate the new creation— An Hon. Member: Depreciation.

That’s the word!
[Laughter]
Lt
. Col. Hon. David A. Burch: —depreciation rate for
the vehicles and equipment? It varies as per the class of asset. Depreciation is done on a straight line basis
in accordance with the classification set out in financial instructions.
Asphalt plant capacity. With our current asphalt plant, we can do 30 kilometres per year easily, if we have crushed stone and bitumen. When we are
buying asphalt from East End, it is because our plant is down or on a maintenance schedule.
How is the $3 million capital for all schools
made up? As stated in the Budget Speech, works for the next financial year are being developed in conne ction with the health and safety officer, education facil ities manager, and the buildings team. A tender has been placed for private companies to conduct condition surveys of each school. These surveys will pr ovide a benchmark for the current condition of the schools and identify and prioritise short -, medium - and
long- term works, together with costs. In addition, each
school will comp lete a suitability assessment to assist
in a long- term plan for schools. Capital works already
identified include painting of Dellwood, Harrington Sound, Gilbert Institute, and T. N. Tatem. Major roof
works will take place at Port Royal and Dellwood
school s. A new air -conditioning system will be pr ocured and installed at Clearwater Middle School to
replace the existing system that has reached the end
of its natural life. Partial roof replacement at Sout hampton Pre -School, as well.
What is the capacity of the new trash trucks?
Usually, we get the Isuzu 4.5. The new truck, Pete rbilt, is 12 cubic yards. (And none of this means anything to me, so I hope it does to the person who asked
the question.)
[
Laughter]
Lt
. Col. Hon. David A. Burch: Those trucks are bi gger; actually, the biggest we will have. The team found back in the UK that can fit . . . a certain level of these trucks. All French to me.
Is it realistic that sanitation workers will be
able to cope with the loss of overtime? While this is a
reality, surprisingly, a large number of the permanent workers do not currently work overtime. Oftentimes, after-hours work was being performed routinely by
workers from other sections within the Ministry.
Can a new turbine supply the National Stad ium? Under the new Regulatory Authority rules, no, we
can only supply to the grid. So it would be unlawful.
Bermuda House of Assembly
1208 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

Is discontinuing of the performance measure,
the number of capital projects to be tendered to the
private sector or to the policy or assisting small bus inesses? The Ministry is committed to assisting and providing contracts to small businesses. In financial year 2018/19 in Public Lands and Buildings, there are
some $1.25 million budgeted for contractors for small
maintenance contracts; $35,000 fo r security contracts;
$479,000 for cleaning contracts and services; and
$225,000 for air -conditioning contracts. This totals
$1.989 million from operational budgeting alone. This equates to over 10 per cent of the department’s ope rational budget.
In addition, the majority of the major capital
projects, including cost code 75099, Office Reloc ations; 75112, Major Building Upgrades; and 75309, All
Schools Maintenance, will be tendered out to the private sector. This would put a further $6 million in pr ojects to the private sector.
I believe that gets me to the end of all of these
pieces of paper that I have, unless the PS [Permanent
Secretary] has got one more. Let’s see if I can read it.
Just this in relation . . . was this question
asked? Okay. There was a question, I think, about waste cooking oil. The Ministry is finalising a plan for a storage site for waste cooking oil that is collected by
private sector companies and individuals. The site will
be prepared to receive the waste oil in the coming months. And we will facilitate their being able to export
it off of the Island. So, all of those MPs still on this side who have been chasing me for relief, it is on the
way.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I will . . .

Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
I did indicate that I had written a reference
down, but I had not written the question. And I have now found it on page B -228. It was 8205, which was
Quarry Products.
When the Minister did his brief, he indicated
that he just spoke the numbers, but he did not give
any detail in terms of the component parts of the
92023 [cost centre] in terms of what comprised the $2.168 million. The quarry receipts, we had a revision
down to 1.240 last year. And it has come up now to 3.140. If we looked at the revised versus the estimate,
an additional $1.9 million. Nothing year on year, if you
look original to original. So I am just trying to under-stand wh at would have generated that level of differential on the increase on the quarry receipts.
I have another question, and that is with respect to . . . and this is going to be extremely paroch ial, but on Loyal Hill in Devonshire there are some road works that are going on to a property that had been undermined both by the hurricane and the trav-ersing of heavy -duty trash trucks and the like. And the
road had been closed off. Therefore, the residents
around that circle bring their rubbish up to a central
depos itory at the top of the hill. The question begs, is
this likely to continue?
I actually live on the hill, so I will declare the
interest. But some of the neighbours, especially now that it has gone to once-a- week garbage collection,
we are getting garbage that is being put out on days
that are not collection days. And I just worry about rats
and the like, which some of the neighbours have
complained about.
I just wondered if there is any indication as to
when that project is likely to finish and if there is likely
to be continued pickup from the actual residences.
The other question I have is with respect to,
the Minister mentioned in his responses just now with respect to the electricity on Bermuda College. And the question is that there has been a perp etual challenge
with respect to separating the metering from Stonin gton to the metering of the college. I am just wondering whether that actually has been achieved or whether
there is still just a chargeback from the . . . I am sorry.
It is not Stonington anymore— Coco Reef, the charg eback; or have they actually separated the meters so that Coco Reef have their own bill, as it were, coming
from BELCO, as opposed to the college paying for it and then charging it back? I am just curious about
that.
The Chairm an: Minister.

Okay. This is for the
operational cost of the asphalt plant.
In relation to the garbage collection on Loyal
Hill, I know that we are close to concluding the co nstruction of that wall. I do not know exactly when, but I know that it is well advanced. But if you give me a
note about where it is, we have a protocol in place for people who are not adhering to the one -week garbage
collection. And we will get a correspondence to them.
Bermuda House of Assembly

But the plan will be, once the road is finished, for them
to go back to the normal routes.
I am not certain about the question in relation
to Coco Reef and the college electricity. When I me ntioned it just now in my answer, I was talking about
insurance coverage and chargebacks to the government for those quangos. That is something that I can
look into and find out whether it has been resolved.

I did not get a r esponse in terms of what was the next stretch that was being considered for the LED lighting. Is there any
indication of that? I know that there is an overall plan
between BELCO and the department in terms of what
next. But it is just nice for people to know that their
area is going to be lit up well. And I think that was . . .
I will wait for the answer to that, and then I will ask, if I
have another question.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman,
Deputy Speaker. I just have a quick question for the Minister.
I have found that many people are calling and
are concerned about the difficulty of trash trucks get-ting down the smaller . . . well, the small carriage
roads in Bermuda. I mean, clearly, it is not so much
the road, even though people are building more walls
and boundaries and such, but that our trucks are ge tting larger. So I am just wondering if there has ever
been a thought about how we might be able to just
purchase even a few smaller trucks that would be
designated for the smaller carriage roads, and especially if we continue down the road of sort of the one -
day trash pickup, that there may be an opportunity for that.
And with the smaller trucks picking up on carriage roads, and in particular if anything can be done for roads that have people who are living with disabil ities, who are unable to get the trash to the end of a road, or if there are also opportunities maybe for some kind of general container for waste that does have to
be left at the end of a road. The Chairman: Minister, do you want to respond?

Mr. Chairman, yes.
There have not been any discussions in relation to
smaller trash trucks. I think that was tried some years
ago. But what I can say is that, as part of the ongoing
discussions about how we get back to twice -weekly
garbage collection, in this period of the 10- week r eprieve, we have had some discussions about how we addres s that challenge, going forward.
As an example, the lane I live on, they amazingly back all the way up it. And I just think that, in a
lot of respects, that is a waste of time, effort, and en-ergy, even though the skill of the driver always amazes me. But we will look at how it is that we can a ddress the whole question of collecting garbage on
smaller roads across the country in a way that will
give us some relief in terms of the trash trucks that we
purchased, in any case.

Let the Member continue.
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My question, although it relates to the one -
day-a-week, I believe it is something that reflects what
will happen afterwards —this whole thing of people not
putting their garbage out in containers such that it s ecures them, because we are now starting to get lots of
people putting out paper bags and all sorts of other stuff.
I do not know whether the Ministry is going to
start to enforce the requirement that peopl e actually
secure their garbage. Because as was said earlier,
when you start having people not just putting out by
the roadside, but actually bringing it up because the trash truck cannot get to their road . . .

Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Bermuda House of Assembly
1210 26 February 2018 Official Hansard Report

Mr. Chairman, the other question that was left
unanswered by the Minister was with respect to page,
again B -228, under heading 8202. In the Minister’s
brief, he made reference to business unit 92008 and said that there was no allocation for this coming year, and there had been none for the last year. But he did
not indicate that the name of the programme . . . he
may have said the name of the programme, but unfortunately, I did not write it down. But was there any
2016/17 information that ought to have been inclu ded? Because that line does not exist in the Budget Book, but it was included in his brief. So I am just trying to understand what it was and what was missing.

Okay. I t is funding for
private roads, and it has not been funded for the last few years.
I can also . . . I will come back to the Oppos ition Leader about proper containers.
But I do have an answer in relation to Loyal
Hill. The work was completed on Friday. So, garbage
collection should be back to normal.
We have been having some discussions i nternally, along with the whole concept of getting back to twice -weekly garbage collection, about proper containers. But, certainly, in our public pronouncements,
we have been encouraging people . . . well, to some
extent, if they put it in a plastic bag, we think we have got a gift. Because I still see people putting it out in
paper bags. And so, it creates another whole set of
challenges if it rains. And chances are, it is going to.
But we are having some serious discussions
within the Ministry as part of the overall waste man-agement plan, going forward at the end of this 10 weeks, about how it is that we can assist the comm unity to better be able to help the sanitation workers in
doing their job. And that includes the possible prov ision of bins. Yes.

Are there any objections to that m otion?
There are no objections.
Agreed to.

[Gavel]
[Motion carried: Ministry of Public Works : Head 36,
Headquarters; Head 49, Land Valuation Department;
Head 53, Bermuda Housing Corporation; Head 81, Public Lands and Buildings; Head 82, Department of Works and Engineering; and Head 97, Department of Land Title and Registration were approved and stand
part of the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for
the year 201 8/19.]

Members, is there any objection to the
Committee rising and reporting progress?
No objections. No? Good. Okay. We will rise
with leave to come back at another day.
Now we will move on to the other Orders of
the Day.
The Clerk: The Second Reading of the Health Insu rance Amendment Act 2018.
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: That is being carried over, Mr.
Speaker.

Do any Members wish to speak to
that?
No Members wish to speak to that. The
House stands adjourned.

[Gavel]

[At 6:54 pm, the House stood adjourned until
10:00 am, Wednesday , 28 February 2018.]
Bermuda House of Assembly

Government of Bermuda
OFFICE OF THE MINISTER


PARLIAMENTARY QUESTIONS

RESPONSES BY
The Hon. Walter Roban , JP, MP
Deputy Premier and Minister of Transport & Regulatory Affairs

TO QUESTIONS TABLED BY
The Hon. Leah Scott , MP
Deputy Opposition Leader, Shadow Minister of Tourism and Transport

Due Date: 23 February 2018


Question 1: Will the Honourable Minister please provide this Honourable House the
number of Bermudians currently employed at L.F. Wade International Airport in the
Airport Redevelopment Project and Bermuda Skyport Corporation, and a breakdown of
the areas where they a re employed?

Answer: ‘Mandays’ is the standardised reporting format for a transient type of work which
provide s an accurate summation of work completed. For January 2018, Bermudians
provided 1043 mandays of labour out of a total of 1398 mandays of labour at the Airport
Redevelopment Project . The breakdown of mandays is split between 124 staff and 919
craftsman. Skyport operates the airport and in this capacity it employ s 48 management and
staff, of which 44 are Bermudians or spouses of Bermudians. Skyport ’s employees cover
airport operations, finance, commercial, administration, maintenance and technical areas.

Question 2: Will the Honourable Minister please provide this Honourable House with the
aggregate cost of the four (4) buses recently delivered, as well as the costs of any new
buses on order for the Department of Public Transportation?

Answer: The Department of Public Transportation has had only one new bus , out of the
four on order, delivered as of this date. The value of the contract for the four buses is EUR
814,560 or $1,004 ,515 (plus shipping and duty ). Those are the buses for which a contract
is signed .

Question 3: Will the Honourable Minister please provide this Honourable House when
the Department of Public Transportation Bus Schedule will be put to arbitration?

Answer: There is no labour dispute with the Bermuda Industrial Union which would
result in the bus sc hedule being put to arbitration at this time.