March 10, 2017

Yes.
Hon. E. David Burt: In the Honourable Minister’s answer, he says that the request was made by Cool ey
and it was approved by him. When the request was made by Cooley and was approved by him, would the
Honourable Minister please advise this Honourable House what was the estimated expense that he ap-proved for this consultancy?
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: There was no estimated expense at the time, Mr. Speaker. It was just assured
that it would be a reasonable cost.

[Inaudible interjections]

All right. Attorney General.

Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: Mr. Speaker, I certainly was
not asked if I approved the questions. But the House
deserves the respect, and the people of Bermuda d eserve the respect, of my answer as to why it is not appropriate to answer them. If I had gone through the
back door, these Members would be jumping up and down.

MP Scott. Yes.
Hon. Michael J. Scott: Sir, again to the Attorney
General: Will the Attorney General agree that, in light
of the serious complaint now in the public domain that his action s are being complained about by Lord Gol dsmith, QC, and Jerome Lynch, QC, that his continuing the consultancy is actually continuing the breach of a citizen’s —namely, Dr. Brown’s —constitutional rights
and is breaching, possibly, the Mutual Legal Assis-tance Treaty that this country has entered with the
United States, will the Attorney General agree that his continuing this consultancy is continuing those two breaches, at the very least?

Attorney General.
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: Mr. Speaker, there have been
no such breaches. There have been some false
statements in the media. And they are indeed false. I
do not know if the individuals who have made the
statements realise that they are false, but they are false. We will address that. We know that those letters were leaked to the media for some sort of public rela-tions benefit. We are not following that sort of route with the litigation we are following.
And what Members have to appreciate is that
there is a possible criminal prosecution, which involves an investigation by the police. The people who
decide on that, obviously, will be the Commissioner of Police and Mr. Mussenden, the Director of Public Prosecutions. I have nothing to do with the criminal side. I am undertaking a civil case, civil lit igation, in
Boston against the Lahey Hospital.
Now, in that case, you know, there is a complaint, which is a public document. I do not control that. In the United States it is a public document, and everyone has the right to read that. Now, obviously, if there are persons who feel that there are statements
in that document which are not true, they are, of
course, free to publicly say that those statements are not true.
No one, to my knowledge, has yet said that.
No one has actually controverted any factual statement contained in that complaint. There has been a
lot of mudslinging to attempt to attack my integrity and
credibility. But that, as I said, is public theatre and it is the politics of distraction. And I am not going to allow myself to be distracted in the job that I have, to do
what I need to do. And I am sure that the powers that be with respect to the criminal prosecution will not be
distracted by all of this theatre either. Thank you, Mr.
Speaker.

All right. Thank you, Attorney General.
Yes, the Chair will recognise the Leader of the
Opposition. MP Burt, you have the floor.

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you very much, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, given the fact that Financial I nstructions in the country require quotes for items to be given, and given that items that are a certain amount have to be approved by Cabinet, will the Honourable
1004 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Attorney General please advise what date—
specifically what date— did the Cabinet approve the
award of this contract to the law firm in question?
What date?

Yes, Attorney General .

Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: All I can say to the House, Mr.
Speaker, is that the individual litigation has been approved. Each piece of litigation that has been taken forward has been notified to Cabinet and has Cabi-net’s support for that. But what I do within the power
of the Attorney General, it is within my remit under my
constitutional powers to act on behalf of Government.
I am the principal legal advisor to the Bermuda Gov-ernment and act as such.

Yes, yes.
Hon. Michael J. Scott: To the Attorney General: On
the basis that you, sir, are aware of Article 7 of the
Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty [Between the United States of America and Bermuda], which I have before me, that provides that “The Requesting Party shall not
use or disclose any information or evidence obtained
under this Treaty for any purposes other than for the proceedings stated in the request, without the prior consent of the Central Authority of the Requested Par-ty,” the United States. Will the Attorney General now
confirm that this Article 7 has not been breached?

Attorney General.
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That Honourable and Learned Member is, I
believe, under a fundamental mistake of fact. He
reads out the Article of the Treaty; that is fair enough. We have not used any information from any criminal investigation in any other place which involves any of the parties to this civil litigation. We have used locally sourced information that we have available to us.

The question was with regard to information locally.

Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: This matter is sub judice.
They involve investigations. So, obviously, it would be
prejudicial to the court cases to reveal any of that i nformation. And I do not even know what information he is talking about. But I am not going to reveal where we get our evidence from. It will come out in the court
case.

Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to refer you quite
quickly to Erskine May’s [Parliamentary Practice] , the
23
rd [Edition]. And it deals specifically with matters that
are sub judice, in particular pages 352 and 353. I am
hearing a lot, Mr. Speaker, about matters being sub
judice. And under the rules, if I may read quite quickly,
it indicates that with respect to Great Britain, “The rule does not apply to matters which are sub judice in
courts of law outside of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.” And by extension, with respect, Mr. Speaker,
that also applies here. The matters that we are speaking about today involve litigation that has been taken overseas. And, as such, it is inappropriate, particularly
according to Erskine May’s [Parliamentary Practice],
that the Honourable Attorney —

However, Attorney General, let me just
say that certainly, if I may, I refer Members to the fact
that any matter that is not dealt with specifically within
our [Standing Orders], then we move to May’s . And I
have researched this myself previously in regard to
matters which are in courts overseas. So matters that are in courts overseas, the sub judice falls away in that regard.

Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: Mr. Speaker, with all due r espect, our [Standing Order] is quite clear on it.
[Crosstalk]

All right. Thank you.
The Chair will recognise the Honourable
Member from constituency 29.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Honourable Attorney General, you have said
that no estimate was given for the PR firm, and you
would expect reasonable costs. Now, we know that
reasonable costs to some people could be a million dollars. Having said that, with the reasonable costs maybe likely to head over $50,000, did you not feel it was appropriate to ask Cooley to get a second or third
pricing to you?

Yes, Attorney General.
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: I am not aware that what he is
saying is at all true. I do not accept that what he is
saying is true. I certainly do not know that what he is
saying is true with respect to the nature of the firm. But the costs, so far as I know, are reasonable. So I
do not know why Members think that there are going
to be outrageous costs or why they are obsessed with the cost of that firm.

[Inaudible interjections]

Mr. Speaker, I would ask the
Honourable Attorney General, would it not be correct
that, notwithstanding the revelation of the details that were in the statement of claim that was made public in
our Bermuda press, would he not agree that certainly
that process is completely contrary to custom and practice of an acting Attorney General, revealing pub-licly the contents of a statement of claim, and that to do so was obviously either political folly at the best or being mischievous at the least?

Attorney General.
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: Mr. Speaker, I do not know
whereof the Members speak. It is a public document —a public document. It was on the front page of
the Boston Globe. It is not something that I have the
ability to keep secret. And I certainly do not want to
hide from the people of Bermuda what they deserve to know.

Honourable Member. Honourable
Member. Honourable Member, if you have that, if you
could just provide that information, actually just the
hourly rate, it would be helpful.
Yes, MP Scott.

QUESTION3: LAHEY CLINIC, ATTORNEY GE NERAL’S CIVIL ACTION
Hon. Michael J. Scott: Finally, to the Attorney General: Will the Honourable Attorney General kindly inform this Honourable House, who are the attorneys for
Bermuda instructing the Boston law firm of Cooley
LLP?

The Speake r: Yes. Attorney General.
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: But it is myself, Mr. Speaker.

I think it is outside of the question, because we are asking about who the actual attorneys
are, instructing. Yes.
Yes.

Hon. Michael J. Scott: My follow -up.



Bermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: Yes.

Hon. Michael J. Scott: I am grateful to the Attorney
General for indicating that he is the attorney instruc ting. I would be grateful if the Attorney General would
confirm to this House beyond peradventure that no private attorney has been involved or instructed in
connection with these proceedings in Boston initiated
by the Government.

Yes.

Hon. E. David Burt: The Minister said that there is no
law firm . . . sorry, no other local counsel that is assis ting in this. Earlier, the Minister, in some of his an-swers, mentioned about the investigative resources at
the disposal of his office.
Would the Honourable Minister please elaborate on the investigative resources that are part of the
Honourable Attorney General’s Chambers?

Yes. Hon. E. David Burt: And it is very painful to ask questions and not be answered. I asked the investigative
resources at the disposal of the Attorney General. The Attorney General said it is just him. So is the Attorney General personally writing to departments and getting information and collating this information and sending it to Boston? He says that there is investigative information. I would think that the Attorney General may
be a little bit busier than that. So can he elaborate on
what investigative resources are at the disposal of his department?

Thank you, Attorney General.
Yes. The Chair will recognise the Member
from constituenc y 29.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Attorney General, you said that you had r eceived information in various departments inside of
Government. Can you give us maybe a few examples of some of the departments or maybe one or two of them that your investigative arm has reached out to?

Attorney General.
Hon. Trevor G. Moniz: No, Mr. Speaker. That is outside of this question. And I am not going to provide
the evidence to the other side. I mean by “the other side, ” I mean Lahey. You are trying to prejudice the
ongoing case, clearly.
1008 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: All right. Thank you.
Yes.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Mr. Speaker, when the
Honourable Attorney General says it does not pertain
to this question, it was his answer that I drew my quest ion from.

Yes.

POINT OF PRIVILEGE

Hon. E. David Burt: I rise again on a point of privilege
of the House of Parliament, where questions that are
put to Ministers of the front benches are to be answered. A simple question was asked to the Minister, whether or not he received information from GEHI, yes or no. And the Minister refuses to answer the question, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.
We will now move to the first Statement, by
the Minister of Finance. And the Chair will recognise
the Member from constituency 18, the Leader of the
Opposition.

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, just a quick note. There is an
error in your statement. They were in 2017, not 2016.
The title . . . that is what it said. It is the wrong year. But that is what happens when you cut and paste the
first paper.

I am sorry. Where were we?
Hon. E. David Burt: It is 2017, not 2016. But that is
what happens when you cut and paste the first three pages of the Statement.
So, Mr. Speaker, I will read from . . . and this
is quite a long question, Mr. Speaker, but it is relevant.
So I would ask your leeway in advance, if I may.

This time, yes.

QUESTION 1: CONSOLIDATED FUND FINANCIAL
STATEMENTS 2016

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I will read from the Finance Mi nister’s Statement which he made to this Parliament on the 20
th of May 2016. And on the 20th of May 2016,
the Minister of Finance said (and I quote): “1Also, I
can report that the Cabinet Office and Min istry of F inance have collaborated to develop an enhanced F inancial Instructions Training Programme. The key aim
of this programme is to raise awareness and under-standing of Financial Instructions with a view to pos itively impacting compliance and reporting. ” (End
quote, Mr. Speaker.) Mr. Speaker, that was from the Finance Minister’s Statement last year.
The Finance Minister’s Statement this year
says (and I quote): “Also, I can report that the Cabinet Office and Ministry of Finance are collaborating to de-velop an enhanced Financial Instructions Training

1 Official Hansard Report , 20 May 2016 Programme. The key aim of this Programme is to
raise awareness and understanding of Financial I nstructions with a view to positively impact ing compl iance and reporting.” Mr. Speaker, as you would note,
the quotes are still the same.
The question that I have for the Minister of
Finance is, Over the past year, what has been done to
advance this initiative?

Yes. Yes.

SUPPLEMENTARY
Hon. E. David Burt: I will just ask if the Minister could
please answer the question which I asked. Can the
Minister please state what progress has been made on the initiative that he announced in this Parliament on the 20
th of May 2016 in response to complaints
from the Auditor General, who complained about, and
I quote, “ongoing incidences of non- compliance with
the Government of Bermuda’s Financial I nstructions”?
He said that there was going to be a programme inst ituted, a year ago. Can he please update the House as
to the progress of what has happened with that pr ogramme?

The Spe aker: Yes, Minister.
Hon. E. T. (Bob) Richards: That is basically the
same question he just asked me a few seconds ago. And the answer is the same.

Your question number 2?

QUESTION 2: CONSOLIDATED FUND FINANCIAL
STATEMENTS 2016

Hon. E. David Burt: Well, I guess I will just move on
to question 2, Mr. Speaker, because question 2 is
very interesting, because previously we heard that the Honourable Attorney General apparently has the per-mission of the Minister of Finance to engage Gover n1010 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly ment in endless contracts without approval. Now I will
read, with a quote from the Auditor General’s Stat ement. And it says, and I quote—

Ah, yes.
Hon. E. David Burt: —which the Minister gave a
statement on.
And in the statement it says (and I quote, Mr.
Speaker ), “I wish to draw attention to ongoing inc idences of noncompliance with the Government of
Bermuda’s Financial Instructions, which form the standard for controls for the Government.”
So the question that I have, Mr. Speaker, is
Given that the Auditor General continues to raise these questions and given that it seems the Minister of Finance does not wish to do anything to advance and to repair —and to bring remedy to these ongoing
incidences of challenges with Financial Instructions,
will the Honourable Minister please indicate to this
Parliament right now what steps he will actually take, as opposed to making a Statement, to remedy these issues?

Minister.
Hon. E. T. (Bob) Richards: Mr. Speaker, this is the
third time the Member has asked essentially the same
question. I have told him and I have told this House
that this is a work in progress. These are Financial Statements from the fiscal year that ended a year ago.
It continues to be something that we are looking at in
terms of the whole Financial Instructions issue and
upgrading them. So it is, Honourable Member, a work
in progress. Do you understand what that means? A work in progress!
[Inaudible interjections]

Thank you. Thank you, Honourable
Member. The Chair will recognise the Member from
constituency 29.

SUPPLEMENTARIES

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you, Minister, for
that confirmation that it is a work in progress. We really appreciate that. Can you give us maybe one example of what some of your work -in-progress initia tives
are?
Hon. E. T. (Bob) Richards: No.

Minister.
Hon. E. T. (Bob) Richards: This is a work in pr ogress, and that is the position. I am not going to go into any details because these details are a work in progress. What does a work in progress mean? [Does
it mean] t hat we have not come to any c onclusions?
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. E. T. (Bob) Richards: So those questions were
asked in the first three questions the Honourable
Member gave me. I am not going to answer a ques-tion a fourth time.

I think that this was just answered. That
is the same thing, Honourable Member.
Yes, MP Burt, you have a third question?

QUESTION 3: CONSOLIDATED FUND FINANCIAL
STATEMENTS 2016

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you very much, Mr.
Speaker. I will go on to my third question because the Honourable Minister of Finance, of course, as I said, the first three pages were exactly identical to the Statement of which he made to Parliament last May, with the exception of changing three years to four
years.


Bermuda House of Assembly So the question that I would ask is, Can the
Minister of Finance please indicate to this House if
there were any adjustments that were made to the Bermuda Government’s Financial Statements and assets that were required in order to change the opi nion from being qualified to unqualified? Were there any material adjustments made in the Bermuda Government’s Financial Statements, or any restatements
that were made?

Yes. Minister of Finance.
Hon. E. T. (Bob) Richards: I do not believe there
were any restatements. In any case, these Financial
Statements are not made until they are completed and audited. There is a process that goes on between the Accountant General, the Financial Secretary, and the auditor to discuss any differences that may be there between what the auditor thinks and the accountants
think. This is normal in the accounting process to pr oduce Financial Statements.
Restatements come from the fact where
statements are issued and then restated publicly. So I
just want to try to learn the Honourable Member up.
There cannot be any restatements when you have got Financial Statements that are unqualified.

All right. Thank you.
Yes, the Leader of the Opposition again, for a
supplementary. Supplementary, right?

SUPPLEMENTARIES

Hon. E. David Burt: Supplementary, Mr. Speaker,
absolutely.
I appreciate how the Minister of Finance feels
the need to try to learn me up, but I am just going to try to learn him up, that it is very difficult to brag that your statements are now qualified to unqualified if there were actually no changes made to those stat ements.
So, Mr. Speaker, I will ask for the record,
again, seeing that the Minister of Finance said that there were no restatements, does the Minister of F inance confirm that was no material change made to previous Government Financial Statements which e nabled the removal of the qualification from the audit?

Thank you, Honourable Member.
Yes, MP Burt, again. Second supplementary?
Hon. E. David Burt: Yes, Mr. Speaker. My second
supplementary is, I thank the Minister for his answer
confirming to the members of the public that there were no changes to Financial Statements. So the pr evious items which were recorded which led to the qualifications were actually correct; and that is the
point that I am trying to make, which the Honourable
Minister knows I am trying to make, but he does not want to answer. The supplementary that I will ask, Mr. Speaker —

[Inaudible interjection]

Carry on, carry on, Honourable Member.
Hon. E. David Burt: The supplementary that I will
ask, Mr. Speaker, is: Given the incidents of noncom-pliance with Financial Instructions, which were stated
by the Auditor General, and given the Minister’s earl ier answers about that there is a work in progress,
would the Honourable Minister undertake to come back to this Parliament with a statement that would
outline the measures that the Government is taking to
improve the compliance with Financial Instructions?

Yes. Okay.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: “Current expenses for fiscal
2015/16 were $1.176 billion” and 2014/15 was $1.211.
1012 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly I believe the Statement says “$1.227,” the actual Audit
Statement. So the 1.227 should be . . .billion —not
1.211 billion.
Hon. E. T. (Bob) Richards: Honourable Member, I
have got $1.211. You may have . . . I do not understand.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: No, based on here. That is
what you are comparing it from.
Hon. E. T. (Bob) Richards: Oh, the book. Okay.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: See, look at the [Budget]
Book on page 5. You will see that it should be 1.227.

Hon. E. T. (Bob) Richards: I will look at that.

All right. Thank you.
And so, Honourable Finance Minister, you can
look at that. If we need to make the adjustment, then
we can make the necessary adjustments.
Thank you, MP Furbert.
We now move to the second Statement, by
the Honourable Minister for Home Affairs. And the Chair will first recognise the Deputy Leader of the O pposition, MP Roban, from constituency 15.

QUESTION 1: BERMUDIANS TRAVELLING ON
BERMUDA PASSPORTS TO THE UNITED STATES

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Will the Honourable Minister confirm, based
on the first paragraph of her Statement, which states that “we recently became aware that some Bermudi-ans were experiencing additional questions or delays
at some United States borders.” Can you confirm to
us how many reports you have had of these circumstances, please?

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: I do not know the
precise number of reports because they would have
come through the department, through the chief and through the permanent secretary. I can certainly find out and give you the answer.

Minister.
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: I agree 100 per
cent with that. It was anticipated. It was questioned. It
was asked. It was ignored when the new process was put in place, as was indicated in my Statement. As a result of it, we anticipated it. We knew there was going
to be a problem. We asked HMPO to address it. They
refused to address it. And now that we are having specific challenges at various foreign borders coming into the United States, we have now reached the stage where what has happened is untenable, and we
are demanding that there be an appropriate resolution
to this problem.

Perhaps the Minister would
consider that this may be an opportunity for us to r enegotiate this arrangement with the US Government, in light of the difficulties being experienced, you know,
with this particular arrangement.
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Mr. Speaker, I
wonder if the Honourable Member could perhaps
clarify his question. Because the issue is not a Bermuda/US issue; it is a Bermuda/UK HMPO issue.

Okay. If I can be given a little
licence, Mr. Speaker. Our passports have always been property of Her Majesty’s Government. They
have never been exclusively the property of our Go vernment. Correct? So the arrangement that we have on visa- free entry is not an agreement between Her
Majesty’s Government and the US Government. It has always been an arrangement between the Bermuda
Government and the US Government.
So I ask the question, perhaps it is opportune
for the agreement between the Bermuda Government
and the US Government to be renegotiated. This is a problem created by Her Majesty’s Government.

Yes, Minister.
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon- Pamplin: Thank you, Mr.
Speaker.
I want to make this clear, that there is no
change and no challenge between the Bermuda Go vernment and the US Government respecting visa- free
entry for Bermuda. Hence, there is nothing to reneg otiate in that respect.
If I can just have a bit of leeway to explain
what has happened . . . The change in the printing of
the passports, based on the biometric chip that was required and based on the parameters that were put in place by HMPO in printing our passports, is what actually has created this challenge. So that is the i s-sue that needs to be addressed, and that is what we
are working on. Once we can get that fit right, there is
no necessity.
And I think that the US Customs and Border
Protection Agency, certainly its Bermuda Office, has bent over backwards to ensure that we do not have any interruption of travel with Bermudians with the
passport, irrespective of where it was printed, when
they go through the borders either from here to the US with Bermuda clearance or from the US coming back in.
The challenges are if you are in Europe and
they do not know that Bermudians have visa- free
travel. The new passports still indicate that these are
Bermuda passports; however, i t says Government of
Bermuda. So if the foreign jurisdictions are unaware,
or if they are coming into the United States from a foreign border, coming into the US and cleared in the US rather than a preclearance, this is where the challenge
is being created. And this is what will be rectified if we
can go back to getting the nomenclature of BMU both in the issuing country page, as well as in the machine-readable lines. We are working on this assiduously; I can give you that much assurance.

Bearing in mind, Mr.
Speaker, that the Minister has acknowledged that the British, or Her Majesty’s Government, were not pr epared to take on the advice of Bermuda’s Department of Immigration, is the Minister sanguine, or confident, that the British now, in retrospect, or Her Majesty’s
Government, will engineer the right fix for this? Considering that every day there are Bermudian passports that are expiring, using the old code.

All right. Thank you.
Yes, Minister.
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Yes. Let me say
that, as was indicated in my Statement, we have actually gone with t he Premier. We have dealt with the
US Consul General, Customs and Border Protection, the Deputy Governor’s Office, the Governor, and now
the Premier has actually written to Baroness Anelay,
who is the Minister responsible for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and our challenges. So we are working from that perspective. Whether they are pr epared to do differently, we are also looking at other IT solutions which have not yet been finalised. But we
1014 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly will certainly be looking to try to resolve this particular
problem.

Thank you. It is not a specific
answer to the question, but it does say how they will work together. Thank you for that, Minister.
My second question is this: We often heard of
all the noise that is made about the Ministry being top-heavy. Given the PTSAs, the National PTSA, the councils, and now the Parental Involvement Commi ttee, what foolproof measures are being put in place to
ensure cohesion and to prevent any undue overlap
and friction that may occur between all these bodies? Because we have seen that already play out in the public domain.

Minister.
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Thank you. That is a good
question, and, you know, she is right. It is an inhibitor
to best practices and the delivery of first -class educ ation in this country. As I said earlier, as the Shadow Minister knows, we are doing a review of the Depar tment of Education. We have engaged a consultant to help us through the delivery and crafting of a strategic plan. And that strategic plan will look at the whole or-ganisational efficiency of the department, from top to bottom, and also will involve the involvement of our stakeholders and how we can better use them to pr o-vide more productive results that will benefit our st udents.

Given that this body will have
oversight of our entire school system, along with the other bodies that are in place, might I speak to the inclusivity by also inviting persons from the private sector, especially since you speak about what is happening in your transformational reform in getting this
new plan put in place? So why not include the private sector? Because it is a hope that one day something is put in place to have oversight of all schools, whet her private or public.

Yes, Minister.
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Thank you very much.
As I said during my Statement, the Parental
Involvement Committee was a result of a request made by a number of parents. And we felt that for
children to succeed parents need to be involved and
the community needs to be involved. Our family members need to be involved in supporting our st udents. And as a consequence, I also made it clear in my Statement that we will be engaging community
stakeholders generally from the West End to the East
End, be they businesses, be they teachers, be they doctors —

[Timer beeps]

Thank you, Mr.
Speaker.
Twelve Angry Men. Twelve Angry Men was
an original broadcast, a TV drama that was written in
1954. And by 1957, it became a theatre play. Well,
Twelve Angry Men is currently being performed by the
Bermuda Musical Dramatic Society. It had its opening


Bermuda House of Assembly night last night, and it will run through Saturday and
then repeat itself next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. While almost all tickets are sold, Mr. Speaker, it is hoped that another night, or perhaps a few, will be the opportunity to perform again. Because I believe, Mr. Speaker, that most people, especially individuals within this Honourable House, should have an opportunity to attend.
Mr. Speaker, Twelve Angry Men basically
speaks to the Constitution, the right of a fair trial for
all. And it goes to the human emotions of what takes place, or transpires, in the back of the room when it
comes to the jury. This play is fast -acting, but the
emotion led me, at the end of the night, almost to break into tears with one of the actors. And I am not going to go into any of what happens in the play be-cause I believe individuals should take this golden
opportunity to attend the Bermuda Musical and Dr amatic Society’s play of Twelve Angry Men.
But, Mr. Speaker, I would like to acknowledge
the first -time producer of any show. Her name is
Nathacha Kneeland. I had the opportunity to act b eside her last year, and this is the first show that she has produced for the theatre in Bermuda or any other
theatre. She has done an outstanding job, Mr. Speaker, right down to ensuring that all parts of this perfor-mance fell into place in a very logical and smooth manner. So the audience never saw any hiccups, at least, again, for the opening night. And I hope and pray that will continue throughout the remainder of the
performance.
Mr. Speaker, the set design— you are deali ng
with one location, and that is the belief you are sitting
in the back of a jury room. They have been able to create a little area where we would think is the water -
drinking area, where you would have coffee. And you
see the actors utilising this space so efficiently and so
well. They have an area that is cut off as would be the bathroom area. And parts of the play have to take place in that little snippet, which go to improve the environment. But the fast pace of this play is absolut ely amazing.
And, of course, before I take my seat, I would
have to take my hat off to another first -timer. And that
would be the first -time director, and that being Owain
Johnston- Barnes. It was the first time he directed a
play. Again, an outstanding job. I understand on the
night before the opening, one of the performers was
unable to attend. And of course, the director quickly moved into the slot and sat in the chair as part of the jury. And the play continued.
So, Mr. Speaker, I just stand to encourage
others to participate by attending. Thank you.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I do not know if you had the opportunity to hear on HOTT 107.5, I think it is, St. D avid’s Preschool, under St. David’s Preschool, where
they have introduced their musical talents, if you will. In fact, St. David’s Preschool students, in the pr ogrammes that they have at the preschool level, where
they create awareness of music and use the environment in terms of forming ideas and what have you, the students were asked to go outside and come up with something musical.
And because of their pride in their preschool,
one of the students, and that is little Miss L ion Ca nnonier , came up with the idea that, We need to do a
song for our school, because we are proud of it. And
that is exactly what was shared with me and shared over the year. Because I went and sought out infor-mation regarding this. And they came up with a school song that spoke to the pride and what is happening in
St. David’s Preschool. And I just think it was worthy of
highlighting that, because it speaks to, one, what is being done in our preschools; and two, how children
with exposure to various areas are being made to be excited about the programmes that they are exposed
to, and how that, at even that very tender age, is now
being translated into real things. They actually pr oduced a little CD, Mr. Speaker. And it was played over the air, their song.
And so, I just want to say c ongratulations to
St. David’s Preschool, under the leadership of Mrs.
Tucker and her teachers down there. Job well done!
And a real shout -out to the students, and I believe
there are 10, who created this song.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to my feet
today to ask that this House send hearty congratul ations to the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated,
fraternity Epsilon Theta Lambda Chapter, here in
Bermuda, who have just concluded a very successful
Annual Alpha Week. For those in the audience and those in this House who do not know, Alpha Week is a
week where the fraternity commits to give back to the
community for one week straight.
And this week we started off in the beginning
by conducting a programme that we call “Project A lpha” in every single middle school in Bermuda. What Project Alpha does, Mr. Speaker, it takes men from
1016 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly the community, and they go to the school and talk
specifically to the young men. And we talk to them
about the dangers of irresponsible sexual behaviour. It is quite a valid topic today. Even though we talk about
middle school and we think young, you would be very
surprised at the questions we get tossed back. And
the young men are very, very appreciative of men
coming there to talk to them as men about these particular topics.
Last night, Mr. Speaker, another one of the
activities was a symposium conducted, which invited various sporting clubs to come together in a town hall -
style meeting and have a talk about the sporting clubs
and the role that they play in today’s society, and what
things can be put in place to ensure that they play a more active role and the community plays a more ac-tive role in addressing some of the ills that we do see.
This morning, Mr. Speaker, the Leadership
Breakfast was conducted, which involved over 70 high
school boys, who were able to come together and
network with like- minded men in various industries
throughout Bermuda. So they have a chance to talk, ask questions, and also listen to some motivational speaking. The week will conclude tomorrow with the
Annual Ball, which will feature Patrick Tannock as the
keynote speaker, Mr. Speaker. So when we talk about some of the things that are going on in our society, I think it is very important that we do recognise that there is a group of men who are looking out for not just themselves, but for a segment of society who are
often marginalised by what people read and see happening amongst some of their peers.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to
offer congratulations to the Mr. Chicken business, and
the owners and the management of that company. As many are aware, they have recently opened another
one of their outlets in the East End. And I had the
pleasure yesterday of attending, along with a Member who sits in another place, Senator Renee Ming, and a former Member of this Honourable House, Mr. Kim Swan.
Mr. Speaker, we are pleased to see the
growth of a Bermudian black business. It is a pleasure
to go to a business and go to a cashier, and you have someone who speaks English. And the cultural exp erience around that environment of Bermudians being happy to have food that is local food that is created by locals and creating an atmosphere in St. George’s, I think that is needed with the loss of Selena’s when
they closed several months ago. Mr. Speaker, we
welcome this addition, and we encourage the conti nued growth of businesses and other businesses of a similar mind -set. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Chair will recognise the Minister
for Finance. Minister Bob Richards, you have the
floor.

FIRST READING

PAYROLL TAX AMENDMENT ACT 2017
Hon. E. T. (Bob) Richards: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am heading in the right place this time.
Mr. Speaker, I am introducing the following
Bill, which, acco rding to section 36(3) of the Bermuda
Constitution, requires the Governor’s recommendation, so that it may be placed on the Order Paper for the next day of meeting. The Bill is the Payroll Tax Amendment Act 2017.

Thank you very much.
Any objections to that?
There are none. So the Honourable Member
from constituency 21, MP Rolfe Commissiong, if you
will please take the Chair.
House in Committee at 11:53 am
[Mr. Rolfe Commissiong, Chairman]
COMMI TTEE OF SUPPLY
ESTIMATES OF REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
FOR THE YEAR 2017/18
The Chair: Good morning, Members. We are now in
Committee of the whole [House] for further consider ation of the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the Year 2017/18. At this time, I will recognise the Honourable Minister of Economic Development, and
we will be covering Heads 95 and 67.
Minister, you m ay proceed.

Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
It gives me great pleasure to present the
budget for Head 95, the Ministry Headquarters for the Ministry of Economic Development. And that is found
on pages B -330 to B-333 of the Budget Book.
I would like to make some brief budget -related
comments about the overall Ministry of Economic D evelopment before getting into the detail.
Mr. Chairman, the Ministry, in total, has been
allocated a budget of $40,176,000, as seen on page B-330. The estimate of $40,176,000 is actually an i ncrease of $20,224,000, up a lit tle over 100 per cent
from the previous year. The b udget in 2016/17 was
$19,952,000 , and the r evised budget is exactly the
same.
Mr. Chairman, of the $40,176,000 allocated to
the Ministry of Economic Development, $35,059,000
has been allocated to H eadquar ters, leaving the r emaining $5,117,000 allocated to the D epartments of
Energy, ICT , and the Registrar of C ompanies. It is
worth noting that , although there has been a substantial increase within Headquarters, about which I will go
into more detail shortly, the estimated spend with
these three departments in total has decreased from
$6,225,000 in 2016/17 to $5,117,000 in 2017/18—a considerable saving of $1,108,000, or 17.8 per cent .
It is also worth noting, Mr. Chairman, on page
B-330 (and I always find these comparisons interes ting), you will see there in the bar graphs that, overall, the Ministry is responsible for some 4 per cent of government expenditure, some 9 per cent of revenue.
And the overall Ministry has a revenue number, budg-eted this coming year, of $88.8 million, a lot of that
coming from the Registrar of Companies. The capital
is about 4 per cent of government’s overall budget. And the employees, which are budgeted at 39, are some 1 per cent of the employees overall in gover nment. So it is one of the smallest ministries, but I hasten to add certainly not the least important.
The Ministry Headquarters, in total, has been
allocated a budget of $35,059,000. That can be found
on page B -331. This is an increase of some
$21,332,000 , up 155 per cent f rom the previous year.
And as you can see there, the budget for 2016/17, the
original budget was $13,727,000 and the r evised
budget is exactly the same. The manpower is 11 fulltime equivalents in the Ministry Headquarters.
Mr. Chairman, of the $35,059,000 allocated to
the whole Ministry Headquarters , $7,499,000 is all ocated to Economic Development , and $27,560,000 is
allocated to the America’ s Cup. It is important to note
that, for year -on-year comparisons , the Bermuda
Economic Development Corporation (ot herwise
known as the BEDC) Grant is now included within the
costs for 2017/18. Essentially, that quango came under the Ministry in the course of last year. It is also
worth mentioning that 76 per cent of the $7.5 million
allocated to Economic Development relates to grants to the Bermuda Business Development Agency ( otherwise known as the BDA) and the Bermuda Econom-ic Development Corporation. I will break these down further as we go into the individual grants . MINISTRY OF ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
1018 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Chairman, with regard to Economic D evelopment , the Ministry’s mission is to facilitate the
creation of jobs and economic growth. The Ministry is
working to create an environment that is conducive to sustaining the businesses already in Bermuda and to making our I sland home attractive so that new businesses come and make Bermuda their home.
In carrying out its mission, the Ministry works
closely with other ministries, including the Ministries of
Finance, Public Works, Tourism Development and
Transport , as well as the Ministry of Home Affairs. The
Ministry Headquarters seeks to ensure that the departments under its purview deliver appropriate services, policies , and legislation in a responsive, timely
and thorough manner. The Ministry will operate eff iciently and effectively by placing the right people in
the right jobs , and streamlining systems and proces ses so that these people are empowered to work in a collegial and collaborative manner with colleagues
and stakeholders.
Mr. Chairman, within the Ministry of Economic
Development, the Ministry Hea dquarters has overall
responsibility for five government departments and
oversight responsibility for the Regulatory Authority of
Bermuda, the BEDC, the BDA, and the ACBDA
[America’s Cup Bermuda Limited]. The Ministry
Headquarters is sta ffed with a permanent secretary, a
comptroller, one policy analyst, a senior legal counsel ,
and some administrative and accounting support.
Mr. Chairman, the other departments that fall
under the remit of the Ministry of Economic Develop-ment are Head 39 , which is t he Registrar of Companies; Head 67, the Department of ICT Policy and I nnovation; and Head 89, t he Department of Energy .
Please note that , within the budget Head 67 [Depar tment of ICT Policy and Innovation], E-C ommerce and
Head 46 (which is Telecoms ) have been merged into
the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation.
Head 39, the Registrar of Companies. This is
headed by Stephen Lowe as Registrar. This depar tment works very closely with the BMA [Bermuda
Monetary Authority] with regard to incorporating companies in Ber muda. The Minister of Economic Deve lopment has responsibility for the Companies Act 1981 , and the r egistrar provides advice to the Minister
with regard to applications for consents and permis-sions under the 1981 Act.
Head 67, the Department of ICT Policy and
Innovation. This department currently has Dr. Marisa Stones as Director. The mission of the new depar tment is to develop sound policies and regulatory frameworks that promote and enable innovative elec-tronic communications, broadcasting, and satellite and
ICT-enabled industries and to facilitate the adoption
and growth of a secure and advanced digital econ omy. Alongside their role in ensuring Bermuda remains a prime and sophisticated jurisdiction to live and con-duct business electronically, their remit also enco mpasses working closely with the Regulatory Authority regarding the telecommunications sector. The d epartment has, and continues to work with , the Broadcasting Commission to regulate and license the
broadcasters. The department also has responsibi lity
for the Island’s orbital satellite slots and space- related
business.
Head 89 , the Department of Energy , is hea ded by Director Jeane Nikolai. The Department of En-ergy is responsible for providing policy support to the Minister with regards to all energy -related matters and
administrative and technical support to the Energy Commission. They also work with the R egulatory Authority now that the Electricity Act 2016 has been
brought into force in October 2016 , and regulation of
this sector now falls under the R egulatory Authority ’s
remit.
Mr. Chairman, as part of its responsibilities ,
the Minist ry of Economic Development also allocates
a grant to the Bermuda Business Development Age ncy in support of the public/private partnership that exists between th e Ministry and the agency. It also a llocates a grant to the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation in support of small and medium -sized
local businesses and entrepreneurs. And it provides a
grant to the ACBDA, which is the America’s Cup host committee, for both operating expenses and capital
development obligations with respect to the America’s Cup.
Mr. Chairman, the Ministry also has portfolio
responsibility for i nternational business and works
very closely with the Ministry of Finance to address the we ll-being and sustainability of this important ec onomic sector.
I am going to now move into the expenditure
overview, including an analysis by cost centre. And that is found on pages B -331 and B -332 of the Budget
Book. Mr. Chairman, as you will see there, the budget
for the Ministry’s H eadquarters is set out under four
cost centres. They are Policy and Administration, the Business Development Unit, Grants, and the Amer ica’s Cup 2017.
Programme 9501, cost centre 105000. I am
going to start with the cost centre referred to there as Policy and Administration, on page B -331. And you
will see there, Mr. Chairman, that the estimate for 2017/18 is $1,074,000. This is up by $317,000, or some 42 per cent, from the previous year. The Budget
for 2016/17 is $762,000, and the revised budget is
$757,000. There are seven full- time equivalents in the
Policy and Administrative Section.
Mr. Chairman, the budget in the Administr ation Section primarily covers salaries and general operating expenses. Although the increase looks su bstantial , this is largely due to a movement of personnel into the Ministry’s Headquarters as a result of the merger of Telecoms and E -Commerce. For the purposes of comparison, if this transfer is ignored, then
the 2017/18 estimate would be $880,000, an increase
of $118,000, or 15.4 per cent, over the $762,000 ori gBermuda House of Assembly inal budget for 2016/17. This increase is predominantly due to an increase in legal and professional services; this is to assist the M inistry as a whole, and not
just Headquarters, in the coming projects in the year
ahead. This increase has been funded due to the sa vings already mentioned within the other ministerial departments , being the Registrar of Companies, Energy, and the new D epartment of ICT. (And ICT
stands for Information and Communication Technol ogy).
I am going to move now to programme 9502,
cost centre 105020, which is entitled the Business Development Unit. And again, that is on page B -331.
As you will see there, the estimate for 2017/18 is
$736,000. This is actually a decrease of some
$36,000, or 5 per cent, from the previous year. And
the b udget for 2016/17 was $772,000, and that is u nchanged in the revised budget for 2016/17, also $772,000. There are four full -time equivalents in this
particular cost centre, the Business Development Unit.
Mr. Chairman, the $772,000 allocated last
year went towards helping the u nit achieve its mandate. Aside from salaries, the expenses under this cost centre include consulting services and general
operating expenses. Also included in the u nit’s e xpenses was an award of $21,000 for the Regulatory
Compliance Association (often known as the RCA) ,
which is hosting its third annual symposium in Berm uda in 2017 and which has been responsible for ma king 150 scholarships available for Bermudians interested in the compliance field.
Mr. Chairman, the core functions of the Bus iness Development Unit ( or BDU) are focused on activities related to international business. These include
legislative reform; monitoring and reporting on ec onomic activities both in Bermuda and abroad; provi ding concierge services to new businesses; facilitating
potential development opportunities ; and working in
partnership with, and supporting, the Bermuda Bus iness Development Agency.
Mr. Chairman, to remain competitive and
maintain the Island’s reputation as a leader in the of fshore business sector, Bermuda must continue to monitor its legal framework and, when necessary, take steps to amend or adopt new legislation. Working with internal and external stakeholders, the BDU ad-vances new policies and legislative initiatives to help
improve Bermuda’s standing as a jurisdiction of
choice for international business.
Initiatives progressed by the BDU are targeted
at meeting market demands through comprehensive and carefully tailored policies related to corporate products and service offerings. These policies are i ntegrated into what is already a flexible regime designed to meet the needs of even the most sophist icated businesses and transactions. To accomplish this, the Business Dev elopment Unit works in collaboration with various entities and groups , including:
• Government Ministries and Departments; • the Bermuda Monetary Authority;
• Bermuda Business Development Agency i ndustry groups, such as the Legal Focus
Group, Trust Focus Group, and the Asset
Management Focus Group; and
• other members of the private sector.
Mr. Chairman, i n fiscal year 2016/17, the
Business Development Unit worked with these stak eholders to successfully develop and present to the legislature several Bills which made significant chang-es to our legal framework.
Most recently, the BDU served as the lead
entity on a mendments to the Companies Act and the
LLC Act —that is, the Limited Liability Company Act —
to eliminate gaps in those laws concerning the reten-tion of records following a dissolution or strike -off from
the register of those entities. These amendments were necessary for Bermuda to remain compliant with
international standards governing the exchange of
information for tax purposes and efforts to combat money l aund ering and terrorist financing.
The BDU was responsible for leading the
Government’s effort to make various amendments to
the Partnership Act 1902, Exempted Partnerships Act
1992, and Limited Partnership Act 1883. T he amendments were designed to:
• provi de more flexibility in the management
and operation of Bermuda partnerships;
• clarify the legal impact of certain changes in the constitution of partnerships, as well as
certain activities of limited partners;
• clarify the priority of certain charges against
partnership property; and also to
• establish penalties for non- performance or
breach of partnership agreements.
The BDU team also led the initiative that r esulted in the passage of the Bermuda Limited Liability
Company Act 2016. This new Act serves as the go verning framework for an entity more commonly known
as an LLC. In relation to this new corporate product, I note the following:
• First, the Bermuda LLC is the first new corp orate structure established in Bermuda in more than a century. It is expected to benefit both
local and international businesses in Berm uda.
• The Bermuda LLC is modelled after the extremely popular Delaware LLC and is expected to help position the Island to capture a larger share of the offshore private equity
market.
• We are very much aware of the demonstrated
preference for the features of an LLC in the funds industry. Accordingly, amendments
were made to the Investment Funds Act 2006
to enable the use of the LLC structure for funds registered in Bermuda.
1020 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly • The Bermuda LLC is also expected to be very
useful to local small businesses, and sole
proprietors, seeking to establish a simplified corporate structure that can be owned and managed by a single member.
• The new LLC product is yet another example of Bermuda’s responsiveness to market demand both locally and abroad. This new structure will undoubtedly be beneficial to Berm uda’s economy and will help generate additional government revenue.
Mr. Chairman, in the upcoming fiscal year, the
BDU will undertake several consequential amend-ment s in order to fully integrate the Bermuda LLC into
our legislative framework. At a minimum, this will i nclude amendments to the laws governing partner-ships, the Segregated Accounts Companies Act 2000, and the establishment of regulations to enable LLC interests to be traded on the Bermuda Stock E xchange. The BDU will also lend its services to benefit
local businesses in the upcoming year by continuing
to partner with the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation to help educate local business owners on the advantages and uses of the new LLC structure.
Mr. Chairman, t he Business Development
Unit will support the efforts of the National Anti -Money
Laundering Committee in preparing the jurisdiction for the upcoming 2018 assessment by the Financial A ction Task Force. This periodic assessment is intended to ascertain ( 1) whether Bermuda’s legal and regul atory framework is consistent with international standards, and ( 2) whether the implementation of that
framework is effective. Given the importance of this
assessment to Bermuda’s continued success as a leading international financial centre, it is imperative that proper resources are allocated to this initiative.
As part of this effort, the BDU will continue to
serve as the team lead on a legislative reform project
regarding access to the beneficial ownership infor-mation for Bermuda entities. The project is intended to bring Bermuda into compliance with international standards in relation to beneficial ownership infor-mation. The underlying goal is to improve transparency within legal entities , as part of an overall effort to
deter and prevent the misuse of legal persons and arrangements for illegal activities. Bermuda is r equired to ensure that adequate, accurate, and timely
information on the beneficial ownership of a Bermuda
entity is available and can be accessed by competent
authorities upon request.
In order to meet the international standards, it
is anticipated that amendments will be made to the Companies Act, LLC Act, Limited Partnership Act, Exempted Partnerships Act , and the Partnership Act,
as appropriate. Consequential amendments to other statutes and regulations may be necessary to ensure that there are no conflicting provisions in any other laws. Mr. Chairman, additional legislative initiatives
will be progressed in the upcoming year , based on
proposals received from the private sector. This i ncludes amendments to the laws governing the admin-istration of trusts , and additional revisions to the Companies Act to moderni se and enhance the legal
frame work for Bermuda companies.
As members of this Honourable House may
know, the Business Development Unit works in close
partnership with the Bermuda Business Development Agency ( or BDA), supporting both the management
and operations of the BDA. The Senior Manager of the BDU is a member of the BDA Board of Directors
and serves as the Government liaison to the BDA.
The BDU also works with the BDA to provide
a concierge service for new companies seeking t o
conduct business in Bermuda. As part of this service,
the BDA helps to determine whether inquiries and
proposals for new international businesses in Berm uda are viable opportunities for our business sector. The BDA also connects new businesses with private industry service providers in Bermuda. On the other hand, the BDU’s role is to support the efforts of the
BDA in identifying new business opportunities , and to
serve as a central point of contact to assist and direct new c ompanies with Government -related issues.
The BDU provides assistance with a wide
range of matters , which include facilitating meetings
with Government officials , advising on applicable pol icies and initiatives aimed at attracting and sustaining
international businesses , providing guidance on imm igration strategies , ensuring expedited processing of
regulatory applications , and arranging expedited pr ocessing for arrivals of certain business visitors. These
important and valuable services are extremely well received by visitors and clients of existing Bermuda
businesses and new entrants to our international
business community.
Mr. Chairman, in addition to its core functions,
the BDU advances various economic development
projects and other Government initiatives as required.
This includes external outreach, investigating the feasibility of vario us projects for development in Berm uda, and interfacing with private entities to advance
potential programmes in Bermuda. One ongoing initi ative is the RCA Bermuda Compliance Certification Programme. That is the Regulatory Compliance Association, Bermuda Compliance [Certification] Pr ogramme.
As you may be aware, the RCA is an educ ational organi sation based in New York , which offers
courses focused on regulation and compliance r equirements applicable broadly to the financial services
industry. However, professionals in other sectors ,
such as insurance, legal , and government , also enrol
in and benefit from RCA courses. Following the a nnouncement of a partnership between the Gover nment of Bermuda, the Bermuda College, and the RCA
in 2015, the BDU worked with members of the private


Bermuda House of Assembly sector, the Bermuda Monetary Authority, the Bermuda
College, community leaders , and the RCA to impl ement a new professional development initiative f ocused on compliance.
The RCA Bermuda Compliance Certification
Programme offers a great opportunity for Bermudians
to broaden their skill sets and follow new career paths
both in Bermuda and in the international market. As
part of the partnership with Bermuda, the RCA intends to sponsor a total of 150 scholarships for qualified Bermuda applicants to enrol in the programme. St udents may achieve one to three certifications in co mpliance.
The programme officially began on June 6,
2016. Currently, more than 54 students have been granted scholarships and have enrolled in the pr ogram me. This includes 22 students who formed part
of a pilot group, which was used to help tailor the
comprehensive program me to meet the needs of
Bermuda. This year, the program me will open up to
additional students who may not be scholarship reci pients, but who are willing to pay tuition to complete the programme.
Mr. Chairman, if Honourable Members or their
constituents are interested in learning more about the programme, additional information and applications are available by contacting the Business Development Unit or the Bermuda College.
Mr. Chairman, the BDU’s small team has
proven to be a valuable asset to the Government and
the private sector. In addition to serving as a liaison to
the BDA and assisting new businesses, the BDU also provides much- needed assistance to existing Berm uda businesses in facilitating increased communication, access to Government officials, clarification of Go vernment policies , and resolving issues between the
business community and the Government.
In this upcoming year, the BDU will continue
its work in helping Bermuda to continue its success in the global market s and to increase our ability to compete with other jurisdictions for business.
At this point, I would just like to thank the Se nior Manager in the Business Development Unit, L ydia
Dickens, and her team for all of their work over the past year.
I am going to move now, Mr. Chairman, to the
Grants cost centre 10530, programme 9503, which is
on page B -331 of the Budget Book. And as you can
see there, the estimate for 2017/18 is $5,689,000.
And that is an increase of $1,564,000 from the prev ious year. The budget in the previous year was
$4,125,000. This cost centre is made up of grants to
the BEDC and the BDA. In previous years , the BEDC
has been administered under a different ministry.
Therefore, for budget comparisons, it is necessary to
take into account the grant for BEDC in the previous year. This has the impact of reducing the increase to $214,000, or 3.9 per cent. This increase has been fully allocated to the BEDC, while the other grant s to
the BDA remains static at $4,125,000.
Mr. Chairman, it gives me great pleasure to
present the budget for the Bermuda Economic Devel-opment Corporation, a quango presently under the Ministry of Economic Development. And that is also
found, obviously, under the Grants section on page B331 of the Budget Book.
The mission of the Bermuda Ec onomic D evelopment Corporation and its activities are guided by
its new three- year Strategic Plan for the period 2017 –
2020. The organisation's new mission is (and I quote)
“To inspire, inform, support and grow new and existing
Bermuda businesses through education, guidance,
data provision, advocacy, networking and financing.”
The Bermuda Economic Development Corporation ( the BEDC) was originally established , as some
Honourable Members will know, as the Bermuda
Small Business Development Corporation [ the
BSBDC ], under the Bermuda Small Business Development Corporation Act 1980, to assist with the development of the small business sector through the provision of financial support and business start -up
and management advice.
The Bermuda Small Business Development
Corporation commenced operations i n January of
1981 and was funded by an original capitalis ation of
$680,000. Such capitalis ation was subsequently i ncreas ed to $1 million in 1996 and was contributed as
follows:
• $500,000 by the Government of Bermuda;
• $228,600 by the Bank of Bermuda Limited;
• $228,600 by the Bank of N. T. Butterfield; and
• $42,800 by Bermuda Commercial Bank.
Presently, operating expenses for BEDC are
funded by way of a g overnment grant. The c orporation, via its legislation, is able to provide guarantees of up to six times its capital; therefore, it can provide a
total of $6 million in loan guarantees at any ti me.
The Bermuda Economic Development Corporation is currently responsible for overseeing the operations of the economic empowerment zones ( or
EEZs), for providing financial support and technical advice to small and medium -sized businesses, for
managing the operations of outside vendor markets ,
and most recently for managing vendors and issuing vend or licen ces.
The BEDC is Government ’s source of free,
confidential business advice with a singular focus to actively assist the development of a strong, well -
managed, and prosperous local business sector in
Bermuda. The organisation’s key objective remains to assist the Government in encouraging economic growth for Bermuda’s local small and medium -sized
businesses.
Mr. Chairman, under the Act, a “ small bus iness” (quote/unquote) is defined as a Bermudianowned and owner -operated business enterprise ha v1022 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly ing an annual gross payroll not exceeding $500,000 or
having annual sales revenues of less than $1 million.
In addition, under the BEDC Act, a “ medium -
sized business ” is a Bermudian- owned and owner -
operated business enterprise with at least three of the
following attributes: It has gross annual revenues between $1 million and $5 million. It has an annual pa yroll between $500,000 and $2.5 million. It has a minimum of 1 1 and a maximum of 50 employees. It has
been in operat ion for a minimum of 10 years. It has
net assets of less than $2.5 million.
In 2016 the BEDC had on its Business Regi ster 5,767 small businesses and 82 medium -sized
businesses. BEDC’s goal this year is to assist these
businesses to take advantage of developing entrepr eneurial opportunities as a result of increased visitors on the I sland during America’s Cup 35.
Mr. Chairman, it is estimated that the BEDC
will generate a total of $1,895,000 in r evenue in the
upcoming 2017/18 fiscal year, with the majority of funds coming from Government grants and soon- to-be
implemented annual licence fees of $1,619,000 and $215,000, respectively.
In 2016 /17 the BEDC received $1,410,000 in
grants from the Gov ernment. For fiscal year 2017/ 18,
grants totalling $1,619,000, or an increase of
$209,000, or 14.8 per cent, have been allocated. The
majority of the grant comes directly from the Ministry of Economic Development, totalling $1,564,000, as found on page C -21 in the Budget Book.
Mr. Chairman, the total current expenditure in
2017/18 is estimated to be in line with the revenue generated, whereas in previous years there has been a slight surplus.
Mr. Chairman, for all it achieves, the BEDC is
a relatively small organisation and currently has nine
substantive full -time posts , with two posts vacant , as
follows: It has an executive director . It has three posts
under economic development officers, one of which is
vacant. It has a small business director [post], whic h is
vacant. It has an information, education, and comm unications officer. It has a finance director. It has an administrative officer, and a receptionist/data clerk.
There have been substantial changes to the
global and local economic environment over the past few years. As a result, there has been greater need
and demand for affordable, professional business advice and financial assistance for both start -ups and
existing local businesses. The BEDC fulfils this need.
The BEDC’s legislation gives the corporation
the authority to undertake the following functions:
• the granting of loans or other forms of finan-cial assistance to assist persons in establis hing, carrying on or expanding small busines ses, medium -sized businesses, and entities
with economic empowerment zones;
• the provision of technical advice or assistance
to persons who are seeking or who are grant-ed financial assistance; • the operation and management of vendor
markets;
• the oversight and management of the devel-opment and implementation of economic e mpowerment zones; and
• the maintenance of the Business Register for small businesses, medium -sized businesses,
and economic empowerment zone business
entities, which may be divided accordingly.
Mr. Chairman, the year 2016 was a busy one
for the organisation. I would like to share some of BEDC’s major achievements over the course of the
year.
For the 12- month period ending December 31
st, 2016 BEDC officers met with over 550 persons seeking business planning and management
advice. These advisory meetings are individual bus iness coaching sessions generally lasting 60 minutes
and are offered free of charge to the public. This is a
clear indicator that in the current economic enviro nment Bermudians are looking to become entrepr eneurs. This is also an indicator of confidence in the
direction the economy is taking.
Approximately 13 per cent , or 75, of these
persons were interested in taking advantage of BEDC’s L oan Guarantee Programme. As of Dece mber 2016, the BEDC managed a guarantee portfolio
supporting 45 businesses, consisting of 32 loan guarantees and 13 micro loan guarantees. The total value
for the 45 guarantees was $2,025,000, which su pported $4,960,000 in bank loans. Ten of the loans
supported by these guarantees were on the c orporation’s watch list for either restructure, seasonal, or di stressed circumstances. Unfortunately , it is expected
that there will be pay outs in 2017 against the guara ntees. As of this past December, 10 of the loan guarantees extended to local businesses were successfully satisfied , with the guarantee certificates returned to
BEDC by the financial institutions.
Since inception, the EEZ has supported 12
businesses with BEDC loan guarantees or microloans
in the amount of $556,000 to secure $1,184,000 in bank financing.
Mr. Chairman, through creativity and collaboration , the BEDC partnered with many organisations
over the reporting period to hold the corporation’s
popular quarterly business seminars. These seminars provide entrepreneurs with up- to-date professional
business advice and knowledge of best business practices. Recognising the business opportunities that come with the 35
th America’s Cup, BEDC continued its
partnership with the ACBDA and hosted a public session in Somerset on business opportunities in April
2016. BEDC is continu ing this partnership in 2017.

[Audi
o ends abruptly at 02:29:59]

Proceedings suspended at 12:30 pm



Bermuda House of Assembly Proceedings resumed at 2:02 pm

[Mr. Rolfe Commissiong, Chairman]

COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY

ESTIMATES OF REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
2017/18

[Continuation thereof]

Before lunch, I
started on Head 95, which was the Ministry of Ec onomic Development. And we had gotten part of the
way. At the time we broke for lunch I was talking
about the Bermuda Economic Development Corpor ation, and the grant for that particular quango is on
page B -331 of the Budget Book. And the grant for this
coming year from Government is a little over $1.56 million. I have been talking about some of the pr ogrammes and contributions made by the Bermuda
Economic Development Corporation and, as I think
Honourable Members will know, this is the corporation which is responsible for promoting the interest of small business, medium -size business, and entrepreneurs.
So I finished talking about StartUp Weekend,
which was held d uring 24
th to 26th of February this
year and I began to say that the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation (BEDC) in partnership with the Bermuda College, also continued its delivery of the revolutionary “StreetWise MBA” programme in
Bermuda. One of BEDC’s officers was trained as an
instructor for this programme. Two cohorts have seen
participants successfully graduate to date. The third
cohort , people going through the programme, is cu rrently in progress.
In 2016 BEDC also launched its eight -week
Business Financial Statements and QuickBooks
Course. The course was created because BEDC found there was a huge knowledge and skills gap with small businesses understanding or producing their
own financial statements which impacted on the suc-cess of their business. Businesses not only learn to understand financial statements, they also learn how to cost and price their services and goods correctly, they learn how to use QuickBooks to manage their
business finances, and they receive a copy of the software when they go through the programme.
To date BEDC has run 3 courses with 41 entrepreneurs graduating and is now currently teach ing
the fourth cohort going through the Business Financial Statements and QuickBooks course programme.
BEDC also ran two other multi- week courses
aimed at preparing participants for entrepreneurship. BEDC officers taught the world- renowned Ice House
Entrepreneurship Program which helps persons val idate their business ideas. To date 41 persons have graduated from the eight -week international course.
BEDC officers also taught the eight -week Entrepr eneurship 101 course which shows entrepreneurs how to develop a business plan and how to start a bus iness in Bermuda. In 2016 twenty -eight people graduated from this particular programme.
Other notable seminars offered throughout the
fiscal year were “Accessing Alternative Financing”; “Employee Recruitment Strategies”; “Starting a Small Business in Retirement”; and “Vending Opportunities that Bring in the Business .”
Mr, Chairman, BEDC far surpassed its entr epreneurship advocacy, awareness, and education tar-get for 2016 when it held or participated in 119 sem inars or events resulting in outreach to over 11,000 entrepreneurs and budding entrepreneurs . Of this t otal, 20 events involved young people and youth entr epreneurs and over 870 people benefited. This number
bodes well for Bermuda’s future entrepreneurs.
Mr. Chairman, the BEDC is charged with the
establishment of an outside vendor market in each of
the E conomic Empowerment Zones (EEZ). It i s also
tasked with issuing vending licenc es. Presently, there
are regular markets held at the Olde Towne Market in
St. George's and the Rubber Tree Market in Warwick.
The BEDC is currently reviewing the ongoing viability
of the Hidden Treasures Vendor Mark et in Somerset.
The BEDC assisted in the organisation of all three
markets and provides ongoing assistance to these
markets.
The newest market BEDC provided assi stance for was the Uptown Market which opened on
Court Street in the North East Hamilton EEZ i n 2015.
This market has now evolved into the UpTown Satur-day Nights street festival initiative. Funds are allotted
in the budget to assist these markets in 2017/ 18.
These vendor markets have proven to be quite successful as part -time business ventures for the 250
plus micro -entrepreneurs registered with the BEDC.
Mr. Chairman, the BEDC sees growth opportunities for micro- enterprise hence its attention to this
1024 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly industry and its commitment to rolling out new vending
legislation in 2015. On September 1st 2015 the Pedlars Act 1894 was repealed, the new Vending Act
2015 came into effect, and the Corporation took over management of the Island's pedlars and vendors from the Magistrate's Court.
One of BEDC’s key goals is to strengthen the
vendor market industry and provide avenues for m icro-enterprise to grow in Bermuda. This transfer of the
oversight of the industry from the Magistrate's Court to the BEDC is a natural evolution in serving this bus iness sector. In 2016 BEDC issued 68 vending licenc-es and the Corporation expects that to increase in
2017 as legacy Pedlars Certificates expire.
Mr. Chairman, BEDC has allocated $200,000
to enable businesses importing retail goods into Bermuda to defer payment of duty for up to three months for each importation which allows the business es the
opportunity to better manage their cash flow. To date
lines of credit totaling $26,000 have been approved.
Mr. Chairman, there are currently three Ec onomic Empowerment Zones, or EEZs , in Bermuda.
The North East Hamilton Economic Empow erment
Zone consisting of over 200 businesses; the St.
George's Economic Empowerment Zone consisting of
over 100 businesses; and the Somerset Economic Empowerment Zone consisting of over 100 busines ses. An Economic Development officer provides dedi-cated advice and support for each of these zones.
[The year] 2016 was particularly active as the Corporation facilitated multiple events as tools for economic development in the zones. For 2016, the EEZs rec-orded 9 new bus inesses opening resulting in 25 new
jobs c reated.
Mr. Chairman, the customs duty deferment allows business and property owners located in the
EEZs to take advantage of a deferral of customs duty
for capital projects and endeavours . The BEDC has
approved customs duty deferment on total goods val-ued at $1,054,000 resulting in deferred duty totaling
$258,000, greatly assisting in the development of 13
EEZ businesses and properties.
In order to encourage and attract businesses
to start up in an EEZ a reduction in the payroll tax rate
was implemented wherein a rate of 6.0 per cent is
offered to new businesses up to a maximum of nine tax periods. Sixteen businesses have started up or
relocated to the EEZs in order to take advantage of
the concession.
Mr. Chairman, the S mall Business Construction Incubator (SBCI) was designed specifically for the
small construction company owners to strengthen the leadership and business acumen of this sector and
facilitate greater involvement in growth sectors of the
industry. Ninety persons graduated.
The BEDC has helped graduates become
aware of the construction and development opportun ities available. Most recently it assisted the tradesmen and contractors on its business register to become aware of the airport redevelopment project opportunities by attending information sessions, and filling out
expressions of interest and pre- qualification documentation.
Mr. Chairman, the BEDC is also responsible
for the establishment and maintenance of a business register for small and medium -sized businesses. This
register contains the company and owner’s names, contact details , and other relevant information pertaining to the business. Utilising internal as well as data collected from the Department of Statistics, the elec-tronic register is continually populated. In 2016 BEDC held records on its business register for some 5,767
small businesses and 82 medium -sized businesses.
The Corporation is systematically going through these
records to determine if those businesses are still o perating or not.
Some of the key benefits of the regist er are:
• to provide a unique Business ID number to
businesses;
• to capture data on existing and new bus inesses;
• to facilitate businesses being eligible for bank deposit insurance for coverage of up to
$25,000;
• to assist businesses in accessing government and private sector opportunities; and
• to assist the environment in developing policy initiatives to support small business activity.
In 2016 the system will be revamped to better
facilitate annual registration of sole proprietors.
In terms of the plans for the upcoming year ,
the BEDC is poised to raise the entrepreneurial bar in 2017 /18 and is optimistic about the future for entr epreneurs in Bermuda. Having just completed its new
three- year strategic plan in January 2017, the Corporation’s new KEY strategic objectives are as follows:
• attract and retain more growth clients;
• increase visibility to enhance awareness and
strengthen relationships;
• increase the number of and skill sets of entr epreneurs;
• establish partnerships within certain industries
to incent growth;
• inform and reduce misconceptions about starting and funding businesses;
• streamline bureaucracy associated with bus iness creation;
• refine business register and data production;
• consider systems and programmes for staff members to be effective and relevant;
• establish a viable financial plan to sustain the
Corporation;
• diversify and grow Corporation’s revenue streams;
• increase ease of access to financing entr epreneurship;


Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Chairman, we have been gratified to see
the level of enthusiasm and the entrepreneurial spirit
demonstrated by existing business owners and newly introduced business owners in Bermuda. The BEDC
officers will continue to provide tailored and bespoke services to its customers to ensure local business success. This will consist of on -site business and
counsell ing support for the loan guaranteed clients,
hands -on support for clients in the three EEZs, as well
as services to newly -established or struggling medium-sized businesses.
During 2016/ 17, the Bermuda Economic D evelopment Corporation has achieved laudable success and remains focused on its dedication to the local business community in Bermuda. I wish to pause here to thank the Executive Director and her team for their continued dedication to the BEDC’s aims. Many entrepr eneurs who come through the doors receive
valuable assistance, guidance, and support during
consultations which makes the difference in starting
and successfully running a business in Bermuda.
Through the loan guarantee programme, clients have been given the opportunity to participate in Bermuda’s commercial marketplace. It is therefore
vital that the BEDC continues to provide the necessary support in order to foster economic stability and growth in Bermuda’s local commercial sector.
Thank you , Mr. Chairman, this con cludes my
budget brief for the BEDC. And, as I said, I would like
to thank Erica Smith, the Director of the BEDC, the
Chairman of the BDEC, Mr. Nick Kempe, and all of
their colleagues over there for the valuable work that they do.
Mr. Chairman, for 2017/18, a grant of
$4,125,000 is budgeted for the Bermuda Business Development Agency, also known as the BDA. This is
part of the grants on page B- 331 under 9503 grant
line item. As Members know, the BDA is a public/private partnership, and the BDA also generat es
funding contributions from the private sector business
community. The Agency raised over $420,000 for fis-cal year 2015/16 and is on target to raise $450,000 for
the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2017. The Agency is targeting over a half -million d ollars from
private sector funding for the year 2017/18 to suppl ement the Government grant of $4.125 million.
The BDA creates and implements marketing
and business development strategies that are helping to stimulate growth and job creation in the Bermuda economy. The Agency has been driving business -
development missions abroad to provide a platform for a collaborative “Team Bermuda” approach wher eby industry professionals, the regulator , and gover nment representatives present a united front to refer-rers of business to the island.
It is important to note that the BDA is not just
about attracting new business to the Island. The BDA also helps existing Bermuda– based companies ge nerate more business. Keeping our current established companies competitive and profitable is important to
attract others. Similarly, the work of the BDA makes it
easier for existing companies to both maintain existing jobs and create new ones.
Mr. Chairman, the BDA is governed by an i ndependent board of directors. The Ministry is ably represented on that board by the Senior Manager of the
Business Development Unit, Ms . Lydia Dickens. The
other 11 board members are (and she is also the
Chairperson) :
• Ms. Kiernan Bell, who is a partner, Appleby Bermuda;
• Ms. Fiona Beck who is Deputy Chair of Ke yTech;
• Mr. Wayne Caines, CEO SENIAC Consulting;
• Mr. David Cash, Deputy Chair of the BDA;
• Ms. Caroline, Non- Executive Director of var ious companies and retired PwC partner;
• Ms. Andrea Jackson, SVP of Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch;
• Mr. Jessel Mendes, Partner, EY;
• Mr. Paul Scope, Chairman, Willis Bermuda;
• Mr. Derek Stapley, Independent Director;
• Mr. Ross Webber, Chief Executive Officer of
the BDA;
• Mr. Stephen Weinstein, SVP & General Counsel of RenaissanceRe;
Mr. Chairman, the BDA has segmented its
business -development focus into four key sectors.
These sectors are Asset Management, Risk Solutions, Trust & Private Client , and International Commerce,
which are each led by dedicated business -
development managers who, along with industry focus group representatives, create and shape business
development plans.
Mr. Chairman, regarding the specific activities
and achievements of the BDA over the last year, I
would like to highlight the following:
• Given the mandate of job creation and GDP
growth (at least to facilitate those), there is
positive news to report. Of the 40- plus co mpanies the BDA has helped establish to date, at least 22 of them have a physical presence on-Island with people employed.
• In 2016 the BDA assisted with the establis hment of 17 new com panies in Bermuda.
• The Agency has focused on the direct impact
the BDA has made on jobs and company cr eation. However, the Agency has also been
clearly influential, and has indirectly contribut-ed to much broader job creation, business establishment, and reputation enhancement. For
example, the BDA is the primary marketing vehicle for the Bermuda ILS industry.
An independent ILS (Insurance- Linked Secur ities) research report commissioned in 2016 ascertained that in 2015:
1026 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly • ILS activity in Bermuda supported nearly 400
jobs—a 30 per cent increase over 2014.
• ILS created more than $120 million in payroll.
• ILS jobs included 209 people employed by 15
funds and 188 jobs at 25 Insurance- Linked
Securities support companies.
• ILS-related employees represented 9 per cent
of all people working in Bermuda’s intern ationally operating companies.
• The total economic impact of insurance- linked
funds was $734 million in 2015.
Mr. Chairman, some prime examples of the
asset management companies the BDA onboarded
during 2016 include:
• Wafra Financial Management Services Ltd.;
• Peregrine & Black Investment Management (Bermuda) Limited;
• Centaur Fund Services (Bermuda) Limited.
A total of 67 new funds (including 12 Class A
Exempt and 6 Class B Exempt) were registered with
the BMA in the calendar year 2016. These include
new funds from household name investment manag-ers targeted by the BDA including:
• Blackstone Custom Solutions Platform Ltd.;
• Schroder Alternative Rates Fund & Schroder
Alternative Rates Master Fund Limited;
• Orion Mine Finance Fund II LP;
• Lazard European Equity Long/Short;
• Pioneer ILS Orion Fund.
Mr. Chairman, the BDA made a specific focus
to gain more private equity business, and Information
from the SEC supports that these efforts are bearing fruit. In 2013, Bermuda did not even make the chart regarding the percentage of net asset value domiciled in Bermuda in relation to private equity funds (that is an SEC chart). Bermuda now places fourth on that list
with only the UK, the Cayman Islands, and the United
States above it. Mr. Chairman, I will note that as Ber-muda has grown its share, the SEC figures show a decline for Cayman.
Mr. Chairman, the BMA registered 42 new i nsurers in 2016. Of those, 19 were captive formations; 12 were Classes 1, 2, and 3 insurers; 7 were Class 3 A; and 17 were Special Purpose Insurers. A total of
170 Bermuda- domiciled ILS structures were listed on
the Bermuda Stock exchange as of December 31
st
with 61 new listings in 2016. Overall, the BSX had
more than $20 million in ILS listings at the end of
2016, or over 70 per cent of the global issuance.
There is actually a nice write- up in the daily paper t oday about the BMA’s most recent report on ILS.
Mr. Chairman, it is notable that in 2016, Bermuda registered the first captive out of Chile (Class 1:
Andes Re) following BDA -led initiatives to Chile in
2014 and 2015. Also in 2016, we are pleased to report the registration of Wiikit Re out of Mexico. These Latin American registrations are the direct result of specific targeted efforts by the BDA and are the foundations for greater flows of work that keep Bermudians employed at the captive management and accounting
firms on the Island.
Mr. Chairman, aside from the staple industries
of asset management and insurance, the BDA has made a priority of facilitating sustainable platforms to diversify the economy. A direct result of these efforts
is evidenced by some of the new companies setting
up on- Island.
Following Roivant Sciences, Sellas Life Sc iences established a Bermuda operation with physical office presence. Wi shing Step pictures established a
film company using an innovative SAC (Segregated
Accounts Company) structure and leading FinTech
company, R3 is in the process of setting up its Ber-muda operations. The consortium being established by R3 is another indicator of the positive development in this realm in Bermuda. The initial technology focus group put together by the BDA is now flourishing under the Bermuda 4.0 umbrella.
Bermuda 4.0 was formed as an industry think
tank acting as a collaborative initiative to develop
FinTech/InsurTech opportunities and bring technology
to the local market. Led by BDA consultant Stafford
Lowe, Bermuda 4.0 has gathered a local brain trust
from across industry to develop and crystallise ways
to incubate technology start -ups. The group brings
together industry, government, entrepreneurs, inve stors, and the regulator to explore ways to put the I sland at the forefront of technology innovation, including blockchain and other systems that are revolutionising financial services.
Mr. Chairman, attracting new companies to
Bermuda is not the only way the BDA is contributing to our economic growth and job creation. The BDA team participated in no fewer than 62 targeted conferences and events throughout 2016 (well over an a verage of one per week) in 13 different countries. I
should clarify that for the BDA one “event” typically involves multiple aspects (for example Artemis Singa-pore, which was a conference, will be recorded as
“one event” but in fact involved Business Development meetings in Hong Kong and Singapore, hosting
a roundtable networking event, and organising the BDA booth presence and speaking roster at the con-ference).
Significant overseas event highlights include:
asset management events at Madison Square Gar-dens and the FlatIron Room in New York; the debut
attendance at Posidonia Shipping in Greece; the aforementioned Artemis conference in Singapore; RIMS in San Diego; LatAm and Canadian Captive Roadshows; private client events in Europe and Asia;
and America’s Cup World Series e vents in New York
and Chicago. BDA events have led to direct company
incorporations —prime examples are Hudson Capital,
Peregrine & Black, Andes Re, to name but a few.
The BDA brought several new events to Bermuda during the year, including the Legal Week Pr iBermuda House of Assembly vate Client Forum America’s at Tucker’s Point in February; ALARYS LatAm Congress, World Alternative
Investment Summit; and the AeroPodium aircraft reg-istration conference. As well, the BDA provided sub-stantial support to the RC44 Bermuda Cup in 2016;
The BDA also encouraged and facilitated the
return of events they brought to Bermuda in the first
place such as Transcontinental Trusts; Regulatory
Compliance Association symposium; Global Fund F orum; and ILS Bermuda Convergence. These add si gnificant value to the Bermuda economy and help ex-tend the viability of our hospitality industry, particularly during the shoulder season.
Mr. Chairman, apart from the aforementioned
results the BDA has achieved in 2016, there is further value provided to the country. To help shape future strategies, the BDA commissioned several research projects that reached completion in 2016. These i nclude the ILS Economic Impact study; China Foreign
Direct Investment Opportunities; Family Office r esearch; research into US corporate per ceptions, and
research into the viability of a Bermuda– based International Arbitration Centre. The BDA will use the r esults and analysis of these research projects to deve lop implementation plans intended to bring jobs and
GDP contribution to the Island.
Mr. Chairman, the primary legislative development facilitated by the BDA was the Limited Liability Companies Act (or LLC Act). BDA’s legislative reform committees were also responsible for proposing other
important acts and amendments, including The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 2016; and Partnership Law amendments. BDA also helped progress regulatory initiatives related to AIFMD; and work is underway with new proposals for amendments related to trusts and other legal structures including segregated accounts companies, and Patent and IP amendments.
Mr. Chairman, through its communications
support the BDA has built value by providing talking
points for clients and meetings, presentations and
speeches, and the writing of select opinion pieces.
The BDA has been working very closely with the Go vernment, ABIR, as well as BILTIR, BIMA, and ABIC to help drive unity and coherent advocacy.
Social media metrics, website hits, press r elease distribution, and international outreach have all
seen very positive increases over the year. The BDA –
led strategy of differentiation is beginning to pay div idends and Bermuda is moving ahead with the separ ation process that delineates our Island as markedly,
and positively, different from our closest peers.
Mr. Chairman, there has never been a more
urgent time to invest in the protection of not just our international reputation and perception, but, in fact, our actual survival and livelihood.
Mr. Chairman, as Honourable Members may
be aware, the BDA, in collaboration with the Ministry’s
Business Development Unit (BDU), is operating a Concierge Service. The BDA helps companies
through the process of establishing in Bermuda and
provides them with a starting point and a consistent point of contact. The BDA provides prospects with
information, introductions , and meetings with law
firms, accounting firms, real -estate providers, banks,
administrators, and trustees. The team at the BDU
then provides a similar service for the processes wit hin government. The BDU provides a single point of
contact for liaison with Immigration; Registrar of Companies; Office of Tax Commissioner; AG’s Chambers, et cetera . This relationship with government is all part
of the Concierge Service.
On the international front, the BDA has liaised
with ABIR and the BMA as well as government to be more proactive in the management of our profile as an international financial centre. Mr. Chairman, the BDA
Abroad Bermuda alumni network on LinkedIn now has several hundred members. This is a network for Bermudians working abroad, or former Bermuda res idents, who wish to connect with the Island, share ideas and intelligence, and be business ambassadors for the jurisdiction. The number of BDA Abroad members continues to grow and the Agency itself currently has
more than 700 high level business followers on
LinkedIn. This network continues to expand as international contacts from as far afield as Hawaii, Australia, Dubai , and Germany spread the message about
Bermuda.
Mr. Chairman, to summarise, in 2016 the BDA
carried out strategic business development meetings,
roadshows, attended key conferences and provided business concierge services for prospective clients in the areas of trust and private client, captive insurance, asset management, biomed, aircraft, shipping, tec hnology , and e- commerce. New geographic markets
explored included Latin America, Hong Kong, Sing apore, and Canada, which yielded positive growth r esults.
Mr. Chairman, the conferences that the BDA
has helped attract to the Island, particularly during
shoulder months, have added thousands of hotel
nights and assisted with increasing airline load—
something of vital importance to both our tourism and business sectors. The consequential multiplier effects
to the economy while delegates are here in our res-taurants, taxis, and shops , are significant and keeps
Bermudians working.
These conferences provide additional exp osure for the Island as both a tourism and business location to many people who have never visited be-fore. The net result is increased economic activity in
the short term simply due to arrivals on-I sland, plus
long-term benefits from those who are compelled to
return as leisure visitors or to do business here, and
set up a physical presence.
Mr. Chairman, the goals and objectives of the
BDA are long- term in nature; and for the coming fiscal
year, the BDA will continue to progress the pr o1028 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly grammes initiated in 2016. The onboarding of new
companies can be a slow process. For example, attracting some of the world’s leading investment man-agers to once again use the Island as their base has been the result of work that was initiated in May of 2013. The BDA continues to see opportunities make their way through the system , and leveraging case
studies, such as Centaur and Peregrine &Black, Andes Re and Wiikit Re, and Sellas Life Sciences and
Roivant will help attract others.
Mr. Chairman, the BDA board recently approved their S trategic Plan for 2017–2020. The prime
BDA objectives continue to be to:
• achieve job growth in international business
and professional services sectors;
• achieve growth in international business formation;
• help create viable new business platforms
(FinTech, InsurTech, IP holding, technology,
cabling, to name a few) with new Bermuda entities forming;
• enhance Bermuda’s reputation—differentiate
from negatively perceived offshore tax ha-vens .
The Agency will focus on business develo pment plans that delineate our markets and generate specific targets, differentiate the Island from our rivals ,
and educate prospects and referrers of business.
Each of the BDA core pillars will be implementing action plans that hone in on market and bus iness product penetration and development as well as
diversification.
Examples include the focus on packaging
Family Office products for the ultra -high-net-worthindividuals Chinese market and strategically identif ying and targeting the advisors to Chinese wealth; further penetration into the LatAm market particularly for Captive and Trust products; developing cross -sector
messaging for healthcare risk solutions; educating the
US market on the value and relative advantages of Bermuda’s new LLC legislation; p romoting the Island
as a hub for high- level, physical presence of life sciences, biomed and F inTech companies.
Mr. Chairman, the BDA will c ontinue with its
proactive business development efforts, focused on its mission to partner with government and private sector to help maintain and create jobs in Bermuda, sustain inward investment , and grow Bermuda’s GDP.
While maintaining and increasing b usiness
flow to it its main industry sectors of risk solutions,
asset management , and trust and private client, the
BDA will continue to develop expansion sectors encouraging growth in Bermuda’s shipping ecosystem, bringing InsurTech companies to the I sland and a ttracting life science companies to establish a Berm uda presence.
The BDA provides impetus and the driving
force behind the development of specific pillar strat egies and then takes charge of implementation. In gen-eral, implementation is an appropriate mix of business
development, marketing, and communication tools —
primarily, conference and event organisation and attendance; face- to-face meetings; webinars; press r eleases and articles; collateral literature production and dissemination; presentations; speeches; research; social media outreach and direct e- mailing; digital
marketing; promoting legislative reform and addres sing systemic “ machinery ” issues.
This is coupled with the Concierge Service
where the BDA team works hand- in-hand with pr ospects a nd stakeholders to make onboarding as
smooth as possible. Similarly, the BDA works with
stakeholders to troubleshoot issues and assist with
their business effectiveness.
In addition to its current programmes, over the
next 12 months the BDA will focus more specifically
on international communication, particularly facing the US in the wake of the recent change in administration.
The BDA has liaised with the Cabinet Office, the Min-istry of Finance, the Government’s London Office, as well as the BMA and industry representatives to ensure coordination with regard to international messag-ing that highlights Bermuda’s value to the global
economy. The approach has been to promulgate
messaging that tells Bermuda’s story, differentiates us from other international financial centres , and corrects
misinformation about the Island.
The BDA has representation on the ACBDA ,
that is the America’s Cup Legacy Committee, and is
flying the Bermuda business flag at this summer’s America’s Cup. The BDA will deliver Bermuda bus iness messaging to high level business executives and
build greater awareness of our jurisdiction among those who might choose to invest or set up companies here.
Mr. Chairman, cross-marketing between the
asset management, ILS and trust sectors is key to the BDA’s initiatives in the coming year. The Agency is
seeking to encourage some of the asset managers backing ILS structures to use Bermuda as their investment platform. Similarly, by attracting and educating more high net worth individuals on Bermuda’s advantages, we can promote Bermuda for other aspects
of their international business needs. This kind of cross- marketing is especially logical in an industrydiverse jurisdiction like Bermuda that is well -known for
its one -stop- shop marketplace.
For the coming year, the main thrust of the
BDA’s trust and private client initiatives is to continue to propose competitive legislation that will set Berm uda apart from its competitors. This work is being done by the BDA’s Trust Law Reform Committee and its
Trust focus group. There is heavy emphasis on attracting family offices to physically set up on- Island,
employing Bermudians.
The trust pillar will also leverage the China r esearch, and the BDA has planned development initi atives in Asia to tap into the growing interest,


Bermuda House of Assembly knowledge , and comfort level with trust products
emerging from that region. The existing prime target
markets for the trust industry remain the US, UK,
Switzerland , and Latin America, and the BDA has
scheduled business development trips to each of
those locations in 2017.
Mr. Chairman, with regard to insurance and
reinsurance risk solutions, the BDA will continue to support the captive and ILS sectors. They will build on the LatAm and Canada initiatives already in place and will continue to support the ever -evolving convergence
sector. The latter is gaining greater understanding in Asia and Australasia, and the BDA will be seeking to
gain more traction in these markets with targeted pr ogrammes.
The BDA has continued to further develop the
marketing of the Island as a jurisdiction for the
healthcare insurance and the reinsurance industry. Bermuda’s captive and reinsurance sectors are ser ving an increasing number of healthcare companies seeking risk -management solutions , particularly US
corporati ons. The result of a lot of set -up work during
2016 , we will be welcoming the inaugural health care
forum to Tucker’s Point in March of this year.
The BDA’s webinars will continue and the
Agency already has developed a brand- new series in
Spanish and Portuguese that have been progress ively
released on the BDA’s YouTube channel since the start of the year.
The BDA is also leading a Team Bermuda
Captive Group on a series of regional US road shows
to secure opportunities in historically underserved pockets of the United States that hold great potential.
While there is continual contact with the I nsurance Advisory Committee and the management of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers
(ABIR), 2016 saw increased liaison and communic ation with the companies that comprise ABIR and the
Bermuda International Long Term Insurers and Rei nsurers (BILTIR). These have helped forge closer
bonds and greater collaboration and will continue
throughout 2017.
Mr. Chairman, on the international commerce
front, the BDA will continue with core initiatives related
to fintech, Canadian eCommerce, biomed and life sc ience, as well as arbitration, shipping and aviation. Via
a combination of strategically targeted business development meetings, conferences, events, collabor ation, thought leadership, jurisdictional advocacy, and media relations, the BDA continues to execute its business plan to achieve the objectives of job maint enance, growth and GDP contribution.
To summarise, Mr . Chairman, the Bermuda
Business Development Agency’s target ed business
development efforts across key industry sectors over the past year is reaping tangible success with year -
over-year increases noted in the numbers of new i nternational companies setting up on the Island across several industry sectors. For 2017/ 18, the BDA plans to further this
growth, exploring new markets in China and Sout heast Asia, providing business development support to
the America’s Cup, as well as safeguarding and pr omoting Bermuda’s jurisdictional reputation through pro-active advocacy overseas. Specifically, the BDA is
pursuing strategic business development initiatives in
the following key sectors:
• Trust and Private Client: proposing even more
competitive industry legislation; tapping into growing interest in trust products in Asia; and
promoting Bermuda as a prime location for
family offices.
• Asset Management: a continued push for
equivalence for Bermuda- based fund managers under Europe’s AIFMD regime; bringing
world leading asset allocators to once again use the Island as their launch domicile; a ttracting investment managers to physically set
up a Bermuda presence with a focus on
emerging managers; further grow our market
share of private equity; cross -marketing with
ILS and trust sectors; and attracting more high
net worth individuals .
• Risk Solutions: continuing to support captive
and ILS sectors; building on LatAm, Canada
and ILS initiatives; promoting the jurisdiction for healthcare and cyber insurance products; and growing jurisdictional synergy with ass ociations such as ABIR and BI LTIR .
• International Commerce: aggressive deve lopment of our f intech and life sciences offering; adding more jobs and economic contribution via our shipping ecosystem; increasing
the numbers of aircraft on our register; attrac ting more international arbitration; developing and refining the i ntellectual property licensing
proposition, Canadian e- commerce and film
business.
Mr. Chairman, the efforts of the BDA are be nefitting Bermuda and Bermudians, and we look for-ward to more success stories over the next year. The Agency is well governed and well managed, and its professional executives and support staff are performing w ell for the benefit of Bermuda. Mr. Chairman, the
efforts of the BDA are benefitting Bermuda and Bermudians, and we look forward to more success st ories—sorry , I have just gone through that . Let me fi nish this section on the BDA by thanking Mr. Ross Webber, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the
BDA and also its chairman, Kiernan Bell and their
board for the great work they have done over the last
year.
I move now to [programme] 9505, on page B -
331 and this is the cost centre for America’s Cup
2017 .
As you will see there, Mr. Chairman, the est imate for 2017/18 is $27,560,000, this is an increase of
$19,487,000 over the previous year . The budget for
1030 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly 2016/17 was $8,068,000, and the revised budget as
you can see on that page as well, was $8,073,000.
The Capital Development (which can be found
on page C- 21 of the Budget Book ), the estimate for
the coming year is $1,290,000,and that is a reduction
of $14,457,000 ( or 92 per cent ) from the previous year
when the b udget was $15,747,000 . And the r evised
budget was exactly the same, $15,747,000.
Mr. Chairman, this allocation is for the costs
associated with Bermuda preparing for and hosting
the America’s Cup Finals from the 26th of May until the
end of June 2017. This includes operating expenses for the Ministry Headquarters for the oversight of
Gove rnment’s deliverables for the events, as well as
sponsorship payments to the America’s Cup Event
Authority and a grant to the ACBDA Ltd.
Salaries, Travel and P rofessional Services
was $222,000, which is down $51,000 from the prev ious year .
Mr. Chairman, in order for the Government to
ensure that it meets its obligations and commitments under the Agreement with the America’s Cup Event Authority, a temporary project team has been created within the Ministry (that is the Ministry of Economic
Development) and that is known as the America’s Cup
2017 Office. That will be in place until the end of the
event period in 2017. The team consists of two staff members. One seconded from within the government ,
a liaison officer, that is Jasmin Smith, who is responsible for overseeing the project office supported by
temporary Administrative Assistant. [A sum of] $122,167 has been allocated to cover their s alaries
until the end of September 2017, plus $100,000 to cover general professional services.
The core responsibilities of the project office
are to:
• oversee the budget allocated for the Amer ica’s Cup 2017;
• work with the relevant Government ministries
to coordinate the delivery of government functions and services required for the effective operation of the events, such as the transportation plan, security services, to name a few of
many ;
• facilitate concession order applications under
the America’s Cup 2015 Act;
• serve as a conduit for the submission of work permit applications, development and building applications , and any other applications r equired under the Government’s commitment
to the ACEA; and
• liaise with the A merica’s Cup Event Authority
and the ACBDA Ltd. as well as other organ isations that will be providing resources or services in connection with hosting the 35
th America’s Cup.
Mr. Chairman, other responsibilities include
representing the Government on committees esta b-lished for the purpose of preparing and implementing
various event initiatives.
For 2017/18, s ponsorship Fees of $20 million
have been advocated. This is an increase of $15 million f rom the previous year of $5 million. The $20 mi llion allocated in this Budget toward sponsorship fees
consists of two parts: The first part will be the last
tranche of the $15 million sponsorship fee; and the
second part will be Government’s residual liability to
ACEA under the $25 million Commercial Sponsorship Guarantee.
Mr. Chairman, under the Agreement with the
America’s Cup Event Authority (ACEA) , the Gover nment is committed to a $15 million sponsorship fee
over a three- year period. This sponsorship fee is to be
paid in Bermuda dollars and spent in Bermuda. Five million dollars is the final tranche of this $15 million and will be paid in the 2017/18 Budget. The first $1 million was paid upon execution of the Agreement in
December 2014 with an additional $4 million paid in
2015, and $5 million in 2016.
Under the Agreement with the ACEA, the
Government also agreed to an additional commercial sponsorship guarantee of $25 million which will be
reduced by certain commercial transactions including ticket sales, venue rentals , and Bermuda- introduced
sponsors. Fifteen million dollars is allocated in the
2017/18 Budget to cover Government’s estimate of the outstanding liability under this $25 million guara ntee, once these anticipated reductions from comme rcial transactions, including Bermuda- introduced spo nsors have been taken into consideration.
Mr. Chairman, as mentioned previously, the
reduction to the $25 million sponsorship guarantee provided for in the Bermuda Agreement with the ACEA varies depending on the type and nature of the
underlying transaction between ACEA, Oracle Team
USA and Soft Bank Team Japan, and the sponsor,
which Bermuda has introduced, and it varies as follows: Cash sponsorship, essentially the contribution
against the guarantee will be 30 per cent of net spo nsorship revenues; and will also include budget relie ving non cash consideration ( which is value -in-kind
“VIK”), for example, somebody may be providing the ACEA, which, in fact, they are, a rent -free facility. And
that essentially reduces the sponsorship by 15 per
cent of net sponsorship revenues. And net sponsorship revenues are equal to the gross sponsorship re venues (total cash or budget -relieving VIK) less the
sponsorship delivery costs (which include the total hospitality costs, plus any applicable sponsorship agent commission contractually committed to any agent of ACEA , subject to a cap of 15 per cent of
gross sponsorship revenues. It is important to not e
here, Mr. Chairman, that no Bermuda or ACBDA r esource receives any commission whatsoever .
Each commercial sponsorship deal has
unique char ac
teristics in terms of the number of hospitality passes per day and whether they are just for


Bermuda House of Assembly Bermuda events or all events globally. Several sponsorship entities have licence deals with minimum re venue guarantees to ACEA but the specific value will
not be determined until after the final events when actual revenue numbers are known, which further complicates the ability to estimate final credit to Bermuda and ACBDA to be applied against the additional
sponsorship fee. So, t o date, over $20 million in
closed sponsorship deals have been introduced by Bermuda/ACBDA to ACEA, to Oracle Team USA and
to Soft Bank Team Japan.
The sponsorship guarantee of $25 million will
also be reduced by Bermuda’s share of public access
ticket revenue and venue revenue. This includes performance measures such as ongoing ticket sales by
the ACEA for their AC35 events, as well as a share of ACEA’s venue rentals. These amounts will be fully
calculated after the final events. As at the end of Jan-uary 2017, we anticipated that Bermuda's guarantee
was below $20 million. However, we were unable to
give a more precise figure for the reasons stated above.
Under the Government’s agreement with the
ACEA, the calculation of the residual sponsorship
guarantee liability will be carried out in August 2017.
Based on our current projections we anticipate that the final sponsorship payment will be approximately $15 million , which would re present a reduction of $10
million against the original $25 million guarantee.
So, ACBDA Ltd. e xpenses for this year are
$7,338,000, which is an increase of $4,538,000 from the previ ous year.
Mr. Chairman, the ACBDA Ltd. is funded by
the Government and 100 per cent of its shares are
owned by the Government. The main purpose of the company is for the day -to-day performance, oversight,
operation, and implementation of Bermuda’s obligations under its agreement with the ACEA. The differ-ence between the ACBDA and the America’s Cup office within the Ministry is that the office is dedicated to functions required within the Government whilst the
ACBDA is far reaching. The company serves as a
“one- stop- shop” relationship liaison between the
ACEA and the Bermuda community. The Government Liaison Officer serves on the ACBDA Board along with eight other members. The full composition of the Board is as follows:
• Mr. Peter Durhager, Chairman;
• Mr. Michael Winfield , CEO ;
• Mr. John Collis ;
• Mr. David Dodwell ;
• Mr. Darren Johns ton;
• Mr. Warren Jones ;
• Ms. Donna Pearman;
• Mr. Blythe Walker ;
• Ms. Jasmin Smith , Government Liaison O fficer.
The ACBDA has full -time resources under the
leadership of the chief executive officer, this includes; accounting, marketing, administration, public r elations ,
and project management. The ACBDA’s office is l ocated in Windward House, 24 Crow Lane, and is
shared with the ACEA.
Some of the responsibilities of the ACBDA i nclude promoting and facilitating all America’s Cup r elated requests, disputes, and requirements that ACEA
may have in connection with either their Agreement
with the Government or otherwise concerning the planning and preparation of the events.
Mr. Chairman, the ACBDA has oversight of 16
active committees that are fully engaged in strate gically planning every aspect of hosting the America’s
Cup events. These committees are comprised of gov-ernment and private sector representatives and i nclude individuals from a broad cross -section of the
community. The committees are: Telecommunications, Security, Transportation, Health and Safety,
Economic Assessment, Business Connect, Hotel C apacity, South Basin Land Reclamation, Regatta Sup-port, Communications, Sponsorship, On -
Water/Charter Boats, Superyachts, Legacy and Sus-tainability, On -Water Operations, Infrastructure and
Sailing Programmes , which is the Endeavour Community Sailing and Red Bull.
The committees are tackling logistical matters
including strategic and tactical operational plans for water; fuel; sewage; movement of people; security issues; medical treatment provisions; evacuation
planning; mooring of visiting yachts and superyachts;
accommodations for visitors, visiting teams, and team
sponsors; identifying and introducing legacy projects; the list goes on.
In addition to the committees, ACBDA has
partnered with the America’s Cup Event Authority to establish the “ First Mates ” Volunteer Program me
sponsored by XL Catlin to recruit approximately 700 volunteers required to support the AC35. I am pleased to report that in true community spirit, over 800 r esponses were received and interviews for placements commenced in February. This budget includes volunteer training, a volunteer centre, and volunteer r efreshments.
Mr. Chairman, to date, the ACBDA concierge
has assisted almost 300 America’s Cup team me mbers along with their families with their relocation to
Bermuda. Oracle Team USA, Artemis Racing, Sof tBank Team Japan, and Land Rover BAR have all established team bases. Emirates Team New Zealand and Team France are in the process of setting up their
team operations. Since April 2015 the teams have reported that they have spent over $35.1 million on their team base operations in Bermuda. This does not
include spend by the team members on general
goods and services throughout the Island.
In addition to the America’s Cup teams, we
expect the arrival of 12 teams of approximately 20 members to compete in the Red Bull Youth America’s
1032 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Cup as well as participants for other America’s Cup
events including J Class boats and superyachts.
Mr. Chairman, Bermuda’s Red Bull Youth
America’s Cup Team (otherwise known as “ Team
Bermuda” ) has been in a rigorous training regime
since January of this year. Members of the team i nclude:
• Connor Astwood;
• Edmund Mackenzie Cooper ;
• Peter Dill ;
• Philip Hagen;
• Mustafa Ingham ;
• Emily Nagel ;
• Danny Pell ;
• Owen Siese;
• Dimitri Stevens ;
• Shomari Warner ;
• Ceci Wollmann. The team members started as novices on the
foiling catamaran. In short order they quickly learned
that sailing their training boat, which has the name
CAT-5, a GC32 catamaran, requires great physical
fitness and mental alertness. Team Bermuda is en-gaged in an extensive training programme to hone
their skills in preparation for sailing an AC45 in the race. I urge all residents to come out and support Team Bermuda.
Mr. Chairman, the allocation of $7.4 million includes operating costs for the ACBDA office as well
as costs for on- water and on- land amenities and/or
facilities to stage the event, including Island- wide a dvertising, infrastructure deliverables, on- water assets,
volunteer centre, security, waste management, transportation, parking lots, berthing for team support
boats, a medical staging area, offices , and back -ofhouse facilities.
Mr. Chairman, you can imagine that ACBDA
was required to develop a comprehensive transport ation plan to ensure safe movement of traffic and people on both water and land to and from the Event Vi llage without incident whilst at the same time ensuring that the Island- wide transportation needs are met.
This includes servicing the general public as well as tourism related areas such as the airport, hotels, and cruise passenger transportation at Dockyard.
As there is limited parking space in the Doc kyard area, a park -and-ride programme is in the pr ocess of being established to accommodate local res idents who wish to drive to the West End for the event. Nine parking sites have been identified for the pr ogramme. The core sites will be Boaz Island field, War-ren Simmons and Somerset Primary fields in Somerset. Tickets for the progr amme will be available on -
line and the cost includes parking and round- trip bus
shuttle ride to the America’s Cup transportation hub,
which is close to the entrance of the Event Village. There will be an option of water or bus shuttle from
Boaz Island. Plans are also in place to accommodate physically challenged persons. Parking for motorc ycles will be closer to the Event Village. To augment
the public ferry service to Dockyard, a special charter ferry will be available to ferry passengers from Hamil-ton directly to the Event Village. This service will be available to passengers who book online in advance. Booking details will be announced in the near future.
In addition to the transport hub, an Event Vi llage ferry stop will be created for drop off of individu-als on their personal craft and tenders or tour boats. For passengers travelling to Dockyard by public ferry, a train shuttle services will be available to convey them to the transportation hub from the main ferry
stop in Dockyard. This budget also includes way -
finding signage and traffic signalling equipment as
well as a temporary dock near the airport to accom-modate on- water pick up.
Mr. Chairman, when Bermuda committed to
hosting AC35, a commitment was also made to ensure that there would be no compromise regarding
health and safety measures. In addition to a medical unit for fast response during the event, Prince Alfred Terrace will be the home of a Joint Command Centre. There will also be an on- water medical boat. CCTV
cameras and metal detectors will be installed
throughout the event areas. The Bermuda Police Ser-vice, Royal Bermuda Regiment, on- water marshals
and private security services will work together to ad-dress safety and security needs.
Mr. Chairman, ACBDA’s marketing team continues on- Island advertising, radio and TV ads, and
market research. The team is in the process of rev-ving up America’s Cup branding throughout the Island for public awareness, and to encourage Bermuda res-idents to participate and take ownership of AC35.
ACBDA hosted a series of public meetings
over the last few weeks to inform the public on AC35 as well as highlight small business opportunities in various areas, including water and land transportation, entertainment, Island- wide vending, as well as generally in the West End and East End of the Island. The
meetings were very well attended and created a forum
for networking opportunities and information sharing and gathering.
Mr. Chairman, this budget also includes funds
for collection and disposal of waste related to AC35
activities. This includes on- water sewage collection as
well as general garbage collection for the Event Vi llage and an ancillary building used for America’s Cup purposes.
I am going to shift now to the ACBDA Capital
Development Budget which for the coming 2017/18 year is $1,290,000, down from $14,457,000 in the
2016/17 year. Mr. Chairman, this allocation is for the
final phase of the development project. It includes costs for IT and data infrastructure and surface finis hing of the Event Village.
During the last two years, the South Basin area of Dockyard has been transformed into America’s


Bermuda House of Assembly Cup central. Oracle Team USA, SoftBank Team J apan, Land Rover BAR and Team France have bases
along Freeport Drive. In order to deliver a clean flat surface for handover to ACA and the America’s Cup
teams to erect buildings for their team bases, all of this will be removed at the end of AC35. The ACBDA was required to clean up the area. In some cases i ncluding demolition of buildings was required and gen-eral clearing up and collecting of equipment and mat erials that were left in the area over the years. Also, once the land reclamation project is completed by WEDCO provisions for utilities, water and sewage were installed.
To date, some 460 Bermudian workers were
employed in America’s Cup- related projects and approximately 80 subcontracting local companies were involved. This number does not include the workers who restored, redeveloped [and or] upgraded many of the existing WEDCO buildings and the workers that
will be hired for the Event Village buildout.
Works have started on the newly created
Cross Island for the Event Village infrastructure which
includes ACEA’s hospitality facilities and grandstand, as well as the actual AC village spectator and entertainment areas. Artemis Racing, Red Bull Youth
America’s Cup and Groupama Team France will also
erect bases on Cross Island. Sorry, that should be Emirates Team and not Groupama Team France. A dditionally, Marina Facilities will be developed on the south arm of Cross Island to accommodate visiting
superyachts. This allocation also includes cost of
sewerage and water facilities for superyachts that will berth at Number 1 dock on Front Street.
I would also like to take this opportunity to
thank the construction companies and professional service providers who have worked tirelessly to help
us ready ourselves for AC35.
Mr. Chairman, I would also like to take this
opportunity to thank everyone who has worked upfront
and behind the scenes who go about their excellent work on a daily basis with dedication and enthusiasm.
In addition to the hundreds of volunteers, special
thanks should go to the Board of the ACBDA and its chairman, Mr. Peter Durhager, Mr. Mike Winfield, CEO of the ACBDA, and Jasmin Smith, AC Liaison in the Ministry, for their hard work, leadership and com-mitment to the success of AC35.
Mr. Chairman, it’s going to be an extraordinary event that puts Bermuda on the world stage —an
event that all Bermuda can take pride in.
Mr. Chairman, turning to the expenditure fi gures on page B -332, I have already gone into detail
throughout my speech as to why the spend is increasing from $13,727,000 to $35,059,000. Excluding the
increase in grants and the Americas Cup, this leaves an increase of $108,000. This is predominantly made up as follows:
• $194,000 increase within salaries due to the
transfer of staff from ICT into Headquarters; • $133,000 increase in Professional Services due to supporting the Ministry in numerous
projects.
This has been partially offset by a reduction in
the Travel Budget amounting to $53,000.
Manpower for the Ministry Headquarters, on
page B -332 shows an increase within the Ministry’s
Headquarters from 8 to 11, three posts, two of which are due to the transfer of employees from Telecoms to headquarters as part of the merger. The other i ncrease is within the BDU. This increase is due to one
role becoming permanent rather than a relief role.
Hence, why there is no change in funding as physical heads within the department has not changed and the BDU has managed to make an overall saving of $36,000 (or 4.6 per cent of their budget).
Finally, Mr. Chairman, I would like to take this
opportunity to report briefly on the Cabinet Committee for Economic Development, also known as the Ec onomic Development Committee or EDC. The Ministry
also provides administrative support to the EDC and although there are no direct budgetary implications,
the Committee’s mandate and the projects that it
oversees are closely intertwined with the activities and mandate of the Ministry.
This EDC is chaired by the Premier and i ncludes the Ministries of Economic Development, F inance, Tourism, Transport and Municipalities, Legal
Affairs and Public Works and is supported by the Cabinet Secretary, the Financial Secretary and the corr esponding Permanent Secretaries for each of the Mi nistries.
The role of the EDC is to review proposals
and provide oversight and support to those projects and initiatives that are designed to stimulate the economy and create jobs. These projects similarly have the very real potential to advance Bermuda’s economic recovery while stimulating investment, put-ting Bermudians back to work and laying the foundation for future growth and shared prosperity.
The EDC meets on a weekly basis to review
projects and ensure close coordination between ministries and timely decision- making.
Mr. Chairman, in finishing this Head 95, which
is the Ministry of Economic Development, it would be
remiss of me not to thank the Permanent Secretary,
Mr. Randy Rochester, for his assistance; the Cont roller, Hadleigh Farrer for their assistance. Both of them
are relatively new to the Ministry, as well as many other colleagues who worked within the Ministry itself. I think it is also proper to note the contribution of the
former Permanent Secretary, Mr. Bill Francis, and we
wish him well in his retirement.

HEAD 67 —DEPARTMENT OF ICT

I now move to the
Department of ICT, Policy and Innovation which is
Head 67. And that is found on pages B- 341 to B -344
1034 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly of the Budget Book. The current estimates start on
page B -341 and also on page C -7 of the Budget Book.
The mission of the Department of ICT Policy
and Innovation is to develop sound policies and regulatory frameworks that promote and enable innovative electronic communications, broadcasting satellite and
ICT-enabled industries and to facilitate the adoption
and growth of a secure and advanced digital econ omy.
The objectives of the department are set out
on page B -341 for the coming fiscal year, and they
are:
1. to protect the public interests;
2. to promote Bermuda as a sophisticated and security -conscious technology and e- business
jurisdiction, in order to attract and support a thriving international business sector;
3. to develop Bermuda’s assigned satellite or-bital slots;
4. to ensure the appropriate policies and legisl ation are in place to support Bermuda’s digital economy, which includes but is not limited to, telecommunications, e- business, broadcas ting, cybersecurity, ICT cyber safety and sate llite services;
5. to successfully migrate the responsibility for regulating broadcasting to the regulatory au-thority;
6. to facilitate demonstrable opportunities for technology education, mentoring and training,
as well as encouraging e- entrepreneurship;
7. to advocate for the continued development,
safe use and adoption of technology across
all organisations, the government and within the community.
Mr. Chairman, the Information and Communications Technologies, otherwise known as ICT, are today’s great enablers to progress and Bermuda is harnessing them in order to continue punching above its weight on the global stage. This will be assisted by the recent amalgamation of two government depar tments that were responsible for different areas of ICT and will capitalise on their synergies going forward. The newly formed Department of ICT Policy Innov ation will leverage the knowledge and expertise of each of the Departments of Telecommunications and E -
Commerce. You will therefore note that Head 46, the
former Department of Telecommunications, found in
pages B -338 to B -340 reflects a zero budget estimate
for the coming year 2017/18, and Head 67, the former Department of E -Commerce now contains the est imates for the merged departments.
Historically, both departments have been
separate with specific mandates. Joining them will create new opportunities, progress ICT policy and stimulate collaboration with stakeholders in a more efficient way. The Department of ICT Policy and Inno-vation will provide policy support for the Ministry of Economic Development in the areas of telecommuni-cations cybersecurity, the space industry, ICT, broadcasting, e- skills and privacy. In addition to the enhanced synergies and efficiencies which the merger
has brought about, amalgamation of the two depar tments resulted in a decrease in the salaries budget of $240,000. However, it should be noted that due to the transfer of two posts to Ministry Headquarters there
will be a $45,581 decrease in the Department and
Ministry of Economic Development Headquarters sal-aries budgets. Please also be aware that the two de-partments will continue to administer their own r espec tive programmes through the new structure and,
undoubtedly new programmes will be created over
time.
Turning to the Department of ICT Policy and
Innovation Budget on page B -341, the total estimate
for 2017/18 is $1,631,000. Now, this actually is a decrease because of the merger of $274,000, or 14 per
cent from the previous year because when you merge
the two departments as they were the total amount
actually was $1,905,000 (when you combine the two existing departments before the merger). So what we are seeing here is actually an overall decrease as the Budget Book actually shows a $740,000 increase.
The budget also excludes the Privacy Commissioner’s
office which was budgeted from the previous year be-cause, as Honourable Members will now, this is now under the non- Ministry heads as it is an independent
function within Government.
So, in addition to the operational money of
$1.6 million capital funding of $400,000 is also inclu ded. And that is dedicated to satellite orbital slots.
Mr. Chairman, the Department of ICT Policy
and Innovation has been allocated $1.631 million. The overall allocation is down . . . (I can skip this because I just talked about it). Therefore, on a like- for-like basis
once this reallocation is removed the actual saving is $81,000.
With regard to the expenditure overview, I am
now going to go into the numbers regarding individual cost centres. And, as we see on page B -341, the D epartment of ICT Policy Innovation is comprised of four sections, those are: Administration; Policy and Legi slative Development; Technology Marketing and Pr omotion and Outreach; and E- Business Awareness and
Development.
I will start with cost centre 77000, which is
Administration. This cost centre has been allocated a budget of $1,245,000. The Budget Book actually shows an increase from the previous year’s budget of $740,000, but this was only for the E- Commerce section. So, in fact, the E -Commerce, plus the Telecommunications actually had a total budget allocation last
year of $1,434,000. So, in essence, it actually a d ecrease from the combined budgets of the two different heads.
The Administration cost centre is primarily r esponsible for operational requirements in accordance with the relevant legislation. Its budget of $1.245 milBermuda House of Assembly lion is a substantial reduction from the combined
budgets of the two heads for the previous, or last fi scal year. The decrease in this cost centre has been
largely due to reduction in operational costs, salaries and otherwise, due to the amalgamation of the departments of E -Commerce and Telecommunications.
Cost savings began when the Telecommunications
Department moved from its rented site into the Government Administrative Building and increasing its reliance on the existing infrastructure.
The funded positions in the Administration
section currently comprise one administrative assi stant, two junior ICT policy analysts, one ICT policy
analyst, two senior ICT policy analysts, and one director. Other expenses in this cost centre include equi pment and utilities, software maintenance, office sup-plies, training and office operations.
Mr. Chairman, the Department of ICT Policy
and Innovation retains responsibility for ICT policy
development as well as supporting the Minister, the
Telecommunications Commission and the Broadcas ting Commission in regulating the broadcasting sector. Functions relating to broadcast regulation are still within the remit of the Broadcasting and Telecomm unications commissions which includes the gra nting of
new licences. This involves public consultations and hearings prior to permissions and licences being granted. There is also an allocation of $476,000 for professional services on page B -342. This is budgeted
for professional consultants to further the broadcas ting reform. Overall, the department has reduced its expenses by a further 4 per cent from the previous
fiscal year. Moving down to the next line item, which is
77003, Policy and Legislation, this shows an estimate of $157,000 for 2017/18. This is a reduction of $9,000
from the previous budget of $166,000. The Depar tment of ICT Policy and Innovation continues to be
responsible for delivering policy recommendations to the Minister. The department is responsible for deli vering policy advice to the Minister on all telecommunications related matters. They also work very closely with the Regulatory Authority to establish policies and develop legislation that enables the efficient regulation of the telecommunications sector in Bermuda. As an indepe ndent regulator prescribed by the Regulatory
Authority Act, the RA is responsibly solely for the
regulation and supervision of the telecommunications
industry, but must be guided by the Minister’s policies
with regard to its work plan, priorities and budget.
On the E -Commerce side the department will
continue to develop aggressive regulatory framework and facilitate the adoption and advancement of ICT
skills and innovation so that Bermuda continues to be
recognised as a prime jurisdiction that leverages an advances the digital economy.
The policy and legislative development cost
centre therefore consists of activities relating to the oversight role of the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation plays with respect to telecommunications,
the Internet and the E- Business policy and legislation.
Specifically, this cost centre covers areas that focus
on policy development, research, cyber safety initi atives, cybersecurity, Internet governance and for providing research support to the E -Commerce Adv isory Board and its subcommittees to the Broadcast
Commission and the Telecommunications Commi ssion and to adhoc committees and working groups.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to take this opportunity to mention the diligence and commitment of the E-Commerce Advisory Board as in previous years E -
Cab and its subcommittee continue to meet on a
monthly basis to dialogue with other government and
non-government entities to provide research thereby
making valuable contributions to the Ministry through the recommendations that it submits in its report to the Minister. These recommendations not only assist the department in achieving its objectives, but also pr ovide input into technology education, cybersecurity and cyber safety in Bermuda. Equally, the Broadcas ting Commission and the Telecommunications Commission continue to provide measured decisions relat-ed to content and licensing respectively for the broadcasting industry.
Mr. Chairman, the Policy and Legislative D evelopment cost centre has seen a flurry of activity in
2016/17. On February 22, Bermuda held its third Saf-er Internet Day which focused on informing the I sland’s senior citizens about the many ways they may
use technology to their advantage without falling prey
to the scams that continue to victimise unsuspecting users locally and overseas. Safer Internet Day is held
globally every February. Every year Bermuda dedi-cates the event to the Island seniors making con-sistent efforts to equip them with the information and
tools that they need to boost their cyber safety and
safeguard their digital footprint.
An example of these consistent efforts is ev ident in the plans to host Bermuda’s first -ever Anti -
Cyber Bullying Summit this coming fall. The 2017 Anti-Cyber Bullying Summit will have three distinct features. First, it will be facilitated by local middle and
high school students who will be trained on the effec-tive ways to address cyber bullying which is an i ncreasingly troubling phenomenon. Second, it will cul-minate in October 2017 with a student’s liaison with
the Bermuda Police Service on an Anti -Cyber Bullying
Initiatives and participating as panellists or workshop
speakers at the Interpol Conference. And third, it will result in students trained in leading Cyber Angel’s clubs at their schools as they work to prevent and f ight
cyber bullying at school.
Another example of the Island’s commitment
to cyber safety is the current move towards enhancing the Island’s cybersecurity and the security of the i nformation that its individuals and organisations pr oduce and exchange on a daily basis. Many organis ations depend on cyberspace for their operational
1036 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly needs, thus exposing them to cyber risks. Cybersec urity is, therefore, a concern for the highest level of any
organisation. In 2016/17 Bermuda engaged in a self -
reflection exercise as it worked to establish the cybersecurity maturity level of its critical national infrastruc-ture. Critical national infrastructures include those sy stems and assets whose loss would lead to severe
economic or social consequences. These sectors i nclude energy, water, food, security, health, communications, and financial and transportation. In June, ECAB [ E-Commerce Advisory Board] Cybersecurity
subcommittee launched the Critical National Infr astructure (or CNI) Cybersecurity Survey in order to
determine the relevant landscape and maturity level of
the Islands critical infrastructure. That determination has now been made and the results of the survey have been shared with the aforementioned Critical National Infrastructure participants.
In order to improve cybersecurity Island- wide
there are benefits to a coordinated approach to the prevention, preparation, response and recovery from cyber incidents which may help facilitate the develop-ment of sector -based policies. The goal is to develop
a national cybersecurity strategy that will encompass
both the public and private sectors and aim to equip
the Island with the tools to better manage its cybers ecurity risk.
We will be using the cybersecurity framework
developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technologies (or NIST). The agency’s international
outreach programme assists countries to use that framework as they develop their own national cyber-security policies. Since the Bermuda Government has adopted the NIST framework, we will be looking at its sector based and ministry based profiles as a starting
point for protecting our critical national infrastructure.
There is a need to modernise and streamline
our broadcasting related legislation while ensuring
that the legislative framework caters for the ever -
evolving range of broadcasting technology services. The broadcasting sector is currently governed by se veral pieces of legislation that go back as far as the 1950s. These include:
• Cable Service Television Act 1987;
• Television Broadcasting Service Regul ations
1987;
• Films (Control of Exhibition) Act 1959;
• Broadcasting Commissioners Act 1953;
• Telecommunications Radio (Stock) Regul ations 1987;
• Sound Broadcasting Service Regulations
1994; and
• various radio class regulations.
In addition to these, there are several other
pieces of legislation that have relevance to the broad-casting sector, such as the Prohibited Publications Act
1963 and the Obscene Publications Act 1973.
The main function of the Broadcasting Com -
mission is to rate unrated films shown in publ ic, to make decisions on the suitability of broadcast content,
ranging from movies to radio adverts, and to address
complaints from the public on those matters noted above.
Mr. Chairman, the department is working with
the Regulatory Authority to effect the second major phase of the Telecommunications Regulatory Reform
Initiative. This is the transfer of the responsibility of
regulating broadcasting to the RA. The transfer will improve oversight and regulation of this sector. The Regulatory Authority will also be responsible for collecting the relevant broadcasting licensing fees, fur-ther reducing the administrative burden to the Government, and allow the department to focus on policy
development.
In the coming months a public consultation
will be conducted on the new draft broadcasting pol icy. This policy document will ultimately guide amend-ments to broadcasting legislation.
On 28 October 2016, the Regulatory Authority
assumed responsibility for the regulation of the elec-tricity sector. It now has sector al regulatory respons ibilities for both electricity and electronic communic ation services. The Authority put its work plan for the
financial year 2017/18 out for consultation in late 2016
and it can be found on its website. The work plan is based on the following strategic goals: to strive for organisational excellence; to promote and facilitate sustainable competition; to promote and protect the interest of consumers; to facilitate innovation and i nvestment; and to provide timely advice and infor-mation to the Government.
Mr. Chairman, the Regulatory Authority has
been empowered to make administrative determina-tions in order to carry -out their regulatory responsibilities. Included in these are general determinations
which are statutory instruments and, therefore, have
legislative effect. During the current year the Authority has issued three such determinations, and they are:
1) A final decision on KeyTech and ATN, under which Digicel sought the Authority’s approval
on transactions involving KeyTech and the
ATN group, as required by section 87(3) of the Regulatory Authority Act.
2) The criteria and procedures for HDS- 1, that is
the assignment of the available HDS (which
stands for High Demand Spectrum frequencies) in multiple phases with the aim of co mpleting the first phase of the process by D ecember 2015. It was proposed that HDS -1
would cover the B Blocks within the 850 MHz
Band and a subset of the available spectrum
Blocks in the 700 MHz Band which was v acated by World on Wireless, otherwise known
as WoW.
3) They had a determination on the process of payment of regulatory and government fees. And this set out the process of the fee filing instructions for the payment of regulatory and


Bermuda House of Assembly government authorisation fees. These instructions will clarify and enhance the current pr ocesses while allowing the Authority to review
and determine approval of requests for ex-emptions of revenue not generated by or at-tributed to the provision of electronic comm unications services as per the Electronic Communications Act.
In addition to any requests or directions the
Minister may issue the Regulatory Authority’s work
plan will focus on the following areas during the up-coming year:
• A review of the market to determine the liberalisation of the electronic communications
sector to consider making decision to allow new entrants to the market.
• Investigation to retail price regulation for ICOL holders.
• Conduct a quality of service investigation to
establish enforceable standards for broad-band quality of service for fixed and mobile broadband ISP speeds. The Authority will im-plement measures to prevent significant di sparities between consumers’ expectations of broadband performance and their actual experience.
• They will conduct a review of the billing practices of ICOL holders and furtherance of its
goal of protecting and promoting the interests of consumers. This review will consider prac-tices of ICOL holders who offer residential services to set a minimum standard billing code for carriers to follow.
• It will conduct an investigation into and a r eview of net neutrality. The output of this r eview will establish net neutrality rules and
codes of practice for ICOL holders. This may
include the following areas:
o Blocking and filtering;
o Network throttling;
o Zero rated services where Internet
content is delivered or reduced or free
of cost;
o Preferential network treatment to certain data streams.
The outcome will focus o n network management practices policy and regulatory approaches to principles of openness, transparency to limiting access to Internet services applications, sites and co ntent, and will engage in more consumer outreach to
educate and increase awareness.
C onsumer education is considered a veritable
tool for protecting improving lives and safety of the
consumers and, as such, the Authority will facilitate
consumer education through town hall meetings.
I move to cost centre 77004, which is Tec hnology, Marketing, Promotion and Outreach. That is on page B -341. The estimate for 2017/18 is $72,000,
which is an increase of $16,000 on the previous year of $56,000. Mr. Chairman, the Marketing, Promotion
and Outreach cost centre enables the Department of
ICT Policy and Innovation to promote Bermuda’s
strengths as a sophisticated digital jurisdiction for
conducting business. In 2016, the UK magazine World Commerce Review , named Bermuda the winner of the
best digital jurisdiction award for 2016. This is the third
time that the Island has received this distinction from
the World Commerce Review, as Bermuda also r eceived in in 2013 and 2014. The World Commerce Review is a principal
well-respected B2B publication enjoying editorial and
advertising support from some of the world’s leading business and political organisations. We are therefore
pleased that Bermuda has gained the attention of these global decision- makers and business leaders as
they are able to see how the Island’s first -class tel ecommunications infrastructure and ICT sector com-plement each other in supporting our business -friendly
jurisdiction.
Mr. Chairman, the Department of ICT Policy
and Innovation also circulates Bermuda’s ICT friendly message to local publications and local business leaders. Print locations include local magazines, such
as Your Future, Bermuda Parent Magazine, Elite
Woman, Experience Bermuda, and E-Bermuda. Another policy tool of the department is the bie nnial
State of ICT Report every year, or sorry, I should say,
every other year, this report uses public surveys to
assess the prevalence of ICT in Bermuda from three
perspectives: infrastructure, usage and skills. This
extensive report documents the state of residential and corporate technology, communications and Inter-net-related activities in Bermuda. The report is utilised
by the public, by Government, by the business co mmunity and international bodies. Survey questions are
consiste nt year to year for the sake of proper benc hmarking. However, given the ever -shifting technology
landscape new questions are added to gain a better
grasp of the state of technology in Bermuda.
The most recent surveys, the findings of
which are being compiled, have shown strong indic ations of Bermuda’s increasing use of and reliance on technology both in the household and organisational sides. Ninety -two per cent of residents have Internet
access at home; 90 per cent of homes have a com-puter network, 88 per cent of which are wireless, a
further 88 per cent of which are secure; 93 per cent of
households own at least one computer, and 91 per
cent of households own at least one smartphone; 97 per cent of businesses own desktop computers; and 100 per cent of businesses have Internet access.
More information will be available when the State of
ICT in Bermuda Report 2016 is published. However,
the above- listed highlights confirm that Bermuda continues to be a consistent adopter of technology.
The surveys are an important instrument for
the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation with r espect to policy direction and development, data anal y1038 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly sis, and business planning for new programmes and
initiatives, and even in the refinement of existing ones,
such as the Personal Information Protection Act, the Technology Innovation Awards, Global Entrepreneur-ship Week, Inspire E -Business, the Technology Leadership Forum and Cybertips among others.
Moving to cost centre 77005, which is E -
Business Awareness and Development, the al location
for 2017/18 is $157,000. This is an increase of $12,000, or 8 per cent, from the previous year.

[Ms. Susan E. Jackson, Chairman]

Madam Chairman,
this cost centre allows the department to encourage
the adoption and use of technology as a tool for skilled and business development. Programmes are offered that integrate technology, technology training and education into how Bermuda operates at home, at
work and at school. Through the various programme
offerings, the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation advocates and celebrates technology in its many var iations and encourages and inspires and insists upon making sure that it aids in making our lives better on a
daily basis.
Madam Chairman, the State of ICT survey
indicates the public agrees with the following stat ements: 98 per cent of residents believe that in order to remain competitive it is important for Bermuda to con-tinue adopting new technology products and services;
99 per cent of residents and 97 per cent of professionals believe that in order to compete in a global
economy Bermuda must continue to meet or exceed global technology standards; and 97 per cent of res idents and 96 per cent of professionals believe that
having a strong knowledge of technology is essential
in getting ahead today.
Every November the department joins Bermuda’s hosting committee of the Global Entrepr eneurship Week, global event during which the Island,
together with 160 other countries celebrates entrepr eneurship as it works to inspire, mentor and engage the next generation of leaders, innovators and creators. It is worth noting that for its work towards growing the local entrepreneur ecosystem, the Island has been recognised on an international level of the Global E ntrepreneurship Congress for three years it has r eceived the “Champion Catalyzer Award” which is the most events per capita and most partners per capita.
Global Entrepreneurship Week is not the only
way the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation nails technology with innovation and encourages creativity amongst existing and new entrepreneurship through
the Inspire eBusiness initiative. The E -Business
awareness and development cost centre is used for a
yearly series of workshops that educate budding en-trepreneurs about the steps required to start a healthy e-commerce business in Bermuda, a training pr ogramme called “Click to Start,” that teaches entrepr e-neurs how to build a website that will boost their rev enues and allow them to harness the Internet for the benefit of their businesses, and a 54- hour event called
“Startup Weekend” that allows persons who have a mere business idea to develop it into a strong minimal viable product a necessary first step towards building a strong e- business.
Madam Chairman, the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation also publishes a yearly IT Career Guide that it targets to Bermuda school students and provides them with useful information as they decide which career to pursue. The IT Career Guide discus ses the various ICT related careers in Bermuda, lists
local IT courses and scholarships available and pr ofiles Bermudians in the field who are making their
mark in the profession. The guide also provides IT education recommendations, including the highest ranking universities, e- learning opportunities and how
social media could assist.
Madam Chairman, 98 per cent of residents
and 96 per cent of professionals believe that computer
science and programming should be included in the
Bermuda school curriculum. As a first step in that d irection, the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation
uses this cost centre to enhance availability of ICT
training and education opportunities both inside and outside the classroom at the curricular and profes-sional levels. The department partners with the Minis-try of Education, Bermuda Economic Development Corporation and other organisations to provide access
to e-skills. The department most recently assisted the
Technology Leadership Forum (TLF), a registered
charity it was originally formed in 2009 by the Depar tment of E -Commerce, in partnership with private sector technology companies in order to accommodate the growing need for qualified Bermudians in the ICT
field.
In January, the TLF trained through a free
pilot programme 17 middle school educators from the
public and private sector systems and ICT education advocates in foundational programming concepts and
taught them how to create and complete coding lessons for their own classrooms. We look forward to receiving the results of this exciting pilot.
At the professional level, the Department of
ICT Policy and Innovation also supports TechTalk, which is a series of panel discussions that are organised by ISACA [Information Systems Audit and Co ntrol Association] on topics of interest to a broad spectrum of ICT professionals in Bermuda. Such topics include, disaster recovery and business continuity, cyber insurance information security, IT forensic i nvestigation practices and vendor management, to
name but a few.
A summary of other Workforce Development -
type initiative planned under IT career or youth trai ning for 2017/18 include, the TLF Summer internship
programme which is an intensive 12- week internship
where college students acquire experience in the ICT


Bermuda House of Assembly industry through hands -on field work, classroom i nstruction and team projects. The classroom training is
taught by industry professionals and over 20 courses cover business continuity, project management, data warehousing, programming, and networking. Bi zCamp, which is a free entrepreneurial camp for young students, customarily held during the summer or
school breaks. BizCamp allows young budding entr epreneurs to develop their business savvy during a
weeklong programme. And StartUp W eekend which is
an intensive 54- hour session that has existing and
potential entrepreneurs working together in teams to create a minimum viable product for a new business.
The department will also continue to offer at least five
annual Inspire eBusiness workshops focused on a different aspect of setting up an e- business in addition
to the StartUp Weekend.
The Click to Start course, which was held of
the first time in 2016/17 will be offered again. This
hands -on course allows participants to set up their ecommerce website and social media presence over
six weeks. Industry professionals also come into the classes to provide them guidance on how best to launch their e- business into the world.
The Pitch Tech competition is held every N ovember during Global Entrepreneurship Week as a component of the RocketPitch competition. The wi nner of Pitch Tech focused division takes away seed funding in business services to launch their company.
I am going to turn now to page B -342 which
shows the expenditure figures for this particular head. Please note that the figures firstly need some expl anation. The 2016/17 Budget of $1,537,000 includes
the Privacy Commissioner’s Office, and excludes the Department of Telecommunications which is being merged. Therefore, an analysis of the expenditure and
subsequent variance on B- 342 is not straightforward.
As already mentioned, when comparing likefor-like, the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation
allocation for the year is down by $274,000 from last year’s amount. However, a large proportion of this
decrease is due to the movement of two positions into
the Ministry’s Headquarters. Therefore, on a like- forlike basis, once this reallocation is removed, the act ual saving within the department is $81,000. This
$81,000 is made up of the following:
• $46,000 due to the restructuring and role
changes within the d epartment as part of the
merger;
• $19,000 reduction in office rentals due to the Department of Telecommunications being
housed within the Ministry;
• a $12,000 decrease in Professional Services
due to Broadcasting Reform project, which was mentioned earlier in this brief;
• $23,000 combined reduction of communic ations, repairs and maintenance and materials and supplies. This has been born through eff iciency savings. This has been offset by an increase of
$19,000 within Travel, this is due to an expectation
that the department will be required to expand its ac-tivities with international organisations.
Revenues, again on page B -342, show an
estimate of $14,750 for 2017/18. This is $1,284,000
increase from the previous year and that essentially
represents a 9.5 per cent increase.
This revenue is primarily composed of fees for
integrated communications operating licences (ICOL),
cellular handset licences, the new Radio Spec trum
licences, and licences for various other commercial and private radios.
Madam Chairman, the total ICOL fees for the
next fiscal year will be maintained at the rate of 1.75 per cent of relevant turnover of ICOL holders.
There will be no increase in the current level of government author isation fees of 2.5 per cent imposed on
the ICOL licensees under the Government Fees Act
1965.
In 2017/18, revenues derived from electronic
communications are projected to be $4,920,000,
spec trum fees will be $2,480,000, handset fees are
expected to be $6.95 million and fees from radio
communication licenses will be $395,000.
Madam Chairman, t he Budget Book on page
B-342 states that there are seven full-time equivalent
positions. This is as a result of the amalgamation of the departments of E -Commerce and Telecommunications into the Department of ICT Policy and Innov ation and the funded posts being used in the new or-ganisational structure. However, at this time there are four full -time employees who will immediately be wor king in the amalgamated department, with three post s
currently not filled. As already mentioned, please note that two former Telecommunications roles shall transfer to the Ministry of Economic Development Hea dquarters.
I am going to change very briefly to the Privacy Commissioner’s Office , just to explain, because
that is part of the current year’s vote. So the Personal
Information Protection Act 2016 (PIPA) received Ro yal Assent on July 27, 2016. It will provide Bermuda’s
residents with a general right to privacy for personal information, which is based on a common set of inter-national privacy principles. The PIPA applies to all organisations that use personal information in Berm uda, including businesses and the Government.
The Privacy Commissioner is appointed by
the Governor and is an independent regulator, not subject to the influence of any organisation or entity and therefore must clearly operate outside of Gov-ernment. As we are seeking an Adequacy finding from
the European Union, the independence of the Information Commissioner is one criterion of an “Adequa-cy” assessment. Hence, the Privacy Commissioner’s Office has been removed from the d epartment and
has become a non- Ministry Department.
1040 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly An “Adequacy finding” is a decision taken by
the European Commission establishing that a third
country provides a comparable level of protection of personal data to that in the European Union, through its domestic law or its international commitments. As a result, personal data can flow from the 28 Member States and the three European Economic Area (EEA)
member countries (Norway, Liechtenstein and Ic eland) to that third country, without being subject to any further safeguards or authorisations. This is particular-ly attractive to international business and positions Bermuda as a jurisdiction that can be trusted to pr otect personal information and that has implemented
best practice related to international compliance r equirements.
Consideration was given early on to the possibility of merging the offices of the Privacy Commi ssioner and the Information Commissioner, in order to
obtain efficiencies of scale. In fact, the legislation is
written in such a way to allow for such an eventuality
to occur. Presently, however, the Government is tak-ing the most pragmatic approach towards implemen-tation which requires a dedicated Privacy Commissioner and staff to ensure that privacy rights will be
respected and organisations receive assistance in
preparing for the implementation. The PIPA is new for Bermuda and every organisation both large and small, including businesses and not for profits, as well as the government, must comply with its requirements.
Privacy and data protection is a highly specialised area with a strong technology focus. The statutory responsibilities of the Regulator are wider in scope and cover a broader range of organisations than those subject to PATI. In order to provide the necessary guidance and information to assist organ isations across all sectors as they prepare for the Personal Information Protection Act (or PIPA) coming into
force, the Privacy Commissioner’s Office must be op-erational with the appropriate skill set as quickly as
possible.
It is correct that several small jurisdictions
have combined the offices of the regulators. However, in many of these cases, data protection and privacy legislation had been fully entrenched for a number of years before freedom of information laws were intr oduced. This means that only Government institutions were being affected by adding another level of complianc e, while the “heavy lifting” associated with the
adoption of data protection and privacy by all organ isations had already taken place, which had previously been the sole focus of the Regulator for a long time.
Madam Chairman, how much time is left? I
want to make sure I leave adequate time for the Honourable Members.

At 4:24 pm. Okay. I am going to turn now to the development of
our Space and Satellite Industry, which is reflected o n
page C -7. The Department of ICT Policy and Innov ation has been allocated $400,000 in capital funding for
financial year 2017/18 to support our space and satellite programme.
The satellite industry includes:
• Consumer Services such as satellite telev ision, radio and broadband ;
• Mobile Satellite Services, including mobile data and mobile voice;
• Remote Sensing/Imaging Services ;
• the use of managed network services ; and
• a variety of commercial contracts.
According to the most recent report prepared
for the Satellite Industry Association called “ State of
the Satellite Industry Report ” industry revenues were
valued at $208 billion. The largest segment, Satellite
Services, which contributed to 61 per cent of rev enues, or $127 billion, consists of consumer services such as television, radio, broadband and mobile ser-vices. This segment grew by 4 per cent and continues
to be a key driver for the overall satellite industry.
A s Honourable Members will recall, that in
1983 the International Telecommunication Union ( ITU)
allocated four satellite orbital slots to Bermuda. Three of these are for Broadcasting Satellite Services for Direct to Home reception and the fourth is for co mmercial communications.
Bermuda’s orbital slot at 96.2˚ WL was successfully brought into use by SES Satellites (Berm uda) [Limited ] using an EchoStar Limited satellite
[EchoStar VI] in July 2013. The Minister issued three certificates to SES: the certificate of compliance; the certificate of competence to engage in coordination; and the certificate of coordination in accordance with
the Satellite Network Notification and Coordination
Regulations 2007.
Madam Chairman, Bermuda’s orbital slots
provide the opportunity for satellite service providers to access the large US market. However, there is cur-rently FCC moratorium prohibiting new service to the
US satellite TV market including from Bermuda’s own satellite network, BermudaSat -1. I should note that the
moratorium, which began in 2005 , applies to all new
satellite network application, not just foreign ones.
In the United States, the Communications Act
of 1934 gives the FCC broad authority to regulate our
satellite operations. All commercial entities that use radio frequencies to provide communications services in the US are subject to the jurisdiction of the FCC under the Communications Act.
To obtain FCC licenc es and authori sations for
satellites and earth stations, satellite operators must satisfy strict legal, technical and financial qualification requirements. Once issued, these licenc es and authorisations are subject to a number of conditions i ncluding, among other things, satisfaction of certain technical and ongoing due diligence obligations, conBermuda House of Assembly struction milestones, and various reporting requir ements. Applications for new or modified satellites and
earth stations are necessary for further development and expansion of satellites services and generally must be approved by the FCC in advance.
In December of last year I, along with the
Permanent Secretary, visited Washington DC to pr omote Bermuda’s wide range of service offerings to the satellite industry and space community and gained a
better understanding of the current and future state of the satellite/space industry. I met with Ms. Mindel De La Torre, Chief of the International Bureau at the Fed-eral Communications Commission (FCC). Our discussions covered the moratorium on satellite TV services
and what would allow Bermuda’s satellite network (BermudaSat -1) to serve the US m arket.
Ms. De La Torre and her staff were very hel pful by providing a historical perspective of the morat orium, together with suggestions about how Bermuda
might wish to proceed. Madam Chairman, the department is currently working with our consultants to
consider various options and provide me with a rec-ommendation as to the best course of action to put us into a position to finally maximi se the commercial potential of our premier satellite orbital resource. As r equired by U S law, we filed an e x parte notice of our
meeting with the FCC.
I also met with executives from several pr ospective satellite companies and provided them infor-mation regarding the benefits of Bermuda as an of fshore jurisdiction, which includes the fact that the I sland is a premier captive insurance centre and a satel-lite filing administration for satellite operators.
I am going to skip here a little bit because I
want to give the Honourable Member at least half an hour.
The Department of ICT Policy and Innovation
will continue to engage the global satellite industry to enhance and develop services that will attract these companies to our shores. The d epartment will work
with the Ministry’s Business Development Unit, the
Bermuda Business Development Agency, as well as
other organi sations and local service providers in
support of these initiatives.
Examples of these services include:
• improvements to the satellite network filing
regime in accordance with the Satellite Network Notification and Coordination Regul ations 2007;
• the marketing of Bermuda’s additional satellite
orbital slots ;
• the development of a Satellite Tracking Licensing regime to support the periodic use of Bermuda as an ideal location to track satellite launches from the western hemisphere;
• the investigation into the viability of using
Bermuda’s high- capacity trans -Atlantic fibre
optic communication links to compliment var ious satellite services ; • the promotion and marketing of Bermuda’s I nsurance and Risk Mitigation services to the global satellite industry.
The Bermuda Government, together with the
Regulatory Authority , has developed a protocol that
authorises various entities to establish and operate portable facilities to perform satellite tracking and r eceive telemetry data for their launch vehicles, or other projects as may be agreed. Presently, the European Space Agency , NASA ( National Aeronautic Space
Administration) and SpaceX have tracking and telemetry facilities on- Island.
Another company, Spire Global, has reques ted the use of Bermuda facilities in order to collect data such as the Automatic Identification System (AIS) ser-vice, which is used for tracking ships and collecting
weather data that measure temperature, pressure and
precipitation gathered from a network of satellites. AIS data is used to monitor illegal fishing activities, trade monitoring, maritime domain awareness, insurance, asset tracking, search and rescue, and piracy. The purpose of the proposed Earth Station in Bermuda is
to track and monitor satellites and shipping assets.
These facilities are located at Cooper’s Island (site of
the former NASA station) and at the old Cable and
Wireless (C & W) facility in Devonshire (now LinkBermuda). Bermuda is once again proving to be an ideal
location to track and collect data from its network of
satellite s.
Madam Chairman, the $400,000 that has
been allocated to the Department of ICT Policy and
Innovation will be used to continue to fund these glob-al satellite industry initiatives as part of the department’s role in participating in the Ministry’s efforts to promote and strengthen economic development on the Island. The s atellite industry is a growing enterprise within the telecommunications industry which is rapidly becoming more and more integrated with cur-rently entrenched terrestrial com munications facilities.
This means that satellite space telecommunication has become a critical component of any advanced telecommunications network today. This allocation of $400,000 will be used to cover the cost of specialist
satellite consultants, marketing, and ancillary costs in order to continue developing Bermuda’s satellite i ndustry.
Madam Chairman, this concludes my remarks
on the Department of Department of ICT Policy and Innovation. And I would like to thank the Director, Dr.
Marisa Stones for all of her hard work over the last year, and her colleagues that work in the new depar tment.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Thank you, Minister.
Would anyone else like to speak to the
heads? Th e Chair calls on the Member from constit uency 33.

1042 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Jamahl S. Simmons: Thank you, Madam Chai rman. And thank you, Minister for having a little mercy
on me and giving me a little time to put some ques-tions to you and raise a few points.
I would like to begin by praising all of the
workers at the Regulatory Authority, the BEDC, the BDA, the BDU, the ACBDA, and the ACEA to begin
with. You are doing great work. We are very pleased
with what you are doing. And I am very appreciative of the collaborative nature of the relationship we have had in terms of being responsive when we have had questions and being willing to share your points of view on the legislation as well as the legislation that
comes through and the policy initiative that you have
been promoting.
I am going to start with a few questions before
I get into my substantive remarks beginning with Head 95, pages B -330, B -333. My first question is, The
BEDC grant in support of small, medium -sized local
business entrepreneurs, we are curious about how many were issued and what business categories were they issued in?
Another question I have is, With only nonBermudian jobs growing under the OBA and the Mi nistry’s core mission to facilitate the creation of jobs (and this is the overall Ministry Department) and ec onomic growth, what changes will be made going for-ward to encourage and facilitate the creation of Ber-mudian jobs?
Another question I have is with the introduction of professional development initiatives focused on compliance in 2018 of the 54 students enrolled in the programme, how many of the 54 students involved in the new professional development initiative were Bermudian? With a particular emphasis on compl iance, what is the forward view of the Government in
terms of need in the short term and the long term in
terms of personnel, in terms of growth and demand?
Looking under BEDC remit, the Economic
Empowerment Zone (Everyone is laughing as I try to cram about two hours’ worth of stuff into about 20
minutes) the BEDC remit . . . the Economic Empo werment Zones were first established almost a decade
ago. And since then there have been many innov ations in terms of the programme around the world, global innovations. What is the forward vision for the Economic Empowerment Zones in terms of modernising and bringing in line with some of the innovations
we are seeing overseas in terms of better targeting, for example, employment from within the zone, better targeting in terms of more varied business, targeting specific businesses to go into the zone for specific initiatives?
Also, is there any consideration under the
BEDC to engage in special initiatives to expand the creation and growth of black businesses in Bermuda? Now, Madam Chairman, I have one issue with
the Minister’s remarks when he says that the increase in the number of people seeking to begin running businesses and seeking business planning and management advice from the BEDC is as a result of (and I
quote from his brief) , “This is a clear indicator that in
the current economic environment Bermudians are
looking to become entrepreneurs. This is also an indi-cator of confidence in the direction the economy is taking. ”
In fact, Madam Chairman, I am aware of
many, many people who have taken this route b ecause they had no choice. They cannot find work and they have been forced to go into entrepreneurship and, you know, there is some argument to say that sometimes in the Bermudian tradition it is good to be
thrown in the deep end to thrive, but it is by no means,
at least in the Bermuda we live in, a clear indication that the current economic environment is inspiring confidence. It is actually more reflective of an env ironment where people are losing faith that jobs will be created for Bermudians and they had better figure out
their own way ahead because no help is coming from
the Government.
Madam Chairman, another question I have is
from the two cohorts that have graduated from the
StreetWise MBA programme, we would be curious to
know how many were owners of existing businesses and how many ended up launching new businesses, of the two cohorts that have graduated from the Street Wise MBA Programme.
Speaking also to the section relating to the
BEDC vending licences, we have had a number of
complaints (I am sure the Government has also
heard) that the current regime, in terms of the applic ation form , is considered a bit onerous and a disince ntive to some seeking to obtain a licence. We were hoping . . . and I would ask the Minister to consider a review of the current application process for vending
licences. And I would also ask for the application, if
possible, on the quality impact assessment to deter-mine that the process as it exists now is not creating a deterrent to people of colour, women and other disadvantaged groups that have been historically kept out
and excluded in the past.
Now, when we turn to the BDA, the Minister
says in 2016/17 new companies were established in
Bermuda. We would like to know how many Bermudians were employed as a result. We would also like to know, of the 22 companies that the BDA has helped
to establish, how many Bermudians have been em-ployed. Of the 209 people implied by the 15 funds that have been established, how many of those jobs are held by Bermudians? And also, for the 42 new insur-ers that have been identified as setting up under the BDA, how many Bermudians have been employed
and how many new jobs have been generated?
Turning also to the BDA and the absence of
the Washington office, we would be very curious because it was some . . . I would like to know what has been done with the services that were utilised by that office? With the change of administration, with the


Bermuda House of Assembly various potential threats on the horizon to our intern ational business, with possible changes to the tax r egime, the Washington office played a critical role in
making sure that we had boots on the ground on a daily basis working with our lobbyists to, not just to keep informed of the winds of change in Congress and the Senate and the political moods of the gover ning regime, but also to be able to be constantly in the face of the players, the power brokers, and make sure that our case is being made. And while I take note of the Minister’s comments relating to the work being done, on a day -to-day basis what has happened with
the role of the Washington office now that it seems to
have been phased out completely?
Turning now to Head 95, 9505, America’s
Cup. Madam Chairman, not to reflect on a former debate, but there was a comment made by the Honourable Premier at our last sitting where he said that the PLP’s position is they support the America’s Cup but .
. . Madam Chairman, our role is to be the gatekeeper
of the public finance and the critical eye of the Government’s work. Our role is not to be the rubber
stamp, the second fiddle on the public relations spin of
the Government. We are not the Royal Gazette, Madam Chairman.
We believe that we can support the America’s
Cup as well as be critical of the aspects where we feel
it is falling short. We all love our children and we have no problem criticising them when their grades are not up to par. And so what we want, as an Opposition, is
an America’s Cup that is successful, an America’s
Cup that reaches as far and wide and has as diverse and inclusive a beneficial reach as possible. And we also want the areas where we see shortfalls ad-dressed. So, yes, we do support the America’s Cup,
but we want it to reach its full potential , and there is
nothing wrong with that. We can support the Amer ica’s Cup and be critical of where we see it falling
short.
Just to go back, one of the challenges that we
have seen in the community is the lack of the diverse
embracing of this economic opportunity from the
whole of the community. In many quarters it is perceived— and perhaps rightly so— as a white elitist
event. There have been complaints from various quar-ters that not enough black entrepreneurs are coming out to the different sessions, although I understand
that has improved. There have been complaints about
the lack of diversity at the various events as well as in
terms of the management teams at the ACBDA as well as the ACEA. We hope that Bermuda has the opportunity at the completion of this America’s Cup to be able to have the chance to host it again. But we
would have liked to have seen in the initial process an
equality impact assessment —and I hope that if we do
get that opportunity, if we do this again ––to ensure
that the reach is . . . that the mistakes that have been made are not made again. Because in many quarters of our country,
Madam Chairman, the significance of having the Cup
arrive in Bermuda and be greeted on the tarmac by a Scottish Piper with a bagpipe . . . that sent a message
to some quarters that this is not for y ou. When you
saw the makeup of the leadership and the teams and the different aspects on the local end, it sent a message this is not for you. And, Madam Chairman, when
we look at the recent recognition (and not anticipating
the Tourism debate) by the outgoing —outgone— BTA
Chairman, Mr. Hanbury, where they had shifted away from the older New England, sort of , glory days of the
past model that we were looking for.
And if I may quote, Madam Chairman, we look
at something like a recent quote from Nick Hayes in
Sailing magazine and he says: “The average self -
described American sailor is a white male, 40.1 years old . . . The largest (43%) age group of sailors are 55 and up. The average age of a sailboat owner is 54.8
years old. The ratio of men to women is about seven
to one. . . . when today’s sailors reach 25” —he continues —“they generally quit. So proportionately [few
people] between 25 and 44 [are] sailing.”
“Sailing was and remains a favourite activity
of the oldest boomers. Compared with US census data, the average sailor is older than the general popul ation by about 11 years, so its decline precedes boom-er retirement and death by about a decade.” And that
is Nick Hayes of Sailing magazine.
If the continued progress of our tourism product will continue, we have to begin looking at the
events we choose and whether it is a demographic that is growing and evolving. We recognise the oppor-tunity that exists. We do not want to exclude those older folks ; but this product, as it stands now, is no
longer in line with w hat the BTA is trying to do, and we
have to look at how we can take this event and begin to broaden its appeal beyond the demographic ident ified as sailors. And that includes going into the superyacht business, which tends to be a little differ-ent.
But also looking at the product, when we look
at the fact that San Francisco paid about 40 to 50 per
cent less than we did, got three years of sailing and
40 concerts produced by the biggest concert promoter in America, Bermuda got three years of construction,
six weeks of racing, and local talent, which we believe
should be protected. But are the events around the
sailing itself of a calibre to draw people and be enticed
and enjoy it beyond the event itself? If you compare, sort of, the activity around Chicago and around the
other areas, we are not quite at that level yet in terms of what we are doing to get that event structure up
around it to get our people there.
The America’s Cup Concert series in San
Francisco featured Sting, Steely Dan, and Heart
, recent stars like Train, 311, Jason Mraz, Fall Out Boy,
and Sublime. Cheech and Chong were even there.
Now, this is a little older audience, little older perfor1044 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly mance thing than I would enjoy. But if the market . . . if
that is who we are targeting with this event, then let us
hook them up. But I think it is unfortunate that the l ocal entertainment component was given the impres-sion of being a sort of scrambled, last minute affair. I also think that when we look at the more aggressive outreach of the past several months towards the small
entrepreneurs, it gives the impression of it being a
last-minute affair. And these are the things, the steps
that if they had been taken earlier, we would feel from the wider community a greater sense of inclusion.
And it does not help, Madam Chairman, when
you have people speaking in support of the event sa ying, Well, if you don’t get an opportunity out of it, it’s
your fault. If you don’t start a business out of this, it’s your fault. You know, it is sort of blaming the people
who, perhaps, need the most help in getting started. Because remember, not every business in Bermuda is a legacy business, like many of the ones that are
benefitting from the America’s Cup. They benefited
from it back when it first kicked off in 2014. Not ever yone had the capacity to be able to be able to bid on the various high- end products, high- end opportunities.
And so when you come now, the feeling was sent to
the community very early [that] this is not for you. And
that we have to change if we are going to go forward
with this into the future, and not just for this event, it is for all events. Whatever we bring to Bermuda we have to send the message clearly that it is inclusive from the start, from the beginning.
Now, Madam Chairman, there is an issue tha t
has been raised among the vendors . Selected vendors must enter a revenue- sharing relationship as a
percentage of gross receipts and pay a daily oper ational fee to cover operating services offered by the ACEA. The cost of this will be determined based upo n
the individual vendor needs.
How many people have been deterred by that
cut into what should be an opportunity? How many
people looked and said, You know what? That piece
of the pie is, perhaps, a little too big? How many pe ople said, Aren’t you getting enough from the Gover nment and their investment?
Madam Chairman, how much time do I have
left?

[Inaudible interjection]

Okay. One of the other aspects as well in terms of inclusion, is we must begin to
look at not just getting the entrepreneurs, the enter-tainers, and all the people who are not the legacy
businesses involved earlier , I would strongly suggest
examining the programmes —the effective pr ogrammes —in other jurisdictions that target disadvantaged groups in terms of hiring for the management
organisations, in terms of awarding of contracts.
There is nothing wrong, Madam Chairman,
with affirmative action to redress the excluded. And I think for an event of this magnitude it would have sent
a very, very powerful message if we would have seen
far greater diversity in the leadership, in the operation, and a goal toward building that diversity if you could not get it initially. That, I think, is a critical component.
Another concern that has been raised surrounding the America’s C up, Madam Chairman, in
terms of preparing and inclusiveness is the issue sur-rounding the charter boats. Apparently some of that has been resolved, but in the initial confusion several boat owners have complained that, you know, they lost out on opportunities to have business because
their client base was afraid that, Well, if I waited for you to get your confirmation then maybe [we] would
get left out and wouldn’t be along for the ride. Those
are the things that we have to address and have to make our people feel included.
The other issue has to do with the accomm odations, Madam Chairman. I have been made aware,
and I hope the Government has been made aware, that there have been some concerns and complaints about price gouging and some concern that there are members of the hospitality industry that are choosing to sort of price themselves a little above what the
market will bear. And I hope that the Government is
aware of it. I know that the market will do what the
market will do. But I hope that we are not creating an atmosphere reminiscent of the old pirate days where we have lit the bonfire to bring them in, we have crashed the ship on the rocks, and we are now trying
to empty every dollar out of their pocket and we do not
care whether they come back again.
Moving on, Madam Chairman, back to the
department head. The PLP for the past three years has been calling for an economic development plan. The importance of international business, the signif icance of international business, the threat it is under now is on an unprecedented level and while we have to protect that and we have to continue to do what we can to do that, the question now remains, where will the jobs come from? We have been calling for an
economic diversification unit to begin using people
who know how to draw diverse products to Berm uda—diverse opportunities —get these things . . . as we
start looking at multiple pillars to our economy, prepar-ing for the best, getting us ready for the best of the future, but hoping to avoid the worst.
We have to acknowledge the fact that local
businesses are changing. There is going to be more outsourcing, there is going to be more technological advances that will lead to automation. There will be
jobs that will cease to exist over the next decade, 20 years, even sooner. So we have to now begin to say
what will the Bermuda of the next 10 years look like?
What will the Bermudian worker of the next 10 years be needed to do?
It makes no sense if we are not preparing our
young people today with a vision that says this is where we need to develop our economy, this is where


Bermuda House of Assembly we are going to grow our economy, and this is where
you fit into it. Failure to do that, failure to see a clear
vision that shows where Bermudians fit in, contr ibutes
to the continuing exodus of Bermudians leaving our
shores and believing that there are better opportun ities elsewhere. So we renew our call for strategic planning for economic development. We encourage
the Government to look at other jurisdictions that have
produced these specific plans and to look at what we can be doing to move things ahead.
Now, Madam Chairman, I have had to race
through this, but I do want to give one of my col-leagues a few minutes to ask the questions he had
before we give the Minister an opportunity to respond.
So with that I will take my seat.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Yes, until 4:24 [pm].

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Four twenty -four. Okay, well,
listen, Madam Chairman, I am very much concerned
that we have a three- hour debate and the Minister
goes two and a half, two and three- quarters and pontificates and then at the end of the day we ask ourselves the question, is this really a Budget Debate?
Is this really the Budget Debate? Are we actually getting real ground, or are we actually getting information out there? The information that the Minister read, the civil servants are quite aware of what he
read. And I think that at the end of the day it is i mportant that the Opposition is able to get their facts out there, listen to and ask the Minister questions.
But, Madam Chairman, first of all let me just
congratulate the BDA for the hard work that they have
done and the information that the Minister read out.
And he has never yet thanked the Progressive Labour Party for having the vision of creating that entity. I do not know why the Minister is so frightened to mention the Progressive Labour Party in his briefs. If it was not for the Progressive Labour Party having the vision of
creating the Bermuda Development Agency, we would
not have the creation of the jobs that he is talking about, the new ideas that the BDA is coming up with. Because at the end of the day, there was nothing else left out there, BIBA and the rest of them really were not doing much at all. So we have to congratulate the
Progressive Labour Party for the vision.
When the people ask you themselves, What
will the Progressive Labour Party bring in the next
election? Not only the new ideas of the BDA, but also
the information that my colleague just mentioned about a diversification unit to look at new business.
We have not heard anything new from the Minister
coming in his budget for the last four years. There is nothing really new. Every time he reads out what has
been happening before. I mean, they are the ones that talked about bringing the cost of living down, they are the ones that talked about bringing the cost of
electricity down, and they have not done it in their
four-year period. I do not know what is left, there are
only nine months left for the reign of the One Bermuda Alliance.
So that is where I am really concerned. I
mean, in the short time that we were there we were
able to make some things really happen on the ec onomic front. And the fruit . . . and the work coming
from the BDA has actually proven itself.
But let me point out some errors in the financials here. I am not sure who has actually done them
up, but if you look at page B -331 and it talks about
Grants, BEDC (I am assuming that is BDA), an d you
compare that with [page] C -21 . . . Can someone tell
me? The Minister can check. When you add up the
$4,125[,000] on [page] C-21 and the $1,564[,000], it
adds up to . . . now, let me get this right. No, sorry, the
$27,560[,000], which is given to the America’s Cup
Grant, $27,560[,000], and we look on page C -21, it is
$27,460[,000]. On page C -21. So which one is it?
Page C -21, up there $27,460[,000] and then on the
actual page B -331 it has $27,560[,000].

Typo.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Yeah, I know that. I am just
telling you . . . well, which one are we approving then?

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: There is a hundred . . .
which one is correct?
Next question is . . . time is just running out, it
is crazy. When we talk about the BEDC, the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation, was there an
error there, Minister? You said it was $10.00.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Under line item 9505, America’s Cup —$27,560[,000] —and you look at page C -21
it is $27,460[,000]. Okay, I will continue. It is a hundred dollars; you said ten dollars.
Economic development. The Minister talked
about the actual meeting of the BEDC and their new strategy. I would like to know exactly how many loans
1046 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly were guaranteed by the banks? And which banks
were they?
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: You did not tell me which
banks they were. I asked you how many were guaran-teed and which banks they were, because you mentioned . . . you talked about the . . . I think you men-tioned about 75 . . . I think you mentioned about, yes, 75 loan guarantees. But who were the banks that ac-tually gave these loans out? I would be interested to know what the total banks . . . given that amount.
Madam Chairman, the actual change to the
BEDC . . . no changes have happened to this legisla-tion since 1996. I am not going to tell you which Mini ster it was, but it is the one who is standing right here —
1996 —we have not made any recent significant
changes to that legislation since 20 years ago? We
have not increased the capital to allow the BEDC to
do more things for . . . giving out loans to the . . . to our . . . for loan guarantees? It is six times the capital, which is $6 million. We could have done some more
things in helping out our entrepreneurs. The cost of
living has gone up.
The requirements nowadays, if you get a loan,
you have got to get a guarantee from your grandmother who is dead and your grandfather who is dead or your momma. And so there are so many things that we can do, but who is actually thinking about that,
Minister? Are you thinking about how you can improve
this actual piece of legislation so that people can get more worth out of the BEDC? It is nice for you to men-tion about the three- year strategy, but at the end of
the day we want some more . . . progressiveness that is taking it so that BEDC can work better.
Now, because I have got a short time I am
trying to hit and miss, the America’s Cup. Min ister,
you remember from day one I mentioned to you . . .
we met with you and said, Let’s work together on the
America’s Cup. That is what we said. We said, Let’s
work together. The Minister has not called us from day
one. He has not called us from day one to work t ogether —

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: You have not worked . . .
you have not worked . . . it is a nice trip . . . you said
you took my honourable colleague to Chicago. That is nice. But you have not worked with Opposition be-cause if you worked with the Opposition, you would have fewer problems than you are having right now.
The average Bermudian does not believe in the America’s Cup. Let us face it.
Now we believe the America’s Cup is good for
Bermuda, but if you had included us from day one . . . you called us into your office [and] we talked to you.
We said, Let us have a discussion and move this country ahead together. It is not about the Progressive
Labour Party. It is not about the One Bermuda All iance. It is about how we can make Bermuda work for
everyone. And they have failed. And because you have failed to include us in the discussion, the aver-age person out there is not able to feel and see what is happening.
Now I understand these meetings have been
taking place. You can correct me if I am wrong or not,
but they tell me ( RG) that the application fee is one
thing. I forget what it is. I think someone talked about
$200 for an application fee, and then you are charged $1,000 per day as a vendor. Is that true, Minister?
Minister, are you asleep?

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: So I understand that is it
$1,000 per day. That cannot be it. That means that if you are there for 30 days . . . I see somebody shaking
their head. And I trust that individual. I saw you turn
around because you did not know it. And I trust that individual wholeheartedly. But . . . so what are the vendors paying for . . . this was a person, they told me
the place was full and then Bermudians left because
they heard of this $1,000 per day. Now maybe it is $1,000 for something.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: No, I want the Minister to
answer. I said I trust that individual wholeheartedly,
but at the end of the day we have got make this thing happen.
So I have got one minute, Minister, if you can
answer my questions and the Shadow, I would appr eciate it.

Yes, thank you.
On the loan guarantees, 16 were from Butterfield, 9 from HSBC, 15 from Clarien.
There is no error in the figures here. They add
up . . . the $4.125 million and the $1.564 for the two
grants come out to the correct amount here, which is $5.689 million.
The difference between the Grant in the back,
which is basically the $27,560[,000] and the
$27,460[,000] is because there is $100,000 in insurance which is in the line item on page B- 331. So that
is not part of the Grant, the $100,000 is within the Mi nistry.
Let us see—



Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Point of order, Madam
Chairman.
You cannot have a line item under expenditure for $100,000 and then a grant which is less . . .
the grant has to match with the grant . . . I thought —

Madam Chairman,
the function of the Ministry of Tourism, Transport and
Municipalities Headquarters is to ensure safe and eff icient operation of the departments and special oper ations units within the Ministry, ensure the policies of
the Bermuda Government relating to the Ministry are
enacted and to work with other Government Ministries that may be impacted by the Ministry of Tourism,
Transport and Municipalities initiatives and activities.
The synopsis of the Ministry of Tourism, Transport and Municipalities can be found on page B -183 of the
Budget Book.
It is w orth noting, I think on that page, Madam
Chairman, that overall the size of the allocation for the
coming year is $86,529,000. The revenue stemming
from the Ministry is $62,752,000. The Ministry itself accounts for 8 per cent of government expenditure, it accounts for 6 per cent of government revenue, 5 per
cent of the capital in the current budget and it has 9 per cent of the government employees, and that is
430 employees.
The Ministry of Tourism, Transport and Muni cipalities Headquarters (Head 48) oversees and coor-dinates the activities of the following departments:
• Head 30— Marine and Ports Services;
• Head 34—Transport Control;
• Head 35— Public Transportation.
I am going to leave out some of the heads
which are actually disappearing this year because we will get into them a little later. But those are the going
four, those are the principal heads that the Ministry will be essentially responsible for.
Madam Chairman, the fiscal year 2016/17
saw the retirement and successful transition of three former Ministry of Tourism, Transport and Municipal ities departments, that is:
• Head 31, the Department of Airport Oper ations, which will be formerly retired and trans itioned into the Bermuda Airport Authority at the signing of the Financial Close in March of
this year.
• Head 57, the Department of Civil Aviation,
which has been successfully transitioned into
the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority effective
October 1, 2016.
• Head 73, the Department of Maritime Admin-istration, which has been successfully trans itioned int o the Bermuda Shipping and Mar itime Authority effective October 1, 2016.
The Ministry of Tourism, Transport and Muni cipalities Headquarters can be found on pages B- 184
and B -185 of the Budget Book and is divided into
three cost centres: Administration, Transportation Planning Team and Regulatory and Policy/Hotel Ad-ministration.
I am going to move first of all to discuss line
item which is 58000, Administration, and that is on page B -184 of the Budget Book. The estimate for the
coming year is $39 million. The original estimate for the current year, 2016/17, is $24.4 million. And the increase if $14.6 million as we go into next year.
The administration team is primarily respons ible for the day -to-day administrative activities within
the Ministry’s headquarters and this includes the c oordination of the various services provided within the Ministry’s remit. In 2017/18 the Ministry Headquarters
1048 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly will oversee a total budget allocation of $39,466,519,
which represents an increase of $14,668,069, or approximately 60 per cent over the 2016/17 fiscal budget.
The increase is primarily due to an increase in
the grant amount to the Bermuda Tourism Authority of $2,300,000, bringing the overall grant amount for the
2017/18 fiscal year to $25,000,000. Further, an additional o perational grant of $13,300,000 has been pr ovided to the newly formed Bermuda Airport Authority. The Ministry of Tourism, Transport and Municipalities Grants can be found on page C -18 of the Budget
Book. These grants, taken together, make up 97 per
cent of the Ministry Headquarters total budget.
I am going to move now to line item 58010,
which is the Transportation Planning Team. Again,
this can be found on page B- 184 of the Budget Book.
The estimate for the coming year 2017/18 is
$144,000. The original estimate for the current fiscal
year is $149,000 and that represents a $5,000 decrease. There is one full -time equivalent staff member
in the Transportation Planning Team
Madam Chairman, the role of the Transport ation Planning Team is to oversee cruise ship oper ational, regulatory and legislative matters, and assist the Bermuda Tourism Authority which develops Ber-muda’s cruise ship strategy, with a strong focus on increasing cruise ship passenger spending and at-tracting a mix of cruise brands that include smaller premium ships for the City of Hamilton and the Town
of St. George. The Ministry also spearheads the logi stical support for various government departments, onIsland stakeholders and cruise ship partners to ensure the efficient integration of all transportation services to meet the increased passenger demand in 2017.
Madam Chairman, in 2016 Bermuda had 139
cruise ship calls which brought 397,880 visitors to our shores. Cruise ship passengers spent approximately $44,500,000 or an average of $112.00 per person in Bermuda. We expect a further increase of 26 cruise ship calls in 2017 with an anticipated number of
408,000 visitors over a total of 163 calls. This repr esents an increase of almost 11,000 cruise ship visitors
over 2016.
Madam Chairman, a Throne Speech initiative
in 2016 sought to extend the cruise ship season through to December 2017 to avoid the season coming to a dramatic halt at the end of October. As a r esult, in 2017, Bermuda will enjoy seven cruise ship
calls scheduled between November and D ecember.
This number is anticipated to grow over the next se veral years as we continue to promote cruise ship ac-tivity during this time.
In addition, we are pleased to highlight that
the City of Hamilton will enjoy 26 calls this season and the town of St. George’s a total of 16. Two of these
calls will visit both Hamilton and St. George’s in the same week. Of the 16 calls for St. George’s, the Nor-wegian Cruise Lines has committed to 12 calls using their Regent Seven Seas and Oceania Cruise brands
commencing in 2017 and extending through to 2022.
Three additional smaller cruise line brands will be vi siting the Town of St. George’s in 2017 season.
Madam Chairman, Bermuda remains very fortunate to have long affiliated partnerships with Norw egian Cruise Line with the affiliated brands mentioned
previously, as well as Royal Caribbean Cruises Li mited, who own or have interests in Celebrity Cruises,
Azamara Club Cruises, Pullmantur Cruises and CDF Croisieres de France and a 50 per cent stake in TUI,
which is International Touristic Union Cruises.
Bermuda has a relationship with Carnival
Corporation, who own or have interests in Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Adia Cruises, Cunard Line, Costa Cruises, Seabourn Cruise Line and P&O, which is Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. In addition, Bermuda enjoys relationships with other notable cruise lines which make occasional
calls to Bermuda and will continue to do so in 2017.
The complete cruise ship schedule for 2017 is avail able online at www.gov.bm under Marine and Ports.
Madam Chairman, the Ministry would like to
advise this Honourable House that we look forward to
welcoming for the first time the following eight cruise calls: MS Norwegian Epic on April 4
th; LeSol éal on
April 6th; Le Ponant on Apri l 17th; Le Boreal on April
22nd, MS Ocean Dream on June 17th; MS Aurora on
September 17th; MS Viking Sea on October 16th and
MS Viking Sky on October 31st.
Madam Chairman, the Ministry, along with the
Bermuda Tourism Authority, continues to develop a
relationship with premium/luxury cruise lines, working
to attract these brands to our shores. This is reflected in the additional cruise calls for Bermuda and the Town of St. George’s in 2017 and beyond.
Madam Chairman, each cruise ship passenger arriving in Bermuda pays a passenger tax to the government and all passengers on cruise ships not berthed in Hamilton or St. George’s pay a cabin tax. This revenue is projected to be $22,100,000 in 2017.
The secondary impact of this cruise segment on our
economy is significant, with many tour operators rel ying on cruise visitors for their livelihood. In total, the cruise ship segment is projected to make a financial contribution in excess of $76,200,000 in 2017, which is an increase on the $66,800,000 contributed to our
economy in 2016.
Madam Chairman, much of our effort will be
focused on ensuring quality transportation services for
our visitors, including scheduled ferry and bus ser-vices, taxi and minibus tours. In 2017 we remain rel iant on the taxis and minibuses to provide transport ation services out of the Royal Naval Dockyard and, in particular, services between the West End and Hors eshoe Bay Beach and the Town of St. George’s. This creates employment opportunities for Bermudians in the transportation sector and provides some relief for the public transportation system.


Bermuda House of Assembly Madam Chairman, to recap, in the 2017/18
budget year, Bermuda will increase the number of
cruise ship calls from 139 to 163 compared with 2016/17. In the process, we will see an increase in the number of annual cruise ship visitors from 397,880 to
a projected number of 408,000 thousand visitors. This is an increase of 23, or 14 per cent, in cruise ship
calls, and we anticipate a further rise in per person spending in 2017 based on these higher projecti ons.
Madam Chairman, as mentioned earlier in this
brief, Government took the decision to convert the Departments of Civil Aviation (also known as DCA), Head 57, and Maritime Administration (or DMA), Head
73, into independent quasi -governmental authoriti es
effective initially April 1, 2016.
Each Authority, the Bermuda Civil Aviation
Authority and the Bermuda Shipping and Maritime
Authority, was subsequently not provided an operating budget for the fiscal year 2016/17. But instead each
was to be provided an interest free loan from the consolidated funds to cover their initial set -up and oper ational cost.
However, at April 1, 2016, the legislation and
other necessary agreements had not yet been completed. As such, neither could exist as independent
Authoriti es. Subsequently, to preserve the Department
of Civil Aviation’s and the Department of Maritime Administration’s business continuity at April 1, 2016,
and going forward, the Ministry of Finance agreed to appropriate operating funds, pending the completion
of the appropriate legislation and agreements, within
the framework of the approved 2017/18 Budget.
The Authorities were formerly established on
October 1, 2016. Subsequently the Department of
Civil Aviation, which is Head 57, required additional funding of approximately $4,233,000, as seen on
page B -207 of the Budget Book. Whereas, the D epartment of Maritime Administration, Head 73, r equired additional funding of approximately $2,432,000
as seen on page B -210 of the Budget Book
I am going to switch now to page B -185,
which is the revenue summary.
The original budgeted revenue in 2016/17
was essentially zero dollars. The revised estimate is $18,371,000, as you can see in the Budget Book. And the estimate for 2017/18 is $18.6 million, that is, to be precis e, $18,653,000 in revenues. While this repr esents a substantial increase over the previous year’s original budget, it appears that some smaller revenue streams were not recorded in the Budget Book. These revenues were earned from cruise ship licences and hotel licences, and total $621,000.
Madam Chairman, we are pleased to report
that in accordance with the legislation governing the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority the Aviation Authority was financially viable enough to return to the gover nment $17,750,000 in shared revenues for the fiscal
year 2016/17. It is projected that the Civil Aviation A uthority will return approximately $18,000,000 in shared revenues in fiscal year 2017/18. This represents most
of the aforementioned increase in the Ministry Hea dquarters revenues.
Madam Chairman, in direct relation to the ou tsourcing of the above- mentioned departments, employee numbers have decreased by 36 persons down
to 430 persons Ministry wide.

HEAD 30 —DEPARTMENT OF MARINE AND
PORTS

Madam Chairman,
that concludes the brief for the Ministry of Tourism,
Transport and Municipalities Headquarters. I am going
to shift now to the brief for the Department of Marine and Ports Services, and that is on page B -186 of the
Budget Book.
In 2017/18, the Department of Marine and
Ports, Head 30, will oversee a budget allocation of
$20,097,000, which represents an increase of
$197,138, or approximately 0.01 per cent over the
previous year’s budget.
The increase is due to marginal uplifts in the
budgetary allocations for repairs and maintenance
across the fleet, In addition to uplifts to navigational
aids, marine security, diesel fuel and overtime, in preparation for the upcoming America’s Cup events.
The estimated revenue budget for the D epartment of Marine and Ports, of $6,303,000 is locat-ed on page B -187 of the Budget Book. The increase
in attributed to the anticipated uplift of passengers utilising the government’s ferry traveling to and from the Event Village during the America’s Cup.
Madam Chairman, the Department of Marine
and Port Services is one of the most critical arms of the Government of Bermuda as it facilitates the
movement of vital shipping commerce in and out of
Bermuda’s ports. This is undertaken through the pr ovision of marked navigational channels, the provision of pilot and tug services and the coordination of chan-nel and port infrastructure development work to ensure that the needs of cruise and cargo ships are met.
The department is responsible for the coordination of international search and rescue operations in
this area of the Atlantic, and retains oversight of over-seas seaport security in compliance with international standards. These standards are actively designed to
counter the spread of terrorism and the illegal trafficking of narcotics and humans. During the 2016/17 fi scal year, the department responded to over 446 search and rescue cases both locally and internatio nally for both ships and aircraft.
The department also manages the allocation
of mooring positions of local boats as well as under-taking the annual registration of private vessels. Addi-tionally, the department conducts detailed safety i nspections in the licensing of commercial passenger carrying vessels or private boats.
1050 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Madam Chairman, the breakdown of the d epartment’s operational and revenue estimates, can be
found on pages B -186 to B -188 of the Budget Book
and is set out under three programmes as follows: 3006 West End (or Dockyard), 3007 Central Hamilton Office and 3008 East End (or Fort George). I will go through those now on an individual basis.
The programme 3006— West End (that is
Dockyard) —oversees and coordinates the activities of
the following departments:
• Navigational Aids —40040 ;
• Tug Service—40140;
• Tender Service— 40210;
• Dockyard Maintenance —40260.
This programme operates in direct support of
international shipping calling at Bermuda through the provision of tug services assisting cruise ship and cargo ship berthing and un -berthing operations. It pr ovides the maintenance of marked channels, ligh thouses and other marine aids to navigation. It in-cludes the operation of a tender service to cruise vessels which also supports the ferry service in order to
reduce operational costs. And it provides the oper ation of slipway and maintenance facility support ser-vices for the department’s vessels.
I am going to tackle now Navigational Aids. As
you can see in the Budget Book, the original estimate
for 2016/17 was $671,000. The estimate for the
2017/18 upcoming year is $680,000, which is a $9,000 increase. There are nine full -time equivalent
staff members in this particular area. The revenue for the area is $584,000 and the Navigational Aid section maintains, to international marine standards, approx imately 200 channel markers, the Island’s two light-houses, numerous offshore beacons and small boat
markers throughout the Island’s waterways.
The section also supplies a line boat to assist
with ship berthing at Dockyard, small boat wreck r emoval around the Island, minor dredging work and marine oil pollution response as required.
Madam Chairman, the department will continue to retire older steel buoys in the Dundonald Cha nnel and the branch off towards Two Rock Passage, replacing them with a new SB -1800 maintenance free
polyethylene plastic buoy designed for more protect ed
harbour approaches. A total of eight new buoys have been deployed thus far and a further six are being made ready for deployment prior to America's Cup. This can be found on page C -12 of the Budget Book.
Moving down to line item 40140, Tug Service:
The original estimate for 2016/17 was $1.348 million.
The estimate for 2017/18 is $1.383 million. And that represents a $36,000 increase. In the tug service area there are 15 full -time equivalent staff members. The
revenue for the tug service is $1.32 million.
The tug service provides berthing and unberthing assistance to international ships calling at our various ports. The threat of an accident resulting in damage to a ship and/or our port infrastructure, cou-pled with the potential for marine pollution, requ ires
that at least one tug be on standby when ships are manoeuvring in port. The Department of Marine and Port’s tugs also provide an offshore towing and sa lvage rescue capability which remains extremely i mportant given Bermuda’s isolated geographic positi on
in the Atlantic and the potential threat from passing
vessels potentially running aground on our environmentally sensitive outer reef.
Madam Chairman, the department maintains
three harbour tugs. The sister tugs Powerful and
Faithful have a bollard pull of 40 tons, as well as firefighting, oil dispersant and oil recovery capabilities.
The third tug Edward M. Stowe has a lower 32- ton
bollard pull, and generally serves as a relief tug when
one of the larger front line tugs is undergoing maint enance.
The f uture of the tug fleet is currently under
review given the age of the individual vessels and the
exponential increases in maintenance costs balanced
against the capital investment in new tugs. Additional consideration must also include the relatively low power of all three tugs in comparison to the vastly i ncreased bulk of the larger cruise ships now calling at
Bermuda ports.
Moving down to line item 40210, which is
Tender Service. The original estimate for 2016/17 was
$380,000. The estimate for the upcoming year,
2017/18 is $385,000, or a $5,000 increase. There are four full -time equivalent staff members in this partic ular area, and the revenue is expected to be $45,000.
Madam Chairman, the tender Bermudian is
primarily used to supplement our regular ferry service
during our peak tourism and cruise ship season ru nning from April through November. The tender also occasionally transports passengers to and from shore
when cruise ships are at anchor in the Great Sound or
Grassy Bay. Maintenance costs for the tender are i ncreasing due to the age of the vessel. However, con-sidering the passenger lift capacity of 750 persons
against the fuel burnt, the Bermudian remains one of
the most economically viable in the fleet and is expected to provide the largest passenger lift between Hamilton and the America’s Cup Event Village in Dockyard.
As a revenue generator, the tender is avail able for hire to the general public and is popular for
weekend and evening summer cruises given her 650
recreational passenger carrying capacity.
Finally, under the West End, I will deal with
40260, which is Dockyard Maintenance. As you can see in the Budget Book, the original estimate for this area was $2.8 million for the current year we are in.
The estimate for 2017/18 is $2.9 million. And this re presents, essentially, a $55,000 increase. In Dockyard
Maintenance area there are 21 full -time staff members
and the revenue is listed at $10,000.
The Dockyard Maintenance section provides
mechanical and engineering support to the depar tBermuda House of Assembly ment ’s vessels. The marine cradle located in Doc kyard is the only slipway of that size in Bermuda ma king it not only critical to the department’s needs but
also a valuable resource for the larger private vessels operating locally that require the use of the cradle for emergency repairs or scheduled maintenance.
The use of the Dockyard cradle to assist local
vessels to undergo much- needed repairs has become
very popular and requests to use the cradle continue to increase. This is at no additional cost to Gover nment, yet it has become a small source of revenue without causing disruption to the department’s planned maintenance operations.
On the same page, B- 186, I am going to shift
down to the Central programme, which is the Hamilton office. That is programme 3007. The Central Pr ogramme oversees and coordinates the activities of the following sections: Ferry Services, Mooring and Boat Registration and Administration. I will start with the
Ferry Service.
The original for the ferry service for 2016/17
was $8.434 million. The estimate for 2017/18 is exac tly the same, $8.434 million. There are 68 full -time
equivalent staff members. And the revenue is $2 mil-lion.
Madam Chairman, the Sea Express Ferry
Service represents a comfortable and efficient means
of public transport supporting the local commuter and visitor markets. The department continues to operate six high speed catamaran ferries and three harbour
ferries with additional ferry lift between Dockyard and
Hamilton being provided by the previously mentioned
tender Bermudian. Ferry capacity was bolstered in
2013 by the hire of the 400 passenger ferry Millenn ium from Rhode Island. This initiative will continue into
2017 in support of the America's Cup event and the cruise ship passenger lift between Dockyard and St.
George’s.
The Millennium will be returning to the US following the 2017 summer season and the contract will not be renewed. Commuters and cruise ship passenger services between the West End and Hamilton will
occur in accordance with the normal summer sched-ule. Public transportation is highly subsidised but wherever possible all efforts are being made to control costs with an emphasis on overtime reduction and fuel efficiency. Passenger load studies will continue in
2017/18 with the view of deploying our more fuel -
efficient ferries in a manner that creates additional fuel
savings.
Madam Chairman, it needs to be stated that
as the cruise ships increase in size so do passenger arrival numbers. The increased load will potentially
have financial impacts. First, the ferry services scheduling, in the form of additional runs, may add to fuel
costs; and, second, the ageing fleet may require i ncreased overhaul and other maintenance, which is also a cost. This situation is being carefully monitored. I am going to shift to the next line item, which
is 40150, Boat and Mooring Registration. The original forecast budget for 2016/17 was $265,000. The est imate for the coming 2017/18 year is $260,000 and that represents a decrease of $5,000. In the Boat and Mooring Registration section there are three full -time
equivalent staff and the revenue generated is $1.43
million.
Madam Chairman, the Boats and Moorings
Registration section, manned by three persons, is r esponsible for the annual licensing of all private boats,
commerci al tour boats and moorings in Bermuda. R esponsibilities include the physical inspection of all
passenger -carrying vessels against the established
industry Code of Practice to ensure that they are fit for
passenger use.
There are approximately 9,000 privat e boats,
5,000 moorings and 270 commercial, rental and char-ter vessels to be processed each year. Additional duties for this section include: incident investigation,
mooring dispute resolution, inspections of foreshore encroachments, management of small boat channels and the processing of applications for commercial op-erators, as well as moorings, pylons and floating dock
applications. Responsibility for small boat wreck r emoval also falls under this section.
The department’s website continues to be well
received, providing a convenient and efficient method
of payment for boat and mooring registration. This is
evidenced by a noticeable increase in users over pr evious years.
Madam Chairman, the Boats and Moorings
section remains at the temporary location at the old Paget Post Office building pending the completion of renovations to the Head Office building located on East Broadway.
Shifting now down to Administration under the
Central or Hamilton Office. The Administration section
had an original budget of $2.138 million. The estimate for 2017/18 is for $2.148 million, which is a $10,000 increase year over year. There are eight full -time
equivalent staff members in the Administration D epartment and the revenue it generates is $22,000. This section is responsible for the administrative du-ties and personnel functions of the entire department.
Its responsibilities include:
• Human resources oversight;
• Department accounting services;
• Administration support relating to shipping and ferry public transport policy execution;
• Examination of local pilots and Island boat
operators;
• Inspection and licensing of private boats and commercial charter boats;
• Regulating resort diving (SCUBA) operations;
• Allocation and registration of all moorings;
• Investigation of marine acci dents;
• Drafting of marine legislation.
1052 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Madam Chairman, the department’s Administrative Head Office remains at its temporary location in
the Brown and Brangman Building, 100 Reid Street awaiting the completion of renovations at the East Broadway facility scheduled for which are scheduled for August 2017.
Under the East End programme, under line
item 3008, this is also referred to as Fort George, again, on page B -186. This programme East End
oversees and coordinates the activities of the follo wing sections: the Maritime Safety and Security, and the Pilotage Services and Offshore Search and Res-cue section.
The Maritime Safety and Security section is
estimated . . . the original estimate for 2016/17 was $2
million. The estimate for 2017/18 is $2.09 million. T his
represents a $90,000 increase. The revenue is est imated at $2,000 and in this Maritime Safety and S ecurity section there are nine full- time equivalents.
Madam Chairman, services provided by this
section relate to maritime safety and security obliga-tions under the United Nations International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (or SOLAS). As such, the $90,000 increase to the budgetary allocation is in
support of data service and satellite communication
costs, in addition to repairs and maintenance to the marine radar and radio communication systems.
Such functions are centrally coordinated from
the Bermuda Maritime Operations Centre located at Fort George. It operates in direct support of various
Government agencies with local and overseas marine
interests including the Bermuda Police Service, HM
Customs, the Bermuda Regiment, the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources and the Author-ities associated with Maritime Administration, the Ai rport and Civil Aviation.
The Maritime Operations Centre operates
around the clock with a total staff of nine. This facility fulfils the functions of a Rescue Coordination Centre and a Coast Radio Station (known to mariners as Bermuda Radio). In addition, it provides vessel traffic
radar surveillance and maintains the Registry of Satellite Distress Beacons which are fitted on Bermuda registered ships and aircraft operating worldwide.
All vessels calling at Bermuda are scrutinised
prior to entry into port. Detailed information about visi ting ships and yachts, as well as their voyage history,
is collected for reasons of safety and international seaport security, combined with local border security concerns.
Madam Chairman, Bermuda has an aggressive programme of coastal monitoring that, despite a lack of costly vessel and aircraft patrol capabilities,
has led to a number of successful marine law enforcement -related activities, including interdiction, trafficking, fishery’s protection, in collaboration with the Bermuda Police Service and HM Customs. The go vernment continues to invest in maritime safety and security measures in line with recommendations contained within the National Security Review.
Additional responsibilities of the section i nclude maintaining cruise and cargo dock seaport s ecurity measures. The designation of restricted areas
around such port facilities requires a mix of physical security equipment and contractual oversight of pr ivate security personnel in order to fulfil international port security obligations. Specialist technical support of coastal surveillance radar equipment, X -ray ba ggage screening equipment, metal detectors and CCTV equipment covering port areas are all under-taken in- house by highly trained personnel within the
section.
In a small country such as Bermuda, specialist capabilit ies must always be shared in the public
interest, and nowhere is this better demonstrated than with the collaborative approach taken with the Island’s marine search and rescue response operations. While
the Rescue Coordination Centre is central to any loca l
or international response effort, an interagency collaboration using all available marine search and res-cue units within government departments is required when a distress case occurs and time is short to affect
a successful rescue.
Madam Chairman, it should be noted that this
section will play a vital role in marine based security
for the upcoming America's Cup event with the ex-pected increase in marine traffic leading up to and during the event.
Madam Chairman, the three maritime safety
and security projects for 2017/18 are located on page C-12 of the Budget Book and are outlined below:
[There has been] $350,000 allocated to the
replacement of the marine VHF coastal radio system to ensure improved and reliable communications by
Bermuda Radio. This will benefit local and international mariners operating around Bermuda while en-suring that obligations under the International Conven-tion for the Safety of Life at Sea continue to be met.
A further $500,000 has been allocated to the
expansion of the vessel traffic surveillance system to improve radar coverage of coastal waters benefiting safety, security and environmental protection efforts.
Finally, given the expected surge in visiting
foreign yacht traffic ahead of the June [2017] Amer ica's Cup, extensive support to ACBDA and, specifically, the Security, Communications and On Water O perations committees have been ongoing. A temporary
increase in staffing at the 24- hour Maritime Oper ations Centre is expected May through July in order to adequately cope with routine arrivals, departures, berthing, mooring and other logistics questions, as
well as the inevitable increase in marine incidents.
This project is expected to utilise $66,000.
I am shifting now again under the East End
(Fort George) section to Pilotage Services and Of fshore Search and Rescue. As we can see on page B -
186 of the Budget Book, the original estimate for this


Bermuda House of Assembly pilotage services section in 2016/17 was $1.81 million.
The estimate for 2017/18 is $1.81 million, which is
actually a $3,000 decrease which probably does not show up due to rounding. There are 18 full -time
equivalent staff members in this section. And the re venue is estimated to be $890,000.
This service provides pilot Services to intern ational shipping calling at Bermuda thereby ensuring that visiting ships are able to safely navigate Berm uda’s narrow channels into port. The service also facil itates offshore cargo and crew transfers in cases where a ship that diverts to Bermuda is too deep to enter port. Such offshore transfers are particularly
challenging when an injured or sick person must be
stretchered off a ship under emergency circumstances and particularly in blustery weather.
Madam Chairman, Bermuda undertakes r esponsibility for offshore marine search and rescue responses out to a distance of 30 miles from shore.
The pilot service vessels St. David and St. George are
the backbone of this service, together with their threeman boat crews and a local branch pilot who serves as the on- scene commander. Rigorous crew training
must be undertaken to ensure that crews are able to
safely operate offshore, often in poor weather conditions.
Madam Chairman, as you are aware, channel
modification work was completed in early November 2015, with all hydrographic data provided to the Uni ted Kingdom Hydrographic Office. The future benefits
of the wider, deeper channel include: a mitigation of
the threat of grounding due to ship manoeuvring er-rors; and, the introduction of a night pilotage option for various classes of smaller cargo ships and, possibly, some cruise ships that are presently limited to arriving and departing during daylight hours only.
Madam Chairman, the section’s projects for
2017/18 include:
• the continued progression of the night pilotage
initiative to potentially allow ships to enter an d
depart port during darkness; and,
• a feasibility study to assess whether Bermuda
can possibly accept the world’s largest passenger ship afloat today, the Royal Caribbean international Oasis class ship, with an overall
length of 1,185 feet, a passenger capacity of
5,800 passengers and 2,165 crew.

HEAD 31 —DEPARTMENT OF AIRPORT OPER ATIONS

Madam Chairman,
that concludes the brief for the Department of Marine
and Ports Services. I am going to now move to page
B-191, which is the Department of Airport Operations,
and I guess we probably should say, formerly
Head 31, because it will be retired in the coming
weeks as a department and transitioned into the Ber-muda Airport Authority (the BAA). The BAA, within the terms and conditions of
the Airport Concession Agreement, will be responsible for the provision of retained government services which i nclude, air traffic control operations, meteor ological services, airport fire and rescue services, ground electronics, all to do with the day -to-day o perations of L. F. Wade International Airport.
In addition, the BAA will have general oversight of the Airport Redevelopment Project, and will be supported by a grant of $13,300,000.
The Bermuda Airport Authority Act 2017 was
approved by the House in February and came into effect March 7
th of this year.
I am going to now go through the various airport parts of this. And they are found on page B- 191.
The original estimate for 2016/17 was $20 million. And because of the transfer over to the Authority there is a zero dollar estimate for 2017/18 and there will be no full-time equivalent positions because of the t ransfer
to the quango.

HEAD 34 —TRANSPORT CONTROL DEPARTMENT

I am going to shift
now to Head 34, which is on page B- 199, and that is
the Transport Control Department.
The Transport Control Department (TCD) administers the operation of all motor vehicles on the
roads of Bermuda. The department monitors and reg-ulates the size, functionality, physical condition and
quantity of all vehicles by carrying out the following
activities:
1. Overseeing the management of the Vehi-cle Safety and Emissions Inspection Pr ogramme, which is currently contracted to the Bermuda Emissions Control Ltd.
2. It administers the registration and licens-ing of all vehicles.
3. It executes the examination, registration and licensing of all drivers.
4. It regulates traffic by monitoring drivers
and vehicles.
5. It implements road safety programmes.
Periodically, the department inspects public
garages, filling stations and cycle liveries to ensure
compliance with permits. The TCD issues special permits, such as: one- day per mit that allows a person
to drive an unlicensed motor vehicle upon application for the same, and Sunday permits for commercial v ehicles.
The financial summaries are found on page B -
198 of the Budget Book and the Transport Control Department has been allocated a total expenditure
budget of $5,350,000 for the 2017/18 financial year.
This represents no change over the fiscal year 2016/17. However, there is some reallocation of budget between the department’s cost centres. Sal aries totalling $2, 381,000 constit ute 45 per cent of the
1054 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly total department budget. And those are found on page
B-199.
It is anticipated that in 2017/18, the depar tment will collect $29,033,000 in revenue which repr esents an increase of $982,000 over the previous year.
And again, that revenue is found on page B -199. This
increase is anticipated and attributed, in part, to the
influx of families that are associated with the Amer ica’s Cup, and the introduction of rental minicars which
will aid in enhancing the Bermuda vacation exper ience. It should be noted that this amount does not include revenues generated by the department through traffic violation notices which are collected by
and managed through the courts.
The estimate of expenditures is shown on
page B -199. And I am going to go through the various
sections underneath the TC department and start on
page B -198 with the cost centre 44000, Examination.
As we can see in the Book, the original estimate for
2016/17 was $550,000. The estimate for the coming
year 2017/18 is also $550,000. The Examination sec-tion has seven full -time equivalent staff members.
Madam Chairman, the Examination team is
responsible for auditing and oversight of the vehicle
safety and emissions inspection programme, as well
as administering all driving and riding tests to certify
that applicants can competently operate vehicles on Bermuda’s roads. The Examiners are also responsible for writing -off private cars prior to their disposal. This
assists the department in maintaining the accuracy of
the motor vehicle register.
Moving down to cost centre 44040, Registr ation, the original estimate for 2016/17 was $760,000.
The estimate for the upcoming year 2017/18 is $792,000. This is, in fact, a $32,000 decrease.
Madam Chairman, the Registrations section is
responsible for registering and licensing all vehicles, licensing all persons who operate vehicles, collecting revenue for all transactions conducted within the de-partment, and maintaining the motor vehicle register in accordance with the Motor Car Act 1951.
Due to voluntary an d mandatory retirements,
this section is now comprised of 13 persons. The r eduction of staff has had a marginal impact on custom-er service levels as customer waiting times have i ncreased. However, with the filling the post of Manager of Registration Services and the coordinating of r esources, service levels are returning to normal.
Shifting now to cost centre 44090, Road Saf ety, the estimate for the current year 2016/17 is $148,000. The estimate for the upcoming year 2017/18 is also $148,000. And that is no change. There is one full -time equivalent staff member in the
Road Safety section. The Road Safety Council grant for fiscal year 2017/18 is $10,500.
Madam Chairman, the goal of the Road Saf ety Programme is to promote road safety awareness through education, training and public events. The Road Safety Council advises the Minister of Tourism, Transport and Municipalities on matters pertaining to
road safety, and devises strategies and programmes
to address prominent transport problems. Reporting directly to the Minister, the Council also coordinates
the Project Ride Programme.
The functions of the road safety programmes
are administered through the Road Safety Officer who
reports to the Director of the Transport Control D epartment.
Moving down one more line item to cost centre 44110, Traffic Control. As we can see on page B -
198, the original estimate for 2016/17 was $593,000.
The estimate for 2017/18 is $752,000, that is an increase of $159,000. In this particular section there are
seven full -time equiva lent staff members.
Madam Chairman, the Traffic Control Section
is responsible for the management and enforcement of traffic, issuing permits for the movement of over-sized containers, heavy loads, unlicensed vehicles,
and casual Sunday permits. In addition the traffic control officers work in conjunction with the Bermuda P olice Service as a support unit in traffic enforcement.
The traffic officers also monitor the electronic
vehicle registration system to ensure that all vehicles
operating on Bermuda’s roads are duly insured and
licensed. However, at this moment, the system is not operational and the team is actively working to restore the service. Furthermore, they are responsible for ticketing and removing abandoned cycles from public lands. In addition, the traffic officers are responsible
for maintaining the orderly flow of public service vehi-cles (that is, minibuses and taxis) at Bermuda’s ports of entry. This helps to ensure that our visitors receive a first -class transportation experience.
Madam Chairman, while there is no overall i ncrease to the Transport Control Department’s budget
ceiling, the increase of funds in this cost centre is in
direct relation to the increased need for the regulatory function of monitoring the motoring public. This i nvolve s street patrol (that includes public service veh icles at Bermuda’s ports of entry), the ticketing and
removal of abandoned vehicles, the introduction of
minicars, and the anticipated need to monitor the movement of visitors in association with the transpor-tation hub of the America’s Cup.
We acknowledge that it will be important to
manage these situations collaboratively with other
stakeholders and TCD is working hard in the planning
and preparation to do so. In addition to their traffic management and enforcement duties, the traffic offi cers also work closely with the Public Service Vehicle Licensing Board, and the Trucks Advisory Committee, to monitor and enforce the use of Public Service and
Commercial Vehicles, respectively. These bodies
meet twice a month to deliberate on the issuance of associated permits to those persons applying to oper-ate motor vehicles, such as: trucks, community ser-vice vehicles, taxis, minibuses, limousines and tractor trailers.


Bermuda House of Assembly Moving down to the final cost centre 44210,
which is Administration on page B- 198, the original
budget for 2016/17 was $3.3 million. The estimate for
2017/18 is $3.1 million, in essence, a $200,000 de-crease. In the Administration section there are five full-time staff member equivalents.
Madam Chairman, the Administration section
is responsible for the overall operation and administr ation of the Transport Control Department. Many of the costs associated with the functioning of the depar tment, such as: drivers licence materials, licence plates, office supplies and equipment maintenance, staff training costs, uniforms, general supplies, support services, cleaning services and supplies, communication and advertising charges, repair and maintenance, the management of the safety and emissions programme and utilities are consolidated under the Administration cost centre.
Approximately 40 per cent, or $2,223,000 account for professional services which include the management of the safety and emissions programme, as well as IT support for eTCD, the driver and vehic le
registration system, the appointment management system and the electronic vehicle registration system.
All of these are critical to ensuring smooth operations
and excellent customer service.
Thank you, Madam Chairman, that concludes
the brief for the Transport Control Department.

HEAD 35 —DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

I am going to now
move to Head 35, Department of Public Transport ation. And that is found on page B -202 of the Budget
Book.
Madam Chairman, as you ar e aware an extremely unfortunate incident occurred on Tuesday of
this week that resulted in a major bus fire in Warwick Parish. Thanks to the quick thinking of the bus oper ator who in a display of utmost professionalism, safely
tended to the passengers many of whom were school -
aged children. An active investigation is underway to
determine the cause of the fire and from that invest igation the Department of Public Transportation [DPT] will be in a better position to develop the protocols necessary to mitigate the reoccurrence of such an
event.
Madam Chairman, the Department of Public
Transportation provides an Island- wide bus operation
that includes scheduled school bus services. This
wide range of services is currently being provided with a fleet of 106 buses that have a weighted average age
of 9.9 years. This represents a decrease of 5 buses
down from 111 in 2016/17 owing to 5 buses being scrapped and used for parts as they were not ec onomically feasible to repair.
The Department of Public Transportation is in
the process of purchasing four new buses. However, the department does not expect to take delivery of the
new buses until the third quarter of 2017. Notwit hstanding the delay in receipt of the new buses, alternate plans have been implemented to refurbi sh se veral buses from our existing fleet thereby ensuring reliability during and after the America’s Cup.
The estimates of expenditure on pages B -202
to B-203 are as follows:
Line item 45000 Auxiliary Bus Services, the
original estimate for 2016/17 was $138,000. The est imate for 2017/18 is $151,000 and that is a $13,000 increase. There are two full -time equivalent [FTE] staff
members in this particular section and the budget and
FTEs have remained reasonably consistent year over
year with some minimal additional budget funding in 2017/18 for acting and overtime pay.
Shifting down to Bus Operations, and this all
comes under the Transportation section here, which is line item 45010, the original estimate 2016/17 was
$9.8 million. The estimate for 2017/18 is $10.9 million,
and that represents a $1.1 million increase. There are 166 full -time equivalent staff members in this partic ular section and the budget increase is attributable pr imarily to an increase in employee costs, specifically,
the funding of wage premiums and overtime anticipated during the 2017/18 fiscal year.
Madam Chairman, Bus Operations is the core
of Department of Public Transportation’s enterprise and, as I said, it employs 166 staff. In providing the manpower for scheduled and unscheduled oper ations,
sightseeing and charter services; and special events transportation, this section has a more diverse portf olio than most providers of its kind.
I am pleased to report that the department will
look to hire an additional 20 bus operators to fill exis ting vacancies over the coming months, and recrui tment efforts have commenced in earnest. Further, internal training is underway to fill three traffic superv isor positions that will become vacant, due to retir ement in May and June of 2017. The additional 20 bus operators and the replacement of the three traffic s upervisors, hired from within, is expected to drastically reduce overtime costs for the operation’s section.
Moving now down to maintenance section,
line item 45090, Repair Services, the original 20 16/17
was $4.6 million. The estimate for the upcoming year 2017/18 is $5.5 million. That represents an increase of
$891,000. In the Repair Services area there are 47
full-time equivalents. The budget increase of $891,000
reflects the funding of a variety of critical positions including technicians, tradesmen, an Assistant Oper ations Manager and an Administrative Assistant. The increase also includes a sufficient budget for the r epair and maintenance of the facility and equipment.
Madam Chairman, the Repair Services se ction is responsible for the maintenance and repair of all vehicles. This section is also responsible for the fuelling of other government vehicles, the cleaning of the buses and for carrying out a preventative maint e1056 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly nance programme. The preventative maintenance
programme is an integral part of this section as this
program is responsible for ensuring that out -of-service
vehicles are kept to a minimum. The fleet, for which they are responsible, totals 106 buses and approx imately 10 auxiliary vehi cles.
Madam Chairman, during 2016 we have had
the assistance of a technician from MAN (Germany) who has assisted DPT greatly by passing on valuable knowledge to the technicians at DPT. During 2017/18 the department will continue to ensure the necessary skills and knowledge are available for fleet maint enance.
Shifting down to line item 45115, Inventory
Management, also under maintenance, the original budget for 2016/17 was $2 million, and an unchanged position for 2017/18, also $2 million. Actually, the rounding does not show, but there is actually a
$38,000 decrease. There are three full -time equivalent
positions in this inventory management section. The budget remains fairly consistent year over year with a slight decrease due to the [VERIP] retirement of one
storeman.
Madam Chairman, the stores/spare parts section’s main responsibility is to supply the Maintenance section with tires, consumables and service parts on a timely basis to repair and maintain the bus fleet. The purchase of inventory budget will serve to facilitate a more robust preventative maintenance programme and more timely repairs and maintenance of the ageing fleet.
And now moving down to the Administration
Section, still on page B -202. This section essentially
has the original estimate of $1.9 million in 2016/17
and a projected budget for 2017/18 of $2.3 million. That represents a $342,000 increase. The Administr ation section received an increase in the budget alloc ation for 2017/18, attributable to funding a Human R esources Officer, the reinstated provision for security at
the DPT facilities in addition to funding for customs duty charges.
The Administration section budget covers util ities such as electricity and communications inclusive of telephone and Internet charges. Fleet insurance, GPS fleet management, local training, print production costs, fare media, security, cleaning services, con-sultant and contractor costs and general office supplies are also captured under this section.
Shifting down now to line item 45200 under
the Administration section, is Management Support
section. The original budget for 2016/17 was $803,000. The estimate for 2017/18 has been de-creased to $791,000, that is a $12,000 decrease. In
this Management Support section there are 13 full -
time equivalent staff members. The decrease in the
budget allocation for Management Support is the r esult of the retirement of the Wellness Coordinator post holder. This was offset by the subsequent funding of a project officer as well as a receptionist. The Management Support section provides
support services to the director, assistant director and other management level staff. In addition, the section provides the following services: human r esources/personnel, payroll, accounts payable, ac-counts receivable, banking, cashiering, revenue collection and recording, and a variety of other support
services.
Madam Chairman, revenue for 2017/18, l ocated on page B -203, is estimated to be $8,763,000.
Overall the Department of Public Transportation expenditure budget for 2017/18 is $21,614,000, an i ncrease of 11.1 per cent over fiscal year 2016/17.
Shifting to Capital Replacement, which is on
page C -11. As mentioned earlier, in fiscal year
2017/18, the Department of Public Transportation has been allocated $2,500,000, in capital funding coupled with unutilised carry forward funding from 2016/17, to purchase replacement buses. With the amount allo tted, and considering the current Euro/USD exchange rate, the department is seeking to purchase approx imately eight new buses over the course of 2017/18, which will reduce the weighted age of the bus fleet considerably.
Thank you, Madam Chairman. That concludes
my remarks on the Department of Public Transport ation.

HEAD 57 —DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AVIATION

I am going to shift
now to the Head 57, which is the Department of Civil
Aviation. That is found on page B -207 of the Budget
Book.
The original forecast for 2016/17 was actually
zero. The revised forecast for 2016/17 was $4.2 mi llion. And the estimate for 2017/18 is zero. There will be no full -time equivalent staff members going forward
because, as mentioned earlier in my presentation, the Department of Civil Aviation, Head 57, as of Oct ober 1, 2016, successfully transitioned into the newly
established Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority.
Initially not allocating an operating budget for
the fiscal year 2016/17, a subsequent allocation of approximately $4,233,000 was required to sustain six months of operational expenditure. The adjusted budget can be seen on page B -207 of the Budget
Book.
The Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority Board
was appointed effective October 1, 2016, and are ac-tively operating in accordance with their mandate. Subsequently, in accordance with the legislation gov-erning the Authority the business plans and oper ational expenditure budget for 2017/18 have been submitted to the Ministry of Finance for review.
Madam Chairman, we are pleased to report
that in accordance with the legislation governing the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority, the new Authority
was financially viable enough to return to the gover nBermuda House of Assembly ment $17,000,000 in shared revenues for the fiscal
year 2016/17. Further, it is projected that the Bermuda
Civil Aviation Authority will return approximately $18,000,000 in shared revenues in fiscal year 2017/18, that is, the upcoming fiscal year.
That concludes my comments on Head 57,
Civil Aviation.

HEAD 73 —DEPARTMENT OF MARITIME ADMI NISTRATION

I am now going to
move to the last head, which is the Department of Maritime Administration, and that is found on page B -
209.
The original budget for 2016/17 was zero. The
revised budget in 2016/17 was $2.4 million. And the
estimate for 2017/18 is zero. There will be no full -time
equivalents in Department of Maritime Administration
because as we said earlier, the department also successfully transitioned into the Bermuda Shipping and Maritime Authority on October 1, 2016.
Initially, there was no operating budget all ocated for the fiscal year 2016/17, a subsequent alloc ation of approximately $2,432,000 was required to sus-tain six months of operational expenditure. The ad-justed budget can be seen on page B -210 of the
Budget Book.
The Bermuda Shipping and Maritime Authority
Board was appointed on October 1, 2016, and are
actively operating in accordance with their mandate.
Further, and in accordance with the legislation gover ning the Authority, the [business] plans and operational
expenditure budget for 2017/18 have been submitted to the Ministry of Finance for review.
It is not anticipated that the Bermuda Shipping
and Maritime Authority will be in a position to return any form of shared revenue during fiscal year 2017/18.
Thank you, Madam Chairman. That concludes
my remarks on the Ministry of Tourism, Transport and
Munici palities. But before closing I would also, as I
have done with other departments and heads, like to
thank the Ministry Headquarters, particularly the new Assistant Permanent Secretary , Aidee n Rattray Pryse ;
the Comptroller of the Department, Mr. Mannard Packwood; for the Department of Public Transport ation, Mr. Stephen Outerbridge; for the Department of
Marine and Port Services, Mr. Rudy Cann; for the D epartment of Airport Operations, Mr. Aaron Adderley; for the Transport Control Department, Mrs. Ianthia Fox; for the Tourism unit, Ms. Stacey Evans ; for the
Bermuda Shipping and Maritime Authority, Capt. Pat
Nawaratne; for the Bermuda Civil Aviati on Authority,
Mr. Thomas Dunstan, and I think that pretty much c overs the transport area. We would like to thank them
for their work and for their colleagues’ work over the last year. Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Thank you, Madam Chai rman.
One thing I cannot say about the Minister is
that he . . . about him not giving me enough time to go
through my side of the brief. So I would like to thank
him for that. I would just like to start off with road saf ety, which can be found on page B- 198, line item
44090. What I want to do is actually talk about it is not
a programme as of right now, but it is a programme that I think should be brought online, and this is . . .
actually, I cannot take full credit for this idea. This was actually a Dr. Francioni idea which is the graduated licensing programme for youth licensing. Before I get
into more detail about it, just the main point is that it
basicall y lowered the age for learners. It would probably start at about 14 years of age.
It would incorporate the need for Project Ride
to become more robust and then also we have to i ncrease the budget somehow. And my team has found a creative way of being able to increase that budget
without negatively impacting the government’s coffers. But also, it would talk about having real road time for our youth. And then that would be inclusive of basical-ly having an instructor next to them and something
that we would l ike to see become mandatory in the
schools and with classroom work and stuff like that,
and dedicated instructors. All of this, and I will go into it in a bit more detail later on in my brief, but all of this is because, if you look at the road traffic s tatistics, 16 - and 17- year olds
are the highest hospitalised demographic. With that said, you also have 18- to 25- year olds being the ones
with the highest fatalities. And out of those two t ogether, 81 per cent of them would be Bermudian. So
this is something that negatively impacts our youth
and our young Bermudians.
So, to go into more detail, the graduated licensing programme would be something that would
start at age 14 and you would take the children down to Southside Track where it is closed, what we consider a sterile environment, with an instructor. The
instructor would get them used to small things like
putting the bike up on the stand, taking it off, you know, starting and stopping and stuff like that, b ecause you have your straightaways on the tr ack, you
have your corners. You would also have some clas sroom time. And what we will probably be looking at
doing is to have, going back to my aviation roots, to
where, by the time you go and apply at age 16 for your bike licence, you will have to have shown that you have “X” number of hours —and that is something
that would be set by the Ministry —you would have “X”
1058 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly number of hours logged as classroom time, logged as
practical time, and so on.
Therefore, you go from 14 at the track, and
then you would graduate to going out on the road
when you are 15. So, when you are going out on the road at 15, you would have an instructor. And once again, I am not trying to say that my team and I are
inventing the wheel here. This is actually taking excerpts and editing a programme that is already in use in the UK, in the United States and other areas. Therefore, with the instructor the children would act ually be able to have a full -face helmet that has the
two-way communication radios. And then you would
have the instructor who is riding on a separate bike next to them.
My team would be getting into the details as
to whether this would be one on one or how many children to an instructor. I think that is something be tter left to the experts in the Ministry and the civil ser vants. But, this is where we go into it not costing the Government any money per se, because my team and I have set up meetings with the Road Safety Council and representatives of different insurance companies around the Island. And I am pleased to
say th at we got favourable results and favourable
feedback from them to where different insurance
companies said that they would be willing to provide maybe not the whole package, but you would have one insurance company that would provide the bikes. Another insurance company said that they would be
willing to provide the helmets. The next one could
provide the two- way radio communication.
Therefore, we are actually, as a Government,
helping our children, or setting our children up for suc-cess on the roads without it necessarily costing us anything even though I do not believe that any Government would put a price on the safety of our chi ldren. However, this being the budget debate, we have
to talk about the numbers.
So, the thing is that once again, when talking
to the insurance companies, we would ask them, being in business, what is in it for them. First, they would
like to be good corporate citizens. But the balancing sense, this would help reduce insurance claims. So it reduces payments out by them. And once again, we go into 16- to 17- year olds. I think this needs to be
repeated as much as possible so we can actually truly
understand and grasp the severity that 16- to 17- year
olds are the highest hospitalised, and 18- to 25- year
olds being the highest fatalities. This is where the f ocus, at least from the Shadow Ministry part the focus
is on the graduated licensing programme.
What all of this does is that by the time they
are 16 years old, they have already pre- determined
set number of hours for the roads, they have the
classroom training, but also what needs to be provi ded in the classroom training is a study. Maybe “study” is not the correct word; but an emphasis on educating the youth on the impact of drunk driving and other bad
road habits.
Now, I have seen time and time again indivi duals texting while they ride. Even though we set the
law to not have the phones wedged in the helmets we still see that so it is just to show them the impact that these have. But with a focus more so on the road cu lture of drunk driving, or drink driving, or, in this case,
would be, well should not be, drink riding at 16 and 17. But remember, we also have 18- to 25- year olds
that are losing their lives.
We came across some very startling figures
when it comes to road safety in that impaired driving is
something that . . . and I have said it before and I will
say it again. I consider it (and I don’t want to speak for
anyone else), and I know a few other entities consider it a national health crisis. And the reason we consider it a national health crisis is that even though we focus
on the tragedies of when somebody loses their life on
our roads, we lose . . . statistically speaking, we have
one death for every 200 accidents that happen on our
roads. That means that in 2016 there were 1,685 road traffic accidents that the ambulance was called out for. This cost the hospital $3,404,773.93.
Now, I bring that up, and I am going to bring
up other statistics and other numbers because that cost gets passed on to the taxpayer. That means th at
the cost of health care goes up. I am not going to go into health care, because that is not the head we are discussing. But under road safety, and this is where
we like to say that no ministry is an island. So, under
road safety, if we were to maybe invest a little more money into road safety we could then help decrease the increase in cost of health care elsewhere. So it would have a knock -on effect.
Let us just look at the grand scheme of things.
Over the past three years road traffic accidents have cost us nine million two . . . no, not . . . well, yes us,
but this is more so on the hospital aspect, $9,260,478.75, which means that each accident is estimated to cost taxpayers approximately $8,000 to
$10,000 each. And that is divided amongst the hospital, which cost about $2,000. It is basically, roughly
$2,000 to $3,000 per department. So the hospital spends about $2,000, you have police that will spend about $2,000; you have firefighters who will spend
$2,000 on each accident that happens. So, with all of
that said, and although it is not . . . what I am about to
say does not necessarily go for this year, because it remained consistent, is that the Government has con-sistently cut or reduced the budget for road safety by 40 per cent since 2012.
So, theoretically that is on average a 10 per
cent cut each year, except for this year where it r emained the same. But remember, that is still 40 per
cent less than it was in 2012. Yet, we still have these significant number of road traffic accidents. As I said, 1,685 were reported by the hospital.


Bermuda House of Assembly Now, what I would like to say, as I hinted to
earlier, that we have a culture of drink driving/drunk
driving on our roads. It was encouraging that in mult iple years we heard in the Government’s Throne Speeches a vow to bring roadside sobriety testing and/or roadside sobriety checkpoints to Bermuda. There is a saying, and I have a saying that a speech
is just that; a speech. And in this case, when we are
talking about politics and government, a speech is just a speech until policy and/or legislation puts something in action, or allows us to put something in action.

Yes.
Therefore, as I said, my question is to ask
what came out of the . . . hold on, I’ll go back. The
implementation of roadside sobriety checkpoints could
not just save us money, but, more importantly, could save Bermudian lives. So, as I said, page B -198, and I
did say line item 8169, or 8171 [sic] , and would like to
take the opportunity to talk about roadside sobriety checkpoints, and ask the Government what came out of the Road Safety Summit two years ago, because that is something that we spent money on. D r. Fra ncioni came down, we spent money on that. My other question would be is it because of an accounting reason that this Government has not brought roadside
sobriety to this country or to this House?
Now, also what I want to do is, and I ask for
your in dulgence, is just to show you the importance of
basically roadside sobriety. I just want to show you a newspaper article from maybe even less than a month
ago where you had two people arrested after a cycle
and car collision. We had a 46- year old man arres ted
on suspicion of impaired driving. We had a 32- year
old woman that was arrested on suspicion of impaired driving. And that was one day after we had . . . and
this was February 17
th when a 56- year old man was temporarily trapped inside a truck after a collision.
This is something that we need to be spending money
on. I think that we need to talk about increasing the cost . . . not increasing the cost, but increasing the
budget for the Road Safety Council so that they can have more resources to do more work and be able to get that all -important message of making sure that we
tackle this drunk driving, or drink driving culture.
As I stated in the summit, I support roadside
sobriety testing, but I feel as though it does not go far enough. But, once again, I am in favour of anything
that is taking a step forward to be able to tackle this epidemic that we have on our roads. Once again, my
question is, Why has the OBA never taken that step?
Now, when we talk about roadside sobriety
. . . and I am getting ready to move on to another to pic, but this is something that I am very passionate
about and I bring it up every time when we are talking about the budget because I believe that the budget
does not reflect it. I am not making any personal a ttacks on the Government, I just feel as though this
budget and budgets before this have not shown a pr iority being put on making our roads safer. So, first and foremost, the sobriety chec kpoints are not primarily to catch people. We are not trying to be punitive. But it is m ore so a deterrent —

Which is road safety. This is
all under road safety, all right? So, it is not to catch people, it is just to put in . . . catching people would be
the police. But this is why I am saying that . . . I am
not talking about catching people being punitive. It is
about deterring people from doing it in the first place. It is about getting that education out and that is where we go back to, when we talk about Project Ride and
making that more robust, it is about making sure that
even at the youngest and the lowest and the earliest ages we can deter . . . we can try to turn them away
from this habit ever happening in the first place.
So, other countries, other territories that have
implemented roadside sobriety and have actually successfully implemented roadside sobriety checkpoints,
have not only seen a decrease in road traffic acc idents, not only seen a decrease in road traffic fatal ities, but have also seen a slight or a marginal d ecrease in the cost of health care as well. Once again, I am going to try to thread that needle again.
1060 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly What they do is make sure through the Road
Safety Council that the checkpoints are well published. So when you know that it is well published, it is
once again showing you that we are not trying to trap you. We are trying to let you know that on a Friday night between 12:00 am and 3:00 am, we are going to
have roadside sobriety testing or checkpoints at Crow
Lane Bakery, or on the Causeway. So, therefore, when you go out and you start to drink, you’ll say,
Well, hold on. I might get caught on this one.
Also, what I hear is people talking about section 11 of the Bermuda Constitution that hinders this.
But section 11, for those who are not familiar, actually
talks about the freedom of movement. But in my inter-pretation and in my team’s interpretation there is a clause that allows this to happen under road safety because it says in favour of . . . if it is in the interest of
public health or security. Once again, we go back to what I said earlier about road safety, which is that the
culture of drink driving is a national health crisis on our
roads.
So, once again, I basically very strongly urge
the Government to put more money into road safety. I strongly urge the Government to bring roadside sobr iety testing. I strongly urge them to bring roadside s obriety checkpoints. But this is where I am actually go-ing to switch to road policing strategy, which is on page B -198, 44090.

No problem.
I have talked to the Minister of Transport, I
have spoken to a representative of the Road Policing
Unit, and they shared with me that their belief of the positive effects of fixed penalties, which was in the Throne Speech two years ago. This is basically . . .
fixed penalties provided . . . it allows the offender to
pay a fixed fine rather than clog up the courts. And it provides the deterrent to . . . and it has proven to pr ovide a deterrent to bad road use or bad habits on our roads.
Now, we are looking, t he Shadow Ministry
would like to see an increase of the fixed penalties, basically to make them all one flat fee, which is $300. And for all traffic penalties to have fixed penalties as a
deterrent. And when we get that, just so that people
listening know that we are not actually just throwing numbers out there, is that the $300 is in line with the latest traffic offences that were created around youth licensing in 2010. So, I am just once again explaining that these offences create a fixed penalty fine of $300
for the holder of a youth licence who is towing a pas-senger. There is a clear deterrent value for the 16- to
17-year olds. Now, once again, we are going back to
the 16- and 17- year olds who happen to be the most
hospitalised. But also the 16- and 17-y ear olds are
those who are least likely to be able to pay that $300
fine. So it is going to come from the parents.
That is not fair. We do not feel as though it is
just or provides the same deterrent as compared to
somebody who is running a stop sign (they currently
just have to pay $50); or someone who does not have
a licence who only has to pay $100. Therefore, we could generate more revenue for the Government if you did the fixed penalties. I do not know because I did not look into it, but I guess the judicial side of it, the courts would not be as clogged so you would not be using as much resources there. So overall, we feel
as though, focusing on the traffic side of this, or the
traffic control side of this, we could actually help bring the cost down.
Once again, we are looking at . . . and this is
where my team sort of had a little spirited debate, whether or not we are talking about traffic control or
road safety, because of the fact that a passenger . . .
the fixed penalty for disobeying a traffic s ign, versus
someone having no driver’s licence is sort of out of
sync with somebody who is . . . because we feel it is a
bigger threat if you are not following the traffic signs.
Therefore, that is where that whole $300 comes in.
But also for someone who does not have a driver’s licence or has no business operating a motorised ve-hicle, or not even someone who does not have insur-ance (that is a totally different problem). But the thing is once again we have to be fair in that there were two
increases to this fixed penalty, which was the unl icenced car was increased from $100 to $750, and
unlicenced bike was increased from $100 to $250. And the reason this was done was because it has been proven that prior to this people were actually committing these offences two or three times because
it was more financially feasible for them to just pay a fine instead of doing it.
So, we have increased it. But studies show
that not only do fixed penalties, or financial penalties act as an effective deterrent, it has proven that the Government currently generates $2.2 million per year


Bermuda House of Assembly on moving violations. And, as I said, the current
schedule is unfair. So, my question is, Why does the
Government not implement fixed penalties, which they already said that they would in the 2014 Throne Speech, about making all traffic offences $300?
I once again want to go back to road safety
statistics, because I really believe that this is a topic
that does not get its due. Once again, between April
2012 and April 2015, we had 29 road fatal ities, and
45 per cent of those have been determined to be due to alcohol and/or speed. And now if you go back to the hospitals over the past three years, the hospitals have spent $12,195,595.22 for taking care of the 599 persons who needed inpatient care, s o people that r emained in the hospital after the accident. Yet, the
Government has cut the hospital budget by $25 mi llion.
Once again, I hope that that cut would have
seen its way into the Road Safety [Council] or into
road safety somewhere, somehow. But it did not. Or
even into the Bermuda Road Policing Unit.

Okay. No problem, no problem. I will change, because this actually translates, or
segues right i nto what I want to talk about, which
would be page 14 in the Reply to the Budget [Stat ement] . . . no, I will show you, because it is talking
about the use of technology into being able to . . . and
I just want to read the excerpt.

It is under “Increase the Use
of Technology.” “Additionally, the People’s Budget will fund an
extensive review of the technology used within the
government and will fund investments to make the government more efficient and more responsive to both internal and external users via technology. There are still too many government systems that do not interface with one another and too many government
departments using manual processes. Investments to
improve system connecti vity will improve service delivery and reduce opportunities for fraud and abuse.”
Now, I read that because we talk about the
. . . I actually think the Leader of the Opposition was a
bit too conservative in the benefits that the use of
technology —
The Ch airman: We cannot go back and reflect on
another debate. So you can just talk about —

I am just moving forward . . .
well, I quoted. But the thing is that . . . I will put it this
way. The good Book says, Give unto Caesar what is
Caesar’s. Right? And this is . . . what I am doing now
is actually going to transition to a graduated payment
schedule which I am putting under page B -199. I have
8465 —

Yes. This is to revenue.
I also want to put it under 8471, which is the
Private Car.
What I am saying now is that the Shadow
Ministry is also looking at exploring and implementing
technology in ways that it can either increase the quality of life or reduce the cost of living for Bermudians.
And then the one programme we came up with was
the graduated payment schedule for relicensing veh icles.
Now, the TCD already set a budget. And once
again, this is something that I am bringing up again because it is something that I believe from last year’s
debate was something which was received favourably
by the Ministry of Transport. I just wanted to know,
basically if the Minister could provide a status report on this initiative. But, once again, just for those who do not remember, I just talked about increasing reve-nue for the Government by increasing penalties. That
sounds very punitive. And then we feel as through
introducing the graduated payment schedule is the way, in my own words, to sort of give Caesar . . . to
allow Caesar to get what is his. This is a way that we allow to provide a little bit of balance.
1062 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Now, the current TCD system allows for multiple or particular payments to vehicle licensing. And I
have been a person who have used this option where I did not have the money at first to pay for my full year of licensing. Therefore, I wrote my letter explaining my financial difficulties, and I was allowed to licence my car for six months. And at the end of the six months I
got it tested again and got it done for the second six
months. But imagine if the TCD system can do som ething along those lines, basically allow for partial pa yment through the year, and if we were to have the TCD system talking to the court system, talking to the insurance system, talking to different governmental
systems, someone could . . . if there was a policy put
in place, legislation put in place that would allow for,
let us just say I have been a bad boy, and I have not paid a tax somewhere else. When I go to license my car, the systems that are talking to each other could
say, Hey, Mr. Scott, you are going to need to pay “X”
amount of dollars (let’s say $2,000 altogether) . . . so
my $1,500, $1,600 for my H -class car, plus the other
couple hundred dollars that I owe.
This would be something that we could say,
Ah, I do not have that. Can I pay this over time? So
the graduated payment schedule means that instead
of paying that $2,000 right there, right then, I just say,
Can I pay $200 this month, $200 next month, and so
on. I think that allows for the individual to be able to
afford to . . . they do not have to choose between l icensing their car, or paying their electricity bill. It just
frees them up a little bit more.
What my team wants to do is take this idea
and sort of push it a bit further, let us push the enve-lope, and we have all the technical people here who
can say yea or nay, it sounds nice, but we might not
be able to do it. And we would be fine with that. If we
could . . . how can I say it?
If we have two individuals, and one individual,
they both have H -class cars, yet one . . . and I will use
my good friend Zane De Silva—

Yes, the Honourable Member, Zane De Silva and I both have the same type of
car, because we both have good taste in vehicles. But I am not always as blessed as Mr. De Silva, so I had
to buy a second- hand car, while Honourable Member
De Silva was able to buy a brand- new car.
[Inaudible interjections and laughter ]

So, we both have that
brand- new car . . . no, no, not both. The Honourable
Member De Silva is able to go to Bermuda Motors and
buy a brand- new car, while Honourable Member Scott
has to sort of buy that second- hand car from som ewhere else. Now, what we are trying to say here, and what
the Shadow Ministry would like to see implemented is that if you could have the licensing sort of decrease, just like how the value of the car decreases with age, the licensing could decrease with age. And I am just going to throw some numbers out just to give an ex-ample and paint a picture, that if my car is 10 years
old, I could be paying 50 per cent of what the licensing
is for a brand- new car.
The reasoning and the rationale behind that is
that with that older car it is going to cost me more in
upkeep. So hopefully that money that I am saving from having to pay that full -blown re -licensing could
be going into paying my mechanic, which then goes into the economy and we have the multiplier effect. That is the small thing. The real thing is that it would actually allow or promote . . . it allows the Government
to promote an environment wherein keeping your car is more economically sound. And if people keep their
cars longer, because let us be real. Bermudians after
three to five years get rid of that car and they are bu ying another car. So Honourable Member De Silva, I think after two years he buys a new car because the new car smell is gone.

[Inaudible interjection]

What I am trying to say is
that after about five years the trend is that we get a
new car. But if we could incentivise people to keep
their cars longer, that would mean that our congestion
levels on the road should theoretically drop. Because people are keeping their cars longer, they do not have two cars instead of one. If it is reducing the congestion on our road it provides a creative and mutually benef icial non- punitive solution.
That is something that we believe would be
beneficial for all. But while I am on the topic and line item of congestion, I still put this under administration.

So under administration, it
has been brought to the attention of the Shadow Mi nistry that the current Minister plans to theoretically increase congestion by allowing non- Bermudians to
drive private cars on our roads without the need for a licence from TCD. And what this is coming under, and
the way this is going to be done is through the Geneva Convention.

And that is under administration?



Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. W. Lawrence Scott: It is under administration
because, remember, without a TCD licence and it is
something that would be covered under the Motor [Car] Act 1953, and the Ministry of Transport basically are the keepers of that gate. So, this is how it comes
under administration, and it is something to do with the Minister himself, who is having to sign a treaty
which goes into and affects the driving on the roads.
And once again, it goes past, or bypasses the needing of a licence and that can only be done through a pol icy. And that policy would have to come through ad-ministration. All right.
So—

Thank you.
I think we had a little bit of a discussion about
this in parliamentary questions the other day. No dec ision has been made exactly as to how the issue with
respect to Bermudians not being able to rent cars at a
couple of Boston airport . . . Alamo, I think it was. That
is being looked at. This is a long- standing issue that
goes back to the former Government. But no decision
has been taken. I think there is no decision at this
point for the Minister to allow non-Bermudians to drive
a car here without a licence. And I think that would certainly require a change of legislation, not just a pol-icy change.

Thank you, Madam Chai rman.
What I want to do is go on with the Geneva
Convention because my team has been informed by
very reliable sources that there is the plan of impl ementing other policy . . . the Minister said it would
have to be a piece of legislation. So, the introduction
of legislation, I will change “policy” to “introduction of
legislation” that would allow persons visiting the Island to drive private cars up to 90 days without the need to obtain a TCD issued licence.
It is being done with the Minister saying that it
is in the interest of allowing . . . and the Minister just
sat down and he did allude to it, that it is in the interest of allowing Bermudians to rent cars overseas. It would fix the problem that, as the Minister said, has been long-standing. For me, I am neither here nor there as
to how long this issue has been going on. What the Minister hasn’t, seemingly, openly
shared is that it is only one rental company, Alamo rental cars, that is not acknowledging the Bermuda licence to allow —

And I am not disputing what
the Honourable Minister just said, but . . . and it is all
because we are not a signatory, we did not ratify the
Geneva Conventions September 19, 1949, Treaty.
Another fact that the Minister has not shared
is that when you sign this treaty you have the ability to add a clause, any clause that you want to it. For ex-ample, Jamaica signed the treaty but included a
clause that stated “Jamaica reserves the right not to
permit persons to drive.”
So, they have signed the treaty and said,
Okay, we have ratified it, but that does not change
anything here in Jamaica . So, my question to the
Government is why does the Government not just sign
the treaty and insert the clause that says, Bermuda
reserves the right to deny anyone the privilege to drive in Bermuda if they do not meet the standard or guid elines set in the Motor Car Act 1953 and/or have not been able to pass a TCD test ? I think that is a fair
clause to put in which protects our drivers here, road safety, that, once again, allows for all administration to go seamlessly, and there would be no need to pass legislation.
The other question is, where did this 90 days
come from? Is the Minister aware of any nonBermudians that have, or are going to be here for 90
days that want to drive a private car? That is another question.
And then I go on to, my Ministry has good
information that the Minister has not spoken to the insurance industry, has not gotten the green light from
the Road Policing Unit, and despite all of that, and this
is where I differ from what the Minister has said, be-cause it has been brought to our attention that the Minister is about to sign the agreement which was mentioned by the Minister to some indi viduals is cu rrently in the draft.
1064 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Hon. Dr. E. Grant Gibbons: Point of order.

Yes, Madam
Chairman. I think the Honourable Member is misleading the House here. No decision has been taken to sign any treaty at this point. We appreciate his com-ments, but I can assure him that those options and permutations are being looked at both in Chambers
and I think through the Ministry itself as to what the
steps are. And no decision has been taken at this par-ticular point. So it is very speculative on his part as to where he is going. Thank you.

What is the cost . . . what
would be the cost of signing the treaty to the Gover nment? That would be under administration.
How much revenue will TCD lose from no
longer collecting licensing fees for people who are
able to drive cars without a lic ence?
What about the loss of revenue from public
service vehicles that go out of business and do not, or cannot afford to relicense their vehicles because the
Ministry has introduced this type of competition
against them? Now, actually, I am going to switch, because I
do not want to tear it. I was very famous for doing that when my parents used to give me some leeway when I was little, and I used to tear it. So I am actually going
to . . . because competition I can talk about TCD on
page B -203, and I wil l switch to that . . .

Yes, I am going to proceed
with TDC, page B -203, and I will probably end up going over to page B -204 and I want to talk about . . . I
am going to . . . I guess I am going to start off with
45000 then I will go into 45010, I will probably talk
about 45090 —

Yes.
Well yes, I can talk about spare parts because
the spare parts go onto the buses and the buses are
. . . I will be guided by you, Madam Chairman.
The thing is that the buses were competing
against the taxis and the minibuses by doing sightsee-ing tours, which puts more work on them, which means the parts are going to wear down a little bit further, right? And it seems as though regardless of how hard the buses have been working it seems as though right now we have approximately 50 per cent
of the bus fleet out of service, which, once again, goes back to the maintenance and goes back to the spare parts and stuff like that.
I mean, we all know, and I probably will come
back to it, but I would be willing to share a picture from
even just today. We have a bus that is broken down. It has what looks like a driveshaft that is on the ground, a prop shaft. I see the cotter pin and then they have the pinion underneath there. But then, when you look inside the bus, the floor is pulled up. And this is not that good of a picture, but you can actually see into
the engine. So this makes me wonder how well is the
Minister putting in place a schedule . . . what is the
Minister doing . . . how is the Minister ensuring that
our buses are being properly maintained?
Last year, and I still have the video on my tablet here, we had buses that were infested with roac hes. I mean, I can show you the video of the bus. Let us just stick a pin in that right now.

Yes, yes, thank you. And I
am glad you did that because I am standing down I
am going to stick two . . . I will give you a little heads
up, a little trailer. I am going to switch to page B -205
and I am going to go under 45120, which is under administration. That is a little preview of where I am going.

So . . . and I am going to be
guided by you with what I am about to say. All right?
I wanted to quote . . . the Premier has said
before that the Minister is not responsible for the
maintenance of buses, right? But then went on to talk about how he and the union leaders talked about
making sure the buses had all the parts they need and
working our schedules and stuff like that.

Yes.
So, therefore, it has reached my Shadow Mi nistry that the current Minister said not to focus on the maintenance of buses as they were going to have
new ones for America’s Cup, right?
Now, how does that happen? That does not
happen by just saying, You know what? Nobody fix
buses. That is not what we are saying. But how that
happens is that . . . and before I get there, it goes into
the question of what ever came out of the contractual dispute with the Belgium company? Because we should have had buses here already, but because there was something, money was sent, but was not received, buses did not come . . . if the Minister could
provide some clarification on that, on what really hap-pened there.
It has been . . . well, that was June 2016, we
should be able to have a detailed report of this ha ppened, that happened, and this is what we are doing moving forward. But, . . . so, because we do not have
those buses there, it goes into the fact that our bus fleet, which we aim, according to the Budget Book, around this 7- year old weighted average, it seems as
though if you look at 2016/17 it went up to 10 years. It went to greater than or equal to 10 years. So that means we have older buses, more worn buses, more
1066 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly “experienced” buses on our roads, and that means
there is much more likelihood of them breaking down,
which then would explain the rash of buses that have been catching on fire or smoking—smoking, catching on fire, breaking down, the pictures that I showed . . .
because if you look at this, the bus that exploded ear-lier this week (right?) . . . the bus that exploded earlier
this week was 10 years old. It was a 2007 bus. All right?
And the question is, when it comes to that
bus, if you could not change . . . and my understanding, my Shadow Ministry has been informed, is that when you look at certain pictures, you see “Garage”
across the top. Now, is that something . . . and we
were told that the operator of the bus was not able to
change it from “Garage” to whatever he was doing, which looked like a school run of some sort. But if he was unable to change it from “Garage” to just at least something simple like the title (I am not quite sure
what it is called) . . . I’ll just say the title of the bus, if
he could not change that, why would somebody allow
him to take it out? And the fact that that was a 10- year
old bus, which is what we are showing here, and that bus exploded. All right?
And now we have a bus that is less than 10
years old, a 2009 bus, which is the fourth bus on the road in 2009 that has broken down. So once again,
had we gotten these buses delivered without that whole Belgium dispute the weighted average would be a lot less. So, therefore, . . . and I am just referring
to my notes.

So you will have your seat now, and
the Chair recognises the Member from constituen-cy 29. And if you guide us with the head . . .
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: I will gladly do that, Madam
Chairman.
Madam Chairman, I would like to start out on
page B -198, Head 34. With your indulgence, I would like to read out the mission statement. And just bear with me because I do not have my glasses.

Do you want mine?
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Actually, yours might work.
The mission statement says: “To provide excellent service to our customers on a timely basis
thereby ensuring both customer satisfaction and an efficient transport regulatory environment which co ntributes to the safety of Bermuda’s motoring public.” [This is the] Transport Control mission statement.
Now, why do I read that, Madam Chairman?
Well, the reason I read that is because as my colleague, the Honourable Member Lawrence Scott, was mentioning earlier, and he seemed to get a little bit of resistance from the Minister. I wanted to try and lend a little bit of support to that with regard to roadside s obriety. Okay?

—which is 44090, under the general
summary of expenditure.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Yes, [programme] 3401.
Indeed! Okay? So you have the line item correct.
So, what I am saying is, I would just like to
lend some support to that because the statistics he gave about the health cost in the Island and the inj uries, I am not onl y talking about death, but the injuries.
See, because what happens is, you know, my honourable colleague may have given you some numbers in terms of health costs per accident —which was very
nicely done, by the way —and I did not hear the Minister raise a point of order, so you must have been on point. So that was very good. But what happens . . .
what happens —

[Inaudible interjections]

Member, the cost of medical would
come under another head, so we would not know.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Oh, okay. But if I was the
Minister of Transport, I would know. That is all I am going to say.
[Inaudible interjections]



Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: But . . . but . . . but . . . I
don’t know. They switch around ministries every
week. I get confused—

Member. Member!
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: —Ministers are. You
know? I really do; I get confused.
So, what I am saying, Madam Chairman, is
that it is not only the cost of the accident when it happens. You have some long -term costs. Now, I will tell
you what, you say that that is health, and that is fine. I got you. You know, you got a nice little line there. But what happens is the money we may spend over here
in health care; we may not have for our new buses.
So you see how it ties in? So, I just wanted to emphasise . . . well, we got a little bit off -track with the cost
and whatnot, but roadside sobriety testing is very i mportant. And I think it is long overdue.
I mean, if the police were to stay down on
East Broadway on a Friday evening from 5:30 until 12:00, they go on top of Lane Hill and you go around by Pitts Bay Road, I will tell you what. They would not have enough police officers to deal with them. Okay? Because there are a lot of people that as soon as they finish work, they head straight downtown and have a
few cocktails, and sometimes they are “cocktailing” all
night.

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: And I am talking about
personal experience, because I can cocktail all night
when I am ready, Madam Chairman. Yes, I can. I spend time with my people. I would like to take the Honourable Minister to Place’s Place with me on a Friday night.

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: But what we wi ll do is —
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: —but what w e will do is,
we will get Ewart Brown’s chauffeur to take us so that
we do not drive afterwards.

Member.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Yes, so . . . but, anyway,
getting back on the serious side of things, I think the
roadside sobriety testing should be something very high, not only on the Minister’s agenda, but the Go vernment’s agenda. So, I think that that should be done
sooner rather than later.
Now, Madam Chairman, I would like to switch
over to Head 34, in particular, the Revenue Summary
on page B -199. Okay, I am on the Revenue S ummary. What I would like to talk about for a minute is parking tickets. We are talking about revenue for the
country. We are talking about revenue for our Go vernment. Parking tickets, we know that parking tic kets—

Sorry, I got to Head 30. Sorry. Where
were you?
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: I was on Head 30, Marine
and Ports, line items 40140, and 40210. Tug Service
and Tender Service.
Well, you might recall, Madam Chairman, I
brought this particular point up on the motion to a djourn just the night before last. I was talking about the
cost that we pay for ferry service, i.e., the Millennium .
Now, I think my colleague gave us the number, I think
it was an astronomical number, wasn’t it? For that fer-ry service per month, what is it?

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: It was $303,000 per month.
Now, I would like . . . and I see the Minister writing
down feverously over there, so—

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Okay. Thank you.
The Millennium and/or maybe it is another
boat added to . . .
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Oh, this is for the other
one. Yes. Thank you very much.
But, Madam Chairman, $300,000 a month.
Now I am not sure how much these new ferries are;
but if we have been renting these ferries for several
years for the period that the cruise ships in port . . .
what is that? From April until . . . from May, June, J uly,
August, September, October . . . what is that? Seven
months I just counted on my fingers. Say, three sev-ens are twenty -one. Say it is six months. That is $1.8
million. Now, if it is $1.8 million, just round it up, b ecause when I went to school, we rounded up after 1.5, it is 1.8, so I will call it $2 million. Just for an easy —

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Now, what I would like to
put to the Minister is, Has he or his Government, in
particular the Ministers, priced a new ferry, if we were
to buy our own? See? That is where, you know, a couple of weeks ago I talked about good debt and bad debt, and I said I am proud of the debt that we i ncurred—

Not going to reflect, are you?
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: No. But, yo u know, this again would be proud of
good debt. Look at the cost of a new boat. And if that
ferry indeed, indeed is $2 million, let’s say it is $3 mil-lion, why the heck don’t we just buy a new one instead of paying $300,000 for six month? If that is the case, we spend $2 million per season, well, in two seasons you could have two ferries, almost. Two brand- new
ferries. Here we are paying $300,000—that is a lot of money.
Now, I am sure that if the Minister, the Honourable Member from constituency 22, if he was ren ting cars himself, rather than . . . if you had a brand -
new car that was $10,000 and if you were paying
$1,000 a month for that car . . . let’s drop it down.
Let’s say $500 a month. Well, five twelves are sixty.
We know that. In two years you would have your car paid for. You are not going to rent a car for $500 a month, are you? No, we would not do that. It does not make economic sense. So why the heck are we pa ying $300,000 per month for a ferry?
Now, if you said those ferries are $15 million
to $20 million apiece, you might have me. But at $2 million, as my colleague has stated, and even if it is $3 million, I think that is something that we should certainly seriously consider because it is important. (Now,
let me just tick off as we go through here, Madam Chairman.)
Madam Chairman, I would like to switch over
to page B -191, [programme] 3101, [cost centre] 41010
and 41040, also we might throw in 41050, which is the
Air Terminal. Now, I would like to talk to you about
that for a moment for one particular reason. I travel quite frequently, as you know, Madam Chairman, and the amount of times that I go down to the airport and that escalator is not working, I mean, you might not travel as much as I do, but I am sure that you know
that that escalator is out of service more than it is in
service.

That is why we are
trying to get you a new airport.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: And you know, the Honourable Minister, says that’s why he is trying to get us
a new airport. Well, I do not feel like paying my paying
. . . my problem is with that is that I do not feel like
paying $300 million for an escalator. That is the problem.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: But see . . . but see . . .
now, the Minister says that’s why he is trying to build a new airport. I tell you what. If you give me that $27
million a year, I will fix those escalators. I will fix the leaks and I will fix the air -conditioners too. And I wi ll
buff up that airport so it looks nice when you walk through there, Madam Chairman. Now, I am not sa ying I would not build a new airport. But I can chew


Bermuda House of Assembly gum and walk at the same time. The problem is with
the Ministers of the OBA Government, they cannot.
Now, Madam Chairman, let’s flick over to
page B -186, Head 30. And if you would give me a
second just to get there myself, I would like to talk
about that mission statement.
With you indulgence, the mission statement
on Head 30, Marine and Ports, says: “To provide the necessary services to ensure the safe operation of International Shipping and Local Craft in Bermuda waters, to contribute to the Public Transportation Sy stem through the operation of the Ferry Service and to facilitate in marine search and rescue.” But what I
would like to draw your attention to, Madam Chai rman, is “provide the necessary services to ensure the
safe operation of International Shipping and Local Craft in Bermuda . . .”
Now, why do I highlight that? You might recall,
Madam Chairman, that in the past, this past year or
so, when we stopped bringing containers to the port in
Hamilton, you will know that we took containers to Morgan’s Point and also Dockyard. Now, my issue then, and my issue now , and I would like to lay down the marker, is that those containers do not go through
any X -ray machines.

—referring to me, so just help guide
me. We are in the middle of a conversation here.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Yes, okay. This is what we
are talking about. We are talking about Pilotage,
40180. We are talking about 40100, Maritime Safety and Security. Maritime Safety and Security! So, what, is the Honourable Minister not concerned that guns and drugs might be coming in those containers? Does it not concern you at all, Minister?

Thank you very much.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Okay. I am glad he said
“security of life at sea.” Because you would know,
Madam Chairman, that just not too long ago, I think it
was about last year or the year before, up there at the
. . . what is it called? Up at Mangrove Bay, every year
they have the —

Member, let’s stick to the budget.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: So, what are you going to
do about the containers?

[Gavel]

1070 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: Member, let’s stick to the Budget D ebate. You are doing good; let’s just keep focused on
the Budget Debate.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Well, I am know I am on a
good wicket when y ou say I am doing good because
you put that hammer on me so hard the other night. You almost got me again tonight, but I am going to try
. . . let me see if I can just try spinning it a little different way.

Just stick to the budget.

Hon. Z ane J. S. De Silva: Okay, I will stick to that.
Head 35, let us move on a little bit, Madam
Chairman. Head 35, page B- 202. We are going to
look at line items 45090 and 45115, which is Repair
Servicing and Inventory Management.
Now, Madam Chairman, my colleague, Mr.
Scott, showed you some nice pictures and things that are going on with the buses. Before I start and talk about the lack of maintenance on our buses at the moment. Let me take this opportunity and congrat ulate, with your indulgence, Madam Chairman, because I think some of our civil servants deserve credit
at times. Contrary to popular belief, we have a lot of civil servants that take their jobs seriously, and they work hard.
And the bus drivers in this country, I would
like to take the opportunity to congratulate them and
thank them for the great job that they do. And it is not
always an easy job. I hear more and more . . . I will
put my hand up. I have a lot of friends that are bus drivers and I get these stories, trust me. I can tell you, the abuse that they put up with on a daily basis —on a
daily basis, Madam Chairman—I think that they do a
fantastic job. In fact, for an organisation that has that
many drivers, and we do not have that many cases where some of them lose their cool, and we have situations, I think they are to be congratulated. So I would like to take the opportunity to thank all our bus
drivers for the absolutely fantastic, caring job that they
do on a day -to-day basis.
Now, I will not dwell on the bus fire, explosion,
whatever it was last week. I think my colleague did a
good job. But one thing that he did touch on that I would like to go a little bit further on, was the maint enance of the buses. Of course, you know, you the
Minister may get up and say, Well, you know, we have
only been here four years, blah, blah, blah, and all this
stuff. But I will tell you what —
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Well, I am glad the Minister
is putting . . . he says he is putting more money in the
budget this year, which I see. That is very good. I
hope it is going to be to go in the right places. Well, I
will put my hand up, I think where they can save mon-ey is buying tyres from a certain tyre distributor who
has the best prices in Bermuda and they do not do
that.

[Laughter]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: I mean, I already said,
Bermuda Motors has the best cars. I might as well tell
you. Island Construction has the best tyres. I will put my hand up.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Because it is true, Mad am
Chairman. I have to say that. I do have to say that. In
fact, most of my customers tell me that. So, I can say that I am sure that time will tell, if we ever get to bid on it, because sometimes these things come out for the buses and the government vehicles and not ever ybody gets a chance to bid on it.

And that would be under Inventory
Management?

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Yes, you got it! You got it,
Madam Chairman. You are pretty good at reading
these books as quickly as you do. And especially be-cause you have been in that Chair for a very long time, so you know, you are doing a great job, and I thank you for that.
But, let us get back to the maintenance of the
buses. Now, it is my understanding that there was a programme that was being put before Cabinet, and I will say that I know that this was being worked on in October 2012, I think it was. And I think the former Minister sitting beside me can confirm that if he decides to speak later on. But I can tell you that in Oct ober 2012 there were plans to start working two shifts, with regard to maintenance of the buses.
Now, we know, and I know —and I will put my
hand up aga in—I know, Madam Chairman, that m echanics are hard to come by in Bermuda. So there could very well be that there is shortage up at the bus garage. So, that is okay. So, we know that. So, what do we do? Well, we have to hire more mechanics and/or maybe we do some shift work. Maybe in these times, when things are tight, we give mechanics up at
the bus garage an opportunity to work extra hours.
Now, I am not saying that they work 16, 18
hours a day, seven days a week, because you and I
both know that is not going to work. But I am certainly sure; I have employees who work for me on a regular basis, 60, 70 hours a week. And they love it. So, what
I am saying is, Why haven’t . . . and maybe the Mini ster will clarify when he says he has an increase in the
budget, maybe this money will go to the mechanics,
and let us get our buses maintained and looked after before somebody gets hurt. And it does not necessar ily have to be blow -up. It could be brakes; it could be,


Bermuda House of Assembly you know, a hydraulic hose could bust, you know, all
sorts of things go due to lack of maintenance.
You know, Madam Chairman, that . . . I know
that I go to the dentist twice a year every year, rel igiously. My dentist call us, Look, next month you are
due. Okay. All right. What happens if we do not go to
the dentist for three, four or five years? Well, you get
plague build- up, if you do not floss you get all sorts of
things happening. You know, the list . . . I am not going to spend too much . . . but you know what ha ppens, Madam, when you do not maintain things correctly.
So I hope that this increase in the budget is
going to go to the mechanics so that we can get our buses maintained. And you know what, Madam
Chairman? What happens sometimes is you may think everything is running just perfectly. And if y ou
said, Look, you know what, this bus has been on the
road for so many hours, it has got to come in for its
check. And you say, W ow the bus is running fine, you
know, we will let it go. No! Because sometimes you
may think it is running right but you are right on the
verge of having a serious breakdown or something
serious go wrong with it. So that is why you have to
have regular maintenance on your vehicles —whether
it is a bus or whether it is your own personal car , because if you leave it . . .
And let me tell you, if you do not put oil in your
car you might get away with it six months . You might
get away for 12 months. You might even get away with it for 15 months . But do you know what happens?
Well, if you do not say to yourself , Well, let me put
some oil in my engine . You may say , Man, that is $25
for a can of oil . Well, $25 is a lot [less] than a brandnew engine at $5,000 or $6,000. Okay? So, that is
why regular maintenance is important.
Now, one thing that . . . and I may have
missed it, Madam Chairman. You know, I spend my
time in the back talking to colleagues and getting ready for things , as we all do. But I am not sure if the
cameras that the Progressive Labour Party had i nstalled for . . . they monitored the licence . . . see if
their car’s licence when they go through. I do not
know if the Minister can tell us if they are working on that, because the last I heard was that many of them
were not working. Now, not only were they not wor king but the computer system that was attached down
at TCD [Transport Control Department] was not wor king.
So the last I heard (and I will stand to be corrected) was that the staff at TCD was spending huge
loads of hours going through a lot of paperwork that if
these cameras and the IT system (and I am not a tech
guy) that it was connected to, if they were working it
would save a hell of a lot of labour time.

And where are we on w hat?
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: We are on . . . hang on . . .
we are on Traffic Control . . . is it T raffic Control? Wait
a minute. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Administration
. . . Administration on page B-202, B-202, [pr ogramme] 3503, [cost centre] 45120. Gee, you put me
to the test that time, Madam Chairman. Because
when I start getting into my notes, you are directing
me back to the Book. You have to put some trust —

That is my job.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: —in me. You have to put
some trust in me— The Chairman: That is my job.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Yes, it is true.
So what I am saying is, is that not only was
that piece of equipment not working, but its revenue . . . we are looking at revenue—

Right. Thank you.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Well, [page] B -198, yes,
yes. Okay, all right. Let us leave it at page B- 198,
okay.
I have almost talked enough on it. What I
would like to do is point out to the Minister , who has
got so many hats these days, right, I would like to
point out to him that this is a tool that the Progressive Labour Party bought into . . . and you will remember, I
am sure, because a lot of people were not happy because I think the fines were like $750 per week or something. They were huge. I know that one parti cular
gentleman who is vice president of a very large com-pany in Bermuda got a bill from TCD for $8,500 because he had been through it . . . every time he went
through it they r ang him up—$8,500! And he called
me up, Zane, this cannot be right . I said, Look, you
better go down to TCD and speak to the folks there.
[Inau di
ble interjection]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: That is right.
You see? You see?
So what I am saying, Madam Chairman, is
that we need to get that looked at because the labour
that we are spending . . . if it is true they are still br oken, Minister , the labour that we are spending sorting
out a lot of this paperwork . . . Oh, by the way —put a
pin in that —let me thank the people at TCD. Let me
thank the Progressive Labour Party for building a
beautiful new facility down there in the Back o’ Town.
Beautiful facility.
1072 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly You will remember, Madam Chairman, that
there was a time . . . I know , I did it . I will go down and
pick a ticket, go to town and do some shopping, come
back and it still was not my turn. But, but, I will say this
. . . so I will thank the Progressive Labour Party for the
foresight to build a new facility . And, of course, they
might talk about how much overruns and all that stuff
are. B ut we know with that facility . . . actually we did
not have that many overruns when you look at it. I
think the percentage was about 5 per cent or 6 per
cent when you count it up.

But that was in a budget that we are
not talking about right now, Member.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Right, right . But all I would
like to say is I would take my hat off to the staff who,
again, do great work down at TCD. Every time I have been to TCD, you know, everybody is happy . They
are smiling. And the people no longer have to wait for
those horrendous . . . what seemed like forever, wai ting to get served.
So, that is that. Now, Madam Chairman, I
would like to switch over to page B- 198.

Transport control.
Hon. Zane J. S. De S ilva: Yes, transport control . No,
no, no, no. I want to switch to something else. I want
to switch to page B -186, Head 30, Marine and Ports,
[programme] 3006 to 3007.
Now, let me catch up with you since I pointed
you there. B ecause I know you; y ou are going to put
me to the test in a minute just to make sure where I am at. You will notice under [programme] 3006 we
have Tug Service [cost centre 40140], Tender Service
[cost centre 40210] and [programme] 3007, underneath that, we have Ferry Service [cost cent re 40090] .
Now, Madam Chairman, I attended a breakfast yesterday morning up at Henry VIII. Southampton Council , they are doing a fantastic job, they are. It is a
group of people, I think a great, great mix of people on the Southampton Council . And they invited me to a
breakfast along with a lot of other people from the Southampton area who are doing a fantastic job. They
had the girl from the America’s Cup, Vicki Abraham ( is
it, Minister? ) . . .

Yes.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Vicki Abraham gave a very
nice presentation. Yes, a very nice presentation. Now,
one thing she talked on . . . and I am glad the Minister
knows her and knows that, you know, I am sure he has heard her speak before. So she gave a great
present ation. Even gave out some flags for the Amer ica’s Cup, which was great. So now, but my question to the Minister is, Is
he on top of the water taxi situation? Because that came up yesterday as well , and it seemed like . . .
maybe the Minister will have a chance to talk in a m inute, so I will leave him be. But I want to know what
his thoughts are on the water taxis.
Now, there was talk yesterday and we could
not quite get a definitive answer as to what the deal is and how one could do it and what the restrictions are. You know, there will be some drop off points and what not. But I would like to know what the Government is
doing with regard to getting the word out that this is a possibility. We have many of our people out of work
as you know. They might be able to borrow one of their family member’s boats and say, Look, you know,
if I pay “X” amount, I can get a water taxi job for, you
know, six, eight weeks. So they get an opportunity to
put some pennies in their pocket. Maybe the Minister has a good answer for us, so I do not know.
Now, Madam Chairman, I am going to take
my seat in a moment. But I wanted to touch on one more thing before I did, and it is on page B -187, [programme] 8171, and it is talking about Charter Boats
and Private Boats. Okay?

The C hairman: And that is revenue?
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Yes, that is under the revenue, yes. And it is [programmes] 8169 and 8171.
Now, I mention both of those because the
Minister certainly knows . . . and you may have heard
me say just in this last week or two that the tour boat
operators, after the Minister said that everybody is booked, they are full, everybody is solid. They got plenty of work on. Not true! Not true.
Now, I do not know if the Minister . . . I
brought this up about two weeks ago. I do not know if
the Minister has had opportunity, or maybe he might be a little too busy, maybe the Junior Minister or the other Minister in another place, maybe they . . . I do
not know. But I would certainly like to know if they
have reached out to the tour boat operators to find out
what the real deal is.

No, I
just wanted to —

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Okay, thank you very
much. Thank you very much.
Well, it is revenue . It is the budget . It is our
people’s money . These are opportunities for our pe ople, and what we want to do is do all that we can wit hin our budget, within our expertise, within our realm of
responsibility of being the Government is trying to create opportunities and give people business with it.


Bermuda House of Assembly The America’s Cup, we have Mr. America’s Cup si tting here in the House tonight. All I want to do, all I
want Mr. America to do, right —

[Laughter]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: That is all I want him to do,
Madam —

Well, why don’t we refer to that gentleman as the Honourable Member?

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: The Honourable Member .
. . I am sure he loves that title. In fact, it will probably go down with him now, Mr. America.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Yes, see? See? He loves
it, you see?
Well, I do not know . . . Place’s Place will be
booming right now. I think, I think if you came . . . a ctually, you know, the Pickled Onion will be booming in
about another two and a half hours if you want to go down there.
But, anyway, I will finish on that note in that I
would really like to know if the Minister has had any
conversations with the tour boat operators who, some
may be fully booked, but there are a few, there are a few . . . one or two do not have any . And that is a
shame. One or two have not even been called. Now, I will not call their names out. If the Minister wants to
talk to me about it off line, I will do that. But there are some of our tour boat operators that are not getting their share, I do not think, are getting their share of the pie.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.

You are quite welcome. Ar e there any
other Members that would like to speak to the debate,
the budget debate?
The Chair recognises the Member from constituency 6, and I am sorry about the voice. It is ge tting a bit raspy.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Thank you, Madam Chai rman. Madam Chairman, looking at the heads that
we are debating tonight regarding the budget, I am
assuming all the heads were . . . the heads were —

[Head] 31 you said?
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Yes, and [Head] 57, Civil
Aviation , and a few others.
Madam Chairman, it clearly shows from this
budget that if you recall the Minister of Finance used
to say that by Aecon building an air port it will not have
an impact on our financials. That is the sell that we heard for the last two years. But if you look at the
numbers on Head 31, that is page B- 183, it shows
that the Government would lose $18 million compared
to 2016/17 budget.

The Ch airman: I am sorry . . . you said [page] B-191?

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: B- 183.

Perfect.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: All right. I am talking about
$18 million . I am not reflecting. It is clearly right there.
This is the one that is on that head. That is the h ead
that the Honourable Member asked to debate. So we
have lost $18 million from our revenue which affects two things: cash assets and our revenue side. Hence why we had to borrow $100- and-some- odd million ,
because it affected our cash coming in. It is clear. And
it is clear fo r the public to see, Madam Chairman.
If you add up the $20 ,821 which comes out of
passenger tax that comes through the airport, we are
talking about airport, it means $38. 838 million passenger tax . . . I refer the Honourable Minister to passenger tax, it was $20 million—

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: I understand what the Honourable Member is saying.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: I understand what the Honourable Member is saying. But if you look at the Ai rport Operation, passenger tax which comes through the airport went into Consolidated Fund, we understand that ——

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: You see the Honourable
Member ? He does not want to hear that.

Now, Member, Member have a seat
for a second. Just for a quick second.
I am not worried about what other Members
are saying. I am more concerned about listening to
what you have to say . And I would prefer that you
stick to the h eads that we have in front of us to debate
and I know that that will be fine for you, so just pr oceed.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Madam Chairman, I also
would like for you, when I am talking, for Honourable
Members on that side to stop talking when I am —
The C h
airman: I will do that. I will do that.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: I will sit and wait until you tell
them.

Member, please continue to speak to
the Chair.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: So, there is $18 million that
just poof . . . poof , just goes on to Aecon. Poof, gone.


Bermuda House of Assembly And more, which could have helped us out during our
deficit and also our debt.
Now I refer you, Madam Chairman, to Airport
Operations. Let us talk about Airport Operations. Let
us go there for just one minute. Because I was inter-ested in looking at [page] B-195 and it said passenger
overall satisfaction with the airport was four out of five.
Four out of five overall passenger satisfaction at the airport , and we have been hearing all this . . . you
know what we have been hearing for the last six months to a year.
Also, ambiance of airport was four out of five.
And we have been hearing all these strange things
coming from the other side that the ambiance and the
. . . fix the roof, Madam Chairman. You know, like St.
Peter’s Church. They got a leak, do not fix it, they are
knocking the building down. But the proof is there.
The information . . . there was a survey they tell me.
Ambiance of the airport, four points for passenger satisfaction. So what do you want? A five? I am just
bringing the information that they have revealed here. Interesting, they put “ not applicable” in a few of those
columns.

That is under performance
measures ?

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Yep. Let us look at, also,
Madam Chairman, Civil Aviation. Now, we know that
civil aviation went somewhere, and I do not know exactly what the rules are on that . . . what was legisl ation; but $17 million is gone. They are a separate
quango or separate entity somewhere. I do not know exactly if they make additional revenue. I cannot r emember exactly what, if they make additional, whether
some of the money comes back into the Consolidated
Fund—

Thank you, Member.
The Chair recognis es the Member from constituency 6.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: I am glad to hear that. I am
glad to hear that part because, Madam Chairman I
was going to ask the Minister through yourself to
[page] B -165 [sic], I saw that $17 million come in
there, [page] B -185, and I am assuming that is where
it is coming from, because I do not see it. Where is it
coming in? Where does it show on the . . . if the Mini ster can show me where it shows on this revenue thing or section I would appreciate it. I do not see it coming in. This is page B -183. I seek your help. I do not see it
coming in. Where would it show up in? Works and
Engineering?

B-185?
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: I do not know why it shows
up under Headquarters, but this is a different story
altogether. But that . . . I do not understand that part.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: No, it goes up to 48. If you
look at the $17 million coming out then you see a r evised 2016/17 of $18,371,000 up there in Head 48.

It is [cost centre] 8108, Civil Aviation
Receipts on page B -185.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Yes, yes, that is what I am
saying. Yes, that is where it is going. I do not under-stand why it shows up in . . . maybe the Minister can
explain later why it shows up in Headquarters. I do not
understand that, but . . . I would have thought that
large amount would show up in a separate line item.
[Inaudible interjections]

What is causing the —
1076 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: —what is causing the problem. Anyway, that is a different story.
Let us look at also . . . we talked about the
$18 million that disappeared from Airport Operation.
Looked at the performance . . . on page B -199 under
Transport, [cost centre] 8471 . . . and maybe the Shadow Minister has asked the question already. If he
did, please forgive me, but I did not hear it.
You had $18 million in revenue, original, that
was budgeted for. Then you revised it to $18.8 [million]. Then it goes on to $17.8. What? Do you expect to lose some cars this year or something? I mean, why are we expecting fewer cars on the road? I
thought we had more cars with America’s Cup. I know they probably do not pay a licence fee, but I do not think people are. . . if it was the 2008 recession I
would have wondered . . . a reduction? People would drop their cars, but I heard the Honourable Glen Smith say that the car [sales] are booming now. So are we
underestimating the revenue? It just does not make
sense. What is the justification of $297,000?
Then with commercial vehicles we go up
commercials $621,000. Is there more commercial v ehicles going to be on the street this year?

[Inaudible interjection]

I should only hear one Member
speaking.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Well, he said, yes, but he will
not say yes for the other one. Interesting that he will
not talk about the one that is missing. But, those are
questions I want to ask the Minister.
I guess truck permit fees are up again. I know
there was an increase in fees.
All right. Now let us look at Transport Control
Department, page B- 201, performance measures.
Why would we put performance measures as “ex-pected to achieve”? What type of performance meas-ure is that? And it is right through. Expected . . . that is
the easiest thing to just copy and paste. So, to main-tain the past rate for Project Ride for students at
90 per cent expected to achieve. And we are going to expect to achieve for the revision and then we are going to expect to achieve for the. . . it just does not
make sense. And I would ask the director or whoever
handles it to take a look at that. It means nothing. E xpected to achieve . . . you can put that down for ev ery—and they did.
To provide a driving test appointment within
ten business days of requested date—expected to
achieve. To conduct a minimum of 10 random vehicle
inspections —expected to achieve. To answer
60 percent of incoming calls —expected to . . . what is
that? To process invoices for accounts receivable
within five business days —expected to achieve. To
process accounts payables within five days —
expected to achieve. Wow. That is fantastic. But I ex-pect they achieve it, too. Question: Did they achieve
it? I would have thought by now somebody would
have known that.
Public transportation, now under wages, and
maybe again the Minister may have answered this question. It went up $1.5 million in wages, but yet there are seven . . . now, this is the interesting thing
about it, and it has been going on for years. And ma ybe that is where they will find the adjustment. Every
supplementary that I have seen in this House has been coming from PTB —Public Transportation—
every . . . since the time when UBP, PLP, and now
OBA, and last year there was a supplementary for the
year.
I am assuming there are good accountants up
there now who finally said, Let me make the actual
amount what it shoul d look like. I am assuming that is
what it means. And maybe the Minister can help an-swer that question. But you had $11 million budgeted
for and I said, That will not make it , because every
year it spoke to . . . it spoke to that you were always
higher. I mean, it was $12,581,000 in 2015. You go down to $11,356,000 . . . why do you do that? To make the numbers on the budget . . . it looks nice if
you come out with a nice deficit? The deficit does not
look too bad when you are budgeting. So this year, they h ad a revision of $12.5 [million] which makes
sense because the year before, that is what it was. And then you go to the estimate at $12.8 [million]. F inally, somebody said let us get it right. And I know, I
know, the Minister sends up these things to—

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: This is page B -203 under
wages.
I know the Ministry of Finance sends these
things to . . . and I do not blame the civil servants. I blame the Minister of Finance who says, This is what
you got to make, this is what you got to put down. I do
not expect to see any other numbers . They do it under
Health, they do it under Financial Assistance, they do it under Transport, and then finally somebody says,
What? Y ep, let ’s finally get it right this year . So if that
is the case; that is good. I think that is. . . finally got
the numbers reasonable so we will not have suppl ementaries coming in again next year. I think that is what is happening.
What I do not see, which I asked the Minister
to do last year, someone budget for minimum revenue
guarantee. Every year, Madam Chairman, every year
from the time when I was a Minister in 1995, nobody . . . the Minister of Finance was scared to budget for
it—1995, yes. Everybody is scared to budget for it. It
is going to show up. It is going to show up at suppl ementary sometime very soon. So why are they trying
to trick me? Trick the House and tell me that they are not going to have a minimum revenue guarantee.


Bermuda House of Assembly Maybe the Minister can tell me why we are
not budgeted—it is under -budget ed. It is under -
budgeted by $1.5 or $2 million. It is roughly the [same]
amount every time. And I heard the Minister say last year when I kept on bringing it up they are going to make sure it is in this year. But what they get there and . . . this is what happens, and the audience can
hear. The airline says, Okay, you owe me $2 million,
and Transport and Tourism is fighting over who is paying it out of their budget. When I was Minister of
Tourism, I said, No, no, no, no, no. Don’t rush to me.
Rush right down to the Department of Airport Oper ations . So I want to know why the Minister has under -
budgeted the minimum revenue guarantee. That is significant. Do not tell me he is wishing that they are going to . . . and that has not happened yet.
Now, maybe because the America’s Cup this
year everybody is going to be busy. But they tell me that most people coming out of Miami are all Berm udians. And you know what those rates are. So I ex-pect the Minister to tell us —tell this House and tell us,
Hey, I am under -budgeting, and so your deficit is
higher than it should be. The amount that you should borrow is higher than what it should be. Even $2 mi llion.
Professional Service gone up by . . . again,
the spokesman for Transport may have asked this when I was outside, professional service gone up al-most 100 per cent —98 per cent. I understand—this is
page B -203. I do not know which professional service
it is. I know it is not for the legal fees for the Boston . . . that would be on another head. You know the
stuff, the sub judice you guys say it is. We want to
know what that $295 [,000] increase is .
Now, I like this one. And, you know, being the
former Minister of Transport many moons ago, here is
another performance measure. And I hope that people
look at performance measures and ask themselves, Does it make sense? I am not sure that many of us
look at it. But does it make sense wh en we fill them
out, or are we just doing it because somebody said to
do it. If it does not make sense just do not do it. Do
not stick any performance measure when it does not measure anything because all these “ not applicable ”
are not measur ing anything. It is just stuck there. So
who are we trying to fool? Fill out two pages or three pages of not applicable and say we did some work.
No, it does not work that way.
We want to know based on information ( and
this is a good one) ensure stock out of any part is less
than or equal to 5 per cent. The answer was “not applicable.” I believe every Minister of Transport knows
that we are under . . . and the Shadow may have sp oken on that . Normally we do not have enough parts .
And I do not blame the directors ; I blame the Minister
of Finance, because they tell these ministries , This is
what you shall spend, and so they will fight in their
heads, Ugh, I cannot make it . They know it is impo ssible. So some of them come up here . . . and I am not referring to the transport . But a lot of them come up
here and they are lying.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Misleading the House, sorry.
They are misleading the House because they know they cannot reach their budget number , particularly on
the expenditure side.
Financial Assistance, Hospital —and we will
wait to get to Hospital on Monday —and now with Ai rport. The Public Accounts Committee met with the
Airport Operation, and Ms. Jackson can verify it, the
Honourable Member from [constituency] 20. They told
us, Mr. Chairman—
[Mr. Glen Smith, Chairman ]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: —that they were understaffed by 13. That is what Airport Operations told us .
And we are trying to talk about . . . Aecon is going to
hire more staff. The Airport Operations job manager —
and it is public knowledge and I am on camera—they
are understaffed by 13. The staff is stressed out, getting sick because the Ministry of Finance is trying to
keep them at some number that does not work , hence
we cannot get a leak fixed on the roof. Hence, you are
not fixing certain things.
What message are we trying to send? We are
not realistic. Just to try and say that we have balanced
the budget and the deficit is not high. A lot of these
things are just smoke and mirrors until the Ministry come s back with all these supplementaries. Staff going home sick . . . and Mr. Chair man, you were in the
meeting (were you?), the Airport Operation, when the
gentleman said they were understaffed by 13 for
years because they had to live within the budget. Staff
getting sick . . . one member ending up in the hospital.
This is truth because the OBA Government
will not finance the operation properly. And I am sure that some of the in civil service sitting in the room t oday know the truth. So we come up here thinking ev erything is rosy , but we are making our people sick.
And nobody seems like they care. We have this aus-terity programme and making people sick just to prove that we are trying to balance a budget. And I under-stand that. But we will find money for the America’s
Cup but we cannot find people to make sure they are
not sick. Mr. Chairman, do we really care? Michael
Jackson said, T hey really do not care about us . You
agree with us, don’t you, Mr. Chairman. That is what
Michael Jackson said, T hey really do not care about
us. Well, you cannot care about the people who are
getting sick at the airport and under -budgeting by 13
people. That is what Michael Jac kson said—killed
him, too. They do not care.
[Inaudi bl
e interjection and l aughter]
1078 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Member said to sing— I was
close to doing it, too, you know. I was very close. I just
could not get the right key right now.

[Inaudible interjections ]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: But, Mr. Chairman, again,
back to page B -205, maintain the average age of the
bus fleet to seven years. Well, it is not applicable in
2015, seven years from 2016, 10 years right now, and seven years, I guess, will get us some more buses.
Did you ask about the buses that went missing, the money? Did we ever find out?

[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Has he answered yet?
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Okay. Madam Chairman
[sic], Mr. Chairman, sorry —

Okay, talk to the Chair.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: I will see how you vote.

[Laughter]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Chairman, what time do
we finish?

The Ch airman: Nine- thirty.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: I have another hour and a
half to speak, two hours. Geez, 7:30 . . . I have two
hours.
So, these are the basic concerns. It is okay to
present these numbers to the public and that is why I
was mentioning during the other debate that we have
time to sit and ask real questions instead of pontificat-ing on things that are just words.
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: I had to pause when I heard
the Honourable Mr. America speak. And, so, but you
cannot at the end of the day have the pact that we have. I mean, the things that I heard from the general
manager at the airport . . . and I do not see him here
tonight (he is abroad). The things we heard coming from . . . he was like almost in tears. Mr. Chairman,
you were there. You saw him.

Honourable Member, speak to the
Chair. Speak to the Chair, please.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: But yet we give so much
money to Aecon and the rest of the crowd. You know,
sometimes we do not get our priorities right. That is the biggest problem that governments, in general,
sometimes, just do not really show that they really care about what makes s ense. Let me just make sure
those numbers balance. I do not care, just plug a
number in. And we can always just find something to
take away from. I can promise you we will come back
here next year . . . sorry, you will be sitting on this side
Honourable Grant Gibbons —

Well, we will see.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: You will be sitting on this
side. That is one sure thing; I can promise you that
part. And my Honourable Member who is the Minister
of Finance is going to have to—
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: The Minister for Finance is
going to have to explain . . . the Minister of Transport
is going to have to explain why we are under -
budgeted. We do not have to have a budget debate next year because they are all your numbers. It is not
for comparison. And so the minimum revenue guaran-tee, as I said before, and this is Airport Operation, will have to be explained by the Minister why it was not there. Well, I am hoping the Minister will get up tonight and tell the country after four years, five years of a budget . . . five years they have underestimated the
budget by at least $12 million, roughly $2 million a
year.
Madam Chair [sic] . . .Mr. Chairman, Mr.
Chairman, I am sorry for getting it wrong.

That is okay.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: So, I am going to take my
seat. But I hopefully these points that have been
brought to the Minister’s attention, the Acting Minister, and through you, Mr. Chairman, to the Minister and through the . . . to the . . . you know, to civil servants .


Bermuda House of Assembly . . someone needs to ask the question about why are
those numbers missing.
Now, it may be because it is not here, b ecause normally when people prepare a budget they
look at prior years. And maybe somebody forgot that they were supposed to put it in. Maybe. All right, you
get caught up and look at a number and it could have
been intentional. But these are things that I think have
an impact on the ordinary Bermudian lives. We should make sure that first of all the budget is as clear and as accurate as possible. I am sure as a businessman, Mr. Chairman, you recognise that you want to catch . . . all of a sudden, eight months down the road your
accountant comes to you and says, I forgot to budget
for $800,000 for some cars or maintenance. You do
not want to hear that. Your bill will build very fast. Well, it is not about the civil servants. The people of Bermuda want to make sure that the OBA is out of the door very fast because they have misled this country
for the last five years about the revenue.
Thank you.

With your indulgence, I just
want to read excerpts from an e- mail that I got from a
concerned citizen regarding bus operations.
And it starts as, “Good evening. I have a
granddaughter that attends Cedar Bridge Academy.
My concern is that the buses that are scheduled to go
to the school’s afternoons, there are supposed to be
two buses that leave from the school, one for the west and one for the east. School finishes at 3:30 pm; the
buses leave at 3:35 pm. That only gives the students
five minutes to get to the bus stop at the school. There
are students that have to come far from the end of the school. By the time they get to the bus stop, the buses
have already left. ” The person goes on to ask the
question, “My question is why the buses cannot wait
for students at least for 15 minutes .” And then they go
on to say, “When the buses do not arrive at the
school, the students are forced to walk via Palmetto
Road or they walk Parsons Road or Happy Valley
once they get to Hamilton Bus Terminal and they are
waiting to catch the bus. The adults complain and they say to the students ” (and I am quoting from the email, ) “Why can’t you get on your bus that comes to
your school? And the adults are not very pleasant when they talk to the students. I have witnessed this
myself. If they go to Crow Lane’s, students are left
until after 5:00 on occasions because buses do not
come to the school on the scheduled time because
the Ministry calls the school at 3:30 to let them know that they do not have any buses that can come to the school and this is unacceptable. ”
That is the . . . well, some excerpts from the email that I got from a concerned citizen. And this goes back to talking about when I was talking about approx-imately 50 per cent of the fleet that is out of service,
and then it goes into . . . my question is, Does this
mean that the Minister . . . well, the Minister has to pick priorities where the buses go. And it seems as though the picking up our school children is not a pr iority. So, I just want to know why is it that the Minister
does not prioritise our schools, going to or from school, with these bus routes.
I have talked about the maintenance and my
Honourable Member that just took his seat talked
about the increase in the weighted average from 7
years to 10 years for this year because of the fact that they were unable to get the buses because of the di spute with the Belgian company. Just taking a look at
my notes . . . yes, with the Belgium company dispute
. . . and what I want to do —

No, this is still Head 35. This
is bus operations which can be found on page 202,
under line item 45010.
What I want to do is just for those that are not
familiar with the contractual dispute, it talks about . . .
and I am referring to the Bernews
article from
June 29, 2016. “The Ministry of Tourism, Transport
and Municipalities confirmed they had a ‘ contractual
dispute’ with a Belgian company over buses they ordered, and said that in 2015 a settlement was reached and concluded the dispute over payment for buses already delivered, however ‘disputes continued ’ regarding new buses ordered, and the Ministry is cu rrently undertaking a review of all accounting on the bus contracts.
“ A spokesperson said, ‘ A number of queries
have been received by the Ministry of Tourism, Transport and Municipalities in respect of media
1080 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly speculation on the details of contracts for the delivery
of buses. ’”
The quote goes on to say, “‘The Ministry has
had a longstanding contractual relationship with a
Belgian company for the supply of public transport ation buses. The Belgian company is a small manage-ment company that outsources all of its manufacturing
retainers to subcontractors. ’”
The quote goes on to say, “‘The Ministry became engaged in a contractual dispute with the Belgian company relating to the supply, delivery , and
payment for buses that the Ministry had ordered.
“‘In April 2015, a settlement agreement was
reached between the Ministry and the bus supplier that called for the delivery of 4 new buses . . .’”
Now, those four new buses are the buses that
the Minister spoke about earlier in his brief about com-ing online in the Q3 of this year. And I would stand to be corrected, but I think, I think he mentioned that in
his brief.
[Inaudible interjection]

Okay. Well, that would be
my question. Okay, my question would be . . . I am
getting nods that those are the same ones. New buses “‘and concluded the dispute regarding payment for buses already delivered. However, disputes continued regarding supply, delivery, and payment for the new buses ordered. ’”
But, just for those that were listening to me
intently and were not sure what I meant by the “con-tract dispute,” that is what I was talking about there. And I just want to go back to my notes, so just give me a minute.
So, now, and this is where we go to bus operations and what I believe the Government should do—or, you know, better yet, what I would do if I was the Minister ––is set a goal for us to start replacing the
buses that have gone past their useful life. And when I
say past their useful life, I am talking about seven
years. Now, just to go and let you know where I am
getting this seven years from, it would be page B -205
under business unit 45120, which is administration, and maintain a weighted average of bus fleet at seven years. So that is where we get the seven years from.
So any bus that goes over that or the buses
that are . . . how can I . . . I am trying to find a very
polite way of saying it . . . the buses that are taking up a lot of the maintenance or using up a lot of the, I would say, inventory management. As the Minister explained to me earlier that inventory management is about the parts. So any bus that is sort of over utilising
that service is something that we would replace and
not necessarily go with your combustion engines an-ymore. Maybe it is time for us to start replacing with electri c and/or hybrid public service vehicles.
Now, the reason that I bring that up is because it is . . . and it is just being practical. Once again, my Shadow Ministry budget brief is one that is
trying to be creative, yet practical, and also realistic
because it is becoming increasingly difficult to find combustion powered buses that can not only fit on our roads but also be able to handle the demanding co nditions —that stop and go, and our speed limit relative
to the rest of the world is a snail’s pace. So the stop
and go is already rough, the conditions on our roads
are rough, the salt air . . . all of that takes a toll.
So, maybe we as a country or at least I would
try to set the goal of taking advantage of the fact that electric and the hybrid public service vehicles are . . . that industry is relatively new. You know, you have
Tesla that is . . . and when I talk about new, you have
got Tesla and I wrote it down somewhere (where did I
write that down?) . . . okay, never mind. I got it. Yes, so you have Tesla that is powering an island using solar power and they are powering an island in Hawaii using solar power. And it is ironic that this island has
roughly 59,000 individuals, which is about the same
size as Bermuda. So, now we could be trying to pos ition ourselves to take advantage of this new infr astructure of being able to find ways to use alternative or green energy, or basically have this Island go green
by using solar power.
Now, the thing is that the companies that are .
. . I mean, because you also have BELCO right now
that has vehicles that are electric powered. And, well, you would know about electric powered vehicles, Mr. Chairman. But there are companies out there that
provide totally electric buses that can go up to 100
miles that would fit on Bermuda’s roads, would fit our specifications and they can go up to 100 miles on a single charge. And they have a useful life of 15 years which would mean that we could reduce the cost of operation or the overhead because fuel is one of the
biggest expenditures for PTB.
So now, if we are removing that . . . reme mber I had a speech one time about a penny saved is a
penny earned? And I explained to the House where that came from. Would you like me to go into that
again?

See, that is the mark of a
good storyteller. When people remember what you actually said. You know, I would not say . . . you
know, because there is a lot of stuff that my dad has told me that I cannot remember. But that is a different story altogether.
But, when we reduce the cost of actually doing business by removing one of the most expensive,
one of the biggest expenses, and then you combine
that with a vehicle or a piece of equipment that has an extended useful life, meaning now we can actually have a weighted fleet age that is older, we could then also use the money saved in the expenditure for fuel to actually retrain or retool the current employees that


Bermuda House of Assembly are there that are working on the buses and have
them go from combustion engines to working on electrical power plants.
So, there are so many different ways that we
could start moving forward. And I have yet to know, or my team has yet to research or come across any of these electric buses or even hybrid buses that have
had a lot of mechanical issues or caught on fire or
anything like that because . . . and the thing is, you have to look at the sample size. It is a new industry so you do not want to be too much of a guinea pig, so you want to have that balance of getting in on the
ground floor but not being the guinea pig.
I think that we can honestly and earnestly say
that right now we are at that nice window of opportun ity because there are multiple companies that provide hybrid electric buses and you have 74 . . . well, what
my team has been able to come up with is 74 trans-portation authorities in the United States that have
switched over . . . either have one, more, or have
switched over completely, their whole fleet to hybrid
electric or fully electric vehicles. And then you have 17 in Canada.
So, the beauty of us getting in on the ground
floor is that we can start saying, Hey, Bermuda, we are going to look at, over time, replacing our fleet.
These are our specifications, this is . . . and we b ecome actually a client that they build the specific bus-es for without it costing us an arm and a leg because they are still in the development phase of things.
So, the thing is that, once again, in trying to
be realistic, it is . . . I am talking about what are we
going to do between today and the time that we take
delivery on these new electric vehicles because as you see there were buses, as I read out in the new spaper article, that were ordered back in 2014 that we
will not take delivery of or they will not reach the I sland until later on this year. So there is going to be a
lag time.
So, what do we do with this ageing fleet that
we have, this fleet that seemingly is going to become
increasingly maintenance prone? What I will do is I
would go back into my aviation background and, I for-get what it was called with the exact term, but I think it
was like a minute saved or something like that, with
the former airline that I was with. And the principle
was this: if we could save or shave five minutes off of
a turn, over the course of a year the time saved would
equal the equivalent of us ordering a new plane because that is money saved, that is time saved, we could get in earlier, that saves and we could fly more.
So, with that principle in mind, I was thinking
that what we could do in the meantime while we are
waiting for these electric buses or those electric hybrid buses is my team has worked out . . . and you know what? I do not want to take full credit for it because it was also a constituent of mine that sort of helped put
me onto this idea. When I went canvassing, I spoke to them and they put me onto this idea to work with the management and to work with frontline operators
about implementing a policy that would decrease the
frequency of buses from once every 15 minutes to running every 20 minutes. All right? Which would then in theory free up at least one bus every hour, because instead of four buses an hour you would have three buses an hour. Something along those lines.
And that would mean that if you had a bus
operation that ran for 18 hours, you are actually sa ving the equivalent or providing the equivalent of 18 more buses per day, in theory. So, this is something that we could actually move with and move forward on. And the thing is that I want to just . . . oh, man.
What I want to do is actually go back to one thing
while I still have some time. And I want to go back to—

And I am going to be ending
shortly after this and maybe one or two other points. But I want to go back to . . . and what I was talking
about before was the Geneva Convention which was
signed and ratified September 19, 1949.
I do that in conjunction with the fact that, as I
mentioned and as I explained before how the signing
of this treaty as it could possibly go, because the Mi nister says nothing has been decided yet, although that
contradicts the information that I have been provided. But we will give the Minister the benefit of the doubt. How things could lead to more congestion on our roads, right. Because why? This treaty if not handled
in the way that it has been suggested by the Shadow
Ministry team would then allow for non- Bermudi ans to
be driving private vehicles. And that means that you will, once again, have more vehicles on the road, more congestion, which means more accident prone.
Now, I switch from the Geneva Convention to
what the Minister mentioned in his brief about the new
electronic rental cars that are going to be coming online soon because we passed the legislation in this House. So if you add the congestion already that we have on our roads . . . I mean even (I will just use t oday) coming in and bringing my co- worker, the Ho n1082 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly ourable Member Rolfe Commissiong (who is also a
resident in my constituency) . . . just going to have to
get him a change of address form (but he is still a res-ident in my constituency). We were coming in at 9:30, 9:45 but because it had rained, you still had basically traffic and a backup on East Broadway. So, let us just imagine that that is because there are cars that would
not be on the road because people are at work. But if I
have a friend that has come in and they are staying for 25 or 30 days and they have this Geneva Conve ntion that goes through as some people have said it might go through and be signed into legislation. That
means that those cars that would be parked up would
be out on our roads with non- Bermudians driving
them. So there is that congestion. Plus the rain, plus
the rental cars, then you have got buses that are out of service and you start to see how . . . and then it
goes all the way back and this is where we come back to almost full circle to now having your young 16- , 17year-olds that have just finished Project Ride getting
on the roads with all this congestion and now they are getting into accidents, and that brings me back to the beginning of my speech and I will start again and go to the end.
But, I want to actually just take that and for
those members out there in the listening public, I did get some messages and some e- mails where I had
shown pictures of a bus that had broken down. And it is just my own observation and my own synopsis from the pictures that I have shown that I said there was a
prop shaft . . . it might not be; it could be. I would be
interested to find out what actually went wrong with
that bus. And that would be a question.
This bus that is here, bus 2K409, which was
on the Route 1 between 7:15 and 7:49 by Crystal
Caves, if we can know what caused that bus to break
down or what it was, that would be interesting. And
that is the picture that I am showing right there. So, for the listening public, I just want you to understand where I am going with th at.
But, lastly, what I want to talk about, because
my honourable colleague brought it up earlier, the Honourable Wayne Furbert was talking about the re venue guarantees. And I do not think that his present ation actually gave the amount of money that we are talking about when it comes to revenue guarantees. Just for example, and I am of good information, I am
looking at the information now, that there was a time
when WestJet got $3.3 million in revenue guarantees. And this would be coming under the Department of Airport Operations.

Page B -191, B -191. And the
thing is that when we talk about revenue guarantees .
. . and let us just be clear . . . and I have to be honest and as transparent as possible. Revenue guarantees are part of doing business in the aviation community.
So I am not faulting the Government for giving rev enue guarantees. I understand the role that revenue
guarantees play in aviation.
However, the Honourable Member , Wayne
Furbert, brings up a very good point. If we understand that this is the way that business is done in aviation,
this is how we attract or keep business here, airlines
coming in and flying in, then we should effectively budget for it and put it in our budgets instead of doing supplementaries, because let me show you how much it can throw a budget off. One airline has gotten $3.3 million before, and that was in one year. And in another year after that, they got another $1 million. You
had another airline that got $2 million that same year.
A third airline got $900,000. So when we talk about revenue guarantees, these are substantial sums of money which the Government could easily estimate
what they are going to be, figuring from the previous
year and putting it into the new budget, instead of do-ing supplementaries.
Now, also a way of getting around these revenue guarantees —now that we do not actually have
control of this anymore because the Government has
signed away our airport to the Canadians . . . but the
way that a lot of people are looking at . . . a lot of i ndustry experts are saying that instead of . . . and how
can I say this? This would be instead of looking to
promise revenue guarantees we would look at . . . and once again, the Honourable Member talked about the
departure tax, the landing fees, all these different fees that we could actually put on a seasonal basis. Ther efore, during our off -season or our shoulder months,
what we could do or what we would suggest that Aecon does is reduce the percentage or implement a
reduced per centage of what the airlines have to pay in
order to do business.
So they would reduce the landing fees by “X”
number of per cent during the shoulder months and as
we get closer to our peak season . . . so we would incre ase that percentage that they have to pay to
where at the peak of peak season they are paying 100 per cent of all the fees and taxes, and during the
peak of off -season they are paying the least amount,
because during our off -season, or shoulder season,
the planes are not full. So therefore, why should we
be charging them full price, and that would help them.
You would end up seeing that the Government is either spending—(quote) “losing,” depending on how you look at it —less money through that option then
you would actually lose through giving these revenue
guarantees.


Bermuda House of Assembly Now, another issue that I have with this and I
understand what the Minister said when it comes to
the Department of Airport Operations that it will disa ppear, is that what we were able to do through this budget . . . and I am going to be wrapping up soon to
allow the Minister ample time to answer the questions because I threw a lot of questions his way and I want
us to have a robust discussion over the questions I
threw his way. But what we are doing with the rev enue guarantees and stuff like that . . . and I have ac-tually lost my train of thought, so give me a minute.
I was talking about revenue guarantees,
shoulder months . . .

[Inaudible interjections]

—dealing with public transportation, Head 35, went into a forward- looking orientation by decrying somewhat the fact that we still do
not have commitment from this Government on our
hard targets that will see the present bus fleet, po wered by diesel fuel, being replaced by vehicles that
are powered via electricity, electric powered buses, although, I will take a little variance from him.
I think they have gone past the sort of “inc ubator” stage now (to use my word) in cities like LA,
New York, and many cities in between, and in Europe. They have moved into providing electric powered buses. It is not just the carbon footprint part of this, and I think of our need to move in that directi on. Also,
we have to understand we have a growing number of Bermudians who suffer from asthma. Diesel fuel
emissions are noxious and is not the energy source
we want to have being proliferated as we move for-ward in the 21
st century. So what I am looking for is
some vision —2025 Vision perhaps (sound familiar?)—where this Government is going to commit to
see our fleet converted 50 per cent, 70 per cent,
100 per cent over the next five or 10 years. We need
to make a commitment. I was disappointed, of course, without going
too much into reflection when we discussed the issue, as the Shadow Minister pointed out, about the intr oduction of a new class of vehicles on our roads —
some minibuses. Yes, there will be . . . I think they made provisions for electric vehicles. But they have also allowed more of these minibuses, this new class of vehicles, to come on the road that are driven by the internal combustion engines and thus will be fuelled
by gasoline. Again, we need to bite the bullet —
perhaps an unfortunate refer ence—and we need to
see our Government take the lead here and make a
commitment of where we are going to be in terms of renewable energies, the Green Economy, issues such
as converting our public transportation fleets, both in
terms of the buses and associated fleets, to the new electric powered world, and we need to see that hap-pen by this Government and for the Government to show some leadership.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Yes, [page] B -191. I am actually looking to see if that is the best one to come under because I think it might . . . I am talking about
employment, so it might come under salaries, wages,
other personnel, something along those lines, but it is under the Department of Airport Operations, because what I am talking about now is just the fact that we no
longer are able to see the employment rates.
Just sort of like how the Minister is able to tell
you, Well, we had one redundancy or we have one
full-time personnel, and they could tell you. We are
not going to be able to see that anymore because as of April it is going to come out of the Budget Book because it goes to Aecon. So, my question is, How do
we keep track of the turnover at the airport? How do we maintain or ensure that Bermudians are getting a fair shake, a fair opportunity to work in the manag ement side of the airport or throughout the different levels of the airport operations? So that is, basically,
that is all I had to say. That is it.

Thank you. Does anybody else want
to contribute?
I recognise the Honour able Member from
constituency 35. The Honourable D. P. Lister, Shadow
Minister of Public Works.
You have the floor, sir.
Hon. Dennis P. Lister: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I have been a little reluctant to
get up because you know I have not had a voice all
week. So, I am —

I thought you were a little quiet.
Hon. Dennis P. Lister: I am going to test it. I have to
save it for next week for my debate, but I will take a
little shot at it this evening.
Much of the comment has been around the
funding for the PTB, for the bus service and repairs so that we will not have continual what has become, in my words, a routine of the call -ins on the radio to say how many routes are down on this particular day because of bus outages and routes having to be cancelled because of the number of buses —
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Dennis P. Lister: Water is not going to make a
difference; that is all right. Thank you.

I am following you.
Hon. Dennis P. Lister: I am going to go actually to
page B -203. I think someone earlier made reference
to the fact that we see an increase in the funding for
repairs and maintenance. And it actually looks like an
increase of $100,000- plus when you look at the orig inal that was budgeted last year compared to what is
being budgeted this year, Mr. Chairman. But in actual fact, there is only $10,000 more than what was actual-ly spent when you look at the revised amount that was spent this year. It is only $10,000 more.
Again, it goes back to the point, are we
provi ding enough funding there to be able to properly
provide the service that the public deserves, Mr. Chairman, when it comes to those who rely on the public transportation.
We have had a year, Mr. Chairman, as I said,
we are at much outage, where regular outages are
being announced. And if you follow that line, Mr. Chairman, turn to the next page under the perfor-mance measures, on page B -205, under business unit
45090, repair servicing. You will notice they have,
what is that, about five lines of performance
measures. I am drawn to the first four really, Mr. Chairman. The first one speaks to the . . . and I will read it out with your permission. It is that they mai ntain the number of buses in service on a daily at 85 per cent of the total fleet. That was the target. Well,
for this year, for last year or this year, it has gone to
N/A.
What they are doing for this coming year, Mr.
Chairman, is that they reduced their target to 80. I nstead of 85 per cent we are going down to 80 p er
cent. So already we are accepting the fact that there
are going to be more bus issues with having sufficient
buses on the road on a regular basis because the percentage target previously was 85 per cent. But we
could not meet 85, so now we dropped the target r ather than saying let us try to reach that target or let us improve the target, we actually dropped the target


Bermuda House of Assembly numbers down to 80 per cent. Right there clear in
black and white in front of us.
Similarly, to support this same argument, Mr.
Chairman, the next two lines refer to reduce the num-ber of road calls to less than one per week. They have now voided that out and put in a new line that says we are going to respond to calls within an hour, within an
hour, which means they have already accepted t hat
there is going to be more than one call out per week.
Probably daily callouts. But our goal is to at least get there within an hour rather than reduce the number that go out each week. That is what we would like to see. Do not change the wording to try and make it
more palatable if we are having trouble with keeping sufficient buses on the road. This is just playing a shell game with words. That is all it is. It is still not ad-dressing the fact that the numbers are not up to what they should be as far as keeping the sufficient buses on the road, keeping proper repair schedules and
maintenance in place which is not a fault of manpo wer. Let me be clear about that. It is not the fault of the
guys at the garage. It falls back to a fault on the fund-ing that r equires —

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Dennis P. Lister: I am getting assistance here,
the funding is inadequate. Thank you.
But it is a key point that has been addressed
in many different ways today, Mr. Chairman, and the numbers here, what is printed in front of us, if we analyse what is in front of us, it supports that argument.
So, I am still gauging the fact that the voice is
challenging me. Mr. Chairman, now flip back to head —

[Laughter]

Hon. Dennis P. Lister: You got spared that time, Mr.
Chairman.
Flip back to Head 30 under Marine and Ports
on page B -187 and again, Mr. Chairman, earlier some
comment was made, and I think the Minister made
reference to it (and Minister you can correct me if I misstate it), but I believe you indicated that the ferry that we had been renting (my word) for the last four years from the . . . what is it? . . . the Rhode Island
Ferry (that is what is printed on the side) . . . this is the end of that season or the end of that period com-ing up. We will not be renting it anymore after this period. That is it, if I understand. And we have heard numbers bounced around here all day in regard to what it costs us on a monthly basis, but I can reme mber some questions that were put very recently to the Minister and the questions in total regarding funding that we have spent or we have paid to that particular company over the four years they have been here roughly about $6 million, off the top of my head. It has already been indicated earlier in the debate what a new ferry would have cost. Had we gone ahead and purchased a new ferry . . . it was actually in the works, I believe, when we left Government that there was a new ferry which would have been pur-chased by now. But the new Government, Mr. Chai rman, cancelled that order. But had they gone ahead
and purchased that new ferry it would have cost them less than the $6 million that they spent and it would have been something that still would have been func-tioning, serving us after this four years is up. It would not have been somebody’s boat that they just call
back and say, Well, you know, we have taken $6 mi llion from you for the last four years but we are taking
our boat and no longer coming back to Bermuda. We
would have spent that money and had a lifetime of
service from that vessel. So, it just boils down to it was a wrong choice, poor allocation of funds to con-tinue to rent when we could have purchased what
could have been ours and given us a lot more service
without that annual rental fee.
Mr. Chairman, now I like playing with the performance measures. I actually do. The performance measures, Mr. Chairman . . . and I am going to go to
page B -189 and we are looking at the business unit
[40150], mooring and boat regulations. The first line here, Mr. Chairman, if you are following on page B -
189, it says the target was [to] remove 50 per cent of
illegal and unregistered moorings by year end. A good target, a good measure to go after. The last few years
the target was 70, 80 and they are at 70 per cent
again. This year’s target is 40 per cent. We have
dropped down to half of what the target was, the
achieved target, in fact, because they achieved 80 [per cent] and they achieved 70 [per cent]. But now
they are going to drop the target to half of that. They
are only going to go after half of what they have been
accomplished in the last couple of years. I think that needs an explanation, Mr. Chairman. Why set your target at half of what you have been able to accom-plish in previous years?
Likewise, Mr. Chairman, underneath t hat, the
next line is resolve 90 per cent of mooring disputes
within 30 days. I think that is a good gesture on behalf of the Government to assist in that. One year they achieved 70 per cent of that. Another year they
achieved 80 per cent. This year, they are discontinuing the service. I am just asking the question why, Mr.
Chairman.
And the last one I am going to make reference
to under these performance measures is regularising all unlicensed in- water boats. This year’s target is only
10 per cent . . . 10 per cent. If we are only target
10 per cent, we might as well just not do it, in my opi nion, if you are setting your standards so low. But, you know, again, an explanation is required.
Mr. Chairman, my intent was to really make
some hay out of some of these and other points but I
1086 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly am trying to preserve this voice for next week. So,
with those few comments, I am going to take my seat.
Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to add to the list
of questions that the Honourable Minister will probably have to respond to because I do not think my Honourable Shadow could cover everything in his brief ha ving forgotten some of it, anyway. But if I refer to Head 35, page B -203, I know it is a simple matter and I am
probably anticipating the answer from the Minister, but
if we look at revenue source 8679, passes, and I am
curious as to why I see the estimate number there in terms of revenue obviously.

[Inaudible interjection]

I will start again. Head 35,
page B -203, revenue source 8679, and if I am antic ipating the response that he is going to probably give
me, I am then querying as to why 8681 and 8683 are
probably low as well. So I just wanted some explan ation on that. As I said, it is a simple matter but it just sort of jumped out at me when I was looking at t he
revenue figures.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. I just realised
that I did not give Marine and Ports any love in my
brief. So, I do want to at least ask one question on Marine and Ports, Head 30, page B -186 under line
item [40150] or 40220, which I will defer to you which is either mooring and boat registration or administr ation.
Is the Minister or the Ministry looking at i mplementing a boating licence? And the reason I ask that is because I am a frequent socialiser of the non-mariners festivities. And when you get all these boats in one place . . . and one thing I realise is that you
have a lot of near -misses. And I think that it is not out
of malice but it might be just out of the boat operators not knowing any better or [not] knowing the rules of the water. I am not blessed to have a boat. I would probably put my money into an airplane but the thing is that I am not sure if we have a boating licence, like where you . . . like TCD, where you have to take your
driving test and show that you know the rules of the
road, show that you can parallel park, all of that good-ness. Are we looking at doing that? Could we not generate a bit more revenue for Marine and Ports if we were to implement that? Would it not make our waters safer? Just wanted to . . . and if we have not
done it, why have we not done it? And if we are going
to do it, is there a timeline?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I just want to weigh in briefly. I am looking at
[page] C-18,under grants and contributions for Marine
and Ports, item 6954, I guess it means I nternational
Associated Lighthouse Keepers. I have to query
whether or not the amount allocated, which I think is $19,000, is sufficient. And the reason why I do this,
Mr. Chairman, is because year in, year out, as a representative for constituency 3 I have nonstop phone calls regarding St. David’s Lighthouse, which I have to say is a tourism product and is sold as a tourism product. It does fall under transport, but it is a tourism
product. And I have to ask the question, Why are
there not sufficient monies in terms of a grant being put forward to ensure the proper repairs of that ligh thouse?
When I have, as I have said, nonstop phone
calls regarding the general state of it, when it is opening, people are not there to open it when it is supposed to be, even though come tourism season which begins in April the lighthouse is supposed to be open and every year it is open behind schedule. Every year there are issues with the maintenance of that partic ular lighthouse and every year on an ongoing basis I am const antly receiving phone calls because of the
state of disrepair.
Now, I can tell you that a few years ago under
a different administration, much money was put into making that particular lighthouse brought back up to
standard, and I think it is unconscionable —

What she is referring to here is the Lighthouse Keepers Association.
That has nothing to do . . . that is an International Association where Bermuda has a membership. So, that is what that is about. The actual maintenance and the
issue she is talking to with respect to upkeep the
lighthouse is under Public Works. It is not under this Ministry at all.

Thank you, Minister. But I still
have to point this out that when it comes to the opening of that particular facility it falls under the Ministry of Transport, as I understand it. And I have always had
to deal with it under the Head of Transport. So I still
want to put out there, what is being done to make certain that this facility is being maintained as it should and that it is being manned as it should , given the
numerous phone calls and queries that are received in regard to that particular structure.

Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, first of all I would like to thank
the Opposition for scheduling five hours for what probably could have been a three- hour debate, but be
that as it may, I think they have all had something to
say, and then some Members have had something to
say, and then something to say , and then something
to say.

[Laughter]

I am going to try
and w ork my way through some of the questions. I am
sure, since we have still got at least another hour, so if I forget something I am sure they will be back to har-ass me about it.
But let me try and work my way back through
some of these issues. With respect to a boating l icence, per se, I cannot speak for the Minister. Clearly,
we have to licens e boats. I think most members of the
public would say , My God, not another little bit of bureaucracy that I have to pass and go through. Clearly,
we licens e cars, we l icense motorcycles , and we still
have accidents there. But I take the Honourable
Member ’s point because I am on the water occasionally. Not everybody out there should be driving a boat.
So, whether you licens e them, whether that would get
any better or not is hard to say.
Let me tackle the issue of the Millennium ferry
because I think there was quite a bit of discussion there about had we bought a new ferry a few years ago, would we not have paid for it by now. And the information that I am reliably informed is that the annual lease for the Millennium ferry is $1.2 million.
Now, it is $1.2 million for the lease. Now, obviously, in
addition to that, there are operating costs and there are staff costs and things of that sort, but that does not count into the acquisition of a new ferry.
I am told that when this was looked into, a
new ferry similar to the Millennium would have cost
approximately $8 million. So, the issue here clearly is, should the Government, let us say four years ago, have bought a new ferry for $8 million? I think that the simple answer to that is because you need housing, it
does not mean you go out and buy a house, because
it is often cheaper simply to rent , particularly if you are
going to do it on a short -term basis. I think as an Ho nourable Member reminded everybody, this Millennium
ferry lease is . . . this is the last year. So, in essence, I
think we have had about four years of it, if I am cor-rect, and the fact of the matter is, very simply, when
the current Government took over in 2012/13, the cap-ital funds to buy a new ferry simply were not available.
We understood we needed to have this
transport between St. George’s and Dockyard, and
much like if somebody who rents a house as opposed to buying one, it was considered better to [rent ] one at
the time and that is the reason for it. We could not have paid for an $8 million ferry in the four years that we have rented it. So, hopefully that will address that particular issue. That is not to say that the Department
of Marine and Ports may not wish to look at new ferries as we get farther along. Clearly, in the brief I talked about the issue of replacing tugs and replacing
other vessels as well. The Bermudian, the tender, is
ancient at this point, yet still provides good service.
So, I think this is sometimes a matter of priorit ies as
well as to what you buy and what you do not. I suspect that a tug may be, in the first instance, more im-portant because as we said in the brief, clearly, the tugs are underpowered now given the size of the cruis e ships that we are currently bringing in, p articularly if the Oasis class is going to be on the list as well.
1088 10 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly So, in terms of the question . . . and, sorry,
this may not be in chronological order, here. In terms
of the issue of who will supervise the operations of Skyport, or Aecon ( as I guess it has been called on
that side) , once the airport goes over to Skyport, the
new company, the answer is the Bermuda Aviation Authority (BAA) will be responsible for overseeing that
entire contract , and Aecon will be bound by the same
rules for immigration and labour as has been up to
this point. But the answer, I think, clearly, is BAA will be responsible for overseeing that particular tender.
Let me ( because it is here in front of me now )
come back to this issue of minimum revenue guarantee, because that has come up quite a bit. Now, I think
it is important to point out that one Honourable Mem-ber mentioned that WestJet had been paid something on the order of over $3 million for a minimum revenue guarantee. That actually goes back to 2012 and what we have learned since then, that was an open- ended
minimum revenue guaranteed by the former Gover nment , and that ended up being over $3 million. What
has happened since then is that these minimum guar-antees are capped, and I think, particularly with that
particular airline , the minimum revenue guarantee is
capped at $1 million. So it is not that amount.
The question as to whether it was actually in
the budget or not, the answer is the minimum revenue guarantee was in last year’s, budgeted for 2016/17, and at that point it was under the Department of Ai rport Operations. There was a budget in there for $1
million , effectively.
Now that the Department of Airport Oper ations is no longer in effect because that is going over,
management is going over to Skyport, that minimum revenue guarantee will be transferred to the degree—if one exists —to the Ministry headquarters in 2017/18.
One of the issues here which complicates this is the most recent revenue guarantee was only consummat-ed about a month ago. So, it is actually not in this
budget. So, we will have to deal with what we did be-fore which is if it is exceeded—and there is no guarantee it will be —but if it is exceeded then it will probably
have to come up as an, essentially, as a supplementary.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Point of order. O r just clarif ication . . . maybe clarification, if the Minister will allow
me.