March 3, 2017

Good morning to colleagues.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to start off by ass ociating myself with the remarks by the Minister of Social Development and Sport, for boxing. We were actually up there sitting in the same section. And we r eally enjoyed the exploits of Mr. Nikki Bascome. We
even had a preview fight right next to us, people fighting over a chair.

[Inaudible interjections and laughter ]

And the Honourable Premier
can cut outside and break it up. It was really a crazy
night. But all in all, we really enjoyed the experience.
I also want to associate myself with the U nder-20 football team. They have really done well. But
it keeps on showing us, as a country, that we get out
what we put in. We need to advance more money into
our sports, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I also want to associate myself
with the remarks , by the Honourable Minister , for
Shaun Goater. He is really very much concerned with having a management position in the pro ranks. So my hat is off to him. I know he will do well.
Mr. Speaker, before I take my seat, I want to
talk about a young lady who worked with us when I was the Minister down in Cabinet Office, Ms. Rochelle
Butterfield. She tragically lost her life this week. So I
am sure that Members of the House would like to as-sociate themselves with those remarks. She was rea lly a good person, very helpful in the Cabinet Office, and went too soon, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Good morning.

Hon. Kenneth (Kenny) Bascome: Good morning,
honourable colleagues.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask that this
House extend congratulations to the Young Men’s
Social Club, who have returned to the Premier Div ision after 37 years ling ering.


Bermuda House of Assembly [Desk thumping]

Hon. Kenneth (Kenny) Bascome: And I would like to
say congratulations to the Crossroads Warriors, Mr.
Speaker, who won promotion to the Premier Division.
I am going to pat myself on the back a little bit right here. They asked me, Mr. Speaker, if I would come
and help them in putting in a security programme now
that they are going to be playing in the Premier Div ision. And it feels so good to be a part of those young men who have only been in existence now just about two decades. To Mr. Saleem Talbot, I believe that we owe a great deal to that young man who stuck to the
wicket, and they have won the promotion.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker , I just want to
extend condolences to two families who were not only
connected in life, but in the passing of both Mr. E dward Oliver, a well -known taxi driver, and, of course,
Ms. Elvira Castle, who was the mother of Cornell Cas-tle. Many people will know Cornell played for North Village in the mid- 1970s up through the 1980s in that
Triple Crown team. And the reason I am bringing up his name—and, of course, condolences to his fam ily—is that Cornell was married to Edward Oliver’s
daughter , Patricia -Ann. And both of these parents
passed away within 20 hours of each other. Ms. Cas-tle, who I knew when I was a little boy out in Spanish
Point, out in Key West. When I was a little boy, she
was a very loving woman. She passed, and then 20
hours later we had the passing of Edward Oliver. So in this household, both the husband and wife are
mourning. And I want to extend my condolences to both of them. MP from constituency 16 also wants to
be associated with the remarks, and the new MP from
constituency 26, Mr. Tyrrell, as well.
Like I said, you know, just finally, Mr. Speaker,
growing up i n Spanish Point was a very unique neighbourhood, but I guess not unique to the extent that
there were other neighbourhoods that had the same sort of qualities . And women like Ms. Elvira Castle sort
of epitomised the best of what Bermudian womanhood was, and motherhood. She, like most of the women in that neighbourhood, treated all of us as if we were her own children. That is the way it was when I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s. And so, she is going to be greatly missed as a very loving, kind
and caring Bermudian. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There are two
mentions that I would like to make as I stand to my
feet this morning. One of them is sad, and it recogni ses a woman who held life in her hand, who has now passed away after a struggle. And that would be Linell
Greet. Linell, who spent much of her childhood on the
ocean, who loved the adventures of life, gave a lot to the Church of St. Peter’s. So, sadly, in the past month, the family of St. Peter’s [Church] and Chapel of Ease have lost another person who dedicated their life—
who never attended church, or very rarely attended
church, but was a great organiser behind it. And she
was the Administrator of St. Peter’s. But she will be greatly missed. Her poetry —she was a poet at heart,
loved the words, loved the English language, again loved the world and loved to travel. She will be greatly
missed, Mr. Speaker.
On the brighter note, though, I would also like
the House to recognise the success of one young
Bermudian by the name of Riley Ricketts. Mr. Speaker, I have known Riley since he was yea- high to a
grasshopper. He spent his young childhood in his
spare time doing Sea Cadets. He attended Mount
Saint Agnes. He was, again, another adventurous young man, Mr. Speaker. Riley has now been commissioned to the Sea Hawk. He is [in the] US Coast
Guard. He graduated at the end of last month. He came back to Bermuda for four days of vacation and
rest and relaxation before he was sequestered on the
Sea Hawk.
But here we have wh ere a Bermudian,
through and through, down and down, who grew up
with the Sea Cadets —you see him using what he has
learnt in his childhood in Bermuda to help the rest of the world by joining the US Coast Guard, by being a part of helping, that helping hand, which I think a lot of Bermudians do not realise what is available for them outside the world of Bermuda. But he has taken it. One of his jobs will be to board, be the first to board
[vessels] when they come to [ask for] help, perhaps
not so pleasant an environment. But again, my hat is
off to the young Riley, who will do Bermuda justice
throughout his adventures in the US Coast Guard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

740 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: Thank you, Honourable Member.
The Chair will recognise the Honourable Minister f or Economic Development. Dr. Grant Gibbons.
You have the floor.

Mr. Speaker, those
of us who worked with Rochelle Butterfield, particularly in Cabinet the last few years, will know what a huge contribution she made to modernising the way in which Cabinet essentially deals with a lot of the pa-pers and other correspondence. And she did this in a
way, in her own way, which was very efficient and
seamless, and certainly a very strong member of that Cabinet Office team. A very tragic loss, completely unexpected. And certainly her family and four children are in our hearts and our prayers.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to be associated with the condolences sent to the family of Linell Greet. I knew her
extremely well over the years , and spent a fair amount
of time with her family as a younger man.
I would also like to send condolences to the
family of Mr. Robin Simmons. Mr. Simmons died tragi-cally last week, [unexpectedly] . What I learnt about
Mr. Simmons yesterday when I attended his funeral is that he was a kind young man, being young, my age,
Mr. Speaker. That he used to help around the neighbourhood. Anybody who needed assistance in painting a house or cleaning a house, he was always there.
He was survived by his parents, Lloyd and Gwen
Simmons. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to as-sociate the Honourable Member from constituency 23.
Thank you.

Good morning. Good morning.

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, I just want to rise to
be associated with the condolences which have been
expressed by the Honourable Member for constituency 16, the Minister for Economic Development [sic], for
Ms. Rochelle Butterfield. For those of us who served,
not necessarily in Cabinet, but at the Cabinet Office, she was certainly someone whom we would come into
contact with, and she was a very kind spirit, a lways,
always jovial and just a pleasure to be around. She
will certainly be missed. It was without question tragic
circumstances. And of course, our thoughts and pra yers have to be with her family who are surviving.
I would also like to, if I could, send condolences to the family of Ms. Gwyneth Rawlins, who has lost her sister last week. Thank you.

Thank you, Honourable Member.
The Chair will now recognise the H onourable
Premier.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I too would like to be associated
with the comments originally provided by the Honourable Member from constituency 16 to the family of Ms. Rochelle Butterfield, who passed a way early on
Wednesday morning. Mr. Speaker, it is hard to put
words out when you know such a wonderful lady. And
she was the last person I saw when I left the Cabinet Office on Tuesday night; we had a long Cabinet day. And I was always comforted by her outlook on life and the joy she brought to the table despite of the busy circumstances. I particularly looked forward to Chris tmas, when she would wear the Santa Claus outfit and come in and spend time walking around the office, bringing cheer to everyone in the office.
She lived a good life. I know she was loved by
her family and her husband. And this is no way to be woken up on a Wednesday morning. And so as the
family grieve, they need our support, not only today,
but in the coming days. She was a wonderful young lady. And all we need is God to give us some strength and some understanding of why these things happen. But to her family and her friends, we are with you. We


Bermuda House of Assembly will pray for you. And may God bless you and guide
you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Spe aker: All right. Thank you, Honourable Premier. Thank you, Honourable Members.

MATTERS OF PRIVILEGE

All right. Thank you, Minister.
The Chair will now recognise the Honourable
Minister for Finance. Minister E. T. Richards, you have
the floor.

MISCELLANEOUS TAXES AMENDMENT ACT 2017

Hon. E. T. (Bob) Richards: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I am introducing the following
Bill for its first reading so that it may be placed on the
Order Paper for the next day of meeting: The Miscel-laneous Taxes Amendment Act 2017.

The S peaker: Thank you, Minister.
OPPOSITION BILLS

The Chair will recognise the Minister
for Finance, Minister E. T. Richards.

MOTION

APPROVAL OF THE ESTIMATES OF REVENUE
AND EXPENDITURE FOR THE YEAR 201 7/18
Hon. E. T. (Bob) Richards: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I move that the Estimates of
Revenue and Expenditure for the year 2017/18 be
approved. And I invite Honourable Members to com-ment as they see fit. Thank you.

Because of your mother and your wife,
not because of you.
[Laughter]
742 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. E. David Burt: Okay, got you. Thank you, Mr.
Speaker.

[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. E. David Burt: Oh, my dad is here too; thank
you. And my Aunt Shurnett . And especially my family
Mr. Speaker, because preparing a speech in a week
is certainly a difficult task, especially when you have two very young children at home. It has been a very trying week for my family, but they have been incredi-bly supportive, and also my colleagues, to allow me to deliver this response on behalf of the Progressive L abour Party today.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER

HOUSE VISITORS

And if you do not mind, Honourable
Member, I did not mention (and I should have mentioned) that we also have the Vice President of the Senate here, and also Senator Woolridge here also. I should have mentioned it earlier.
So, please carry on. All yours.

Hon. E. David Burt: Okay.

THE OPPOSITION’S REPLY TO THE
BUDGET 2017/18

VISION 2025: THE PEOPLE’S BUDGET

Hon. E. David Burt: Good morning, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, it is clear that an election is in
the air, and that means that the voters of this country will soon have a choice to make.
After four years, the One Bermuda Alliance
has a record, and no number of last -minute Cabinet
shuffles or sudden feigned interest in the Island's less
fortunate can change who they are, what they have done. The people have a clear choice. A choice b etween an OBA whose policies increase the divide be-tween the haves and the have- nots in our s ociety,
cementing in place two Bermuda’s, and the PLP, whose positive vision of growth, diversification, and inclusion offers a clear change of course.
They will choose between an OBA that is
comfortable with the economic status quo, where privilege rules, and a PLP that is determined to make
Bermuda a more fair and equitable society by reduc-ing inequality.
They will decide between an OBA that seems
eternally driven by consultants, sound- bites, and polls
while being wholly non- transparent, and a PLP that is
fully committed to being honest, open, and fully trans-parent with the people they serve.
They will decide between an OBA that will pr ivatise our airport to a Canadian company, robbing the treasury of vital funds needed to invest in our future,
and a PLP that has, for four years in Opposition, spoken about the urgent need to invest in our human cap-ital to upgrade the skills of the Bermudian labour force.
They will decide between an OBA that is led
by a Premier who castigates teachers for being “mi schievous” when they refuse to teach in a toxic env ironment, while he has his own office gutted for mould remediation, and a PLP that supports our public schools and stands with our public servants.
They will choose between an OBA whose po licies have ushered in the Great Bermuda Exodus ,
during which friends and family are fleeing Bermuda, and a PLP that is committed to ensuring that Berm udians have a place in our society.
Mr. Speaker, Bermuda’s middle class needs a
voice. Bermuda’s entrepreneurs need a voice. Ber-muda’s students and teachers in public schools need
a voice. Our young people, both locally and abroad,
need a voice. The economic refugees who have fled Bermuda need a voice. But, based on the OBA’s rec-ord, that voice cannot be not them. That voice is the
PLP.
Mr. Speaker, the Bermuda Progressive L abour Party will be that voice. Through our economic policies, laid out in this Budget Reply
, what we call
The People’s Budget , we will give those who need a
voice hope that after the next election they will have a Bermuda that understands their challenges, has room
for them, and wants those who left to return.
Mr. Speaker, our fiscal condition requires a
delicate balance. However, there is another equally
important issue, which is the rising inequality within
our society. This rising inequality, which has seen the real wages and wealth of most working and middle
class people in the country decline while the privilege
few with access to capital continue to accumulate
wealth, is an issue that must be addressed.
Mr. Speaker, it is the Progressive Labour Party’s view that this income inequality is one of the main
items fuelling the decline of our social fabric, antisocial
behaviour, gang affiliation, violence, and murder. If we
do not get to grips with this situation, it will continue to challenge and threaten our very way of life. Bermuda cannot be the place of choice for business if our s ociety is not at ease, and growing inequality breeds
increasing instability. It is the responsibility of the Government to ensure that society is harmonious, and, based on that measure, the One Bermuda All iance has been an abysmal failure.
Budgets represent the views and polici es of
the Government, and it is clear that the Government
does not believe that the symptoms of increasing in equality require the attention and investment necessary
to remedy the situation. All of our actions must be viewed through the lens of ensuring fis cal stability
while promoting social cohesion and a more inclusive society.


Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Speaker, it is impossible for a government
to fix a problem if they do not recognise that one exists. This budget from the OBA makes it clear that they do not believe that this continuing trend of gro wing inequality is just as big a threat to our way of life as the national debt. The One Bermuda Alliance’s payroll tax changes are a mere fraction of what is
needed to reverse this increasingly destabilising trend. The PLP’s People ’s Budget will ensure that the r esources required to reverse this trend are funded.

Budget in Review

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, last week the Mi nister of Finance delivered an election budget . . . a
budget cynically designed to reinvent the One Ber muda Alliance yet again. It seems the OBA wants Bermudians to forget what they did in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. It seems they want us to forget about the
cuts to scholarships, education, training, the Bermuda
College, and programmes to assist at -risk you th. They
want Bermudians to forget about the $18 million they assured us would be safe, yet went missing, or the tens of millions of dollars they have spent on their
friends and families through lucrative and untendered
contracts. They want us to forget about the lack of investment in public education and the $30,000 trips to Rio de Janeiro.
Now all the OBA wants to talk about is how
they are cutting taxes and putting money in people’s
pockets. Mr. Speaker, if it were only so simple!
Though payroll taxes are going down for some, what you will not hear the OBA say is that the main rate of customs duty is going up by 25 per cent, which will
increase the price of most goods and many services. You will not see any OBA ads on Facebook saying
that you will have to pay 40 per cent higher taxes for
items brought back from overseas travel. You will not
see pictures on the Premier’s Instagram saying that since 2012 the One Bermuda Alliance has increased taxes on gasoline by 49 per cent, which will increase
prices and s pur inflation throughout the economy.

[Inaudible interjections]

Listen to me! I ask that we allow the
Member to give his speech and receive it respectfully, all of us.
Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The One Bermuda Alliance wants people to
forget that last year they raised the employee portion
of payroll tax to 6 per cent —the highest ever —and hopes that when people go into the voting booth, they
will only remember the election year cut. But, Mr.
Speaker, unfortunately for the One Bermuda Alliance, the public is not that naive.
This is not only an election budget because of
the “tax cut .” It is also an election budget because the
Minister did not want to come here and tell us that he
would have to raise the debt ceiling in an election
year. That is why, even after he raided $25 million from the hospital, he still needed to raise taxes on just about everything so that he did not have to increase the debt ceiling.
Mr. Speaker, it is just not realistic. As the Mi nister’s recent history shows, his forward budget pr ojections cannot be trusted. Just as this year’s deficit
will be $61 million more than he predicted in 2015, next year’s budget deficit will be $36 million greater than he predicted 12 months ago. The Minister who castigated the former Minister of Finance for sending
unrealistic numbers to the House is doing just that,
Mr. Speaker, all for the sake of politics in an election year.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister has come under fire
for not doing enough to reduce expenses in gover nment. The reason why our Current Account does not show a reduction is that the Government needs to
spend $27.5 million this year to fund the America's Cup. Furthermore, the tax increases that have bus iness leaders calling for shared sacrifice are needed to replace the $37 million in revenue that the Minister
has shipped to Canada as part of the One Bermuda
Alliance’s airport privatisation. Mr. Speaker, it is ironic that the cries from those wanting more cuts in the civil service come from the very corners of Bermuda bus iness that supported the One Bermuda Alliance’s ai rport privatisation.
There is no such thing as a free lunch, and
though the One Bermuda Alliance had a slick public relations campaign to convince Bermudians that the privatisation of our airport would (and I quote) “free up funds,” everyone now feels the impact. The $78 mi llion ta x increase and the reduced funding for health
care are necessary to ensure that the One Bermuda Alliance does not breach the debt ceiling and has enough room to fund the OBA’s priority projects: the America’s Cup and the airport privatisation.
And, Mr. Speaker, that is the point that should
cause the most annoyance. The $78 million tax i ncrease will not affect Aecon at all, as the One Berm uda Alliance has exempted them from taxes. So while Mr. and Mrs. Bermuda pay more to fill the $30 million hole in our Budget, courtesy of the Minister’s friends in Canada, Aecon gets off without paying a dime.
Mr. Speaker, Bermudians already know that
this Budget is nothing more than electioneering. What
Bermuda needs is a People’s Budget that will prior itise job creation and investment in Bermuda and Bermudians. While most workers will be grateful that the One Bermuda Alliance is finally giving back what it
744 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly has taken over the last few years, to at least 1,631
Bermudians this tax cut means nothing, as there are
1,631 fewer B ermudians working today than in 2012.
And that, Mr. Speaker, should be the only number that matters.

Where Are the Jobs?

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, in 2012 the Minister
of Finance said the following (and I quote): “The OBA
Turnaround Plan will create 2,000 jobs over the next five years by implementing pro- growth economic pol icies. These 2,000 jobs will come in a range of sectors
including construction, hospitality, retail, financial services, and international business” (end quote).
Mr. Speaker, all I can ask is what happened to
that plan? Four years later there are 2,068 fewer jobs in Bermuda than there were in 2012. The Minister heralded the fact that a decline in jobs stopped last
year and that there was an increase in the number of
people working in 2016. Mr. Speaker, the only i ncrease in jobs has been for non- Bermudians. Every
year since the One Bermuda Alliance has been in of-fice, the number of Bermudians working has fallen,
and there are 1,631 fewer Bermudians working than in
2012. At the same time, just like last year, the number of guest workers employed in Bermuda has i ncreased. This is not the way to build an economy. This is not the way to rebuild the middle class. This is not the way to give hope to those looking for work.
Mr. Speaker, there is nothing more important
than creating jobs in Bermuda for Bermudians, and despite all that the Minister’s Budget did contain, the one thing missing is a plan for economic growth that will create jobs and employ Bermudians. Even the President of the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce noticed the lack of plans for jobs and growth by saying
(and I quote, Mr. Speaker): “One issue that was not addressed in this Budget, and which is critical to Chamber members, is the need for a national discus-sion on how to create more jobs in Bermuda, the need
to adopt laws that make it more attractive to start or bring business on island ” (end quote).
Mr. Speaker, the President of the Chamber of
Commerce is correct. The One Bermuda Alliance does not have a plan for jobs and lacks a plan for
growth. This is not something that should come as a
surprise, as repeatedly since 2013 the Progressive
Labour Party has pleaded with the One Bermuda All iance to address the urgent need for economic divers ification and to produce a plan for growth. Each Feb-ruary we hear about projects that will break ground “this year ,” yet never materialise, or we are treated to
lectures on why diversification is not an economic strategy. Meanwhile, our economy continues to fail Bermudians. After four years, it is now clear to the Chamber of Commerce that which has been clear to us all along: The One Bermuda Alliance has no plan for jobs and no plan for growth. Fortunately for the President of the Chamber
of Commerce and his members, the Progressive La-bour Party does have a plan to create more jobs and make Bermuda more attractive for both local and i nternational business.
Mr. Speaker, over the past four years, the
PLP has laid out its plans for creating the growth that
Bermuda requires. They are rooted in a long- term
plan—Vision 2025—that will diversify our economy,
create jobs for Bermudians, invest in our people, and
create pathways to Bermudian success. Most of the plans and policies you will hear today, Mr. Speaker, are not new: They are policies that the PLP has developed through careful consultation with the comm unity and business stakeholders during our time in O pposition. A People’s Budget will fund these priorities to
ensure that we can grow our economy and create
jobs.

Agenda for Growth

Hon. E. David Bu rt: Mr. Speaker, in order for Berm uda to succeed, we need to return our economy to a
path of balanced growth: growth that creates jobs,
growth that provides rising incomes, and growth that
assists our budget challenges. It is our belief that a better environment must be created in which Berm udian businesses can thrive, opportunities for Bermudi-ans can be created, and in which capable, qualified Bermudians can earn opportunities to work, train, and
succeed at every level in the private sector.
To this end, the Government must do ever ything possible to stimulate job creation. This means
we need to reduce the incentive for companies in Bermuda to outsource existing jobs while creating a favourable environment for growth in our domestic
and international sectors, which will lead to new jobs.
One of the major factors hindering that growth is the cost of doing business in Bermuda.
Mr. Speaker, the PLP’s Agenda for Growth
will reduce the cost of doing business in Bermuda,
tackle income inequality, reform our tax system, diversify our economy, create jobs in Bermuda, harness technology, promote entrepreneurship, increase our global competitiveness, make government more eff icient, and design an immigration system that works for Bermuda.
And, Mr. Speaker, I will now cover the PLP’s
Agenda for Growth.

Tax Reform

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, one of the most
important things required for us to build a sound foundation for growth and to reduce the cost of doing business in Bermuda is the issue of tax reform. Our curre nt system needs reform not only to reduce the
cost of doing business and to encourage job growth in Bermuda, but also because our current system of taxBermuda House of Assembly ation exacerbates inequality, which in turn reduces
economic growth.

We Are Taxing Jobs
Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, three years ago I
said the following in this Chamber (and I quote): “It is the view of the [Progressive Labour Party] that we
must transition from deriving a large chunk of our rev-enue from employment taxes to gaining a larger share of our revenue from consumption taxes on goods and services. Mr. Speaker, the economic case is simple: payroll taxes depress employment. We are taxing the
very thing we need in Bermuda—jobs —while increasing the incentive to outsource jobs and positions" (end
quote).
Mr. Speaker, our increasing reliance on pa yroll tax is dangerous, and the increases this year, which will mainly affect our large international companies, make future growth of jobs here in Bermuda less
likely. Mr. Speaker, I do not have to tell the Minister of
Finance the danger, as he himself said the following in 2010 when he was the Shadow Minister (and I quote): “The rise in taxes on international companies also has
its risks. Many of us will look at the impressive profits
of the big reinsurers and reckon that these increases will not even be material items for them. For some that will undoubtedly be true. But for those who are weig hing the decision whether to outsource a unit overseas, this fee increase, coupled with the payroll tax i ncrease, could be the deal breaker for keeping it here. The outsourcing was already on the table because of the expense of doing business in Bermuda. These tax hikes make it even more expensive. There is no u pside to these tax increases for business” (end quote).
Mr. Speaker, if it was true then, it is true now,
and with this latest increase and another increase slated to take place next year, we must move quickly to reform our system of taxation before we tax our-selves out of being an attractive jurisdiction.

Our Ta x System Contributes to Inequality

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, in Bermuda, if you
are privileged enough to have inherited wealth -
generating passive income, you keep it without tax ation. However, if you happen to be born into a family
who may not have centuries of wealth or a trust por tfolio of mortgage- free real estate to inherit, you pay
taxes on your labour income because the only income
you have is from your labour.
For example, if a person makes $100,000 a
year from their day job and another person makes
$100,000 a year in trust dividends, our system taxes
only the earnings from work and not the earnings from other sources. There are vast swathes of domestic wealth and income that have never been subjected to tax, which by its very construct foster s continued ec onomic inequality. Mr. Speaker, this is why our taxation system promotes and fuels economic inequality. This
is our challenge, and this is what we as a country
must get to grips with.
While we may look to make our taxes more
just, which is wh at the One Bermuda Alliance tried to
do with the payroll tax changes, the fact remains that we are taxing jobs at a higher level, which may lessen
our competitive advantage as a jurisdiction and lead
us into more trouble.
Quite simply, Mr. Speaker, we could tax ourselves out of being an attractive jurisdiction. The One Bermuda Alliance’s tax increases place an increased burden on the job creators and the investors who
have chosen to bring their capital to Bermuda and to
create jobs in Bermuda. At the same time, those Ber-mudians who enjoy the spoils of international bus iness’s continued presence in Bermuda and collect commercial rents from their properties in the City of Hamilton never see an increased burden of taxation.
Tax reform and broadening the tax base cannot be
effective if we are unwilling to look at taxing the pas-sive income of the privileged persons in our society. Quite simply, Mr. Speaker, just as we said in 2013, that tinkering around the edges of an immigration sy stem from 1956 is not enough to solve the current
problems —

Honourable Members, I want to hear
the presentation.

Hon. E. David Burt: I will go again, Mr. Speaker, because I want to make sure the Premier is listening.
Mr. Speaker, just as we said in 2013, that
tinkering around the edges of an immigration system
from 1956 is not enough to solve the current pro blems, neither is it enough to tinker around the edges
of a tax system when there are wide swathes of i ncome in our domestic economy that are not taxed.
Why is it that we only tax earnings from labour, but we
ignore earnings from other sources, often received without any labour at all?
Mr. Speaker, over the past four years, the
Progressive Labour Party has put forward for consid-eration many ideas for tax reform. It is our view that we can work with all stakeholders to design a system that enhances Bermuda’s global competitiveness and ensures that those who can afford to pay more do pay
more. Such a major undertaking cannot and should
not be a one- party endeavour, as substantive tax r eform must have the widest possible input and all ideas must be subjected to rigorous scrutiny to avoid uni ntended consequences.
When the Progressive Labour Party is r eturned to Government, one of our first actions will be to create a Tax Reform Commission. This commission will draw participants from both political parties, inter-national business, local business, trade unions, hote liers, academia, and the Bermuda Bar. Its mission will be to conduct a wholesale review of our system of
746 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly revenue collection and taxation, to make recommendations to Parliament on revenue and tax reform and
measures to increase tax compliance. Following the commission’s report, the PLP Government will engage in consultation and, following the completion of the consulta tion, publish a White Paper on tax reform to
be debated in Parliament.
It will be our aim to complete the process of
review and consultation in the first 18 months of the new Parliament so that reforms can be implemented
quickly. Our People’s Budget will fund the work of this
commission to ensure that Bermuda will have a fairer
and more equitable tax system.

Economic Diversification Unit

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, the next PLP Go vernment will form an Economic Diversification Unit to
create not only a third pillar of our economy, but a
fourth and a fifth pillar. This permanent organisation
will consist of a small number of persons with a pro ven history of developing economies. The mission of this organisation will be to identify new opportunities for economic diversification and subject them to structured analysis and research. Once areas have been identified and agreed upon, the unit will seek partners and investment to develop the new local industry.
Mr. Speaker, the Economic Diversification
Unit’s goal will be simple: to create one new primary
industry that directly provides at least 5 per cent of our
GDP, and at least two new secondary industries that each directly provide at least 2 per cent of our GDP,
by the year 2025. Mr. Speaker, our People’s Budget
will fund this focused approach to diversification that
will yield results and will finally allow us to achieve our aims of diversifying the Bermudian economy.

Creation of a Bermuda Fund

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, if we are to create
long-term economic growth, we need to use every tool
at our disposal to invest in and generate economic
activity in Bermuda. There is a high level of inves tment expertise in Bermuda, and the next PLP Go vernment will take advantage of this expertise by creat-ing a “Bermuda Fund .” This fund, which will be seeded with a small portion of the pension funds that are
under the control of the Government, will allow Bermuda to tap into the investment expertise on Island, while providing an additional outlet for our large pe nsion funds to invest more of their money in Bermuda-[based equity] investments.
The Bermuda Fund will not be exclusive to
government and private pension funds and other inst itutional investors, as it will be listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange to allow Bermudians to invest and contribute to the economic development of Bermuda.
Mr. Speaker, this fund will have strict gover nance controls, so it will not be subject to political whims, and will be run for the specific purpose of generating positive returns while investing in the deve lopment of Bermuda- based business. The fund could
invest in industries identified by the Economic Development Unit to diversify the economy. The Bermuda Fund could also be used to attract job creators to our shores while we invest in emerging global industries,
such as cybersecurity, FinTech, InsurTech, and m obile application development.
Mr. Speaker, this is not exclusively the Pr ogressive Labour Party’s idea. It is one of the many
ideas recommended by respected members of the local business community. Similar plans in both Si ngapore and Ireland have delivered positive results for their economies, and the PLP will advance this initia-tive to create jobs in Bermuda.

Establishment of a Technology Incubator to B ecome an Intellectual Property Hub

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, to grow our eco nomy, the PLP will develop a technology incubator at
Southside. This will allow start -ups in the technology
field that require little more than a computer and an
Internet connection to use our regulatory environment
while developing their new products and services in Bermuda. The vision is to transform Southside into a technology -based community with living facilities, as
well as an active office community.
This incubator would be a centre of excellence, and we would create a village in which people can participate together as if they are in a develo pment centre, and share ideas in an open- source env ironment. Additionally, we would attempt to attract a second round of funding for operations that set up in
Bermuda, by offering a consistent course for wellsupported Bermuda- based angel investors to grow
and develop out of Bermuda. A successful technology
incubator could lead to other well -established global
technology companies setting up a physical pr esence
here.
Mr. Speaker, in 2010, Bermuda First reco mmended that Bermuda become a global centre for i ntellectual property. The PLP will set Bermuda on a path to becoming a domicile for managing internation-al treaties in intellectual property and set the s tandards in law for the proper financial management of
intellectual properties. The PLP will actively seek out
stakeholder input to build a regulatory environment that sets the standards that these critical communities need. The Progressive Labour Party’s regulatory i mplementation and management of these programmes would take place in Bermuda with a well- defined Mind
Management and Control policy where the intellectual property would create both jobs and revenue for the Bermuda Government.
Furthermore, the PLP will create a Digital I ntellectual Property Register. This would require a copy of the register to be digitally signed and the creation,


Bermuda House of Assembly or administration of the creation, to be physically domiciled in Bermuda in order for it to be considered Bermudian. The Bermuda Government would actively look to create and sign member states to this Digital Intellectual Property Register.
Mr. Speaker, Bermuda must prepare for new
ways to operate in a world where advanced technologies will be driving the global econom y. Although
Bermuda is not large enough to compete with the established technology centres, we can participate in the funding and administration of these products and be-come a leader as a world -class digital domicile. Mr.
Speaker, we must seek out new opportunities to e nsure our future prosperity in a rapidly changing world.
The PLP’s People’s Budget will invest in plans that will
grow our economy and create these job opportunities
for Bermudians.

Promoting Entrepreneurship

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker , it is the Progressive
Labour Party’s position that a key path to empower-ment for Bermudians lies in the expansion of entr epreneurship and the facilitation of business conducted
in this jurisdiction. We have heard how Government is
often the biggest obstacle when it comes to Bermudi-ans getting their businesses started. Red tape and bureaucracy have strangled far too many legitimate business concepts in the cradle, and that must end.
In 2017, it makes little sense that an entrepr eneur needs to visit multiple government departments, and must often use a lawyer, in order to start a bus iness. The PLP will make starting a local business as convenient as possible by creating a concierge ser-vice allowing first -time Bermuda entrepreneurs to
handle interactions and transactions with government
agencies in one place. Our People’s Budget will pr omote entrepreneurship, and instead of being an obstacle to business, the Progressive Labour Party will:
• provide new tax relief for first -time entrepr eneurs;
• reform our laws to allow greater freedom for peddlers and vendors;
• expand access to foreign capital for first -time
business owners —first -time business ow ners—through relaxation of the 60/40 Rule; and
• increase the guarantee capacity of the Ber-muda Economic Development Corporation, enabling new small business owners with credible business plans to access the capital
they need to create jobs for themselves and
others.

Growing International Business

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, international bus iness is the primary pillar of our economy, creating
direct and indirect employment. While it is a priority that we diversify our economy, our competitors and threats to international business cannot be ignored.
We will continue to protect and grow international
business in collaborat ion with industry stakeholders
through the ongoing review and modernisation of our business legislation, enabling the introduction of new products to the market in order to keep Bermuda ahead of our competitors.
The Progressive Labour Party will strengthen
our international advocacy to protect our reputation in a time of global uncertainty caused by the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union and the new Trump administration. Mr. Speaker, during this period of uncertainty, we cannot support the One Bermuda
Alliance’s plans to close Bermuda’s Washington, DC,
office. The Progressive Labour Party will keep this office open to ensure that Bermuda’s interests are consistently represented in the corridors of power in Washington, DC.
The PLP recognises the threats to our vital i nternational business sector that have arisen, but we also understand that change can bring opportunity. We are not certain what the future will hold, but the PLP will form a government that will work in close partnership with our industry partners to protect our
turf and to aggressively pursue new opportunities.

Immigration Reform
Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, the Progressive
Labour Party has supported a bipartisan approach to immigration reform since 2013. Any unilateral approach to immigration reform must be avoided, as
such reform must be collaborative and it must be comprehensive.
The next PLP Government will undertake
comprehensive and bipartisan immigration reform,
and we will do so under the following clear principles:
First, Bermudians must come first in their country.
Second, policies will be developed through dialogue with the business community to ensure that immigr ation policy and developing our economy move in tandem. Third, policies must recognise that the needs of
local business are separate and distinct from the
needs of international business. Fourth, we will have clear policies to protect vulnerable guest workers from employer abuse and to sanction abusing employers.
Mr. Speaker, the Progressive Labour Party
will exe rcise leadership to make changes to our imm igration system that improve our competitiveness and promote social harmony. We will work together to fix the problems for those who know no other home but Bermuda, yet have no legalised right of permanent abode here. We will work together to ensure that we
can attract persons to our shores who are willing to
invest and to bring jobs to Bermuda. We will work t ogether to ensure that those who have contributed to the betterment of Bermuda can continue to stay in Berm uda to help make our Island a better place.

748 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Reducing the Cost of Government

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, over the past four
years, we have spoken extensively on the issue of
civil service reform. We have spoken about the need to focus on making the civil service more efficient, r ather than the need to reduce overall expenditure wit hout paying attention to efficiency. A more efficient civil service will boost productivity and contribute to in-creased economic growth.
Mr. Speaker, across -the-board cuts do not tackle inefficiency, which is the core of the problem, and they
often reduce productive investment. This means that
making cuts without focusing on efficiencies can make our budget problems worse. A recent example of this was the One Bermuda Allianc e’s ill- fated and short -
lived tourism cuts, which reduced productive inves tment in tourism and led to a 49- year low in air arrivals.
Instead of cuts for cuts’ sake, the PLP will f ocus on making the civil service more efficient, via technology, departmental reviews, and effective human resource management. We will also implement some of the recommendations in the SAGE report
regarding consolidation of government departments and ministries. Our People’s Budget will fund efficie ncy teams that will assess every aspect of government,
with a view to eliminating duplication of services and
enhancing service delivery. Any employee in a pos ition affected by an efficiency review will be retrained
for another position in the civil service and will not lose
any pay or benefits.

Increase the Use of Technology

Hon. E. David Burt: Additionally, Mr. Speaker, 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 gover nment systems that do not interface with one another and too many government departments still using manual processes. Investments to improve system connectivity will improve service delivery and reduce
opportunities for fraud and abuse.

Performance -Based Pay for Civil Servants

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, previously, the PLP
has called for performance -based pay for senior managers, to incentivise and reward managers for i ncreas ing department revenues, reducing department
expenses, and increasing —
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, previously, the PLP
has called for performance -based pay for senior man-agers, to incentivise and reward managers for i ncreas ing department revenues, reducing department
expenses, and increasing the performance and eff iciency of a government department or ministry. After
consultation with the Bermuda Trade Union Congress, we have modified this proposal so that it better r eflects the responsibilities of the civil service. The Pr ogressive Labour Party will extend this proposal to cover all civil servants in a department, as all workers should be rewarded for meeting efficiency targets within a government departm ent. Managers cannot do
it alone, and increased efficiency will be a civil ser-vice-wide department -by-department effort.

Reducing the Cost of Living

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, the cost of living is
the primary concern among our people and is the reason why many Bermudians leave to live overseas, as
it is just too expensive for them to lead a comfortable
life in Bermuda. Quality of life should matter. For many in Bermuda, however, doing two jobs is the norm just to stay afloat. This should not be the case,
and we therefore have to construct an economy
where a parent only needs one job in order to raise
their family, not two, or even in some cases three jobs.
The next Progressive Labour Party Gover nment will focus its efforts on attacking Bermuda’s cos t
of living problem. Our policies must reduce the cost of
living across all areas —including health care, housing,
food, and electricity —to ensure that Bermuda is more
affordable. Our People’s Budget will ensure that this
urgent issue is addressed.

Doing the Right Thing for Bermuda’s Workers
Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, the PLP was created by and for workers. We are encouraged by the
foundation that was laid by labour stalwarts of our past. The Progressive Labour Party and the country's
trade unions are critical parts of Bermuda's labour
movement. We are a labour party, and our roots de-mand that we are the political voice of labour and the guardian of labour rights in the Legislature and the champion of the causes of the hard- working men and
women [whom] our unions represent.
Mr. Speaker, Government's role is not simply
to create an environment where businesses have the opportunity to open and be profitable: We must also protect Bermudian workers to ensure that the only limits to Bermudian success in the workforce are the
ones we place on ourselves.
To create a fairer and more inclusive wor kforce, the Progressive Labour Party will do two things:
1. We will remove the structural imbalances that make employing foreign labour more cost-effective than employing Bermudians, by requiring employers to provide


Bermuda House of Assembly occupational pensions for employees on
work permits, who are currently exempt
from the requirement .
2. Mr. Speaker, we will conduct a compr ehensive examination of the social insur-ance programme, including the impact of changing employer and employee contr ibutions from a fixed rate to a percentage of earnings, and the appropriate level for the cap on social insurance contributions. The objective of the review will be to i ncrease the take- home pay of low earners.

Mr. Speaker, our People’s Budget will fund
the investment where it is most needed, in an Agenda
for Growth that will protect our international reputation, seek out new opportunities, diversify our economy, and create jobs here in Bermuda. Mr. Speaker, given
that I have reviewed the PLP’s Agenda for Growth, I
will move on to more topical matters of the America’s
Cup and tourism.

America’s Cup

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, a few weeks ago
we in the Progressive Labour Party were chastised for
telling Bermudians the truth about how much the America’s Cup will cost taxpayers. In the latest Budg-et, the estimated direct cost is now up to $71 million, and that does not include the expense of the land reclamation at Cross Island.
Mr. Speaker, the America's Cup is a good
thing for Bermuda. It is a significant series of events
that will provide some benefit to the Island. Where we take issue with the event is the One Bermuda All iance's consistent refusal to acknowledge the event for
what it has been and what it is: an event that appeals
to a narrow segment of society. The numbers, in terms of both the ratings and the ages of who follow the sport, demonstrate that this is an event for what Bermuda was, not for what Bermuda [is], and certainly
not what we want Bermuda and hope for Bermuda to
become.
Mr. Speaker, while the BTA [Bermuda Tourism Authority] speaks of the future, youth, and vibra ncy, the One Bermuda Alliance clings to an ethos that matches its Mid Ocean Club comfort zone. And to
shore up the lagging sponsorship deals that were
promised and to create a buzz for the event that it cannot generate on its own, the people of Bermuda are being treated to a campaign that makes their at-tendance and support of this tourism -generating event
critical to its success. Mr. S peaker, if the America's
Cup is everything the One Bermuda Alliance says it is, then why is it the most heavily subsidised event in our Island's history, and why is it unable to draw interna-tional sponsorship to capitalise on its supposed a llure? Its inability to attract sponsorship means that Bermuda will be paying 80 per cent, or $20 million, of
the $25 million sponsorship guarantee.
Mr. Speaker, the America's Cup will generate
economic activity, but that activity comes at a cost of $71 million. And that price tag is certain to rise, as the cost of $12 million for buses, ferries, security, and emergency expenses is not fully captured in those
figures. However, Mr. Speaker, let us also be clear
about what the America's Cup is not: The America's Cup is not a long-term plan for jobs; the America's
Cup is not a long- term plan for economic growth; the
America's Cup will not solve the problems of our edu-cation system; and the America's Cup will not make
the social changes required to reverse the trend of
black men gunning each other down.
Mr. Speaker, it will be a great big party, and
many residents will visit luxury yachts, sip mimosas at sunrise, and snap selfies with members of the royal family. The real question is what happens when the
competition is over? What happens to the temporary
jobs and the people who no longer have work? Our schools will still be underfunded, our people will still require the upgrading of their skills, our seniors will still be struggling, and our country will still experience
inequal ity of opportunity.
Mr. Speaker, yes, the America's Cup is many
things, but what it is not is something that will solve
the problems in our society that urgently need solving. Bermuda needs a government that can give urgent attention not only to hosting events like the America's
Cup, but to the items within our society that require
fixing and healing to ensure that we have long- term,
sustained, and balanced economic growth.

Tourism

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, last week the Mi nster spoke about Bermuda ’s tourism turnaround . Before I take some time to add context to the numbers, I
want to be sure that I give a measure of praise to the team at the Bermuda Tourism Authority [BTA]. They
are composed of a large number of Bermudians who
are passionate about Bermuda and improving tourism. Their work is vital to our success as a country, and the quality of their work has been recognised internation-ally, and for that they should be applauded.
That being said, Mr. Speaker, no organisation
funded by the taxpayer should be free from criticism. And when revisionist history is given and used for po-litical purposes in an election year to imply that all is well in tourism, it is important that the bluster is put into its proper context.

OBA Budget Cuts Caused Record Low Numbers

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, you will recall that,
in 2014 and 2015, Bermuda recorded its lowest levels
of air visitor arrivals in 48 and 49 years, respectively. That, Mr. Speaker, is the OBA’s record in tourism, and
750 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly it cannot be disputed for all the spin regarding 2016.
Bermuda’s worst tourism performances since 1966
happened under the One Bermuda Alliance. We must ask why that happened and what lessons we can learn. The blame for those record lows lies squarely at the feet of the One Bermuda Alliance. The OBA, in its unwise zeal to trim expenditure, no matter the benefit
it would have provided, reduced a major productive
investment that supports tourism. The OBA’s desire to (and I quote/unquote) “eliminate” minimum revenue guarantees caused our record low air arrival figures.
Mr. Speaker, the following are two quotes that
demonstrate what was a deliberate policy of the One
Bermuda Alliance: The first quote, from former Minister Shawn Crockwell (and I quote), “We do not have the money to provide those minimum revenue guaran-tees” (end quote).The next quote [is] from Minister Grant Gibbons in 2016 (and I quote): “This reduction is in keeping with this Government’s objective to mi nimise or outright eliminate the use of such agreements for any one service” (end quote).
Mr. Speaker, the One Bermuda Alliance came
into office and cut these guarantees, which reduced the airlift to Bermuda and led to 48- year and 49- year
lows in air arrivals. Upon realising the error of their ways, they went, cap in hand, to the airlines to i ncrease airlift. Last week the Minister said the following (and I quote): “A vital component of this development is the work by the BTA, with the support of the Go vernment, to increase airlift to the Island, a critical
bridge to growing visitor arrivals. The results to date
are impressive, with 11 per cent growth in air capacity
in 2016” (end quote).
Mr. Speaker, the One Bermuda Alliance is
running ads on Facebook hailing this 11 per cent i ncrease, but guess what? The increase does not even
return Bermuda to the air capacity levels when the OBA became Government. As the chart below shows, air capacity was 565,000 in 2012, and 561,000] in 2013, while 2015, after the One Bermuda Alliance cuts, saw air capacity plummet to [503,000, which was
a direct result of the One Bermuda Alliance’s short -
sightedness. The One Bermuda Alliance speaks
about the airlift increase in 2016, hoping that no one would realise the jump only restored the drop exper ienced under the OBA as a result of their policies.
Mr. Speaker, to compound the issue of falling
capacity, the One Bermuda Alliance also reduced the amount of money that we invested in tourism so that 2014 and 2015 were also record low years in tourism investment. Mr. Speaker, if you reduce the amount of money that you invest in tourism and you reduce the number of air seats to the Island, you should not be
surprised by the resulting 48- year and 49- year lows in
air arrivals. In 2016, when you follow the advice of the
Progressive Labour Party and increase the country's investment in tourism marketing, and you do what is necessary to secure additional airlift to Bermuda, you return to the level of tourism that was seen before your ill -advised cuts and actions. Mr. Speaker, with a
record like that, I would think that the One Bermuda Alliance’s victory lap should be more muted. The fact is that there is a lot more work to do in tourism, which requires a government that recognises that inves tment and tourism are important for our country's f uture.
The One Bermuda Alliance talks about the
importance of tourism, but it was not until last year that they made the investment required to grow our tourism industry. The Bermuda Tourism Authority d eserves full credit for turning that increased investment into improved 2016 results. However, our air capacity
and our investment in tourism should never have been cut in the first place, and the only reason that hap-pened was due to the short -sighted actions of the One
Bermuda Alliance Government.

Visitor Spending

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, the results from
2016 are encouraging. However, they must also be
put into the context of the most important metric, which is visitor spending. Although the Island saw
12,000 more air visitors in 2016 than in 2013, and
32,000 more cruise visitors, estimated visitor spending was $394 million in both years, meaning that, in real terms, visitor spending declined. This means that vis itors who came to the Island in 2016 spent less, on average. This makes sense because of the increasing
number of sports teams visiting the Island from colleges and universities, who will not have the amount
of disposable income that other persons may have had. However, it is important to put any tourism i mprovement into the proper context. We are encour-aged that the Government has again decided to pr ovide more investment to growing our tourism industry; we only wish that they would have heeded our advice and acted sooner.

The Zika Effect

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, the Bermuda Tourism Authority is heralded for their work in attracting
younger visitors. However, this increase in visitors of childbearing age coincides with the Zika epidemic, which has seen many travellers seek Zika- free dest inations. Mr. Speaker, many people who work in the tourism industry understand that one of the factors contributing to our increased performance in 2016 was the Zika virus. Bermuda has been fortunate to capitalise on this, but it is important that we do not rest on our laurels and we continue to exploit this advantage.

Vaca tion Rentals
Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, the Progressive
Labour Party is on record as supporting further deve lBermuda House of Assembly opment of the vacation rental industry. At a recent
Progressive Labour Party town hall event, there was
standing room only, as Bermudians were eager to learn more about this opportunity. The Progressive Labour Party will embrace this segment of our product and put in place smart regulation to ensure that there is minimal regulation while ensuring travellers are
safe. The PLP will advance this segment of our tourism economy, but we must also realise that it is chal-lenging for our traditional hoteliers to remain compet itive due to the cost of doing business in Bermuda.

Reducing Energy Costs for Hotels

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, one of the main
drivers for hotels is the cost of energy, and last year
the Government raised the special rates of duty a pplied to hotels and BELCO, which raised the effective tax rate on hotels by 53 per cent. The PLP will reverse
this increase, as our hoteliers require cooperation from the Government to ensure that they can remain competitive.

Changes to Make Bermuda’s Economy Work Be tter for Bermudians

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, I will now cover
some items —many proposed previously —that the
next Progressive Labour Party Government will i mplement to build an economy that works better for Bermudians.

Transform Our Education System
Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, the next Progressive Labour Party Government will ensure that the education of our future leader s is a priority. Unlike the
One Bermuda Alliance Government, we will not pay
lip service to our students while reducing our inves tments in public education. Our People’s Budget will
make public education a priority and ensure it is the
first choice for Bermudian taxpayers. We will phase
out middle schools and implement a curriculum with an increased focus on science, technology, engineer-ing, and maths. In collaboration with educators, the Bermuda Union of Teachers, parents, and community stakeholders, the PLP will reshape our school system
with one that is better suited to the needs of our youth
and the wider community. A key initiative of the Pr ogressive Labour Party’s reforms will be the develo pment of “Signature Schools” at the secondary school level, focusing on the learning styles and interests of our children, including academic, technical, arts, bus iness, sports, and special needs education. We will also invest in technology to ensure our students are sufficiently prepared for postgraduate education and/or employment in a future where technological ignorance will be a barrier to success. Mr. Speaker, there can be no better gift to
Bermuda’s middle class than a public education sy stem in which our parents are confident in entrusting the education of their children. The Progressive La-bour Party will re- establish public education as the
primary and best option for Bermudians, and I look forward to sending my children to a school that is part
of a vibrant and reformed Bermuda public education
system, preparing our future leaders for a rapidly changing world.
Mr. Speaker, the Progressive Labour Party’s
People’s Budget will also improve access to the Bermuda College by providing discounted tuition for st udents in need. The Progressive Labour Party will also provide childcare services for working parents who would like to upgrade their skills via continuing educ ation in the evening. We will invest to enhance the rel evance of the education provided by the Bermuda Co llege, and we will work in cooperation with the c ollege
to promote local mobile application development. This practical work will provide real -world experience for
our students and will benefit the college, as the appl ications developed can be licensed to other gover nments worldwide.

Upgrading the Skills of Bermuda’s Labour Force

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, a solid workforce
development plan is critical to our long- term prospects
for broad- based and inclusive economic growth. The
Progressive Labour Party’s People’s Budget will increase funding available for training, and retraining, to ensure that Bermudians are ready for the jobs of t oday and the jobs of tomorrow. By pursuing partner-ships with private industry partners to help identify their employment needs and the skills needed for f uture employment, we can ensure our efforts to fund training and retraining will be most effective.
Mr. Speaker, government departments will be
required to develop training and succession pr ogrammes for roles considered to be key to the running
of the government. These plans will be used to develop long- term training plans and will be readily avail able to any persons wishing to view them and see what
is required to enter those fields of employment. The
next Progressive Labour Party Government will set up a national skills registry through the Department of
Workforce Development to ensure that we are aware
of the skills that are available here on Island. Add itionally, this register should also track the skills of Bermudians who may currently be off the Island, but looking for an opportunity to return home. To protect
Bermudian employment further, national certifications
for fields such as plumbing, carpentry, and tiling will be introduced. Our People’s Budget will also increase
the teaching of technology in our schools and ensure
that our schools are equipped with the latest techno logy and all have wireless networks. Additionally, we
752 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly will allow for flexibility in apprenticeship programmes
so that they can be introduced at younger ages.

Increasing Competition in Our Domestic Economy

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, one of the things
that Government must do is to enhance competition here in Bermuda.

Unregulated Monopolies and Duopolies Can Stifle
Growth

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, recent years have
seen consolidation take place in a number of local
industries, which has reduced competition. Gover nment and regulators must do their part to ensure that traders are acting fairly and that consumers are not being disadvantaged. Economic growth should not be disadvantaged by virtual monopolies and actual du opolies in our society. Without effective regulation that promotes competition, consumers suffer, which r educes the potential for economic growth. The Pr ogressive Labour Party will ensure that there is ad equate and fair competition inside our local markets
and will take action to ensure that our markets are
competitive.

More Competition for Our Banks

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, it is also important
that we provide additional competition in our domestic banking sector. The Progressive Labour Party will accomplish this by amending the Credit Union Act, a llowing Bermuda’s only credit union to carry on bus iness with members of affiliated unions and not just members of the Bermuda Industrial Union [BIU]. This
action, which i s similar to actions that were taken with
credit unions in the United States in 1998 [sic] , will
enable the BIU credit union to expand its base of depositors and also provide more competition to our l ocal banking sector. The next Progressive Labour Party
Government will explore creative ways to work with
banks to see if we can reduce the interest rates on
mortgages, which are putting pressure on Bermuda’s middle class.

Conflicts Will Not Affect Our Decisions

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, there is one t hing
that the people can be confident about when it comes to the Progressive Labour Party and promoting com-petition inside of our local economy. On this side of the aisle, we do not have any entrenched economic
interest to protect, so our decisions will not be based
on what is best for our trust portfolio, going forward. Our decisions will be based on what can best promote competition and lower prices in order to grow our economy. For far too long, decisions have been infl uenced by what the results may be for those persons who hold intergenerational wealth and privilege. The
next Progressive Labour Party Government will ensure that the decisions we make benefit the greater good and do not just continue to protect the wealth of a privileged few.

Labour Regul ation

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, as we look to build
an economy that works better for Bermudians, we must modernise our system of labour regulation. L abour is an important component of our economy, and 17 years after the landmark Employment Act enac ted
by the PLP, this Act must be updated to ensure that we continue to protect the rights of workers.

Extended Maternity and Paternity Benefits

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, the Employment
Act guaranteed all mothers eight weeks’ paid materni-ty leave. The next PLP Government will examine what we did then and look to extend that leave to 13 paid weeks, while also making allowances for paternity leave. The next Progressive Labour Party Gover nment will consult widely on this proposal; however, we will ensu re that the duration of paid leave is extended
so that mothers and fathers have more time to bond with new additions to their families.

Create an Unemployment Insurance Scheme

Hon. E. David Burt: Additionally, the next Progressive Labour Party Government will introduce legisl ation to provide for unemployment insurance. As the past few years have demonstrated, unemployment can inflict great stress on our citizens and their fam ilies. One of the ways to reduce any future drain on financial assistance and to provide additional security to workers is to introduce a scheme of unemployment insurance which will ensure that workers between jobs are not forced to go to the Government for financial
assistance.

Examine the Need for a Living Wage

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, it is also important
that the Government ensures that persons who are employed full -time earn a wage that keeps them out of
poverty. That is one of the reasons why the Progressive Labour Party pushed for a Joint Select Commi ttee to examine the issue of a living wage. We look
forward to reporting on the committee's work, and it is essential that as a country we ensure that workers
can live in dignity and are not working simply to r emain in poverty. Work must pay, and the Progressive
Labour Party will ensure that work does pay.




Bermuda House of Assembly Government to Lead the Transition to Renewable
Energy

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, Bermuda must
make the investments required to promote a clean
and renewable energy infrastructure. The People’s
Budget will provide f or investments in renewable energy to jump- start the renewable energy economy in
Bermuda. We have called for the installation of r enewable energy infrastructure in government buildings
and for energy audits. The Progressive Labour Party will also commence the process of converting the government fleet to electric and hybrid vehicles.
The People’s Budget will ensure that these i nvestments are funded, as they will create jobs and lead to reduced expenses in the future, which will help reduce our debt.

Tackli ng the Root Causes of Crime

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, as you
know, I recently travelled to Toronto to bury my nep hew who was murdered by bullets from a gun. The pain
that was felt in my family is a pain that has been felt
by far too many Bermudian families and [individual]
Bermudians young and old over the past 10 years. However, as a society we must question whether we view this as serious, because due to our actions and our lack of resources, it seems as though we do not care to address the root causes of these challenges.
As I said last year, Mr. Speaker, it does not matter
how many CCTV cameras we put up around the coun try. If we do not tackle the root causes of instabi lity of our community, we will not solve our problems. This is not a Progressive Labour Party or One Berm uda Alliance issue, Mr. Speaker, as we both have failed
in addressing the root causes of these challenges. Our People’s Budget will assign the resources necessary to address these root causes, to provide counselling and intervention, and to provide opportunities for our young people to excel in the traditional economy.
It is the Progressive Labour Party’s view that this i ssue is just as important as balancing the national
budget, and we will leave no stone unturned in our quest to reverse the trend and to restore harmony to
our society. Mr. Speaker, we are not under any ill usion that it will be easy, but our commitment stems
from that pain that we share and the desire to ensure
that fewer Bermudians experience that pain felt by so many.

Creation of Social Enterprises

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, the Progressive
Labour Party will take action to ensure that emplo yment is created for those in our society who are
deemed unemployable. Our People’s Budget will pr ovide funding to jum p-start social enterprises and to
promote social entrepreneurship. This is a movement of which we have only recently become aware. Ho wever, we have examined what social enterprises have
achieved in various places around the world and be-lieve it could be a powerful tool in delivering skills and providing employment for the many young black males who are currently dislocated from Bermuda’s economy.
Mr. Speaker, the concept of a social enterprise is defined by the European Commission as fol-lows (and I quote): “Social enterprises contribute to smart growth by responding with social innovation to needs that have not yet been met; they create sus-tainable growth by taking into account their enviro nmental impact and by their long- term vision; they are
at the heart of inclusive growth due to their emphasis on people and social cohesion. In other words, their key aim is to effect social and economic transfor-mation . . .” (end quote).
Mr. Speaker, our People’s Budget will provide
the funding to ensure that social enterprises become a reality within our first year of our term in office. Social enterprises exist to serve a social purpose and co nduct commercial operations in order to fulfil that objective. For some enterprises, their very existence is to
provide employment and is summed up with this quote from Homeboy Industries, which says (and I quote, Mr. Speaker): “We do not hire homies to bake bread. We bake bread so that we can hire homies” (end quote).
Some government departments are already
considered social employers. Social enterprises will ensure that more organisations in our society can par-ticipate in relieving the issues of economic dislocation that disproportionately affect the black community.
There are many gaps that such enterprises could fill. One such example could be a social enterprise that is
geared to installing solar hot water heaters on the
homes of seniors who are on financial assistance, in order to reduce their ongoing electricity bills. This type of work will provide employment and skills -training to
young people and would meet an objective of the
Government to reduce the long- term costs of financial
assistance. Mr. Speaker, social enterprises will r equire a unique set of legislation to set up their gover nance and enable them to function in such a manner
that they do not exist to generate a profit; however, they can return a limited return to a corporate investor.

Supporting Our Community Clubs

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, in addition to social
enterprises, we must recognise that many of our community clubs suffer from a lack of investment and
are struggling to ensure that they can remain relevant in 2017. Our People’s Budget will ensure that, in r eturn for verified management controls, we extend
guarantees to our community clubs for renovations of their facilities in order to make them self -sufficient. Mr.
Speaker, you and I come from a proud history of
754 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly community clubs, but we both recognise the challen ges that both of those clubs face in today’s Bermuda. If
we as a country can extend government guarantees to a private hotel development over which we have no control, then surely we can extend guarantees for the upgrading of our country’s social infrastructure to as-sist in tackling antisocial behaviour.

[Desk thumping]

Absolutely. Carry on.

Create a Lottery to Support Our Athletes

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, our People’s Bud get will also create a local lottery, which will benefit
sports development on the Island. We have recently
been heartened by the exploits of our young men and women around the globe, and it is important that we are able to invest in the hopes and dreams of the next
generation by providing sufficient resources to advance their skills. A lottery that is dedicated to sports funding around the country will be a good step in this regard and will be something that the Progressive La-bour Party will implement within the first two years of our next term.

Financial Assistance Reform

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, no social reform
can be complete without reviews of the way that f inancial assistance works. The Progressive Labour
Party will complete a top- to-bottom reform of this sy stem to ensure that it accomplishes three simple goals: First, it increases the skills of the able- bodied unemployed who are on financial assistance. Second, it rewards people in work and does not penalise them
for taking a part -time position. And third, it accomplishes the goal of moving persons into full -time e mployment.
We must also recognise that our financial assistance budgets are large due to the vast number of
seniors who cannot afford the cost of living in Berm uda and who have exhausted their savings. This is why we must create efficiencies within the Department of Financial Assistance, and in other government de-partments, to better utilise the resources that are gi ven to seniors.
Assisting Our Seniors

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, every government
has the responsibility to ensure that its senior popula-tion enjoys a quality of life that reflects the value we place on them as citizens. We must do a better job of caring for our seniors and ensuring that our seniors
can live out their lives in dignity. Our People’s Budget
will provide incentives to spur the private sector to construct residential communities for seniors, provi ding them with options for their golden years.
The dilemma where many of our seniors are
land-rich but cash- poor must be overcome. And
though, Mr. Speaker, we are not in any way promoting or endorsing reverse mortgages, we must be creative to find ways for seniors wishing to move into a res idential community to leverage their assets to secure
placement in long- term care facilities in an environment where they are comfortable and they can r eceive the care they need. Mr. Speaker, the People’s
Budget will also means -test benefits for seniors to
elimina te existing government fees for seniors in
need.

Reducing the Cost of Health Care

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, the cost of health
care is a major expense for the government and pr ivate employers, which reduces our global compet itiveness. As a country, we must work to reduce these
costs, which will lead to savings that will promote ec onomic growth. We must also take action as a comm unity to reduce habits that lead to the high incidence of chronic disease in Bermuda. Our People’s Budget will
fund the following programmes to promote a healthier
society, which will lead to reduced health care costs:
Mr. Speaker, the next Progressive Labour
Party will implement a sugar tax, with the revenue derived to be used for health education and early inter-vention. We will increase community health education
and require nutritional information to be published in
local restaurants. We will increase competition in the
local insurance market. Competition drives down costs, so the consumer is the beneficiary. We will mandat e insurance companies to include coverage for
established complementary and alternative medical services such as, but not exclusively, traditional Ch inese medicine, homeopathy, mind–body stress ma nagement, kinesiology, and naturopathy.
We will promote medical tourism to increase
utilisation of our new health care facilities that provide cutting- edge treatments approved in the United Kin gdom, but not yet available in the United States. I ncreased use of our facilities can lead to reduced costs. We will implem ent incentives for businesses that offer
staff wellness programmes and healthy living initi atives.



Bermuda House of Assembly Investment in Our Civil Infrastructure

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, a vision for the f uture must take into account the requirement to invest in our civil infrastructure. As our People’s Budget succeeds in growing our economy, we must also prepare
our infrastructure for more people living and working
in Bermuda. This means that we have to make proactive investments to widen our roads at traffic chok epoints to prevent the congestion that we saw before the financial crisis, and to improve sightlines to reduce accidents.
It is essential that we revise and implement
the National Infrastructure Strategy Plan, which ident ifies important improvement and repairs to our infr astructure that will not only enhance our overall quality of life, but create business opportunities for construc-tion companies and jobs for Bermudian construction workers.
Mr. Speaker, now on to the conclusion.
Mr. Speaker, in 2012 the One Bermuda All iance was elected on a platform of growing our eco nomy and creating 2,000 jobs. Fifty months after that election, Bermuda has 2,068 fewer jobs and we have
experienced an unprecedented exodus of Bermudians
fleeing a country in which they can no longer afford to live. Incomes are falling, costs are rising, businesses are closing, our schools are crumbling, our seniors are struggling, and our people are losing hope. Last week the Minister of Finance said that he and his party are
the safe hands that Be rmuda needs. Mr. Speaker, if
this is the economy that his safe hands deliver, I am
sure that most Bermudians will be searching for a new set of hands. Mr. Speaker, these last 50 months have also seen unprecedented social upheaval that has raised tensions in our country to levels not seen in my
young lifetime. Our lack of social cohesion is the —

[Inaudible interjections]

Quiet over there, please.

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, these last 50
months have also seen unprecedented social u pheava l that has raised tensions in our country to levels
not seen in my young lifetime. Our lack of social c ohesion is the result of a government that does not consult, is arrogant in its actions, lacks transparency,
and seems to put the interests of those outside of Bermuda ahead of our children.
Mr. Speaker, last week the Minister of F inance said, and I quote, “Government wants to help these families and individuals, but there is very little
room to manoeuvre, given the intense pressures cr eated by deficits and debt” (end quote). At the same
time, Mr. Speaker, the people he wants to “help” were treated to a budget that raises taxes by $78 million to fund his airport privatisation and the America’s Cup.
Mr. Speaker, the One Bermuda Alliance’s priorities are not the priorities needed to grow our economy and
restore social stability. A vision that recognises that
the by -products of a history of colonialism and structural racism that continue to permeate our society cannot be solved by mere words, but require concrete action.
Mr. Speaker, we are not competing with the
One Bermuda Alliance to see who can be the best managers of the status quo. Why, Mr. Speaker? B ecause that status quo has failed the majority of people in this country! Bermudians black and white, young
and old, gay and straight, able- bodied and disabled
are struggling under the weight of a system that is not
working for them and their families.
Mr. Speaker, today the Progressive Labour
Party has delivered a vision for the future and a concrete plan for economic growth that is the by -product
of extensive consultation with members of our party, members of the local and international business
communities. Our plan will balance the budget, i ncrease employment, educate our citizens, heal our
social fabric, rebuild our infrastructure, make gover nment more responsive, and reduce structural inequal ity.
Mr. Speaker, it seems that the final months of
the One Bermuda Alliance’s time in office will be dark days. Although the Premier puts on a public face of respect for all, his Cabinet is engaged in a divisive and nasty campaign of character assassination at a time when our country should be uniting to tackle the
challenges facing us. Mr. Speaker, Bermudians are
tired of fighting, they are tired of bickering, and they
are tired of our division. They do not want an election campaign based on smears, innuendo, and gossip. They want an election campaign based on ideas that inspire the best of Bermuda and engender a sense of
unity with optimism for the future.
Mr. Speaker, through its actions and its inactions, the One Bermuda Alliance has proven that it is
incapable of uniting this country, and Bermuda will not succeed unless we are united. Bermudians deserve
better. They deserve a humble government, free from
entrenched i nterests, that is willing to engage with all
stakeholders to advance our common interests. Ber-muda needs a government that, through its actions, transparency, openness, and honesty, will advance social cohesion, restore stability, and bring unity to an
Island that desperately needs it.
Mr. Speaker, Former Premier Alex Scott said
(and I quote), “Bermuda works best when we work
together” (end quote). Mr. Speaker, my sacred pledge to the people of Bermuda today is that, after four years of reflection and growt h, the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party is ready to unite our citizens, [is ready to] restore hope, and is ready to lead Bermuda to meet the challenges of a changing world.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

[Desk thumping]
756 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: All right. Thank you, Honoura ble Member.
Dr. Gibbons, it is 20 after 12:00. So we only
have 10—

Thank you, [Madam
Deputy] Speaker.
What we just heard over the course of the last
hour and probably 40 minutes is apparently the election platform of a wannabe Government that was read by a wannabe Minister of Finance and a wannabe Premier. But very little I heard suggests that it has the substance required to move the country along the
continuing path to economic recovery. We heard a lot
of ideas that the former Progressive Labour Party Government could have enacted when it was in office.
We have heard a lot of recycled ideas.
And we heard a lot of ideas for spending, but
very little which will suggest that they have the exper ience, the ability, to move this country forward on the path to economic recovery. In fact, at some point in there, I would say there was also the hint of income tax. But they can elaborate on that to a greater de-gree.
Madam Deputy Speaker, keeping Bermuda
on a strong path to complete economic recovery r e-quires more than political rhetoric or a vivid imagination or political promises. It requires hard work, grit
and the ability to make extraordinarily difficult dec isions that will not make all of the people of Bermuda happy all of the time. Simply put, it requires safe hands.
In fact, Ma dam Deputy Speaker, I think that
the Opposition Leader should be congratulating the Minister of Finance and Government on what is an extraordinary rescue mission. We have come a long way since the change of Government in 2012. And in many ways, the 2012 changeover . . . under that per iod the current OBA Government inherited what I
would like to refer to as a perfect storm. I think many
of us will remember the economy was in freefall. We had four consecutive years of negative growth starting in 2009 and going through 2012.
Under the former Government, the debt was
increased some 700 per cent, and it started . . . the
amazing thing, Madam Deputy Speaker, is it started during good economic times. There was spending of an unbelievable proportion during times when revenue for Government was good, and it led to an extraord inary increase in debt and interest payments, which,
as we have seen, curtailed spending on other social
needs —education, seniors, health care, to mention
but a few.
It also dramatically increased the budget def icit in government finances. There was a huge i ncrease over that period. Roughly 1,000 new civil ser vants were added to the government payroll— basically,
as we have seen, unsustainable for the size of the economy. There were job losses. Some 5,000 jobs were lost during that period; 3,000 non- Bermudians
and 2,000 Bermudians. There was an escalating cost of health care. And I think we have seen, Madam
Deputy Speaker, in the last week or two why some of
that over -utilisation may have actually occurred on the
part of Government or those who were involved in Government. The hospital, when we took over in 2012, was on the verge of insolvency, as the Acute
Care Wing had not been adequately budgeted for.
Fortunately, over the last two years, due to the hard work of the [CEO] there, Venetta Symonds, the hospi-tal is now in much, much better shape.
We also inherited, and this is not something
that can be laid at the feet of the Opposition by any
stretch, essentially a demographic change, which is
now e scalating. And I mean by that an ageing popul ation with its own challenges for health care, pensions, and employment. And all the more reason why, with these increasing problems, we need a Government with safe hands to manage these difficult and complex
issues.
So, I think the Opposition will probably say,
Why do we keep returning to 2012 and before? And
the answer is, very simply, because as a community
we have to understand how far we have come, how much progress we have made under the One Berm uBermuda House of Assembly da Allian ce Government. But it is clear, Madam Deputy Speaker, that we still have much work to do.
Whatever the former Government’s plan was,
it was not working very well. It was the exact opposite
of what we like to call “safe hands .” The Honourable
Member who just took his seat was part of that financial team. He was a Junior Minister of Finance, the
team who set many of the fires that put Bermuda on a path to economic ruin. In fact, the Royal Gazette in an
editorial of February 25th, said, “To be fair to [Financ e
Minister] Richards, he has been walking on the edge
of a fiscal cliff ever since the One Bermuda Alliance inherited [and I quote] a spiralling debt trajectory from
the previous PLP administration.”
And it is pretty clear, Madam Deputy Speaker,
that that spiralling trajectory downwards was one of
the reasons that the voters decided in 2012 to relieve
the former Government of its responsibilities. It was a train wreck, and they were largely responsible for
what happened and what the One Bermuda Alliance
Government inherited.
Madam Deputy Speaker, I have to ask you,
would anyone give a pyromaniac back the box of matches that they had claimed they had some exper ience with in setting fires in the past? I think it is a rea lly good analogy, Madam Deputy Speaker .
I want to talk about jobs, because clearly that
is one of the most important issues that Bermuda fac-es today and one of the most important issues that the One Bermuda Alliance faced on taking responsibility
for Government in 2012. The 5,000 job loss that I r eferred to was incredibly damaging, not just in the h uman toll on families and individuals and the hardship
that it created, but also in the economic impact. And it is important to understand what I will say is the ec onomic issues that are involved here. Job loss, Madam
Deputy Speaker, like debt, can be self -perpetuating
and very difficult to turn around. It feeds on itself; it
creates a vicious cycle.
Why do I say that? I think we all understand
what happens with people who get into credit card
debt. As the debt mounts and as the interest payment
rises, there is a downward spiral. It is very, very diff icult to get out of that. So when a job is gone in a
community, it means that the wage earner is no longer spending to the same degree that they were in the
economy. And with many of the 5,000 jobs lost, the
employee simply left the Island. It means they are no
longer eating in restaurants. They are no longer taking taxis. They are no longer purchasing goods and ser-vices, which has a knock -on effect for businesses and
other wage earners, who may lose their jobs in those businesses as a consequence.
The economy effectively gets reset at a much
lower level. And the buoyancy and the strength of the economy to address some of the social problems we have been talking about, some of the areas of educ ation, health care and seniors, is simply no longer there. And that was the experience that we found, essentially, in 2012.
In fact, because of the self -perpetuating sense
of this vicious cycle, it means that the economy is
much harder to revive and it creates downward m omentum. And critically —and we have said this often—
a loss of confidence by those who are there to create
jobs, to invest and essentially to take people back on.
And it does not change unless there is a tangible
sense of change and a belief that things will get bet-ter. In real terms, that is what happened in 2012 and the years before that.
When you look at it in practical terms, those
5,000 jobs, at an average salary of $60,000 per year, translates into a loss in 2012 to the Bermuda econ omy of some $300 million a year. That is $300 million a year which is not driving the economy and which is not spending it. And that has helped to perpetuate the continual loss of jobs that we saw following 2012, that
vicious cycle, that perpetuation. You cannot turn it
around overnight. And that is what the Minister of F inance often talks about when he talks about unemployment, which is a lagging indicator.
Madam Deputy Speaker, I think I should stop
there, because I want to come back after lunch and talk a little bit about where we are from a job perspec-tive and what has been accomplished. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.
Speaker .
Mr. Speaker, before lunch we had the Oppos ition’s Reply to the Budget Statement, and I had just
started to make some of my remarks in contribution to the debate. Before lunch I said that in listening to the
Opposition Leader’s Reply I thought that it was an
excellent opportunity to get their platform out there,
758 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly but I heard very little which woul d suggest the Reply
had the substance to move the country along our co ntinuing path to economic recovery.
In fact, interestingly enough, if you listen to
the last 40 minutes of it, it was punctuations of co mments like we will fund this, we will fund that. And I
guess the question I have for the people who are li stening is, Can we believe that the same party that was
responsible for the perfect storm that I described that the OBA Government inherited in 2012 would now create the perfect opportunities for gr owth? It is a hard
thing to believe, Mr. Speaker .
And I talked about the economy we inherited
as an economy in free fall, there were four consec utive [years] of negative growth from 2009 to 2012; a debt that increased some 700 per cent under the former government, starting in good times when there was plenty of government revenue; a rapidly expan ding deficit of some $330- plus million, which we inheri ted when we took over; a huge increase, an unsus-tainable increase, in the number of civil servants wit hin th e Government; and probably as damaging as
anything was the some 5,000 jobs that were lost under the former government, some 3,000 non -
Bermudian and 2,000 Bermudian.
You know, Mr. Speaker, the other thing that I
found interesting in listening to the Reply was the sort of comment (and it was pretty direct, Mr. Speaker ),
that OBA members were conflicted. And I think it is fair to say that in Bermuda we are often surrounded
by conflicts. It is a small place, and some of the OBA
members (and probably myself) do have conflicts from
time to time, as you will know, Mr. Speaker. And that is because OBA members have deep experience and broad exposure in the work place. We have had deep exposure creating jobs, sustaining businesses, som ething I do not think the members on the other side of the aisle here can match. Mr. Speaker , if you have a
serious disease, do you hire an experienced doctor, or do you hire a first -year medical student? I think the
answer to that is pretty clear, Mr. Speaker .
I was also actually amazed that the Oppos ition Leader raised the issue of conflict because I think it would be fair to say, but maybe . . . we know the
people on the other side of the aisle, Honourable
Member s, are practiced at the approach that a good
offence is the best defence. We have certainly heard
that from a former Premier. But frankly, Mr. Speaker ,
from what I can see (and we have seen a little bit more of this recently), some of the Honourable Mem-bers, maybe past Members on that side, could prob ably teach a post -graduate course in conflict of interest.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to say that from our
perspective keeping Bermuda on a strong path to complete the economic recovery that we have started requires much more than we heard this morning, which is political rhetoric, or a vivid imagination, or lots and lots of promises in a platform. As I said, it requires hard work, it requires grit and the ability to make ex-traordinarily difficult decisions that will not make all of
the people of this country happy all of the time. B ut it
does require safe hands, and I think that is the point
and that is the thrust of what is coming through in this Budget Speech.
Mr. Speaker, I talked a little bit about jobs before lunch as one of the most difficult areas that I think
the OBA Government had to face. When you lose
5,000 jobs in an economy, as was lost up to 2012, it is not just something that you flick a switch and they start to come back again. Job loss is self -perpetuating
because those people who have lost jobs, or in fact, in many cases are no longer here, are no longer spen ding in the economy. And therefore, they affect other businesses and other jobs because that revenue is simply not there. It is a little bit like high credit card debt. It is self -perpetuating; it is very difficult to get out
of.
And the extraordinary impact on the economy,
which in round numbers can be calculated for 5,000 jobs as something on the order of a loss of $300 mi llion per year, is a very significant issue. And I am go-ing to come back to jobs in a minute because clearly it was a central theme of the One Bermuda Alliance
Government’s approach, and still is.
So, Mr. Speaker , what does this Budget do? I
think very simply this Budget is the second year of a
three- year plan to eliminate the deficit, which i s driving
Bermuda’s debt problem and the extraordinary cost of interest payments and debt service, which means that
for the last number of years this Government has not
be able to put as much money as it would have liked—because it is simply not there— into other social
programmes. That is not to say we have not funded social programmes. You have seen an increase in this year’s Budget for a number of them. But it did put an
extraordinary set of shackles on the Minister of F inance and, indeed, the Government.
The Budget also introduces progressive r eform of the tax system, something that I think people
have been looking for , for some years, to make it fai rer for lower income earners and to broaden the tax base. It requires more from those who earn more and less from those who earn less. It really provides tax
relief for the lowest income bands. And while the O pposition may say it does not go far enough, Mr. Speaker , we sit here or stand here today and we recognise that this is not a new idea —progressive payrol l
tax. Indeed, it is something that goes back probably close to 16 or 17 years because I remember talking about it in the late 1990s. But the Opposition, the for-mer Government, had 15 years to do something about it, and the fact of the matter is they did not. So, it took
an OBA Government to bring us to a fairer place in
terms of restructuring our tax system.
So, Mr. Speaker, looking at how far we have
come, the economic review, which Members have had, shows that as of 2015 we are in the third co nsecutive year of current dollar GDP growth after four


Bermuda House of Assembly years of decline. In 2016, we have already seen the
second quarter as having quite positive GDP growth.
And what was interesting for me when I was looking at some of these numbers, which kind of are represent ative of how the economy is doing, we saw that in 2015
. . . and a GDP is measured in industrial sectors. It could be construction, it could be real estate, it could
be the public sector, it could be retail, it could be tourism-related things. In 2015, over 80 per cent of the 14
industrial sectors that are measured were showing improved growth versus the prior year. In 2012, just a little over 30 per cent, or 5 out of the 14 sectors,
showed any kind of growth whatsoever. So, we have
come a very long way, Mr. S peaker .
Let me talk about jobs for a few minutes here
because I think, as I said, it is pretty important. If you
look at the annual survey from the stats department, which is in the economic review (the report) the table will show that this, actually 2016, when you look at fill
jobs, that 2016 was the first year of growth since 2008
in terms of net -filled jobs. And the word “net” is i mportant because, as we all know, jobs are created and jobs are also destroyed —businesses close, people
essentially retire. There are a lot of ways in which jobs
disappear. I think it is important for people listening
also to understand that while that net increase of 56 jobs from the [Department of] Statistics was not terr ibly impressive and not something that the Gover nment f eels is anywhere near sufficient, those numbers
come from May of 2016, so they are almost a year old
at this particular point. In some respects it is difficult to
say that this is the first year that jobs have increased since 2008, but in some respects, and I think at least from the net jobs category from 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 (that is three or four years), we are doing better than the former Government, which presided
over 12 years of job loss for Bermudians from the year
2000.
I think we are also, to some degree, working
against ourselves as a Government as well because the Minister of Finance has indicated that the size of
the civil service (which we inherited) was unsustainable. It was too large. So when you look at the numbers (and this number has been put out there) of some 649
job declines, that counts against the net number of jobs as well. And certainly it is a move in the right d irection to right -size government without letting people
go, which was one of the promises of this Gover nment, quite a significant feat I have to say. I think it
shows that we actually have done a pretty good job in terms of moving on what we have referred to often as a two -track strategy, which is growing revenue and
getting growth in the economy, and also right -sizing
government, getting control of that deficit, and we are moving in a very good direction.
Now let me talk a little bit more about jobs.
What we have seen over the last few years, and this is sort of an indicator of job creation as well, is very strong local company growth in terms of new registr a-tions. It is great news and it demonstrates in many
respects confidence and growth in the economy. It is
also a contrast from what we saw from 2011 to 2012 where the number of new company registrations or new businesses formed actually declined by 25 per
cent. So from 2013 to 2016 what we have seen, on an average year, is a 20 per cent growth in the number of
new companies —and local companies I am talking
about here, new registrations.
Now, obviously, one of the challenges that we
have had (and we think the former Government su ffered from this as well) is trying to get a grip on jobs, particularly new jobs. And there is the stats depar tment. It is once a year, it is a net number, it is filled jobs. But what we have been looking at in the last little while is data coming in aggregated form out of the Office of the Tax Commissioner for new local compa-ny jobs specifically. And what we find is that between the beginning of 2013 and the end of . . . roughly, sorry, the th ird quarter of 2016, what we have found is
there are 2,030 new jobs that are registered as new employees —2,030 new job accounts for new emplo yees. And we think a lot of that is coming from local business which means most of those jobs are prob ably Bermudian as well. Now, before we get lots of
people crying foul here, this is the creation of jobs.
Mr. Speaker, we understand implicitly that
jobs are also destroyed in the same way that companies are destroyed, they are struck off, they are wound up, and the rest of it. But I think it is important
to recognise that 2,030 jobs in that space of time is
actually an important indicator of the fact that we are making good economic progress as well. And we know we are creating new jobs. They are being creat-ed by America’s Cup in terms of the teams, people being hired by teams, Bermudians involved in construction up there, Bermudians involved in renovation
of a lot of the Dockyard premises. We know that other areas like ILS have created a lot of new jobs. Trust and ot her companies have created new jobs as well.
And you go right across the board.
Construction has created new jobs in terms of
. . . although some of it is probably mopping up capacity. In terms of the Loren, we have got new jobs com-ing on board. Clearly, with Caroline Bay up there and
certainly with Desarrollos. So we know new jobs are being created. What we have not come to grips with is
where the other jobs are disappearing, whether it is
demographic trends, retirements, things of that sort.
We also know that jobs have not been created
to the same degree we would like in the IB sector. And part of that we suspect is due to headwinds as an offshore financial centre, and also to the fact that, particularly in the largest area, reinsurance and insurance, we have seen consolidation over the last few
years. I am not saying that jobs are not being created. They are; but not as many as we would have liked. We do not have the perverse situation which occurred after 9/11 or Katrina, Wilma, and the other hurricanes
760 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly which had a huge amount of capital coming into Bermuda. What we have had for the last few years, Mr.
Speaker , as you will be aware, is a soft market.
It is pretty clear that the two- track plan is
working. The economy, as we have seen from statistics and from indicators like GDP, is rapidly improving, and probably more importantly for all of our health —
our economic health —is the deficit is being addressed
on a good glide path. The projected deficit as a nnounced by the Minister of Finance this year of $135 million is $64 million less than the 2016/17 deficit. And it is requiring only $135 million in new borrowing. That does not sound like a huge improvement, but when
you compare it to what we inherited in February 2013,
the deficit was $331 million at that time. So since 2014, the deficit has been reduced by $164 million.
We are in the second year of a three- year
plan to eliminate the deficit, which addresses our debt problem. And I think the important thing is that in next
year’s budget, in 2018/19, we will be in a situation
where, for the first time, we have got a surplus not
only in current account but in terms of debt and other account as well. That is the projection for next year. So we have clearly made huge strides and, certainly,
kudos go to the Minister of Finance for keeping us on
the right track, being the safe hands required to move us ahead.
Mr. Speaker, there were also a number of
comments . . . and I think it is hard for the Opposition
to have it both ways, about spending money on the
America’ s Cup. The simple reason for spending money on the America’s Cup is because it creates jobs, it
creates opportunity, and huge opportunity for bus inesses, and it also restores confidence and has, cer-tainly from my perspective. You can call it a “catalyst,” it has done an enormous amount to essentially jumpstart the revival in the tourism area. I am not trying to
take anything away from the BTA. They have done a great job. After they unloaded some of the vendors and consultants they had from the former Gover nment, they have really turned the situation around.
But the America’s Cup, we have some 300
team members and AC members here. Over 300 family members, almost 600 people here who are
spending money and some of them have been here as early as March 2015 spending money and making a real contribution to this economy. I think it is also fair
to say that I think some of the Legacy projects, like
Cross Island— which, by the way, were done on
budget and hired some 151- plus Bermudians —have
done a very nice job to position Bermuda for some of the business that we may see going forward in the superyacht area.
Mr. Speaker, I am going to switch gears for a
second and just comment on one of the things that seems to appear year after year. This is this concept of the Economic Diversification Unit, which is on page 10 of the Opposition Reply. Mr. Speaker, we already have what is effectively an Economic Diversification Unit. In fact, it is better than what is proposed here. It is called the Bermuda Business Development Age ncy. And they
have been working for a number of years, not just on existing businesses in existing sectors, like insurance or trusts or what have you, but also in terms of new
approaches. And I will speak as someone who has
been on both sides of this Government and in the pr ivate sector, someone who managed a Venture Cap ital Fund, someone who was involved in very basic research.
Governments do not innovate. It is basically
the private sector. It is entrepreneurs who innovate. And I think we need to keep that in mind. As much as the Opposition may promise these kinds of commit-tees or schemes or whatever else, you have got to go back to the basic business community, to entrepr eneurs and others, who are at the cutting edge of this
kind of stuff. And we have seen, actually, what I would consider to be really interesting progress over the last couple of years in this area of disrupted technologies, blockchain distributed ledger things. There is a group called Bermuda 4.0 which includes people like Michael Leverock and others which have been working
for a year now to look at some of these transformative technologies in FinTech, in RegTech, some of the things that . . . like Stuart Lacey has done with
Trunomi for a couple of years now, and others like
Cedent, Connectech as an incubator, Amplius, and
others have been sort of working on.
I am moving very quickly, Mr. Speaker , because I think I have got about a minute or so left.
[Inaudible interjection]

Two minutes, okay.
So the fact of the matter is we are also pr omoting entrepreneurship. I read a number of stat ements in this House about what the BEDC is doing
over there. I think they are doing a terrific job to essentially promote and help entrepreneurs. We have
got them working now on plans for getting people in-volved with more America’s Cup stuff as well. So I think it is a real step forward in many respects.
Mr. Speaker, let me close on a comment and
it may have come out of the US in the last couple of
weeks, but someone basically said, Politics is theatre ;
governing is reality. Politics is theatre; governing is
reality. Governing is about delivering. It is about ma king the hard choices. And what you have seen from
this Government over the last four years is making those hard choices, and we are back on track, we are
moving in a good direction. Have we solved all the
problems? Are we as far along as we wanted to be? The answer is no.
But Mr. Speaker, simply wanting to be a Go vernment, wanting to be a Premier, wanting to be a Minist er of Finance is not sufficient. One can talk the


Bermuda House of Assembly talk as Opposition. I know because I have been there,
but the fact of the matter is this One Bermuda Alliance
Government is doing it, it is delivering it, and it is the safe hands required moving forward.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker .

Thank you, Dr. Gibbons.
Any other Honourable Member care to speak?
The Chair will recognise the Learned Member
from constituency 36, MP Michael Scott.
You have the floor.
Hon. Michael J. Scott: I am very grateful and thank
you, Mr. Speaker .
As I take up the cudgel in the national Budget
Debate of 2018, the first thing I wish to do, Mr.
Speaker , is to co -join my remarks that I am going to
be making with those of the Leader of the Opposition,
who discharged with stel lar ability his constitutional
responsibility to produce a fit for service, fit for value, stellar Reply to the national budget. It contained rel evant, practical advice and solutions, and it made an analysis which people listening attentively and intent-ly, because of their conditions about inequities in our
society, can respond to and find some hope in.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Economic Development who has just taken his seat continues to r etreat, as he stood on his feet today, to the narrative that has become pretty repetitive and boring and inef-fective; the narrative of the PLP’s pall of performance
over the period. And it gets enhanced and embellished every time the Honourable Member seeks to
justify the OBA’s underperformance or poor perfor-mance. To hear the Economic Minister say that go vernments do not innovate, to hear the Honourable Dr. Gibbons, the Minister of Economic Development, ind icate that we have been forging forward, Mr. Speaker ,
with civil service reduction shows . . . it reveals out of
his own testimony the mindset of this Government. You know, if the Minister of Economic Development cannot wrap his policymaking capacities around the
need for Government to innovate, in fact, and to facil ity innovation, it reflects that he has not underst ood
this and it gets reflected in the whole of the delivery of
Government’s policy on the response to the people’s needs.
So, the Minister of Economic Development
says that governments cannot innovate. And if the Minister of Economic Development cannot understand this, then it is no surprise that his colleague, the other important constitutionally appointed Minister —the Mi nister of Finance— it is no surprise that the Budget, the
National Budget Statement, the fifth now (or fourth)
contains little of the then technocratic tediously u nhelpful statements about cuts, [and] the need to be
fiscally sound. This is the stuff and cut of the Budget, without responding in the way that the Vision Stat ement that this Opposition (also constitutionally ap-pointed) continues to deliver so to give people hope. Can I just, therefore, turn to a part of the
statement of the Leader of the Opposition on page 11? There is that interesting . . . and it goes
straight to the point of innovation, Mr. Speaker , where
we speak about the technology incubator. It is an area of lively activity, lively potentialities. The Progressive Labour Party will develop a technology incubator (this
is page 11 of the Reply) at Southside. It can be at
Southside, it can be in Dockyard, it can be wherever there is some space for allowing young innovators to
get together in a way that has not happened in our history. I heard the Honourable Minister of Economic Development refer to—

Thank you.

Hon. Michael J. Scott: Yes, but . . . I am grateful to
my friend, but the point . . . he cut me off a bit too
soon. They have all started, Mr. Speaker , they have
all started. But they have not been sustained and sur-vived because of the central point of this speech and
of speeches before by the Progressive Labour Party, that interest and conflicts of interest and a government since 1968 —successive UBP Governments —and the
white elite owners of capital in this country governing
this country so that, in their interests and protecting
their interests so that the status quo is maintained. This has been the single most consistent sustained policy of the UBP and the OBA, and it continues to be
with us, and it is tragic that it is still with us.
I was about to say that I heard the Minister of
Economic Development refer to my friend, Mr. Leverock, and link with him some technology activ ities, s ome technology start -up activity. Where we ask
the question (and many of us will ask), Will it survive? Will it thrive? Will it blossom and thrive? Which is why I want to return to page 11. So the incubator, I was
saying, could be at any place—put it across the I sland. We have issues where some of our young en-trepreneurs cannot leave Somerset because of crime, cannot leave St. George’s because of crime, so it is a good idea to put activities or platforms in the west end, in the central, and in the east. And let them thrive
762 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly . . . and maybe it will begin to produce solutions that
stop this imprisonment in these areas of our Island in
the 21st century.
So the idea is for . . . not the idea, the stated
intention of the PLP is to allow start -ups in technology
that will require more than a computer. The vision is to
transform the selected site—Southside —into a tec hnology -based community with living facilities, Mr.
Speaker , as well as an active office community. It r eminds me of my days living in my dormitory at unive rsity. You are living in your academic setting, you have the collegiate arrangements so that you are always there— it does generate and drive and spur innovation
and new thinking. And, you know, there should be more. I mean, we have Pitch. Young people have been, over these last four years I have run into them. They are capable of manifesting these kinds of oppor-tunities and these kinds of activities in IT. They are ready for it because this is the world in which they inhabit. But here is the point I wanted to make about
page 11, this kind of technology incubator would be
resisted by the Government if the Government of the
day is the OBA. It would resisted. Why? Because it conflicts with KeyTech, it conflicts —

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Michael J. Scott: It conflicts with the vested
interests —

All right. Thank you.
Carry on.
Hon. Michael J. Scott: It would be resisted because
. . . and it would not flourish because it conflicts with
the protected pre- existing businesses.
And I mentioned KeyTech deliberately, and I
mention this ridiculous duopoly that has been formed
under this particular Minister of Economic Develop-ment where up until . . . and under our prior Gover nment we were determined to create competition in the
IT space and the telecommunications space. And t oday we have a duopoly. The regulating authority are
conducting a review to try and understand (I saw it on the Internet) whether there has been reasonable competition. I do not know why the regulators just do
not stand up and say, We don’t need another review. When you reduce the number of players in the Inter-net class A overseas carriers and mobile space, when
you reduce it to two you are going to reduce compet ition. It is pretty clear. It is pretty clear, and it is sad to see it.
And I come back to my point on page 11.
These kinds of policies of protectionism, these kinds
of statements from the Minister of Economic Development himself that he cannot understand a gover nment driving innovation means that . . . what I just
said, that unless it is a PLP Government a technology incubator would not thrive. It would be choked and strangled in its cradle.
But today we speak on justice, Mr. Speaker ,
and one has to ask the question, Just how does jus-tice square and fit into a national budget? And it is the reason that I adopt with enthusiasm this speech by the Leader of the Opposition, which does speak to this legacy that brought the Minister of Economic Development to his feet, this legacy of the game that goes
on in our country and has been going on for literally hundreds of years. And what justice has a mandate to do is to deal with the uneven, unfair, distribution of economic activity in our country, the inequalities of
opportunities in our country in the Bermuda setting.
The Bermuda setting has been one where the
status quo, Mr. Speaker, is of protection of the elite
holders of capital in this country who are primarily white elite. There is a platform, the ownership is there, there is management, and there is labour in it. I do not
know if any Members of the Government front bench
or the backbench recognise this role, ownership of capital, ownership of means of production, ownership of all of these industries and systems. They need management and these management and labour pos itions are filled by us—certainly the Opposition Members recognise this set up. It is managed and the l abour is provided by many of us; but the ownership and
control is such that the complete and vast majority of the wealth is retained in the hands of the status quo owners, and that [is what] they seek to protect and not
ever let it change.
So on the front of justice, a Justice Minister or
a Justice Shadow Minister as myself, in making the
analysis will say, Well, monopolies and the growth of
poverty, the growth of the degrading of the middle class, the struggle by the working class to just eke out
an existence . . . there are some members of a soci ety, obviously, who are working within this construct,
this game I shall call it, who as managers in the sy stem and workers, their income, salaries, are by and large and very often, Mr. Speaker, ploughed back into the ownership- class coffers. We buy the food from
them, the insurance from them, the booze from them, the services from them, the banking from them.

[Inaudible interjection]



Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Michael J. Scott: Yes, from them. The ownership; the white elite class. I am speaking as the Shadow Minister of Justice, and this construct needs to be
changed. It needs to be deconstructed, and we have the mandate to do it. This party has demonstrated it in the time when we were in office with the social agen-da as we looked at the whole issue of the haves and
the have- nots.
But in case the doubting mumblings of the
Premier will be possibly assisted, because he is offended from hearing it from myself, he should listen . . . the Honourable Premier might be persuaded in his
scepticism by the fact that other Members of his Government, in a time gone by, saw these inequities and
inequalities, and it was the then- Health and Social
Services Minister who called to this country a respec ted judge, in the name of Stephen Tumin, to come here and look at the inequities. And he had a man-date. May I read it for you briefly, Mr. Speaker ?
But this was the Honourable Mr. Edness who
was then- Health Minister. He saw these inequities.
And the mumblings from the other side . . . In case their minds and memories have shortened, I remind them that this has been going on historically. This was
in 1992, Mr. Speaker . And he came to review the
Criminal Justice System and the prim ary legislation
which impacts incarcerations in our country.
Judge Tumin, Mr. Speaker, was the Inspector
of Prisons in the United Kingdom, so he was selected.
And here [are] some of his findings. [His mandate
was] to review, Mr. Speaker , the Criminal Just ice Sy stem procedures, the policies, and to make reco mmendations about sentencing alternatives; to invest igate—and this is a significant part of the mandate,
here is the critical one—to investigate the perceptions,
Mr. Speaker, that persons of different races and di fferent backgrounds are treated differently by the sy stem.
Now, that one, I raised it in this House more
than once, but it is a persistent and continuing issue on the front of justice—“to review the Criminal Justice
System with a view of recommending how the country
can change the emphasis from one of custody to cor-rection.” And you would get that. Rehabilitation, changing lives, as opposed to just continuing a revol ving door.
So that was the UBP’s own Minister in 1992.
Twenty years earlier, Mr. S peaker , in 1977 when there
was another example, an action of unfairness by a foreign police officer who decided (in his own head) that it was okay to exclude a young black male from the town hall proceedings going on in there. And, ha ving done so, allowed a young white male to enter into
this festival. It cast and threw the country —this whole
community —into complete civil breakdown. And so it
required yet another judicial officer to come to our I sland and look at this in the name and personage of Dr.
Pitt, Lord Pitt. And many of his findings and recommendations revealed the central problem of inequali-ties across the economic space, the social space in
our country.
So if there is a link chain that we can follow, I
return to Judge Tumin. Professor Ronald Mincy came
to our Island, Mr. Speaker, and what he looked into
. . . so it is more this persistent need for looking into
the inequities on the economic and social front in our
country. And he came to look at the poor distribution,
the misdistribution of jobs, employment and unem-ployment amongst young black males contrasted or compared with their same- sex [white] counterparts.
So this was thought to be an area which the Progres-sive Labour Party under Premier Brown, I think . . . I
know it was Dr. Brown who identified and promoted
Professor Mincy to come. And this was in the 2000s.
I hope Members listening can see that I am
making the point that has cold water thrown on it by the Economic Minister. But I am just making the sim-ple point with evidence that we have had these pro blems. And they need to be addressed, justice and the fair administration of justice and the delivery of pol icies and regulations and legislation that ensures that we remove disparities of race- based delivery of justice
(may I make that clear?), of racially based or gender -
based or even sexual orientation- based delivery of
justice. Inequities are there, we have seen it.
This is where justice is relevant on a debate of
our national Budget because a litany of, We’re going to continue to make cuts in civil service, and an i mpoverished retreat into America’s Cup and the airport
as the saving grace of the OBA really is not cutting it.
People are not feeling it. As a matter of fact, I have spok en to people, Mr. Speaker, who are at the spear
point of these civil service cuts. As a practitioner, Mr.
Speaker , I know. I have filed information within our
Tax Commissioner’s Office under the Primary Homes.
it was the primary home application. And I filed doc uments, conveyances, as I often have to do, to be adjudicated. And I have done this in 2013 and 2014, and
I think one in 2012. Because of cuts made right in 2012, and continuously by the Minister of Finance
(who is on his feet), because of these cuts civil ser vants will lament, Mr. Scott, it is an unholy mes s (my
words, unholy mess). We cannot deal with the submissions because we haven’t the capacity.
So I hear it and I do not want to make too big
a deal of it. It is known across the practicing communi-ty. It must be known amongst . . . certainly it is known
amongst the Mr. and Mrs. Bermuda who are waiting
for their applications to be processed. Many are senior citizens. I hope they live to see their certificates. But it is very worrying. And for the Economic Minister to stand up and keep promulgating and expounding u pon the virtues of these cuts, cuts into and cuts against
these realities. For civil servants themselves are ha ving to be apologised for and [extended] some empa-thy because they cannot get the work done.
So the people of the country, of this Island,
have a choice. Do we want more of this kind of tec h764 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly nocratic chest -beating about cuts and fiscal reduction
and anaemic growth in the GDP? Or do they want to
see technology innovation and technology incubators? Do they want to have a Government that recog nises
and is able to manage Bermuda through these fiscally challenging times, and at the same time, just like they say, you know, chew gum and swat flies at the same
time? Do they want a Government that can recognise,
manage, and deal with the fiscal challenges that we have and still come up with keeping our civil servants employed?
The words of Dr. Gibbons, the Minister, were
so callous and effete, you know, letting people go. I mean, it just slips off of his tongue. You did not hear him add to this. . . and this was a reference to civil
servant cuts, you did not hear him add anything about retraining these people who have to pay for mortgag-es, have to go home at night to their spouses and keep bread and food on the table. So we did not hear
the Economic Minister say . . . looking for . . . in the
context of these cuts of civil servants, retraining and
redeployment, or as the Opposition Leader and Sha dow Minister of Finance indicated in his Reply, use of technology, Mr. Speaker , use of technology to replace
reductions in human capital, which itself creates a job.
But the Minister of Economic Development says, Just
let the people go. And he is beating his chest about
this.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Michael J. Scott: He did say that. I wrote it
down, le tting people go.
So the context of justice (may I return to it?),
Professor Mincy made his findings. They are a matter
of public record. Even our Lord Chief Justice Kawaley
noted something that really, I think, arises out of some
of the history. What he f ound, Mr. Speaker , and this is
a bit of a legal piece, is that the sentencing system and the sentencing policy in our country has been, in his comparison with other European [countries] and
the United States and all the Commonwealth, compared with the sentencing tariffs in those countries has been remarkably, outstandingly harsher than those countries . . . based—and he added this —
based on our slavery history.
And so justice, the role of justice today is to
take note of that judicial observation and to dea l with
sentencing policies that are both measured and hu-mane and relate to a platform of correcting and not just punishment. But this is what grew up, not under the Progressive Labour Party, but under a United Bermuda Party. And it has been unaddressed aft er
the record now that has been established by the OBA of four years.
We had the anaemic response of the person
whom I shadow, the Attorney General, the anaemic response throughout this four -year period of Criminal
Justice . . . our amendments that led to the defence having to, you know, distribute its defence and disclose its defence. It was more technical criminal justice reforms. We all remember it, we debated it in this House. That had nothing to do with what I am adv ocating right now, which is the amelioration of policies of sentencing and/or the Tumin- identified issue of
over-reliance on punishment as opposed to correction. And so the record of the OBA Justice Minister
has also been unimpressive. As a Minister of Justice, I would ensure that this becomes Part 2 of the new
Bermuda setting, Mr. Speaker, where we address and where we do good, because that is the mandate of Government. And part of the justice mandate is well
expressed by Dr. Maya Angelou, so I am going to get
her now into Hansard, if I ma y.

You have two minutes left.
Hon. Michael J. Scott: Oh my goodness.
“The onus is upon us all to work to improve
the human condition. Perform good deeds, for that is
truly the way to battle the forces of entropy that are at work in our world. The composite of all our efforts can have an effect. Good done anywhere is good done
everywhere.”
So contrast the choices between the Progressive Labour Party and the OBA. They have been e ngaged more recently with this campaign of releasing
of the Commission of Inquiry. You know, Mr. Speaker ,
there was a Commission of Inquiry . . . they go on all
the time in countries. I remember the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War. It was meant to be an inquiry that was viewed as independent and trusted. The Premier stood on a platform yesterday (or a couple of days ago) with the Chairman and declared the publication of the Commission of Inquiry led by Justice Evans. He
should keep a distance from it. They made a mistake
when they first were announced by revealing that there was far too much political interest in connection with this Commission of Inquiry. And then we have the Chairman himself in the teeth and throes of the actual
commission hearings stating about the Port Royal Golf Course—his now famous statement —this is
“straightforward fraud.” A justice that was inept, I say with greatest of respect. That showed what most jus-tices and juries try to avoid. He made this inflammat ory . . . just poured accelerant into the proceedings.

[Timer beeps]
Hon. Michael J. Scott: That questioned the ind ependence—

Yes, just barely, Mr. Speaker . I
did have surgery this morning so I am a bit lame. But I
am glad to participate in this economic debate and I know it is going to be a long night, so I will try to keep my comments brief.
You know, I smiled when the Member who
just sat down talked about enhancement and embellishment, talking about some of the things that have
been done. And I just could not help but think of, you know, alternative facts (as it were), embellishing an ything . . . certainly a dismissal of history and what actually transpired, but would have to be looked at as
alternativ e facts. You know, Mr. Speaker , I am
a Manchester United fan. So, of course, I sit on my
couch many weekends and kind of coach from sitting on my couch. Of course, I do not play football —

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. R. Wayne Scott: I do not play footb all. Certainly
I could not play in England’s premier league, if I did
knock around, but it is so easy to just armchair quar-terback, you know. And I like listening to the Oppos ition Leader’s response. I always like listening to him.
He just sounds so nice, he speaks eloquently. It is
great. Unfortunately, it is wrong, but be that as it may.
I will just look at . . . I am not going to spend
time really going over the Opposition’s Reply. I am going to spend my time outlining facts. I am going to
start out spending my time on facts, not on disputing
an election promise or election platform from that Member. But what I will do with the Opposition’s Reply is I am going to look at the first sentence and the last sentence. The first sentence says, and I read, “ Mr.
Speaker , it is clear that an election is in the air, and
that means that voters of this country will soon have a choice to make.” And the context of that is that, you
know, there is an election so all types of things will be said.
The last sentence talks about former Premier
Alex Scott, who is my first cousin, you know. “Berm uda works best when we work together.” And one could argue that they were actually on a good wicket to some extent back then. But we know what happened to my cousin. And I think the person that annihilated
him who talked about, We had to deceive you . . . I
actually sat down and listened to a speech that was given by that same gentleman that said, By any means necessary we’ve got to take this Government
back. Whatever we have to say, whatever we have to do. So I look at this election platform as, yes, it is a lot
of whatever we have to say. It is very easy to armchair quarterback. But let us look at the facts. What hap-pened? What happened when you were actually there
and at the helm, and because of that what have we
had to do?
You know, when we first took over Gover nment, I used to tease the Finance Minister and, of
course, my other family member on the other side there from constituency 24, always likes to talk about
cartoons and rap songs and everything, but . . . so I
am going to mention Bob the Builder.
Now Bob the Builder is an animated character, if you do not know, Mr. Speaker, that can kind of fix anything, right? He has his little tool belt. You name it; it could be a hole on the moon and he has got it
fixed. So there was this little cartoon that I had that I used to tease the Finance Minister about, Hey, Bob,
can you fix it? And the response was, No, it is . . . well,
let us just say it was really messed up bad, Mr.
Speaker . And so Bob the Builder has actually done
some amazing things. And if you start to actually look at what has happened over the last couple of years . . . and, again, we became Government, and that side, especially the Member that I do not see over there, I think from constituency 13, is always talking about
how we put up . . . the deficit has increased under us,
which it has. But let us really understand why.
We inherited a third of a billion dollar current
account, just deficit. Now what does that mean? It means that . . . well, let me put it in simple terms,
right? Because you have got a paycheque that just barely covers your rent, your food, your bills, and ev erything, right? Your spouse leaves you and now you find out that the five credit cards you had are al l
maxed out and they are in your name so you are stuck with them. So now the paycheque that just bar ely covers the essentials has to now pay for a current
account deficit of things that have been committed to,
that you cannot just turn off like a switch, and Mem-bers on that side know that. So continuing to act like that did not exist is, at best, misleading, and worse like wilful . . . wilful deceit, you know?

[Inaudible interjections]

And I think, Mr. Speaker , that if
you are honest those are things that over the last
couple of years, where that has come down to a level
today that is just unbelievable . . . for that to happen in
a couple of years and on schedule for the first time in
a decade to be a balanced budget next year is pretty
amazing. So when I talk about, Bob the Builder , can
you fix it? His response would now be, Yep! Yes, I
can.

766 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. E. David Burt: Point of order, Mr. Speaker .

Mr. Speaker, you know, let me
start outlining some of the facts —not armchair quarterbacking, not Monday morning quarterback, not si tting around talking about what Marino should have done and why can’t United win again —let us look at
some of the facts.
When we look at our overall economy, again,
this is our second year of a three- year programme to
stabilise and improve the local economy. We have made progress. Our GDP has grown, you know, effectively bringing an end to a prolonged recession. Tour-ism is being enhanced through the Tourism Authority that, you know, took so much stick from across the
other side initially, and now it is like, Wow, this is
great. You know, it just blows my mind.
When you start to look at the fact that in 2016
we actually started to grow jobs for the first time since 2008, you know, the airport redevelopment, the hotel in St. George’s, will help to continue that. Now when we talk about the airport, of course, there is a whole lot of talk about that. In simple terms, the airport is the
same size project as the hospital, but it is like $10 mi llion a year less, but that is a responsible Government. It cracked me up the other day when I heard talk
about St. Regis and the questioning, Why the delay?
What’s happening? Government needs to give a current date. The Government —
Hon. E. David Burt: Point of order, Mr. Speaker .

So when I . . . you know, I
laughed when I started to hear demand that the tim eline for the hotel in St. George’s be updated. Yo u
know, we all remember the implosion with great fan-fare. We are getting there. We are actually getting
there.
Consumer confidence has been revitalised.
You know, if you start again, Mr. Speaker , to look at
the work that this Government has done and start to
look at facts and you start to look at numbers, things
are turning around.
The Tourism Authority is making headway.
We look at the air leisure travellers and cruise trave llers, [these] have increased year over year by like 17 per cent, as outlined in here. And those are real
numbers. Those are real numbers, Mr. Speaker . Infrastructure projects are under way. And if you start to
look at things that are happening . . . Morgan’s Point.
If you have actually gone out and looked at Morgan’s Point and seen all the activity, or for anyone who has not been up to Morgan’s Point, go out to the Golf
Course at Port Royal and . . .I know there is a lot of
interest in Port Royal that is going on now —but I d igress. But go there for the purpose of looking over at
what is happening at . . . I think it is the 11
th hole up
there. It has a very good view of what is going on at
Morgan’s Point. There is a lot of activity.
You have got the Loren that just opened.
SurfSide is happening. Again, we were just talking
about St. George’s . . . it is coming. When you look at
America’s Cup and the thousands of visitors that are expected to come because of that, that is the type of
investment that puts a lot of money into our economy.
That is the type of investment that really helps Ber-muda forward.
Even though insurance premiums and the industry were flat, in 2016 it is stable. If you start to look at the Bermuda Business Development Agency, [it]
has helped companies get on Island and participate in
many conferences and events. And things are just
happening again in Bermuda because you are starting to see a confidence. And if you understand economics . . . unfortunately, the last thing that actually starts to pick up with that is the jobs. But if you do understand


Bermuda House of Assembly economics, you know that although that is at the tail
end all indications are that it is there and it is coming
and we need that stability and we need that conf idence.
After three years, really, of a sharp recovery
from the recession—doldrums, really —our residential
market, real estate market, just remains stable. So
these are things that when you start to ask Bob the Builder, Can we fix it? And you start to look at where
the stability is after really going down a slide with
greased lightning . . . I mean, if we remember where
we w ere a few years ago and look at where the stabi lity of things are now, is it perfect? Absolutely not. But
we are actually heading in the right direction, and that
stability has been put in place by a responsible Gov-ernment.
And there are some challenges. There are
some challenges in banking. If you look at all of the non-performing loans, those increased substantially
when our real estate market basically imploded. And it really was the first -ever major correction that we have
had. Non- performing loans actually fell in 2016. That
actually shows progress. But, you know, we are still recovering from the damage caused by the last time
the Opposition was at the helm. And if we continue to
try to act like that did not happen, the scary thing is it means that you have not learned your lesson and would do it all again. And that is kind of the biggest thing.
You know, I have children, Mr. Speaker . And
one of the main things when my children were young and we were trying to correct them was to see if they had learnt the lesson. Did they really understand what
went on? Or was it like, Nope, it was n’t me. It wasn’t
me; it was my sister, it was my brother, it was the person down the street, it was the boogie man in the corner, it was somebody else. You have not learnt yo ur
lesson yet if that is the case. And that is something
that actually really concerns me, and should really concern every Bermudian. When we want to look at the real facts —not alternative facts, not the Monday
morning quarterbacking, not the sitting on the couch being the premier league coach and calling it all right, actually being there in the midst of it and making it happen— there is a difference.
So again, when we talk about the national
debt and, again, Mr. Speaker , I said I will be brief, so I
am just going to mention one or two other things. When we talk about the debt and we have got . . . you
know, what, a half a million dollars a day that is being spent on debt service. And again, these are things that have been committed to and the one thing . . .
and in our Constitution and as a sophisticated society
we actually have to adhere to the commitments that
the Bermuda Government has made, notwithstanding who those Governments are. So when we have inher-ited a current account deficit, we cannot just come in
as Government the next year and say, Nope, it’s going to be a balanced budget. You have made com-mitments, it takes . . . you have to work hard and it is
not just automatically going to happen that everything is just somehow . . . you are going to wake up in the morning and all that is going to go away. No, it takes some time. But let us think about this for a second. Most people just cannot even get their head around what $500 million a day would actually look like. But
let us —

[Inaudible interjection]

Five hundred thousand, I got it, I
got it. I got it, my apologies. You know what I mean. You know what I mean, half a million dollars . . . half a
million dollars a day.
So if we start to . . . I guess I am just doing the
math, adding it all up, and what it looks like. But let us look at it from a scholarship perspective, if I may, Mr.
Speaker . Of course, that is something that is dear to
my heart and this Government, contrary to what the
Member from constituency 13 likes to say, has put a
lot of investment into scholarships because our chi ldren are important. But at $25,000— which is a full
scholarship, a Bermuda Government scholarship, for
someone going away —that is like 7,300 scholarships
a year —poof! Up in smoke. Up in smoke. That is 20
scholarships a day at $25,000 that is gone from that financial mismanagement. And —

Hon. E. David Burt: Point of order, Mr. Speaker .

Yes, Honourable Member .

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker , we are having an
economic debate so I am not going to allow the Member to mislead the public. The fact of the matter is that the debt has doubled. So if you are going to say that it is due to financial mismanagement, then please say what is due to your financial mismanagement as well.

Yes. Yes, Honourable Member .

POINT OF ORDER
Hon. E. David Burt: The Honourable Member needs
to get his facts correct. When the One Bermuda All iance came into office the current account deficit from
the year before was not $300- something, it was act ually in the hundreds of thousands . . . hundreds of millions. I will bring up the figure for you . . . current account. Be clear.

You know, you know, Mr.
Speaker , we want to sit here and play games with
words, to basically put our hands up and it is like, It
wasn’t me; it was that guy next door that did it, or
somebody else.
Look, these are commitments that financial
mismanagement caused and we were committed to,
and those are the residual effects of that. And if you
are going to argue that it wasn’t me, it just shows
again that you have not learned your lesson and we
are going to go down the same road again if we allow
that type of election platform to happen. And I think
(just to quote the learned Member from constituen-cy 36) he used enhancements and embellishments.
So that is the sort of thing I mean. We are talking about 20 scholarships a day of $25,000— poof! Gone!
You know at $500,000 we say that is a house, that is
like a house a day for a senior —poof! Gone! And
those are things that we cannot allow to continue to
happen.
So, yes, governments do not make money.
Governments raise taxes and use those in an appr opriate manner, and so there are some things that we
have had to adjust. We want to make payroll tax fai rer, and I think that that is a good start. There is a good
start to tax reform as a whole. There are other things that Bob the Builder (if I may) has suggested that are going to be done and we are working towards, and we are actually getting there. And Mr. Speaker, you know, as we talked about, this is safe hands. This is safe
hands to continue the work that has been done to
continue to make changes that even some of the rating agencies did not think were possible, but have congratulated us for actually getting there.
So when we look at this year’s Budget Stat ement by my colleague, the Minister of Finance, it is
marked by just a financially prudent approach and it is
taking precautions. It is a matter, you know, of pr udence, which is just taking precautions in order to pr otect. It clearly shows the OBA’s commitment to place our country on a solid economic footing—locally and internationally. We also have to make sure that we
take care of our people and we are working to do that.
But yo u know, digging a hole, Mr. Speaker , is
real easy to do. Anybody can dig a hole. You could
trip over yourself and dig a hole, but digging a way out of a hole, now, that is something that is difficult to do. And that is what we have been doing for the past few
years. So, yes, we have been facing tough economic times. The Finance Minister and his team have spent a lot of time balancing the need to regain command of the country’s financial situation while continuing to provide suitable levels of service.
So, a gain, Mr. Speaker , I would just end real
simple by, if I was to ask that question again, So, Bob, can you fix it? Yes—a resounding yes, Mr. Speaker .
Thank you.

Thank you . Thank you, Honourable
Member .
The Chair will now recognise the Honourable
Member from constituency 5, MP D. V. Burgess.
You have the floor.
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Thank you, Mr.
Speaker .
First of all, Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate our Shadow Finance Minister and Leader of
the Progressive Labour Party, David Burt, for a great delivery with great —

[Desk thumping]
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: —with a great Budget
Reply. In fact, the speaker who just took his seat
talked about our facts are not correct. But I do not
think he could find in our book anything in there that is
not correct. Mr. Speaker . I am sure that speaker cannot do that.
Mr. Speaker, I have heard . . . I sat here and I
listened attentively to Grant Gibbons —

—Minister of Economic Development.


Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Thank you, Mr.
Speaker .
And I heard him say that they do not have the
experience and the ability . . . those on this side of the
House. I really do not think that he understands what
he is saying to a large segment of the population of this country. We have been told that for many years,
You don’t have the experience or the ability or the
qualifications. And it was levied at one particular se gment of this Bermuda. I need not go any further with that, Mr. Speaker , but that is disrespectful. And it
shows total disregard for the majority of the people of this country.
Mr. Speaker, he also blamed the 5,000 job
losses on the Progressive Labour Party. They also blamed the recession on the Progressive Labour Par-ty. We understand that. But he went on to say that the OBA are conflicted often, because they have business and they are experienced. I guess to say that it is
okay for us —him, them, the OBA —to be conflicted; it
is all r ight.
Mr. Speaker, I can remember the first Berm udian statistician, the Honourable Calvin Smith, who
sat in this House. He said when he was the Chief
Statistician he had bought some office equipment
(and I forget what shop he bought it from, let us say
he got it from shop ABC). And when the Minister
came in he said, Where did you get that from? It was
the Honourable Member at that time (deceased now)
Jack Sharpe. And Calvin Smith told him where he got
it from and the Minister said, Take that back and get i t
from Purvis. That was one of his companies, yes. And
that is all right because that is considered business,
but if it happened over on this side it would be bribes.
Mr. Speaker, one thing that really got my attention and really got next to me in the Budget speech
was Government wants to help these families and
individuals, but there is very little room to help them. Mr. Speaker, but before I go into any depth in that, let me say this here. The consolidated fund deficit in 2011/12 was $1.3 million, and a bit. The consolidated
fund deficit as of today is $2.8 million. Mr. Speaker ,
that is double in a matter of four years.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: The consolidated fund
deficit, you will find it in the Budget Book, just look in
there. Yes, it is there.
Now, Mr. Speaker, you know, this Gover nment —the present Government —needs to stop crying
about what they inherited. You know, when we took Government in 1998 we inherited some things. In fact,
you can remember like many others can remember
that prior to that the Government of the day was proud to say, We have got a surplus budget. We got surplus
money. Do you know why? They did not spend any
money on the infrastructure—nothing. So they were supposed to have some surpluses. We did not come by and say, Well, you know, you could have left us a
perfect house, and you are making me do all this work . If you are complaining about the work that you
have got to do because you are the Government and you inherited it, then you need not be ther e, Mr.
Speaker .
Mr. Speaker, the Government also talks about
job growth in 2016. But they speak that because the Labour Survey is not complete yet it has not been put out to the public. But they do state in their Economic National Report that it is only . . . this is preliminary
stuff. Fine. And they say they have increased jobs by 56, which is the first increase in some time.
Mr. Speaker, I would venture to say that those
figures are wrong. And I will tell you the reason why I say that, because I do not want to just say these fi gures are wrong and have nothing to back it up with. Mr. Speaker, if you look at the Budget Book it would tell you that in 2016/17 the Government had originally
budgeted to hire 5,078 people, and they only hired
4,955—123 people less. And I would venture to say when they gave those figures —the preliminary fi gures—in to the statisticians, they gave it at the 5,078
instead of the 4,955—a difference of 153. So I do not
think we had any improvement in the hiring of . . . in
the field.
And if there is any improvement that happened, it did not happen for Bermudians, it happened
for non- Bermudians. Because, Mr. Speaker , if you
look [at] the 2015 Labour Survey, you would see that
in 2014 the total jobs for non- Bermudians were 7,491,
and in 2015 they were 7,868—an increase of 377. For
whites in 2014, it was 11,816. And in 2015 it was 12,766— an increase of 950 jobs. But when it came to
my cousins (I have cousins on both sides), when it came to blacks, the job figure in 2014 was 17,315 and
in 20 15 there were 16,469—a loss of 846 jobs for
blacks. That is what it was, Mr. Speaker. And then,
again, in that survey, despite the recession, the i ncome disparity widened between blacks and whites. I thought it would not happen in a recession because
many workers in this country have not had an i ncrease in six years, but it did. It did widen.
Mr. Speaker, also when we take on the new
taxes, the new payroll taxes —a great thing— workers
will say thank you for anything you are about to give
us, even though it would be taken back from us by the
increase in fuel. I mean, since the last increase, since
2011, fuel has increased 49 per cent. And Mr. Speaker, since the last increase that workers had in 2011 (I
think it was) . . . no, let me get back to the bands first
before I go there. This new tax rate was designed to give people under $96,000 a deduction in their paying
payroll tax. But Mr. Speaker , I do not really think it
was the intent of the Minister. But Mr. Speaker , anybody that makes $131,600 will get a reduction in their
payroll tax, if you go by the bands. Oh yes, they will get a reduction.
770 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Speaker, if you have got somebody making, say, $130,000 a year and right now they pay
6 per cent (6 per cent of that is $78,000) that is what it
would be now with the straight 6 per cent. But Mr.
Speaker , let me go again because I hear some chir ping over there. They are trying to say that our math is not correct. Let me say this again, Mr. Speaker , if you
are making $130,000 a year, the 6 per cent of that is
$78,000 a year; that would be your payroll tax. With
the new tax that is put in place —the bands —it would
be 7,600- and-some dollars. I have got it here som ewhere. That is what it would be. So it is a reduction for somebody making $130,000 a year.
Now, Mr. Speaker , the Finance Minister has
budgeted to take in an extra $45 million in payroll tax. So the only people that will be contributing to that $45 million would be the people that are making more than $130[,000], let us say $136,000. Those are going to be the only people contributing to it. I do not think that
was his intent. I think the bands that they brought here last year for the land tax is the same problem again. I am going to assume out of the 33,000 workers we have, 25 per cent of them make over $136,000 a year.
And if you took that 25 per cent of that, they would
each have to pay an extra average of just over $5,000 in increased payroll tax a year. That is an increase on top of what they are paying. I do not think that was the intent. The intent was to give people that are making
$96,000 and less a reduction in their payroll tax. That is what it was supposed to be, Mr. Speaker , but that is
not how it works out.
Mr. Speaker, also I do not think the Gover nment has budgeted for any wage increases because the allocated wages for 2017/18 is just an increase of about 1.8 [per cent] in extra money in payroll, salaries and other personnel costs. Along with that you have
got 61 new workers. That is what they have got the
budget for. They are going to hire 61 more people, Mr.
Speaker . Mr. Speaker, let me say this here, they only
budgeted for an increase of 1.8 per cent. Now since
2000, the last increase for civil servants, their weekly
deductions for payroll tax, social insurance and GEHI
has gone up 59 per cent. [Gone up] 59 per cent. That
is what it is per month . . . that is per month, per week,
per month, whatever you want to put it . . . per year,
59 per cent. In fact, it averages out to be an increase in their deductions . . . for those three alone it comes
to $114 per week —7.69 [per cent]. A large increase.
And you are only —

[Inaudible interjections]

What is going on here? Can you just
take it outside please? All right?
Okay. Carry on, carry on.
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: So, Mr. Speaker, the
Government has not . . . I guess the way they would
do it, even though they have got “X” number of jobs they want to hire for the next fiscal period, all those people will not be hired because even though they
budgeted for a certain number (5,078 for this fiscal period), they only hired 4,955. [That is] 123 people short. And as they said in the Budget, most of that money goes to pay off certain things that total $10
million. I paid this, I paid this off, and did not hire the
workers. And I think instead of crying down the wor kers they should be praising the civil service and go vernment workers for the work they have done with the
shortage of staff. In fact, you have supporters of the Government wanting to get rid of . . . to cut the civil
service down and al so to pass on any increases to the
consumer, Mr. Speaker .
It is quite obvious that the Chamber of Commerce (their history) has never supported the workers of this country. Their members, when they got $30-plus million in tax exemptions, it was okay. Milli onaires
and billionaires got exemptions [and] workers continue
to pay, even in this new tax reform with payroll tax.
Even though they are taking it down for some of the workers, they are taking it down for the employers also. So they enjoy the benefits when we get them, but when they get them we do not enjoy them, Mr.
Speaker .
Mr. Speaker, you know, we have seniors that
need help. But the Government says, Government
wants to help these families and individuals, but there
is little room to move. That is what you are telling seniors who built this country and [you] want them to survive off the pension they get. A lot of our seniors were
just surviving off the wages they were getting. Now they are not getting those wages; they are getting a fraction of what they were getting in pension income and you still want them to survive like that? They ca nnot survive like that.
Last year the Government took some grants
away from them, from the rest homes. Thank God they put them back this year. But Mr. Speaker, the rest homes need more than grants, they need help.
Because I know at least one or two of the rest homes,
they do not operate for profit. They operate as a duty
to the country to house these seniors. These senior homes need some money to help their infrastructure because a lot of people that live in these senior res idences, some of them cannot pay, Mr. Speaker . You
should ask some of the operators of these homes
[about] the arrears that they have. And they cannot
get it because a lot of the time . . . most . . . well, quite
a bit of the time the assistance that they get from F inancial Assistance does not cover the fee. Then you have got some families that promise to pay for their seniors, and they do not pay. But do you kick these
folks out? No, you cannot kick them out; they continue
to house them, Mr. Speaker .
You know, Mr. Speaker, there is no money in
that Budget for dementia care and Alzheimer’s. These diseases are increasing every year, Mr. Speaker . We
should never . . . no Government should ever cut any


Bermuda House of Assembly benef its to seniors that worked long and hard for small
wages.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Thank you, Mr.
Speaker . They worked long and hard and we should
never put our seniors in a position where they have to
decide between medicine and food, or whether to pay the light bill. We should never, ever put our seniors in that position. Lefroy House has got room out there, but it is . . . they have . . . I do not know what Government is going to do. We need rooms. They have
got room there, but it is not in use, the old part of
Lefroy House. I see Government has got a little bit of money there, $125,000, for Lefroy House. I do not know what that is for, Mr. Speaker .
You see, Mr. Speaker, this comes at a time
when we are telling people, We ain’t got no room for
you. But we can give a hundred million for the Amer ica’s Cup. And when I say “a hundred,” I am talking
about even the $39 million included for the land rec-lamation. We can give $30 million in payroll exem ptions to millionaires. We can give $200,000 for an office for a Minister when there is a first -class office a lready for them. We can give over $4 million to lawyers for the airport development —not even a Bermuda law
firm. We can give $2.3 million to a law firm headed by . . . one of the partners being the wife of a Minister.
We can put up $4- plus million to investigate Dr.
Brown.
Mr. Speaker, we can disregard $5 million from
Works and Engineering. We bought a turbine. When I say “we” [I mean] Works and Engineering bought a turbine. It was supposed to generate last fiscal period $7.5 million. I understand that turbine has not worked
for a year. Five million dollars gone, because if you
look in the Budget Book it is only about 500 . . . about
$2.5 million. That is what we were getting before. So the new turbine has been there—supposed to make us $5 million a year in electricity that we sell to
BELCO —not working. That is not any big issue.
And then the $18 million that went missing
because we do not know where it is, the public does
not know where it is, from the Corporation of Hami lton. And Mr. Speaker, I know the Government . . . and
we had it during our time and it has not changed, I am
sure it is at least $150 million owed by taxpayers, employers not paid social insurance, not paid payro ll
tax—$150 million. And if you had that in cash flow in
the Government’s coffers, then we would not have to pay the banks for any cash flow. And I bet if you got an overdraft for $150 million, whatever, it is going to
cost you about $5 million.
So, Mr. Speaker , that is over $150 million that
we could have managed better. But we tell poor people, we tell seniors, we tell workers, we tell students
that have mould in their schools, We want to help, but
we do not have any room to manoeuvre. But we had all this room to manoeuvre—over $150 million —for
these folks, Mr. Speaker . Mr. Speaker, when I talk
about the accounts receivable . . . Mr. Speaker, how
much time do I have left?
[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Okay. When I talk
about the accounts receivable, Mr. Speaker, there are
people that owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in payroll tax and social insurance.
Mr. Speaker, this payroll tax and social insurance, this is employees’ money also deducted from
their pay cheque. And if you do not spend that money,
put that money where it is supposed to go, it is called
embezzlement. That is not my dictionary that is the
dictionary. And we have some people who owe over
half a million dollars. But the other thing is, Mr.
Speaker , I am told by small businesses, I can’t get my
truck licensed because I owe $800- and-some. But
these folks that owe hundreds of thousands of dollars
have no problem getting their trucks licensed.
And Mr. Speaker, I would like to know how
much was collected in the last 12 months in accounts
receivables, because one thing I know is that when accounts receivables is that much, they have got to be mostly friends of the Government. Had that been us, we would have been in court —and rightfully so. Righ tfully so, because I think Government taxes are man-datory, you must pay your taxes. If you do not pay
your taxes in other countries, you are in big trouble,
Mr. Speaker .
On tourism, Mr. Speaker, the Economic N ational Report states that the hotel arrivals increased by 17 per cent. Yet the employment in the hotel sector
decreased by 2- point -something per cent (2.2 or
2.3 [per cent], whatever it was). That does not seem right, Mr. Speaker. I think the last year was probably
one of the best years for hotels as far as room occ upancy, the annual room occupancy. But here we experience a decrease in employment in the hotel sector. Something is not right about that, Mr. Speaker .
And, Mr. Speaker , just like in St. George’s,
because the PLP Government spent money in St.
George’s, I am glad to see St. George’s got a cruise ship, a small one —after many years of trying by the
previous Government. And they continued; that was
the right thing to do. But the reason why they are doing Penno’s Wharf makes sense. It has to make sense because when they got this ship the owners of
the ship came to Bermuda and said, You’ve got to do
this, this, and that, in order for me to bring the ship
into St. George’s, and that is what they have to do. It
is nothing about a caring Government or anything, this
is what you have got to do. Just like when the PLP
Government . . . when we could not put the cruise
ship terminals down at St. George’s as we wanted to do at first, we had to find somewhere else. And when we did decide on Dockyard, we were given 18 months
772 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly by the ship owners to get it ready in order to be on
their next year’s schedule. And Bermudians delivered
on time by Correia Construction and they were out there with only one work permit holder, Mr. Speaker .
And, Mr. Speaker , let me remind the public,
because we took so much stick about this here, that
project paid for itself within three years. I do not know
of any project in this country that can pay for itself in
three years. It was a wise decision by the Government and it is a wise decision by the OBA Gover nment to
do what they have got to do down in St. George’s at Penno’s Wharf to get that dock ready for a cruise ship. We are glad to see it. This Government is glad to see
a ship coming in there. We also want to see the hotel
there. I remember that hotel —the Desarrollos Hotel
(whatever the name is supposed to be) —was promised to be . . . broke ground in November gone, N ovember 2016 —

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: —2015. Then again it
was for 2016, it is 2017 now.
I am not saying this in a negative sense that I
do not want it to happen. I want it to happen. We want
it to happen. When I say “I,” the PLP wants it to hap-pen also. We wish it was yesterday or yesteryear to get that hotel started because we need a hotel. If you are going to improve the numbers coming to this country we have got to have somewhere for these
people to stay, Mr. Speaker, so that is important.

Two minutes. Two minutes.
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Again, Mr. Speaker , I
really want to . . . (I hate to say that) we want to thank
all government workers for what they have done, d espite the recession, despite the job cuts, in maintai ning the level that we are used to. A lot of those job
cuts put a lot of strain on government departments, workers, bosses and everything and everybody else.
But they, professional as they are, carried out their
duties in the way that I think we all expect them to do, Mr. Speaker .
Mr. Speaker, just one last thing about schools.
It was in September of last year that the Premier and the Minister got on TV —national TV —not you, Cole,
got on national TV and they marvelled, We are all ready. The school year is ready. Three weeks later, I
think it was Warwick Sec was out because of health and safety issues at that school. All just for a photo- op
. . . electioneering, that is what they were doing. And
you know, it is sad, but again, Mr. Speaker, the Government has said in their statement, Government wants to help these families and individuals, but there is very little room to manoeuvre. That is their Budget
for this 2017/18 period.
Thank you.

Good afternoon.
Hon. Nandi Outerbridge: Mr. Speaker, over the last
couple of months, and I do not know if it is just me, but
as I walk down the street I generally feel t he positive
vibes that are happening in Bermuda. And generally I believe that it is because some people are starting to really feel the effect of a shifting economy, Mr. Speak-er.
Bermudians seem to have restored conf idence in this Government, and rightful ly so as they
should, because not only do I believe the One Berm uda Alliance Government is, but they have proven to be, the Government with the safest hands, Mr.
Speaker . It was our mission, Mr. Speaker , to restore
Bermuda’s economic health.

[Inaudible in terjections]

Hon. Nandi Outerbridge: And when you look on
page 2 of the Budget, Mr. Speaker, and you read
out—

The actual Budget, yes.
Hon. Nandi Outerbridge: When you read at the end
of the 2018/19 fiscal year the current account is pr ojected to record its fourth straight annual surplus before debt service. This means for the first time in 15 years the Government will not be adding to its net debt.
Mr. Speaker , whether the Opposition wants to
agree with this or not, this is a big deal. So while the Opposition’s job is to prepare the Budget Reply to the Budget Statement, and have it appeal to the elec-torate, Mr. Speaker , quite frankly, looking through this
document . . . that is exactly what it is. It is really a hollow document, Mr. Speaker , with no real substance
in it; a lot of promises and no how’s. Actually, Mr. Speaker , I might add that one of the only things that is
good about this is that I can give kudos for the PLP
printing it out on printing paper, Mr. Speaker . And I
applaud them for saving money for doing that.


Bermuda House of Assembly But, Mr. Speaker , while you have an Oppos ition who is appealing to the electorate with this Bud get Reply and you have an Opposition Leader who, as
my honourable colleague said earlier, is a wannabe Premier and wannabe Finance Minister trying to r ebrand himself —

Honourable Member , carry on. It is not
necessary to withdraw that, Honourable Member .
Carry on.

Hon. Nandi Outerbridge: Mr. Speaker, when you see
the Opposition Leader putting ads out on Facebook
and YouTube and rebranding himself as this, you know . . . I will leave it there, Mr. Speaker . But it can
only be next that I am sure the party will s tart being
rebranded. But throughout all of this, Mr. Speaker ,
Bermudians do not forget. And what they do not forget, Mr. Speaker, are some of the hardships that they
faced under a Progressive Labour Party Government.
Mr. Speaker, in 2012 there were many persons that were unemployed. And my colleagues alluded to it earlier when they said the Progressive Par-ty lost over 5,000 . . . or 5,000 jobs under their watch.
Businesses were closing down. And then, when I fast
forward into 2017, Mr. Speaker, and I can s ee the
number of entrepreneurs starting up businesses . . . I thought that the Opposition would have stood up t oday and praised our Finance Minister for such a great
Budget and having progress. Even though “progress”
is in the Progressive Labour Party’s name, and they had no progress for the entire 14 years, whether they like that repeated or not, they were in power for 14 years and there was no progress, Mr. Speaker .

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Point of order, Mr. Speaker .

All right, Honourable Member s. Honourable Member s, Honourable Member s.
Carry on please, Minister.
Hon. Nan di Outerbridge: Thank you, Mr. Speaker .
So, Mr. Speaker, while we have entrepr eneurs starting successful businesses under the One
Bermuda Alliance Government, I feel the confidence up and down Bermuda. We have yoga places ope ning, gyms opening, we have taxi booking apps starting
up, we have pod car rental bikes and cars close to
starting up, Mr. Speaker, and many more. The list actually goes on.
But what this does, Mr. Speaker , is tie directly
into the hard work that the One Bermuda Alliance has done to shift the economy, putting entities in place like
the Bermuda Tourism Authority, Mr. Speaker . And this
is a group that I once heard someone in the Oppos ition say that they will shut down if they regain power,
Mr. Speaker .

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Nan di Outerbridge: The Bermuda Tourism Authority, with the young dynamic staff that they have, is doing a fantastic job.

[Gavel]

Hon. Nandi Outerbridge: They have been assisting
businesses for entrepreneurs that fall within their tourism plan, Mr. Speaker . As a result of the Bermuda
Tourism Authority we have seen air arrivals up by
11.2 per cent. And what is actually very impressive to
me, Mr. Speaker, is the number of tourists that are
coming to Bermuda in the younger demographic. So the nearly -dead- and-newlywed stigma that Bermuda
once had, Mr. Speaker, seems to be taking a back
seat to thriving events like the Carnival, an event that
started up under a One Bermuda Alliance Gover nment, an event that is attracting international celebr ities. People are excited to come down here in June,
Mr. Speaker. It is all over social media, everyone is talking about the Carnival.
774 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly So, Mr. Speaker , the fact is that all of this
success has a direct impact on Bermudians. The effect of more tourists in Bermuda has seen hotel occu-pancy increase. We have seen more money in local businesses, Mr. Speaker, while the tourists are onIsland. And the simple fact is, as I look through the Opposition’s Budget Reply, that I see six pages that
literally talk about tourism but only two things talked
about —vacation rentals and reducing energy costs for
hotels. I am not saying that that is bad, but how will they continue to get tourists to Bermuda? They have no succession plan, Mr. Speaker , none. At least I do
not see it. I do not know if someone else may, but I do
not.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I will move on and talk
about the America’s Cup because there is not a day
that goes by that I do not hear something about the America’s Cup. And it is actually interesting . . . some people really believe that the America’s Cup is just an
event for the elite and will have minimum impact on
the average Bermudian. But the fact is that there is so much for Bermudians to offer during the America’s Cup, Mr. Speaker. In fact, I recently put out a chart on
social media which actually lists the jobs that are going to be required during the time of the America’s
Cup. And they include things like event planning, flo-rists, water shuttles, pet services —that is to name a
few. There was a document out that literally was full of
things for Bermudians to do.
And, might I add, Mr. Speaker, I do not think
people really understand the legacy and the impact of the America’s Cup and what you can add to your r ésumé when participating in the America’s Cup. And I
use a minivan service, for instance, Mr. Speaker .
They make their money usually during the summer months when they are carting around tourists or they
are looking to do weddings, international weddings for
people that come to Bermuda. Most of these minivan drivers, Mr. Speaker , have websites. So if they add to
their website that they worked for the America’s Cup, that is a bonus. People are going to be thrilled by that.
I do not think that the Opposition are giving kudos to
just as big of a deal the America’s Cup is.
So, Mr. Sp eaker , like I said, the America’s
Cup will leave a legacy that will generate more global exposure for the Island. And this is a job well done by not just the One Bermuda Alliance Government, but
the Minister of Economic Development, who worked
very hard to make this happen.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I will actually expand further on my Ministry during the Budget Debate on Monday, during my six hours, but I wanted to just add this in there because I want to make it clear. We are
hearing that the One Bermuda Alliance does not do
enough for the people of Bermuda. But, Mr. Speaker , I
want to make it very clear that the One Bermuda All iance Government is a government that prefers to cr eate an environment for Bermudians to work in. We prefer Bermudians to have the dignit y of having a hand up versus a handout, Mr. Speaker. And we are
the only party that has done so.
If you look at page 4 . . . let me just find the
Budget Reply, there is a comment that says, “The PLP’s People’s Budget will ensure that the resources
required to reverse this trend are funded.” Well, funded with what, Mr. Speaker? At what cost? The Deputy Leader himself quoted there is no such thing as a free
lunch, so where is this money coming from that the Opposition plans to fund everything from?
And I have a note to look at page 26, Mr.
Speaker , so if you will allow me to just go there. Oh,
here we go. On page 26 when the Opposition talks
about the financial assistance reform, it talks about increasing the skills of the able- bodied unemployed
who are on Financial Assis tance; rewarding people in
work that does not penalise them for part -time pos itions; it accomplishes the goal of moving persons for-ward to full -time . . . this is all stuff that the One Bermuda Alliance has looked at. So if they can put in here how they are going to get this done, Mr. Speaker, I would actually believe it, and I would encourage it
because this is stuff that we have looked at. We are working towards trying to get these very things done.
Moving along, Mr. Speaker, it actually nicely
goes into my next statement because just talking about financial assistance and jobs, I mean, this year represents the first year since 2008 that jobs have increased. And there has been an increase in retail and restaurants. Mr. Speaker, we have seen pr ojects
like the Loren and the America’s Cup take off for per-sons working in construction. These are the types of investments that the One Bermuda Alliance attracts, Mr. Speaker. This is the kind of environment that we create for persons to have jobs, Mr. S peaker .
The airport is actually another project that
would have created jobs, and will be creating jobs once started. But it would have started sooner had we not had so much pushback from the Opposition. So it is nice and well for the Opposition to make al l their
promises in this empty Budget [Reply] and they are
over there making their comments now, Mr. Speaker .

[Gavel]

We are going to have some order.

[Gavel]

Hon. Nandi Outerbridge: Mr. Speaker, the fact is that
the One Bermuda Alliance has delivered on ever ything the Opposition could not and would not do if
back in power.
So before I finish up, Mr. Speaker, I just want
to touch on the tax reforms in this Budget because I am not really sure what was in the Budget Reply. But the tax reform that we have imposed is a big deal. It is
set out to relieve our low -income workers. So if you
are making under $137,000, Mr. Speaker —which a cBermuda House of Assembly tually accounts for two- thirds of our Bermudian pop ulation —you will be getting a tax relief. Some people
will see savings of up to $720. And, yes, we have
seen the ads put out by the Opposition saying that this
amounts to a chocolate bar a day. But, Mr. Speaker , I
would rather a chocolate bar than nothing at all. And I think it is pitiful that the Opposition cannot even give
kudos when the Government is helping two- thirds of
our Bermudians. It is like they always have to find a
negative spin. It is shameful.
The other thing I wanted to clear up, because
I have had people reaching out to me, is with regard to the customs duties and coming through the airport.
People are under the impression that the customs
duties when coming through the airport are going to raise from 25 per cent to 35 per cent, Mr. Speaker. So
I just want to clear that up that that is untrue. Persons
will still be only paying 25 per cent on goods when
coming through the airport. So Mr. Speaker , this Go vernment is doing as much as it can without sacrificing
the health of our economy to help Mr. and Mrs. Ber-muda. And I believe that we have —

Hon. E. Dav id Burt: Point of order, Mr. Speaker .

Yes, Honourable Member .

POINT OF ORDER
Hon. E. David Burt: The Honourable Minister just
said that the statement in the Budget Statement
where it says that the duty rate of 25 per cent is going
to 35 per cent, she said the Budget Statement is not
correct. I just want to clarify that she is telling us that the Minister gave incorrect figures to the House.

Yes.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. E. David Burt: The Honourable Minister is misleading the House. This document states that for rates
that are set at 25 per cent right now, which is unaccompanied goods at the airport, they go to 35 [per cent]. The standard rate of payroll tax —I am sorry, the
standard rate of customs duty at 22.25 [per cent] goes
to 28 [per cent]. That is the —

All right. Thank you.
Thank you, Honourable Member .

Hon. Nandi Ou terbridge: This Government, as I was
finishing up, is doing as much as they can without
sacrificing the health of our economy to help Mr. and Mrs. Bermuda. And I believe, Mr. Speaker , that we
have proven to be the only Government to manage to
do this and we are the Government with the safest
hands.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker .

Thank you, Mr. Speaker .
Mr. Speaker, I too would like to join in the k udos that have been extended on this side of the
House with respect to the Reply that was delivered earlier this morning, primarily for a different reason,
actually, than was stated by my honourable colleague.
And that is simply because we had a Reply that was
issued by the Honourable Shadow Minister of F inance, our Party Leader, that introduced to Bermuda a plan, a roadmap and a vision that will help secure and steady the ship of this economy to ensure ec o776 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly nomi c growth and prosperity for all Bermudians, as
opposed to just one segment of our society.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to spend my 30
minutes, or less, just speaking about two issues that
are of particular interest to me and, in particular, be-cause they are matters that are constantly raised with
me during my canvassing at the beauty parlour, at
restaurants, at church and other places where I engage with individuals. Those two issues are very i mportant, and we will probably hear quite a lot about that today with respect to the Budget and the Reply.
However, what I find interesting is that those
issues that I will speak about in a few moments (having read thoroughly the Budget) are issues that, notwithstanding their importance and the relevance in this community . . . the absence of any type of vision or plan in addressing those is startling. Surely, I am not the only person . . . and those of us on this side are talking to individuals in Bermuda that have these
same concerns. And if, as was just stated by the Honourable Minister that just took her seat, they also hear
the same concerns that we have through the high-ways and byways in Bermuda, it begs the question, Why is it that this Government is not taking any steps
to address those?
The first issue that I would like to speak about
briefly, Mr. Speaker , is the issue that is, of course, on
everyone’s lips, and that is jobs. Now, Mr. Speaker ,
we already know that in order to grow an economy
and stimulate our economic growth we have to create
employment opportunities. We need people to be able
to be employed so that they can spend money, they can place that money back into the economy; it circ ulates, it helps purchase goods and services and the like. And then we also know, Mr. Speaker (you do not
need to be an economist to know this), that emplo yment and unemployment are the driving forces behind economic growth and/or stagnation, respectively. And on a national scale, Mr. Speaker , unemployment rates
affect consumer confidence in a variety of ways, and most of all it deals specifically with purchases.
Nobody is going to go out and purchase a
brand new pair of shoes when they know or have the thought pattern behind them that they have seen other persons and colleagues being made redundant, they lose consumer confidence. And if they see their co lleagues being made redundant, then they are going to
take those shoes and go to the cobbler and get them
repaired, as opposed to taking the risk of purchasing a new pair of shoes simply because of the uncertainty. So there is the lack of consumer confidence that filters
throughout the economy that is a cause of concern, and it is simply as a direct correlation with the issues
that we face concerning unemployment.
Mr. Speaker, you will know that persons are
more likely to hold onto their money in these types of
economic times, and when unemployment statistics are rising, or underemployment statistics are also ris-ing, people hold onto their dollar tighter and guard themselves more securely with respect to their money
because these times are very, very uncertain. And,
Mr. Speaker, we also know that new employment op-portunities will also provide chances for . . . and prev iously unemployed persons will provide chances for these people to make money and to put that money back into economy, consumer confidence grows, the
economy grows, it is stimulated and money is circulating from Somerset to St. George’s. But if we know all of that, Mr. Speaker, and we know that all of that is tied directly to job creation, it begs the question, Why is the Government not doing, or doing very little, ins ofar as growing the economy and creating employment
opportunities for Bermudians?
Mr. Speaker, where is the plan? Where is the
plan that the Government has established to create
employment? Where is the plan, Mr. Speaker, that the
Government has established to address underem-ployment? Where is the plan, Mr. Speaker , that the
Government has created to diversify the economy? It is absent.
Oh, no, except . . . no, no, no, excuse me. I
beg to differ. If you look at page 21, Government addresses the issue concerning their plan. Really, and I
am paraphrasing in one sentence—to grow the tourism and capital projects. Well, we have already heard
about these capital projects concerning hotels and I am sure everybody , in particular the Honourable Senator who you just recognised in the House, is probably waiting with bated breath for something to happen in
St. George’s. But needless to say, if the plan for the
Government is simply all based on capital projects and the airport development and growing tourism, that is not big . . . that is not good enough, Mr. Speaker .
With respect, those are areas that, quite frankly, will help, perhaps, enhance the construction industry. But
what about women my age, professional women m y
age who have spent their entire professional careers
in banking or IB and they have seen redundancies within the banking world or IB consolidations? They have worked their way up the corporate ladder dealing
with pay disparity with respect to their male counterparts, addressed glass ceiling issues and done ever ything that they can to make a name for themselves within the industry only to be made redundant. I am not saying they cannot go and lay slate and help build a capital project, but we are looking at a situation
where the Government is proposing that the extent of their employment opportunities and job creation is tied specifically to the issues concerning capital projects and building an airport.
Now, Mr. Speaker, almost every day I hear
from people, many, many Bermudians who have lost
their jobs through no fault of their own. Despite the slow economic recovery, many Bermudians continue on a day -to-day basis to struggle to find work, notwithstanding the fact that in 2012 (leading up to the 2012 election) the OBA Government promised—they promised—that they would create 2,000 jobs. And


Bermuda House of Assembly then we are seeing some 1,600 jobs have been lost in
the economy since 2012.
[Inaudible interjection]

Two thousand since 2012. Every
day we meet Bermudians whose existence suggests
months, if not years, Madam Deputy Speaker, of un-employment. Every day we meet Bermudians whose
existence suggests months, if not years, of underem-ployment. And the redundancies are more co ming. We know there are more on the horizon.
And my question, Madam Deputy Speaker , is,
What is the plan of this OBA Government to get Ber-mudians back to work? And I think I found my answer on page 21 in those two sentences. Contrary to the two sentences, when you look at the plan of the O pposition, Madam Deputy Speaker, there are some . . .
I do not know, about a half a dozen or dozen items that have been detailed and are consistent with the message this Opposition has been speaking for the last four years about the plan, that we have to grow this economy, job creation, job diversification, et
cetera. There are a number of issues. Like I said,
there are about 12 t hat are contained in this Budget
Reply as opposed to the two sentences in the Budget. And because of my time I am going to just focus on and highlight a couple of them that I think require a further shout out.
First of all, which is critical, some of the prior ities that a PLP Government will do to encourage and nurture our environment: One is reform our education system. And that is something, obviously, that is near and true to everybody in this House and in the cou ntry. We see at page 21 it sets out a number of the highlights that the PLP Government will do to enhance our education system. And we know that that will bet-ter prepare our next generation to compete and work within this global economy. Job success is all conti ngent upon education, and the PLP Government has a
plan to address that.
Madam Deputy Speaker, if you look at
page 10, there is another point that I would like to
raise that a PLP Government would address as it r elates to focusing on growing our economy, and that is the development of an Economic Diversification Unit.
Madam Deputy Speaker, not everybody is going to
work in tourism and not everybody is going to work in IB. We need to diversify our economy. And the PLP Government has a plan to have an Economic Divers ification Unit made up of a number of stakeholders to
sit and analyse ways in which we can diversify our economy so that we can have more job creation and
grow this economy.
Madam Deputy Speaker, page 21 of the
Budget Reply speaks to something very, very critical.
This PLP Government . . . in order to help grow our economy part of our plan is investing money in u pgrading our skills in the labour force. Providing funding
for training and retraining is important. When we are
looking at over 4,000 jobs . . . whatever the numbers
are, several thousand people unemployed and prob ably several thousand more underemployed, they need to be able to have the opportunity to upgrade their skills and provide training and retraining so that they
can get back into the job market in areas that may b e
more competitive in this particular day and age, particularly as it relates to technological advances and the like. And this Government —this PLP Gover nment —has a plan to invest money in just that, upgrading skills and training for our Bermudian workforce.
Again, it ties back to the item I spoke about first, job
creation and improving our economy.
We also know that by investing money in the
upgrading of our skills for our labour force it will help to provide more skills, occupational skills, for individuals, provide them with the soft skills that they need to
help them to enter into the workforce so that they
have the skills that are in demand for a 21
st century
economy —skills to help them become more employ able and to obtain employment and to become self -
sufficient. Nothing like that is part of the OBA plan,
Madam Deputy Speaker .
Madam Deputy Speaker, the second point
that I would like to raise and just speak about in the
last few moments that I have relates, again, to things I have heard on the doorstep as well as throughout the community. And that is as it relates specifically to
economic inequality. The widening income disparity is
frightening, and we cannot . . . I cannot stand here
and not speak about that and address it. And we know that the widening income disparities, regrettably, when
you look at the statistics, are much aligned along r acial lines.
Madam Deputy Speaker, we have heard it
before in this Honourable House. There are two Ber-mudas. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. We are living in two Bermudas. Two Bermudas where the rich
seem to continue to get richer and the poor get poorer
and the middle class gets poorer. And that is the real ity for the majority of Bermudians living in this country,
black, white or otherwise.
Madam Deputy Speaker , “we are a divided
economy on economic grounds . . . everybody feels
as though we’re all working together to get benefits”
but we are also in a “divided community.” I am quoting
the Honourable Sir John Swan who gave an interview yesterday, and he made these comments about the fact that we are a divided community along economic lines. He went on to speak also, that it is not so much (I am paraphrasing, Madam Deputy Speaker , but this
778 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly was on the Bernews online, when asked about race
relations he said), “Well, I think race relations is a fact
of economics.” Now this is what Sir John Swan is sa ying, and this not something that has not been di scussed with respect to in this quarter and in other quarters. And when he indicates that we are a divided
community on economic grounds, I have to ask, Well,
what is the OBA Government doing to address that?
And when you look at the Budget Statement —nothing.
There is no comment at all to address something that
is glaringly obvious within our community, and that is the economic inequalities that exist, largely along r acial lines within Bermuda.
Madam Deputy Speaker, today we live in one
of the richest countries in the world. But what that means in reality is very little when we are talking about the fact that the majority of our wealth in Ber-muda is controlled by a handful of individuals, largely white male expats. The issue of wealth and income
inequality is a great moral issue and we have to address that. And despite huge advantages in technol ogy and education and the like, that disparity still exists in 2017. Now, Madam Deputy Speaker, I do not want
you to just take my word for it. As a lawyer I always
have to have the evidence, and I like to be able to be
well guarded and well prepared. I would like to refer you, Madam Deputy Speaker , to some statistics that
have been obtained from the Department of Statistics and, in particular, 2013 Household Expenditure Sur-vey, which addresses a number of the issues co ncerning household expenditure, median incomes, et
cetera, based on race, sex, educational attainment and the like.
What it is saying, Madam Deputy Speaker , is
that under the 2013 Survey the household expendi-ture, I am sorry, the median household salary (i ncome) for a black family was $89,010. The median annual income for a white family was $134,944. And the median average income for a family that classified themselves as “mixed” was $111,259. That is a di sparity.
The statistics do not lie. And the reality is that
we have heard in other quadrants that there have been challenges as announced by the Government with respect to the honourable work that the Depar tment of Statistics does. This statistic is indicating ex-actly a position that we all know. Basically the statistic
is telling us that the working class is overwhelmingly
black and the upper class is overwhelmingly white. The majority of income wealth in Bermuda is com-manded by a small minority of our population (again, mostly expat males), and we live in an unequal soci ety. And when you look at these statistics and you
compare them to our neighbours to the east and our neighbours to the west —and I am not talking about
Somerset and St. George’s, I am talking about the United States and the UK —we should not be exper iencing high levels of income disparity akin to these other types of industrial nations, not when we have 65,000 people. We can get it right. And do you know
how we can get it right? The PLP has outlined a plan.
And I am going to share that with you in a few m oments.
Economic inequality is increasingly an issue
on this Island and it has to be addressed. This widen-ing gap between those persons that are paid in our
community the highest and those persons that are
paid in our community the lowest, or the lower paid income individuals, is really challenging. And it i s all
up in your face because we rub shoulders. We all go to the grocery store, we all go to restaurants, we rub shoulders with the same individuals that are very,
very, very highly rich and those individuals that are
living below the income threshold. And speaking of
which, you will recall, and I want to quote the statistic on the threshold that was done in 2007, again, by the Department of Statistics. The low income threshold at that time in 2007, 11.7 per cent of Bermudians were
living under the poverty line. That was 2007, so we
can only imagine how those statistics would relate now. So when we are looking at those statistics com-bined with the ones I had just spoken about for the Household Expenditure Survey, there is a huge i ncome disparity represented on this tiny island of Ber-muda, and you cannot get away from it.
Madam Deputy Speaker, these statistics also
confirm that black Bermudians with the same academ-ic qualifications as their white counterparts are still earning significantly less. This is according to the
2010 Census and the 2013 Household Survey. So we
cannot say that the rationale behind the income di sparity between blacks and whites is as a result of their level of educational attainment. That does not exist. In fact, the Mincy Report that was commissioned (and I heard my honourable and learned colleague from
constituency 36, speak to the Mincy Report earlier this
afternoon) also confirmed that the gap in disparity with
respect to the income was along racial lines and very little could be attr ibuted to educational accomplis hments. In fact, the Mincy Report (and I quote) found
race contributed 29 per cent to the disparity of income
as opposed to education contributing only 14 per cent.
Now, Madam Deputy Speaker , my concern
relates to two things: One is the issue as it relates to
growing the economy and job creation; and two as it
relates to addressing the importance of the existence
of an income disparity and income inequality here in
Bermuda. I have seen nowhere in the 2017/18 Budget Statement that I think adequately and progressively addresses either one of those two issues, save for the comment that I mentioned at page 21. And what
frightens me, Madam Deputy Speaker, is that we have
a Government that has indicated their commitment to
job creation and wealth distribution, but the plan is not
there. And as my granny used to always say, Actions
speak louder than words. And there is nothing in this
document, Madam Deputy Speaker, that addresses
those two critical issues.


Bermuda House of Assembly Madam Deputy Speaker , the Bermuda Pr ogressive Labour Party Government in waiting has a
plan to address these issues. We will examine the need for a living wage to address the issues concer ning income disparity. We will examine the need— the
critical need —for tax reform, again, to address the
issues of income disparity. Yes, we have seen the
OBA Government in their Budget Statement indicate
or make some provisions for tax. And my honourable colleague who just took her seat repeated the $720 a year savings that some two- thirds (whatever the pe rcentage) of Bermudians will receive. And I am sure that I would have liked to have seen the reaction on
their faces, which I am sure mirrors those of the ones
that we have heard and the sentiments that we have heard throughout Bermuda, when they realised that this tax savings would attribute to $720 a month—excuse me, a year . . . a year. Thank you for correc ting me, Madam Deputy Speaker, a year.
So, again, this PLP Government, part of their
plan is to address the inequities in our system that relate specifically to tax. And by doing so they will
commission a committee that will look at how we can . . . and this is a committee representing all the stak eholders in Bermuda that will look at how we can ad-dress equitably our tax structure in Bermuda and r eform it so that it minimises the disparities that are be-ing created within our community.
The PLP Government, also part of their plan
for dealing with the economic, excuse me, the income
disparity, is, again, focusing on something that we
have spoken about as a Government and will continue to speak about it again as the Government in waiting, is promoting entrepreneurship. We recognise that every growing economy grows and rebounds a lot faster when emphasis is placed on training (which we
have got a plan to do), as well as development of entrepreneurship, which also the PLP Government has a
plan to do.
Madam Deputy Speaker, we must do what we
can to get Bermudians back to work. All right? We
have seen a situation where there have been ep isodes of civil unrest that many of us have never seen
in quite some time. And the reality is we . . . it is a lmost like a double- boiler getting ready to bubble over,
right? There is so much pressure that is contained in that pot, and it has to be released. And I think one
way to avoid the pot coming off and us exploding and our society becoming more explosive is to take steps to plan to create job creation. We need to create jobs. That is what people want so that we do not have these economic refugees leaving and fleeing o ur
country in droves, taking with them their intellectual
capital, because they cannot afford to live in Bermuda.
They cannot work in Bermuda. They cannot
raise their children in Bermuda. We need to address
that. And I am sorry, with the greatest respect to the
Government and the honourable Bob- the-fix-it-man—
and I am only quoting MP Scott —there is nothing there that addresses it. But the PLP has gone through
painstaking measures to identify the issue and to address it, and we have a plan.
Madam Deputy Speaker , in closing I would
like to just to quote H. Stanley Judd. As I have indi-cated, Madam Deputy Speaker, unfortunately I failed
to see any attributes in the Budget that speak to a
plan of this Government. But H. Stanley Judd said it
best, “A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get [you] there.”
Madam Deputy Speaker, the final destination
for Bermuda, I submit on behalf of the PLP Gover nment, is job creation and equitable income distribu-tion. Those are the final destinations. And when you
look at the Reply to this Budget Statement that was tabled and read out by the Honourable Deputy Lead-er, the Honourable Shadow Minister of Finance this morning, he has clearly identified and articulated the
best ways that a PLP Government will plan to address
those goals.
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker .

[Desk thumping]

Good afternoon, Madam Deputy
Speaker , colleagues and those in the listening aud ience.
I would like to start off, Madam Deputy
Speaker , with a paragraph by the Deputy Premier and
the Finance Minister of Bermuda on page 4 of the
Budget Statement. And it states, “ I can assure Bermudians that your Government will remain vigilant to the threats and opportuni ties—The Fates if you will —
and be ready, with safe hands, to seize the advantage and keep us moving in the right direction.”
Having read the Budget several times, I can
clearly see that this is the case. And, of course, the
Speaker (who normally sits in the Chair) knows how
important it is to have safe hands, particularly in cric ket when you have your points and your slips, because
if you miss those catches you are not going to win Cup Match. And, of course —

That is right. But my team, of course,
Somerset, has always had key people in those pos itions. And, of course, when we talk about safe hands,
780 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly the people of Bermuda really have to look at the safe
hands on this side, the people on this side that are in
the business community that are involved with their children in schools, entrepreneurs, and on and on. Because constantly we hear people say that we do not care, and that is not true. But I want the people of Bermuda to really take a hard look at the safe hands
that are on this side, the people that will continue to
take our Bermuda forward for the benefit of all of our people, particularly with things like Brexit and, of course, the new President we have in Donald Trump.
Of course, one thing that the new Gover nment —the One Bermuda Alliance Government —has
really focused on in our tenure during these last four years is re -establishing the tourism industry because,
of course, this in turn will create jobs. This is what we call job creation. And, of course, I remember the year before last in my role as the Chairman of the National Training Board when I invited the Executive of Bermuda, I invited three key people. At the time it was the
Premier of Bermuda, the Deputy Premier (who, as we know, is the Minister of Finance), and at the time the Minister of Tourism, Shawn Crockwell, (who sits as an Independent in the House today).
But the reason that we invited the National
Training Board to our meeting was to find out t he direction that the Executive was looking at taking us. And, of course, all of us at that time found out that we were looking at going more into tourism. And, again, this was part of creating jobs, job creation, and, of
course, we are seeing that. And, again, in this year
2017 we are going to see it more than any year in our history, in my humble opinion. We will see this Island be absolutely booming more than any year in our his-tory, okay?

[Inaudible interjections]
[Gavel]

Madam Deput y Speaker , during that
meeting we highlighted, and, of course, then we found
out we are pushing in tourism and the growth, and obviously we knew at that time already that gaming was taking place. And even on that, when you talk about job creation, you know, right now the hard-working team down at the Department of Workforce
Development just down below the hill here, are wor king along with the Bermuda College as well as the
Gaming Commission in putting training in place for young Bermudians to take advantage of those oodles
of jobs that will be there. I mean, I heard actually on the TV myself the Gaming Commissioner state that if
we had three casinos up and running, that that would
create 1,000 jobs because, obviously, those jobs have to be in place 24/7.

[Laughing and inaudible interjections]

I am quoting the Chairman of the
Gaming Commission. This is not my words; that is what he said, all right?
So, again, here we have opportunity . . .
whether it is going to be 1,000 or 750 or 500 we are
talking about a lot of jobs.
Of course, we also see . . . anybody that has
driven to Dockyard lately (I am a West End guy so I
go there often) would see the amount of activity taki ng
place in that end of the Island, you know, from Morgan’s Point right on up. And, I mean, I see my mate, David Durham, who has got the ice cream place across from me. Of course, I see him up there busy, and I have spoken to him personally. He has got lot s
of Bermudians up there working on the job site. I see other companies up there. Of course, right up at the America’s Cup Village there is so much activity up there. The buildings are all being fixed up. And this will be a lasting legacy for Bermuda. So these are all
really positive things, Madam Deputy Speaker .
We have talked about the America’s Cup and,
of course, the America’s Cup is not the silver bullet.
But I believe everybody in this House and everybody in Bermuda (well, they certainly will realise it come later on this year) will realise that this is the biggest
international event that this Island can cater to, because we cannot have the World Cup here. We can-not have the Olympics in Bermuda, so here we have this huge international event that this Government put in place and organised to have in Bermuda. This is what I call job creation.
I am sure the Bermudians out there that are
seizing these opportunities must surely see that. I mean just recently there were three town hall meet-ings that took place and, of course, there was great attendance at them. The opportunities are absolutely
mind -blowing. And, of course, it is something that I am
very passionate about —entrepreneurship. So there is
so much that can be taking place there and, again, I
would encourage Bermudians that if you do have the passion, the right attitude, there has never been a bet-ter time to jump in than now. I have said it in this
House before, and I am saying it today. There has
never been a better time to jump in than now.

[Inaudi ble interjection]

Okay. And you know, staying with the
America’s Cup, once we have proved that we are
successful with this world- class event, what that will
do . . . that will prove to the world that we can handle
other events. We have already seen the various Tr iathlon events that have been taking place here. And I do know that because of the America’s Cup there are
already other world- class events looking at Bermuda. I
do know that for sure, so that is very positive.
Of course, you know when we look at some of
the recent things, for example, the Loren Hotel just
opened up, this boutique hotel, that has created lots of jobs for Bermudians on the construction side, working
on the plant there, and then, of course, working there
at the hotel from the very front of the house right on through to the kitchen. And, again, we saw —or I
saw—it was just in Forbes magazine. And of course
recently we have been . . . Bermuda has been in
Cond é Nast magazine, Ebony magazine, Lonely
Planet magazine, and the world is now seeing that
Bermuda is the place to come in 2017, 2018, 2019. So we have to ask, when we talk about creating jobs, will this create jobs?

[Hon. K. H. Randolph Horton, Speaker, in the Chair]

And, of course, with the growth in
tourism, Mr. Speaker, this has obviously created o pportunities in construction, an area that was really
hurting for quite some time. And, of course, we finally
have seen construction grow 30 per cent in the last
year. This is an area that I obviously work very closely
with, owning a landscape company. It was really hit hard for many years. But now with the renewed conf idence in the current Government you are seeing pe ople wanting to invest in Bermuda and it is taking place.
You know, the St. Regis hotel will be built in
St. George’s. We know that work will be starting at the airport very soon. They are looking at bids and ten-ders now. I have talked about Morgan’s Point and the other hotels taking place, and soon the existing hotels
will have to also start work because they will have to
be competitive, you know, with the Ritz -Carlton that
will be up at Morgan’s Point, with the Loren Hotel. So those are fantastic things.
I see travelling throughout Bermuda that ther e
is certainly renewed confidence. You know, I am hearing from . . . whether it is painting contractors, clea ning contractors, smaller landscapers that, Sousa, this
is the busiest we’ve been since 2008. You know, we
are having a good year. Many said that l ast year was
the best year they have had in a long time. So this is all very positive stuff. Just last week my colleagues and I went to the new food court, I believe it is called
“Eateries” in the Washington Mall, a great establis hment. And it was bustling. And I mean there were just
so many Bermudians in there. It was so vibrant.
And what was fun was that we went next door
and the Bermuda Construction Association were ha ving a thing with young Bermudians training them and
getting them encouraged in the opportunities that will
be there in carpentry, plumbing, masonry jobs and it was just so nice to see this. And even the gentl eman— yes, there was a gentleman there from
Aecon —and he had stated (I saw this on TV) that they
do not even have something like that in Canada. And
that was great and many of us that do sit in this House
of Assembly would recall, if we are old enough, that when we were in school we would have done wood-work and economics and things like that and, of course, there has not been as much effort put into that in recent times. So I am glad there is that renewed
effort because we need those people and, again, Mr.
Speaker , that is what we call job creation . . . and cr eating jobs for our people.
Again, back on the entrepreneurship thing. I
was happy to see that in the Reply from the Oppos ition. That is something that should be encouraged, is
being encouraged. You know, I do salute BEDC, the Chairman there, Mr. Nicholas Kempe, and also the Director, Erica Smith, for the work they are doing in assist ing people. And you know, constantly I see e ntrepreneurs taking advantage of the opportunities that
are being presented. Because if there is not work
there and there is not demand, there is no way that you can hire people. So what we had to do as a Gov-ernm ent is create that demand, you know, by making
people interested in Bermuda again. Because we are not the only place in the world that people are looking
to invest, so we have to make it viable for people to
spend their money here and to get a return on their money.
And, of course, we are seeing, Mr. Speaker ,
that there is a confidence with local businesses. For
example, Mr. Speaker, in this newspaper clipping from
the Royal Gazette dated Monday, February 27
th the
headline is “Confidence growing among local businesses.” And, of course, the first paragraph states,
“Business confidence has grown over the past few months, a major survey has shown.” And, of course,
this was done by HSBC. They went on to talk about
“64 per cent predicted increased revenue in the next year, up 26 points on the survey two years’ prior.” So with that, the confidence by businesses, this is en-couraging businesses to hire. Again, I look at this as job creation. You need to make the economy and the
Island vibrant so that people look to invest. Again, I
see this daily, Mr. Speaker , and I see this continuing.
Right now we are in . . . we just started in March, so
we are still in . . . today, actually it was quite cold
walking down in the city today, but soon spring will
have sprung and we will be into summer. And, again,
782 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly this summer you would have to honestly go back to
1980 to recall a year that Bermuda was as vibrant
tourist -wise, I mean hustling and bustling—

[Inaudible interjections]

Yes. We are not going to have the
numbers that we had because we do not have the
beds. But, obviously, there will be ships coming, there will be luxury liners. You know, this opportunity for us is immense. And, of course, once it is . . . and, again,
we do have to thank the BTA for this, Mr. Speaker .
They have done an awesome job. I mean, I remember
poor Bill Hanbury being hammered in this House. I
remember a Member on that side in this House who said that when the PLP are re- elected that they will
shut down the BTA. I do recall that. That Member —

[Inaudible interjection]

Okay, all right. We could go to Hansard, but it was said in this House. You know, I am
going 57 next Tuesday, Mr. Speaker, but there is nothing wrong with my hearing. I can assure you that
one.
But the BTA has been doing a fantastic job,
Mr. Speaker, and we certainly have to support them. You know the Opposition does not want to hear that (as we hear from the chirping on that side), but in the coming year we will have major work starting at the
airport with 400 jobs on the construction side. And
then when the airport continues on there will be more people that will be needed to work at the airport, work at all the new shops and stuff. And then, of course, it will not be long before the St. Regis hotel kicks in as well, and we already know that Morgan’s Point is a . . .
you know, it is a several phase job. But that project is going to be a $2 billion project over the next decade or two. It is a huge project. That project is the largest one in Bermuda’s history.

[Inaudible interjection]

Two billion, yes. A $2 billion project,
yes, ask your mate.
But, again, these are the types of things that,
truth be told, the Opposition does not want to hear.
We promised to the people of Bermuda that we would put this Island back on track, that we would create
jobs, that we would create opportunities, and that has
taken place. And I am saying that, not just as a father and grandfather, I am saying that as the Chairman of
the National Training Board, a lifelong entrepreneur. I see it. And I am not going to sit up here and say this with conviction not knowing it. And I am out and about in this country more than most people in this House of
Assembly, all right?
[Inaudible interjection]

So, Mr. Speaker, I can assure you
that Bermuda is in safe hands and we will continue to move in the direction we are now. And, of course, the
people of Bermuda—this is going to be in Hansard —
will be able to recall that there will be lots of jobs coming, right? And that we will be back on track.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker .

Thank you, Mr. Speaker . I am
obliged for that recognition. I see we are going to have
a very interesting evening tonight.
Mr. Speaker, why are we here? We are here
because we have an obligation to do the people’s business. We have an obligation to focus on putting policies, programmes, and legislation in place to e nsure an improvement in the condition of the lives of people. Forget ever ything else, Mr. Speaker . That is
our fundamental objective —to focus on the people.
And so when some of us on that side choose to focus purely on what they might call “economic fundamentals and lofty concepts,” I just get back to our raison d’être—what are we here for? And it is for the people.
What we have witnessed over the past two
weeks from the Budget Statement of the Honourable
Finance Minister to the erudite Reply of the Leader of the Opposition, my Leader, and the vision for the f uture, are two ver y different ways of conceiving how
Government should be run and what the fundamental purpose should be of this Government, or any go vernment, because in the Opposition Leader’s prese ntation you heard a fundamental focus on improving the condition of people. It was pronounced in his
presentation. It was pronounced in his Reply. It f oBermuda House of Assembly cused on what needs to be done to improve the cond ition of the people. There were initiatives that were
very carefully spelled out, which are designed to bene fit the people.
The Government, on the other hand, barely
mentioned anything that related directly to improving the condition of the people. It spoke about balancing
the budget, it spoke about debt service levels, all of
which are important, but they are important because of what the overall objective is. And for some reason,
Mr. Speaker, the Government in its successive presentations today and last week has not gotten to the essence of what their mandate is —to improve the
conditions.
And so when I listened to the imagined reality
of some of the Government Members, when I listened to a focus on what happened five years and more ago under the PLP Government, it just dawned on me, Mr. Speaker , that this Government is bereft of ideas for
improving our economy and for diversifying our eco nomy. The Honourable Opposition Leader gave very particular proposals for improving diversity. The one I found most appealing, Mr. Speaker, is the FinTech concept, because it is a low, sort of natural resource
industry. You need intellectual capital, but you do not
need a vast infrastructure. You need people, a fast Internet connection, and you need ideas to foster it. So we have that.
The Government, on the other hand, Mr.
Speaker , could only speak to the existing economic
initiatives —let us revamp tourism (which is what ev eryone says, it is like the mantra) —but nothing new.
We did not hear anything about economic diversific ation. The Honourable Minister for Economic Develop-ment spoke about the Bermuda Business Develo pment Agency, but he misspoke, Mr . Speaker, because
the BDA from its origin had focused on further devel-oping the existing lines of business in Bermuda—the trust company business, reinsurance, and financial services. Only lately under the relatively new CEO, Mr. Ross Webber, is there now a focus on diversific ation. But even that is passive. It is not an aggressive approach to diversification. And that lack of aggres-sion, Mr. Speaker, is consistent with what the Honourable Finance Minister spoke about when he said in his presentation, where he embraces the concept of
our so- called . . . what is the term called? Quo fata
Ferunt . . . what is that called?

[Inaudible interjection]

A mantra, our m otto—Quo fata
Ferunt. He embraced it! It is a recipe for passivity. On
this side of the House, Mr. Speaker, we are talking about concrete initiatives and mobilising the capital into this economy.
The Bermuda Fund. It is a brilliant concept
because it wil l help to provide seed funding for small
businesses or new businesses that require capital.
We already know the financial institutions are not an ally for most businesses. They are either dopified
funds or they want over -collateralisation, which makes
it a challenge anyway to get financing. So the idea of
a Bermuda Fund can help stimulate the necessary growth that we need.
One thing I will agree on the Government’s
side, and we should all agree, is that governments do
not create jobs. But what a sound government does is
create the opportunity for jobs to be created. We need to create the circumstances and we need to facilitate it. And a government that truly cares about people will ensure that the creation of jobs and the new opport unities will be diverse a nd spread around. It would not
be for the re- entrenchment of the elite. And that is
what we see in the philosophical underpinnings of this Government. I mean, even the Minister of Economic Development got confused at one point when he started to refer to the United Bermuda Party, because
it must clearly be in his mind that there is some continuation between the United Bermuda Party and the One Bermuda Alliance— a Freudian slip, Mr. Speaker .

[Inaudible interjection]

I did not say “fraudul ent” although
I am not going to disagree with my honourable co lleague, because he does have some interesting o bservations. But I did say “Freudian” for the record. But
a Freudian slip can be as potent as an actual fraudu-lent slip.
Mr. Speaker, let us get to a few of the partic ular components of this Budget Statement. The Gov-ernment has expressed the view, the Minister of F inance, has expressed the view, that he has now i ntroduced progressive taxation with regard to the pa yroll tax. It is untrue. The Minister has to know that pa yroll tax is not progressive. I read a report by the em inent economy firm, KPMG, who also referred to this reform of taxation as being progressive. The most r udimentary component of a progressive tax, Mr.
Speaker , is that the tax rate increases as your income
increases. The Government has committed, in per-haps a fraudulent undertaking on the part of the Ber-mudian people, by getting some of us to believe that it is actually a progressive taxation. It cannot be pr ogressive if you set a limit at $900,000 and you cap the taxation at $900,000.
So anyone who earns over $900,000 effectively gets a tax break. It is a tax break. If you earn $1 million, you pay less in taxes as a percentage than if you earn $500,000. If you earn $2 million, you pay an
even lower taxation rate. You will recall, Mr. Speaker ,
that a couple of years ago one of the members of the
784 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly international business community got a paycheque of
$30 million —$30 million in one paycheque.
[Inaudible interjection]

I am not . . . it was not him. But a
$30 million . . . it is public knowledge, a $30 million
paycheque. He paid tax on it as if it was $750,000.
So let us say you increase it now to $900,000,
so you pay tax on it as if it was $900,000, but anything
over is not taxed. That is a tax break. There is nothing
progressive about that. So I want the public not to be misled, not to be confused. Yes, there is a 1 per cent
reduction if your income is below a certain threshold, which amounts to about $720 a year in a tax break for lower income people. And as one of my colleagues said, that amounts to a chocolate bar a day, or it might be less now if we get the sugar tax put in place as my colleague the Honourable and Learned Shadow Mi nister for Health wants to put in place. So, you may not
even buy your chocolate bar a day.
So, let us get away from the notion that we
have a progressive taxation system. What we do have, Mr. Speaker, for all intents and purposes, is income tax on poor people. No one likes to talk about two “i” words in this country —one of them is income
tax, the other one . . . I guess people even shudder
when you elude to it, but we will not talk about our relationship with the UK today. We will not talk about implications of Brexit today either, Mr. Speaker . We
will leave that alone because that is a topic for another day.
But we effectively have income tax for poor
people, because the only tax that has relevance for most people today is payroll tax. And what is payroll tax? Payroll tax is a tax on your wage, on your salary.
Lower income people only have a wage or a salary as
their income and, therefore, the totality of their income is taxed . . . in totality. The middle class, the elites (we
will get to the businesses in a second) . . . the middle class and the elites have income from a wage or a
salary. They have income from rents, and they have dividend income. So the old boys in this country, Mr.
Speaker —what we used to call the “Forty Thieves,”
Front Street —they manufactured a taxation system to
benef it them. The UBP carried on with it for decades,
for their 34 years of power.
My party, the Progressive Labour Party, did
not demonstrate sufficient courage during our 14 years to adequately address it. I will certainly concede that. I was not in Parliament during that period of time, I can happily say that. We did not demonstrate suff icient courage to address, and yet we continue with it
today. A taxation system that denigrates the poor,
marginalises the poor, imposes an income tax on the poor, but the wealthy get off paying no taxes whats oever on other streams of income. That is an unfair system. So when my Leader talks about the need for
tax reform, we are looking at ways to properly tax and fairly tax people, because right now we have a fun-damentally unfair taxation system, by any stretch of the imagination. And when you talk to the wealthy, they get very nervous and upset when you talk about
a fair taxation system. Well, we pay enough in taxes .
They say, We pay enough; we don’t need to pay anymore. But do we want a fair taxation system or not?
Or should we have a taxation system that puts the
burden, the primary burden of responsibility, on the poor? I say no, Mr. Speaker , and I say that a Progressive Labour Party Government will want to address
that, and will want to ensure that we can have a sy stem that is fair to all.
It is insufficient for a wealthy individual, or for
a company for that matter, to say that, Well, I give to
charities; that’s my contribution. Well, let us see, one
year I did a study on t he contribution of the major r einsurers to charities. They gave $12 million to char ities. It sounds like a lot of money. Their net income
was well over a billion dollars. Well over a billion do llars. So there is something just unseemly and untena-ble about companies that do not wish to be full and
equal partners in the growth and success of Bermuda.
I like the philosophy of Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffet, and . . . who is the other fellow? Let us go
with Zuckerberg and Warren Buffet for the moment.
They recognise that companies have a responsibility to the community in which they live. Yes, you have to
enhance shareholder value. Of course you do. But
there is no necessary incompatibility between enhanc-ing shareholder value and being a responsible me mber of a community. Your trinkets of donations do not
amount to much when a Government and a country have created an infrastructure that has proven suff iciently attractive to you to come in and make your profits. I want to see more responsible companies op-erating on this socio- economic and political lan dscape, Mr. Speaker .
Mr. Speaker, let us talk a little bit about the
civil service. The mantra on that side of the House—the Government side of the House, Mr. Speaker —is
that the civil service is too large. It is just thrown about
as if it does not even require further analysis. The civil
service is too large and we need to reduce it. I saw a
headline, I was away earlier this week, Mr. Speaker ,
but I came back just for this Budget Debate. I saw a headline in which I believe the Chamber of Commerce
were supposed to have said, Where are the cuts in
the civil service? I saw a headline in which I believe
the Chamber of Commerce were supposed to have
said, Where are the cuts in the civil service? I laughed
at that, Mr. Speaker, because again we are playing
games with our taxation system; we are playing games with members in the civil service. I say to peo-ple, What would you want to cut in the government? What civil service positions do you think need to be cut?


Bermuda House of Assembly Well, first of all, we have taken a great deal of
taxpayers’ money and given it to private entities. We
just gave a $2 million increase to the BTA. They are meant to get more money from the hotels (remember that, Mr. Speaker, when they were initially funded)?
They wer e to get some money from Government and
then they will get increased money from hotels and be
self-sufficient. They are not on track to be self -
sufficient. They are taking taxpayers’ money. The BTA
has more middle management and senior executives running t ourism than the Department of Tourism ever
had— and board members for the first time get paid
$20,000 a year.
Mr. Speaker, we have taken well over $4 mi llion to give to the BDA —the Bermuda Business D evelopment Agency —taxpayers’ money. I thought i ndustry w as going to fund the growth of new opportunity for business. But, no, it is all taxpayers’ money. And
yet the BDA has as its primary purpose to increase
business opportunities for its members. Taxpayers’
money . . . the greatest growth in employees working
for a quasi -autonomous non- governmental entity that
is separated from government, Mr. Speaker, is the
BMA, the Bermuda Monetary Authority.
I have watched the BMA grow from 12 employees to well over 200. You do not hear a single comment about the over bloated Bermuda Monetary Authority. Not one comment. Not from business. Not from Government. Not from the Finance Minister. Do you know why? Because every single position at the
BMA is deemed absolutely necessary —even more so
now, Mr. Speaker, in the days of . . . the fact of the
Anti-Money Laundering protocols and compliance. So
many jobs have been created out of necessity. So,
this ideologically driven position that we just need to reduce the civil service is inappropriate. It is inappr opriate, Mr. Speaker .
But let us talk about the real impact on people
when you talk about cutting the size of the civil service without reference to particular departments, without trying to rationalise anything. Schools do not have the
paraprofessionals they need to provide for adequate
service to our students. They lack the paraprofession-als needed. Private schools do not need a large num-ber of paraprofessionals because they just tell the
parents your child cannot come to this school because
we do not have the facilities. A Government school
has a legal obligation to educate every child and,
therefore, it is required to provide that support —
required.
Mr. Speaker, let us talk about the prison service. I had a chance to talk with a prison officer two weeks ago, a week and a half ago. They are short by
60 prison officers because of budget cuts.
An. Hon. Member: Corrections.

Corrections officers. See, I cannot get the nomenclature right. Corrections officers? I
will still probably call him a prison officer to his face. Okay, I have to learn about that. I will learn to do bet-ter.
But, Mr. Speaker, the stories I was given from
the corrections officer is that it has led to less security in Wes tgate—I cannot call it Her Majesty’s Prison,
sorry, MP —Westgate, that it has led on occasion to
attacks on corrections officers. It has not made the news. Does not mean it is any less important. Do not
confuse what is on the media as being important, Mr.
Speaker . The media decide what they want to report.
It does not necessarily mean they only report i mportant news. Let us just get that part straight. But
there have been attacks on corrections officers in part because there is insufficient staffing levels at the
Westgate facility. That is the real impact of budget
cuts. So, when we talk about reducing the size of
the civil service we need to be very clear about what we mean and careful about what the implications are.
Go and talk to those who work in the helping services.
They are severely understaffed. You have caseloads that are at unprecedented levels. At unprecedented levels! Go and talk to the caseworkers and listen to their stories and then tell me this Government cares deeply about the country and the people.
I heard a lot about the America’s Cup. The
talking points that the Members on the Government side have today are to extol the virtues of the Amer ica’s Cup. The America’s Cup will last for one month. One month. We are committing about $75 million to the America’s Cup. I want to know will the Bermuda
Government get back any of that $75 million; or is all
of this money just being transferred into private hands? What a wonderful enterprise that the Gover nment would fund the private sector, making them mi llions of dollars. What a wonderful enterprise. When
poor people need help it is called social assistance.
When businesses get help, especially when billion-aires get help, we call it sound investment in our f uture and helping to grow the economy. Semantics. But the rich seem to get concessions; the poor seem to have to rely on compassion and support. There is very
little compassion, Mr. Speaker, coming out of this
Government.
Let us look at other aspects of our infrastructure, Mr. Speaker . We committed to a deal with a
company that I consider to be a corrupted enterprise,
Aecon, to give them a 30- year contract under circumstances which are highly suspect. But remember, Aecon was also supposed to build a bridge. We talked so much about the need for a new airport because the tourists who come to this Island will see . . . their first
impression will be of our airport and their last impres-sion . . . it is absolutely critical. Well, a new airport will
786 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly mean absolutely nothing, Mr. Speaker, if our bridge,
the Causeway, is inoperable after the next hurricane. I
would have thought a bridge would be just as i mportant a priority as the airport. But, no, they could not
figure out a way to make the bridge profitable so they were allowed to get away with not doing th e bridge.
But where is the commitment to assuring that one of
the most, if not the most, essential arteries into our
country is fixed? Nothing, Mr. Speaker .
Mr. Speaker, I guess I should look at my
notes, shouldn’t I? . . . right. So, Mr. Speaker, I talke d
earlier about the need for us to diversify our economy. I talked about FinTech, and the Government has spoken about nothing whatsoever involving diversific ation. But think about what it means for our young pe ople. Think about what diversification means for those
people who are losing jobs through technological d evelopment. This Government understands now that many job losses have nothing to do with term limits —
remember that big hoax? Term limits led to jobs di sappearing. Interesting, because we had steady growth
from 1998 to 2008—steady, continuous growth 10 years straight —the GDP. And then our economy
tanked when the global recession hit.

[Inaudible interjections]

But guess what, Mr. Speaker, we
have gotten rid of term limits, jobs are still going away.
Do you know why? Because technology has made it less likely that you will need people to do certain jobs.
It is not because of term limits. It is not because of
which party is in power, because the OBA is seeing
the same thing. I want the public to understand—the public, because political parties will do political things. But the public needs to understand that many of our
jobs that were lost —one, because of the tremendous
and irrational growth in construction that came to an
end in 2008, and [two, because] technology led to fewer jobs being performed in Bermuda and, of course, outsourcing.
But with that in place, Mr. Speaker, we need
more jobs created for Bermudians, and the way to have those jobs created is to find new opportunities. The Government has dismissed the idea of online gaming because the International Business has an issue with it. But let us explore it. Let us see what can be done. I went to a presentation a week or so ago for
the Gaming Commission and they were talking about
all these jobs . . . I think the Honourable Member Jeff
Sousa said it was about 1,000 jobs. It will be really interesting to see what jobs will actually be created that Bermudians will be interested in, because in my discussions with the Gaming Commission they say these are entry level , minimum wage jobs. Minimum
wage in Bermuda where the cost of living is increasing exponentially ? We are probably going to be bringing
in Dominicans to work in our casinos.

[Inaudible interjections]

Or Guatemalans. No entiendo,
señor, Mr. Speaker .
But we will have to see because you are not
going to get an upsurge in people coming to work in a
minimum wage position when the costs are escalating dramatically, and Government seems to have no f ocus whatsoever on that. That was the response com-ing from the Gaming Commission people. These are
entry level, minimum wage positions that wi ll require a
month of training. How do you require a month of training to do a job that is entry level and minimum wage? We have to fix that.
The Honourable Leader of the Opposition has
reiterated an important point of this party, Mr. Speak-er, in that we need to level the playing field when it
comes to the hiring of employees because we have a structured inequality insofar as it is cheaper to hire
foreign workers than to hire Bermudians because you
do not have to pay the pension. If you are going to hire a hundred people . . . what is it, 5 per cent?

And 5 per cent of their salary has
to go toward a pension and you are contributing to it
as an employer, your economic interests tell you not to hire the Bermudian. That is basic economics. So we have to address that. If the Government was ser ious about ensuring that Bermudians had jobs, then
over five years they would have moved somewhere
along that continuum to address the issue of the pa yroll tax challenge. It is a structured impediment to the hiring of Bermudians.
How much time do I have left, Mr. Speaker ?

A little bit about immigration.
My honourable friend, the Honourable Mini ster for Home Affairs, the Honourable Pat GordonPamplin, is very sincere in her efforts to ensure that


Bermuda House of Assembly we have robust immigration policies in place. And I
have no doubt that she is committed to ensuring that
people are treated fairly. But there is a lacuna in the delivery of immigration policy that needs to be fixed. There is. We have a situation . . . and I see no money
in the Budget for this. We have a situation where employers routinely abuse foreign employees. And the
indication that they get away with the abuse of foreign employees means that it makes it more difficult to hire Bermudians . So you have a foreign employee who
comes in . . . some live in absolutely horrid conditions.
They are afraid to speak up because they are not going to get their permit renewed and they will be asked
to leave the Island. Sometimes the employers do not pay them properly. I will encourage the Minister, yet
again, to begin the process of random checks on cer-tain categories of employers —especially in hospitality.

I understand. Two minutes is a
lot.
Espec ially in hospitality; that is where there is
serial abuse. And the abuse of foreign workers has a
carryover effect onto local workers because foreign workers are silent. Some have challenges (they be-lieve) in their languages and so forth, and they come from oppressive countries where they do not normally
challenge people in power. So they do not speak up.
But when they stay in those positions, marginalised
and oppressed, it makes the employer disinclined to even consider hiring Bermudians. So we need to hav e
those kinds of issues addressed, Mr. Speaker. I will have more opportunity during the Budget Ministry de-bate to speak to it, but I wanted to throw that part in.
Overall, Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate
my Leader, the Honourable David Burt, for his de-tailed presentation and alternative vision about what we need to do to reduce inequality. Remember, Thomas Piketty is the guy who first raised the question about inequality being one of the most fundamental drivers for social unrest and as a challenge to social stability. So we need to address it. We need to address it as a matter of urgency. The Government would do well to listen, to look at our vision, and see what, during the last few months of office, they can
take from it to help bring about a greater measure of
stability in this country.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker .

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER

HOUSE VISITOR

The Chair will now recognise Minister
of Home Affairs, Minister Gordon- Pamplin.
You have the floor.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Thank you, Mr.
Speaker , and good afternoon to colleagues.
Mr. Speaker, as I weigh in on the Budget r especting the 2017/18 financial year, it gives me great
pride to be able to extend a hearty congratulations to the Minister responsible for Finance, the Deputy Premier, for the Budget and for the outlook and for the
presentation that was made in dealing with the annual
budget that is a necessity for our community and part of our legislative process.
I just want to mention, the Honourabl e Member who just took his seat, and to say that I am appr eciative of the last comment that he made with respect to the importance of the Immigration Department en-suring that we do not have workers —foreign wor kers—who are operating in substandard conditions b ecause that is something that I hold very dear. Human-kind is more important to me than almost anything,
Madam Deputy Speaker.
[Mrs. Suza nn Roberts -Holshouser, Deputy Speaker,
in the Chair]
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: And I say that
because the Ho nourable Member , through Parliamentary Questions, had asked whether in fact there were
random checks being done on various job sites. And in response to that, in looking at the manner in which the department is run, what has effectively happened
over time is that if there are complaints then they will
go out and do specific checks. There are certain con-straints and restrictions, obviously, based on certain labour legislation laws in terms of you cannot just kind of show up in certain areas at certain times, within
those contexts. But there is a possibility for the investigation officers within the Immigration Department to
ensure that once they are made aware then they can go and investigate any complaint.
I believe that the Immigration board are quite
know ledgeable about the challenges that come to the
fore, and as they deliberate on some of the particular
. . . or for work permits for some of the employers who
may have been “flagged” (quote/unquote) you can be
assured that they are working assiduously to s tamp
out any inappropriate practices because it is so im-portant that people are treated humanely. That is very, very important.
788 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Madam Deputy Speaker, we have certainly
had the conversations with respect to the edge of the
differential of an employer not having to pay the 5 per cent tax on an employee and in creating a preferential circumstance in which an employer may feel that it is more efficacious for them to hire the foreigner because it is cheaper.
That is something that is being addressed.
This is not a taxation policy that has just come into effect. It has been in effect for a significant period of time. So lest anybody listening think that this is som ething that the OBA Government has overlooked, let me say that our predecessors in Government did
nothing about this either. We are looking to see how
to rectify that situation to ensure that we do not have
that particular additional encumbrance as an excuse to be able to hire foreign people. We have, through the department, enhanced the rules and regu lations
respecting work permits and as a result of that we will
see that there is a significant number less that will go
through, that will get passed through.
I will be able to deal with this in a little bit more
detail, obviously, next week when we deal with the
Immigration Department budget. But I just wanted to
make mention of that because it is important for pe ople to understand that we are not trying to exacerbate
a poor situation by not putting manpower at it within the confines and the constraints of what we are able to do within the department, we certainly try to do that.
Madam Deputy Speaker, the Honourable
Member who just took his seat also made a comment
which was very interesting when he spoke about tour-ism and the BTA, indicating that, you know, they are living off of government money and they should be self-sufficient, and what have you. But I think maybe
he needs to have a conversation with members of his
team because apart from the fact that the Opposition
Leader in giving his response spoke to the fact that there was a deficiency in the attitude and the ap-proach of the OBA by not funding the Tourism Au-thority—not giving them more money for advertis ements, not giving them the means and the wherewit hal in order to sell Bermuda and to be able to get better
results —and the Honourable Member is now saying,
Well, you should not give them money . So when you
sort of counter that, I think that we are dealing with varying opinions on the same thing, coming from the
opposite side.
So, I just think th at we need to ensure that
conversations are had between the Opposition Leader
and the Honourable Member who just took his seat so
that we do not send mixed messages into the com-munity.
Yes, the Government has chosen to fund the
BTA, and it funded the BTA based on the amount of money that was available in the Budget at the time that the funding was required. We found, Madam Deputy Speaker, that the former Tourism Minister was like pulling hen’s teeth to bring the Opposition along to the idea of the necessity to form a Tourism Authority.
It is something that had been touted by various admi nistrations and oppositions over many, many, many
years and never quite came to fruition. Once it was actually up and running we realised that we had to give them seed money. And ultimately, yes, they will be able to become self -sufficient financially, but you
have to be able to ensure that whatever you put in place is sustainable in order for it to be successful.
I am sure now Members opposite . . . because
we have heard many, many compliments coming back from across the floor in terms of the job that is now being done by the Tourism Authority, the effectiveness in bringing visitors to the Island, and they have
been applauded even in this very budget. So it has its benefits, the Tourism Authority. Notwithstanding, I am
not sure how the former CEO of that Tourism Author ity stayed as long as he did. If I got barbs like that day after day after day after day coming from, as we
heard, from Members opposite, I think I might have said, Is this really worth it? There is not a paycheque
that is worth that degree of insult, that degree of ve nom that was foisted upon him at that time.
I am pleased to know that he left the Tourism
Authority in reasonably good shape and that we also
have now a Bermudian, Kevin Dallas, who has come
to take over, and they have got dedicated staff in that department, in that quango. They have got dedicated people who do all that they can do in order to ensure that Bermudians benefit through our economic enhancements.
What I find interesting is that . . . you know, it
would have been so easy for the Opposition to say in their response that, Government, you have done a
really good job in enhancing tourism. But what did we get? I know, it is because of the Zika virus, that is how
come you got more tourists . You know, we did not
have the Zika virus in 2008, 2009, 2010 when the numbers were dropping. We did not have the Zika virus then. But, you know, what then was the excuse? Is it just the worldwide recession? Was it just things
that were beyond our control? So, let us, at some
point in time consider how we can as a Parliament and as a people work together and applaud those things which will enure to the positive benefit to the people of Bermuda and stop the niggly politicking that
comes along with what is deemed to be, This is what I am supposed to do.
Truth be told, the Honourable Member is as king do we want to sing Kumbaya. If that is for the better benefit of the people of Bermuda, then the answer
is, yes! Be cause, you know, what is interesting is that,
you know, we, we . . . and I am trying not to be neg ative but, you know, last week . . . I am not a movie person. But last week I was made to understand that
in the presentation of the Oscars there was a film
called La La Land. And it was announced as being the
winner of the big award, the Oscars, for best picture or
the like. And having called up all of the actors onto the


Bermuda House of Assembly stage and them having started their acceptance
speeches, somebody recognised well, there was a
mistake. And there was —
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: An accounting . . .
no, it was not an accounting error. Somebody had the
wrong envelope. Somebody gave somebody the wrong envelope.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon- Pamplin: So La La Land . . .
Steve Harvey did the same thing with respect to Miss
Universe or Miss World, or whatever it was. But La La
Land is what this response reminds me of. It is not the
right response for the right reasons. It is a political statement at its finest, if I can put it that way, because
there is a lot of, I would spend this and I would spend
that; and I would do this and I would do that . None of
which . . . I looked at the actual glossary, I am sorry,
the index, and tried to identify those things that we had read before and talking about those things that
had been recycled. There were so many recycled ideas that I had to stop and think that it is interesting that some of these recycled ideas have only come about in the past four or five years, some of the ideas coming, when some of those ideas we heard them way, way, way back when. But none of them were implemented.
Why? Because there are specific constraints within
which we work in a budgetary cycle that either allow or preclude us from taking certain courses of action.
This Government . . . and we have heard crit icism about it, saying that we are not socially co nscious. Effectively, we are not giving away the shop,
that we are not looking out for people. Let me say,
Madam Deputy Speaker, that Members opposite will
know that in the absence of finding $500,000 every day for interest on debt that we would be . . . the
mortgage would be called as it were. If you do not
meet your bank payments on time for your house,
they are going to foreclose. We have to pay that irr espective of what it is that we want to do outside of it. The Finance Minister has highlighted the fact that there is $186 million that must be found before one dime is paid in salaries or anything else. And that is a
frightening amount. And we hear criticism that, Oh,
when the PLP left office there was $1.2 billion of debt, and now it is $2.4 billion of debt —all but doubled. And
what is the reason for it? Do you know?
Go back to when the PLP took over. And I am
going to do a bit of a history lesson here. When they
took over in 1998 and there was money in the kitty (if I
can put it that way), we heard one Member opposite indicate, of course, there was money in the kitty be-cause you did not spend any money on any inf rastru cture. But what happened to get from positive or a pret-ty stable position in 1998 to what happened by the time we got to 2012? Yes, there was money spent.
Lots of money spent. Twice as much money as we
ought to have spent, because when we started to look at construction and the amount of cost overruns where we ended up having one for the price of two for almost every single capital project that was undertak-en during that period of time, that is what ended up
with a significant deficit that we had to deal with.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Point of order, Mr. Speaker
[sic].

Thank you, Member.
The Chair recognises the Minister.
Hon. Patricia J. Gordon- Pamplin: I said almost ev ery . . . I am sorry if I misled by saying that. I should
have said every —
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: So just like you are now,
yes.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: I am sayi ng a lmost every project.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Just like the OBA.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon- Pamplin: So the reality that
we have here . . . there is a hole in the bucket.
I do not know if you remember the song when
you were in school. There is a hole in the bucket. And
the response to it, the retort was, Then fix it . And the
question is with what shall I fix it? And that is the
question that I ask of Members opposite as we read
this Budget [Reply]. With what will you pay for the
things that you are su ggesting that we need to impl ement —that you will implement? Because, you know,
as you said, this is a Budget. This is an election bud get. I found that very interesting because they mentioned that the Finance Minister presented an election
budget; however, the Finance Minister did not know a year ago that or had not predicted a year ago that there would not be an election in the interim. But he
790 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly predicted a year ago that some of the changes that
were going to be made in this year’s budget would be
made, such as looking at certain types of taxation. So we have been able to manage with a step- type pr ogressive taxation such that people who earn less will pay less in terms of tax. But I did take note of the Honourable Member’s comment with respect to this is
not really a progressive tax, that it is a tax on the poor
because when you get to over $900,000 a year there
is no tax paid. And what is interesting with that is that anybody who understands , or who knows how the tax
structures work on a cross border basis , would know
that you would be required to have in place some kind
of a tax treaty notwithstanding if all the million- dollar -
plus earners were all Bermudian, I have no issue with
that. I have no issue. But if you are talking about si gnificant numbers of your m illion-dollar -plus earners
who effectively are not Bermudian, but who have
come from elsewhere as CEOs of some of our major
international companies and the like . . . what ha ppens is that if we do not have a double tax relief treaty
they will perhaps not end up staying here because they would end up being taxed on their million dollars here and they are also taxed on their combined
worldwide income. That is just the way it works. So
under no circumstance is somebody going to pay tax-es on their million dollars here, and then pay tax on that same million dollars as part of their worldwide income, because it may be more than that. Some
people have [incomes of] two, three, four, ten, twelve
million dollars.
But to say that because they are resident in
Bermuda or working for a Bermuda company that we should look at how we can tax every dime that they earn, we have to be mindful that the purpose of ha ving some of our international businesses here is not
so much that we feed the (quote/unquote) “fat cats” of
the industry for them to be able to take home as much
money as possible and cap how we tax them, but ,
rather , the presence that they have and whether there
is sustainability for Bermudian jobs. And that is the
focal point of my concern— the extent to which we can
support and sustain Bermudian jobs and if there has
to be a structure in place that effectively says . . . you
know, at one point in time that number was $250,000 when we first brought in the payroll tax . As I reme mber, $250,000 was the cap. And then it inched up to
$350,000. A nd then it inched up to maybe $500,000
or $600,000 . . . I think we just recently came from
$750,000, and now it has gone up to $900,000.
Would it have been nice if the Finance Minister were able to say , Let’s put it at $1 million? But you
reach the point that you get not just a breakeven
point , but you get a breaking- the-back point in time at
which it is difficult to sustain additional levels of tax ation on people who are at that level. I think it is i mportant . It is okay to say , We can look at them and see
that they make a lot of money, therefore they can pay
more. But we have to look at what would be the uni n-tended consequences if somebody decides, You
know what? I have got to pay this tax in Bermuda, I
have got to pay this tax somewhere else, and as a
result of everything that I have to pay I am not going to be able to stay in Bermuda, because that would be
disastrous . Then we would be losing more jobs.
Now, in terms of training, and I have heard of,
you know, the job creation and the fact that we do have lagging indicators . Madam Deputy Speaker, we
do have within the Budget Book . . . it is painful to
have a look at a number to see that your net -net is
ending up in 56 jobs when you know that alone, the
last report that I got from the Department of Workforce
Development indicated that they had placed 943 people. So somewhere along the way there is either a serious lag in the indicators , or the information is just
being compiled on a different basis. But 943 jobs is a significant n umber.
The Honourable Minister from constituency 22, the Minister of Economic Development, mentioned earlier today that the numbers of new local companies and the numbers of new accounts that were opened by the Social Insurance Department, by the Tax Department, each account being a new employee, was somewhere on the order of 2,000—and I
think he said the number was 2,060. I wrote it down . . . 2,030. Two thousand and thirty new employers
were registered, which means that there were 2,000 new jobs, new times that people had just gone into the workforce and they were paying tax for the first time.
Now, does that say that every single one of
those 2,000 were all Bermudian jobs? That does not
say that at all. And I do not want to mislead. That is not saying that 2,000 are Bermudian jobs. But a sub-stantial number of them are because the 943 that would have been placed by JobBoard would in fact be
Bermudian. That is one of the prerequisites. So that
is, you know, something that we can look at as a very positive [indicator].
We would like to obviously have had far more
money in the kitty, and we will continue to look for
ways in which we can, not just retool, but encourage
our people to be able to retool. We believe in assisting with the entrepreneurial spirit. Through the Bermuda
Economic Development Corporation, they offer var ious courses and opportunities. We had something which was called at one time Community Driven D evelopment which effectively served to do much of what is being recommended and suggested here by the Opposition in terms of the creation of social enter-prises, because that is positive and that is something for which I will give credit to the Opposition.
Having the ability for social enterprises to
grow and be able to take some of those people who
are unemployable, who cannot go into a corporate environment but are very, very skilled in the other things that they can do, will [provide them] the oppor-tunity to be self -sufficient and not have to rely on F inancial Assistance. I think that that is very positive. It


Bermuda House of Assembly is certainly something that we have already started,
that we have already done through the Department of
Human Affairs. That was a programme . . . it was run at the time by Debbie Blakeney who, unfortunately, left to go to be the general counsel for the Gaming Commission. It was something that she was tremen-dously passionate about because we were able to see
that there are people in the community who were able
to help themselves. And the entrepreneurial spirit . . .
it is interesting because through the America’s Cup, I was at a presentation . . . if you could just let me know
how much time I have, I am not sure where I stand—
[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Okay, fine.
I was at a presentation at Somerset Crick et
Club probably two weekends ago. It was the
PechaKucha event. And one of the presentations was
put on by Danielle Riviere, who is the B usiness D evelopment Manager (I do not know the exact title, but
something in that capacity) for the America’s Cup. She posted a slide during one of her presentations.
And I do not know if anybody is aware of the
PechaKucha concept, but it is an individual who gets
to present a topic. They have 20 seconds to speak about the content of 20 slides. So, they are there for 400 seconds and then with a question and answer, a maximum of eight, maybe ten minutes that presenter is finished with the topic. And it is a very interesting
concept because you get to focus and harness your
thought processes to make sure that you present that
which you need to in as short a period of time as pos-sible.
One of the things that came up was a chart
that she put up with all of the opportunities that are
possibly available for entrepreneurial opportunities for
Bermudians through America’s Cup. Not for the people who want to say, I want to go up here and volu nteer, or I am hoping that this guy is going to hire me,
but, These are things that I can do for myself . One of
the interesting things is that somebody mentioned . . .
some gentleman went and he said that for the first meeting that was held, the sad thing was that the room was only about a third filled. And of those, 85 per cent of the attendees were Caucasian. And it is
interesting to say that, you know, what are we doing?
Why are we complaining when the opportunities are
being shown to us and yet we are not even bothering to show up to see what is there for me?
So here is what was interesting, this gentl eman . . . now the second time around, the second time around they had tremendous turnout because I b elieve the information had gotten out and there were different . . . they have covered different types of opportunities. But what was interesting was that a ge ntleman who attended the first event put a note on F acebook and said, you know, just as an example, he said, one of the industries, one of the services that could be provided (given that we are going to have a
ton of visiting yachts and the like) could be like lau ndry services. And he said that to be able to be efficient
maybe an individual could work with a laundromat and
say to the laundromat owner, If I can lease your premises after hours so that I do not impact on your normal flow of traffic so that I can take up an opportunity to
service this particular area, i.e., the laundry.
It was di sappointing to see some of the r esponses. It was like, Well, why do they have to have a
dedicated laundry? No, that was not what was being
said. It was said that this is an opportunity . . . it does
not have to be a dedicated laundry. If you have a
washing machine, clothes dryer and an ironing board
at home, maybe you can do it at home. But this is . . .
having a laundromat [facility] is something where you can do a lot more in the same period of time than you might be able to do if you were only doing one load at a time at home.
So, I think what is unfortunate for us as a
people is that we do have this mindset where we have—and this is a failure of governments present and past, that we have yet to be able to have people understand that it is . . . we can help you to help yourself. It is not necessary for you to have to go and knock on Mr. Smith’s door and hope that Mr. Smith finds you a job.
Through the BEDC, they held a course in entrepreneurship and I may have mentioned that before in the Honourable House because I actually took that
course and it was called “Who owns the ice house?”
and it was a concept that effectively taught the rudi-ments of entrepreneurship, how you could get off the ground and the things that were necessary, and really it is as simple as finding a need in the community and figuring out the solution to fill that need. And it does
not have to be that I have to have an accounting degree in order to do that or I have to have a law degree in order to do that. I can do things with my hands. I
can do things. And the BEDC are there to assist with respect to the financing and funding for people to be
able to get such things off the ground.
So, I am encouraging us as a people, instead
of us waiting for somebody to say we do not have enough jobs because, you know, this person has not
started the construction site yet and therefore I cannot
work , to realise that we can do an awful lot and there
are resources here. There are resources that can help us to get started in that regard.
I wanted to speak very briefly on the deve lopment at the airport and the jobs that it will create because I think what is important is that during that debate (and I am not reflecting on it but just briefly
referring to it) there was a concern about some of the
prerequi sites of some of the job descriptions and the
working- the-plan and, you know, obviously, as Mini ster there are certain categories that are just plain closed categories. And as a closed category from an immigration perspective, that closed category says do
792 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly not come and ask for a work permit in this category
because you are not going to get it. It is closed. We
have to ensure that our people are able to be put to work.
So as a result of making sure that there is that
understanding with that particular arrangement that we have the contractor, the overarching contractor
who will be looking for RFPs and working with the
contractors who will actually have their companies chosen to be doing the construction on the ground that if, for some reason, they are unable to find certain classes of skill and if, for some reason, that contractor who is actually doing the work needs to be able to
advertise, and if that advertisement has to go abroad,
then those specifics are the details that are required by anybody who is going to be coming in. But they are not going to stand in the way of the contractor. You know, if I am the contractor and I am . . . or let us say I
am working for a contractor and I have had “X”
amount of experience, they are not going to say, Well,
sorry, yo u do not have 600 hours of classroom, so
therefore you are not going to be considered.
One of the things that is a prerequisite, and I
will say this because we are going to look at this very
carefully, is to ensure that we comply and conform
with the regulations respecting the Occupational Saf ety and Health Act. It is a US Act, but the US equivalent of what we have locally, and the reason for that is that we have had some construction sites on which there have been some tragic outcomes, unfortunately. And
we want to ensure that on any jobsite that exists that
the safety of the workers is paramount. So, through
the Workforce Development they are actually running courses to ensure that people are being exposed to the OSHA rules and regulations, and it is for our own safety. The financing thereof, you know, it is still kind
of being worked out. But it is more important to get
people ready, and I am more concerned about the readiness than I am concerned about the dollars and cents, I have to say. So, as we look at the types of things that we want to do to enhance where we are —
[Timer beeps]

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Wow, that was
quick.
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Deputy
Speaker, and good evening to you. Good evening to
my colleagues and the listening public.
Madam Deputy Speaker, I am honoured to be
given the opportunity today to weigh in on this Budget for 2017/18. Madam Deputy Speaker, I feel it is my duty to rise on behalf of the Opposition, the Progressive Labour Party, to respond to this Budget that was
presented by the Minister of Finance and the Reply by the Honourable Leader of the Opposition, the Shadow Minister of Finance. I would first like to commend the Shadow Minister of Finance, the Opposition Leader, on a job well done, Madam Deputy Speaker, in his
reply to the Budget presentation by the Minister of
Finance.
Madam Deputy Speaker, in my humble opi nion our Opposition leader has shown tremendous courage and a clear vision for the people of Bermuda.
This truly, Madam Deputy Speaker, is the People’s Budget , as he referred it to while he was giving his
presentation. We heard from the Finance Minister and
others on the other side, former debt, the debt ceiling,
et cetera, but very little, in my humble opinion, Madam Deputy Speaker, about the real impact on Mr. and Mrs. Bermuda—the human touch. It was a lot of
things about how they were going to make the budget
work and how they were going to do taxes and ba lance the budget. But I saw very little, if any at all, on the human touch.
Madam Deputy Speaker, this past Sunday I
had the pleasure of worshipping with a few of my co lleagues at a church in my constituency, House of
Prayer. The topic was: Do you trust me enough to walk with me? I think it was Mark 5:21- 23. Those that
understand and know this Scripture know that that particular text talks about a sick lady and a dying
child. If I may real quickly, Madam Deputy Speaker,
as it relates to this particular debate, the story goes
that a lady put her hands on the robe of Jesus and she became healed by her faith. The man that wanted Jesus to come to save his daughter was waiting impa-tiently. So, the gist of the message on Sunday was
Jesus was trying to tell the man, Do you trust me
enough to come with me ? You take your time; when I
get there, we will sort it out.
So you are wondering why I made that stat ement, that little Bible verse, that little Sunday School.
But, Madam Deputy Speaker, I read the Budget
Statement by the Minister of Finance and, like I said, the Reply from our Opposition Leader, and it is clear,
in my opinion it is the People’s Budget . It is not the
people’s reply; but it is the People’s Budget . And as it
was delivered by the Opposition, and since it a ddressed the needs and welfare and the future of ev eryday Bermuda, it is clearly a question that we could ask the people of Bermuda, Do you trust us enough to
walk with us? We show the human touch. The Opposition Leader took the lead and spoke of a lot of initi atives that are looking to help the working man in Bermuda. But can the One Bermuda Alliance ask that question, Madam Deputy Speaker? Do you trust me
enough to walk with me? Well, based on the Budget I
read, the answer would be a resounding no, especia lly when money is still being found to fund things like


Bermuda House of Assembly the America’s Cup at the expense of social services,
education, and other people initiatives.
I, for one, Madam Deputy Speaker, am def initely for sport. But education and health, social services, are the foundation of any society, Madam Dep-uty Speaker, and we cannot continue to sit by and think that all is well.
The One Bermuda Alliance, Madam Deputy
Speaker, campaigned on a promise to create 2,000 jobs immediately if they won the election. All around
the Island there were signs saying, Jobs, jobs, jobs .
When they won the election, it went from 2,000 jobs
immediately to 500 jobs a year. As time went on, it
went from 500 jobs a year to just creating jobs. The
narrative now, Madam Deputy Speaker, is just jobs are coming. But the reality for us, Madam Deputy Speaker, is that four years later not only have they not produced the 2,000 jobs promised, we are living in a timeline, 2017, where almost 2,000 more jobs have
been lost. This is not speculation, Madam Deputy
Speaker. The facts speak for themselves.
So, is this Government saying to the people of
Bermuda trust me, when we take a look at the Budget
we see another increase? I saw another increase in
the national security budget of almost $4 million. And
because I am the Shadow Minister of Social Deve lopment and Sport, I always compare these things to that budget, and I noticed that in that budget there has been another decrease of $1 million. So an increase in national security and a $1 million decrease for s ocial development and sport.
But my suggestion to the Government is, if
you want to really secure our future, develop and a ddress the needs of our people. Develop and address the needs of Bermudians, your everyday Bermudian because this certainly makes one wonder, it certainly
makes me wonder whether or not this increase in national security is to make sure that the America’s Cup goes off without a hitch and just in case the natives
get restless they have the resources to keep them in check. But I am just saying, why is there the need for
more money in national security when clearly there is
a need to increase social programmes?
Madam Deputy Speaker, I have said this over
and over in the last three or four years that sport is seen by many as a more cost -effective approach to
dealing with our social problems than correcting the
consequences of aggression, of crime, violence and
abuse through police, correctional or other social services. We must, Madam Deputy Speaker, [invest] in our social and our sporting and workman’s clubs. How many times have I gotten up on my feet to say this? I must agree, though, with my Honourable Party Leader, our Shadow Minister of Financ e, when he mentioned in the People’s Budget that support and attention must be given to these clubs, Madam Deputy
Speaker, when we talk to our constituents about this Budget and what really matters to them, it is more
than, Do you trust me? and lip service. It is a “show me” world, Madam Deputy Speaker, and the People’s
Budget shows just that.
In looking at the Budget by the Honourable
Minister of Finance, to me, nothing really jumped out
that the social infrastructure was being addressed. But, Madam Deputy Speaker, one cannot look at this year’s Budget in isolation of the four years since 2012
that has preceded this year’s Budget process. In the
area of social development and sports, grave errors have been committed by this OBA Government, and gross negligence by their lack of social attention, gross negligence can also be attributed to this Gov-ernment.
Madam Deputy Speaker, we are definitely
aware of the continued threat of violence, of gang vi olence that is disrupting and continues to disrupt these
once relatively peaceful communities. It has been g oing on now over the past 10 years, and as Members of Parliament it is of particular concern. It should be of
particular concern to us that this scourge of gang violence has now overtaken our community so that it is no longer on the front page. That is showing a discon-nect of what is happening in our communities. It is way past time, Madam Deputy Speaker, for us (in my
humble opinion) to declare a state of emergency to
save our communities, but, in particular, to save our
young black men because they are the ones that are directly being affected. They are the victims. They are the perpetrators. They are the ones leaving children and relatives to mourn their loss.
It reminds of that saying, yes, Madam Deputy
Speaker, black lives matter . Black lives do matter.
And it is high time that we take the bull by the horn and recognise that we have a crisis in the black co mmunity. And for those that are going to respond and
say, Well, all lives matter . Yes, all lives matt er. I am
not saying that they do not. But in this particular case
with what is happening in our black community, we have to once and for all be serious about it —in the
Budget, in the Throne Speech, up here when we get up on our feet. This is not going away unless we, as
legislators and leaders of the country, do what we need to do.
But, Madam Deputy Speaker, what is also
critical is that social help for the needy has been sparse. Social help for the needy —for our seniors, for
our children—has been sparse. But corporate welfare
has been abundant, i.e., the America’s Cup. But I must stress, because I have stood on my feet a few times voicing my concern that the America’s Cup is not going to address the needs of those who really need to get a piece of that pie. But I must be clear that I appreciate the event. I appreciate the World Cup
event. And that is the way that I look at it, it is just an
event. It is not a panacea; it is not going to bring all this honey and other nice things long- term to us.
But when we are trying to get our people on
board, it is hard for our seniors who are struggling, deciding between medications and food, to really
794 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly show much concern for the America’s Cup, and again,
we have to put adequate time, energy, and resources
into those things that matter most to our people.
Madam Deputy Speaker, I venture to say that
even a teacher who has to constantly pay out of pocket for supplies, who is working in old buildings, with mould, mildew, with no 21
st century technology
. . . this is what the everyday Bermudian is going
through. And that is why I contend— I always have
and I still do— that the America’s Cup is nothing but an
event. And if I am proven wrong, I will be the first one to get up on my feet and say, hey. But this is where I stand ri ght now.
I am reminded again, Madam Deputy Speaker, of that topic from church, Will you trust me enough to walk with me, my learned friend? And again, the
answer, when asked the question to the people by the OBA Government is a resounding, No. In four years of promises, four years of cutting those critical ministries
and programmes which address the needs of the unemployed, the underemployed, the OBA Gover nment —the One Bermuda Alliance— has definitely let
our people down. But, Madam Deputy Speaker, as I
read through the Budget and reflect, I keep coming up with there is no secret that Bermuda is racially, socially, economically polarised, and that at this time being an election year we are going to get a lot of narratives from the other side, OBA supporters and Members giving the impression that they do matter and we are one Bermuda. In reality, Madam Deputy Speaker, the
only time when people recognise us as one Bermuda
is when they are looking for votes. We are living in a world of two Bermudas —the haves and the have- nots.
Black and white for the most part. So the question is, Do they really care? But if I may answer from where I
sit, their actions speak louder than words.
Madam Deputy Speaker, on page 40 of the
Budget Statement, I could not help but reflect on the services of the BHB, the Bermuda Hospitals Board, when the One Bermuda Alliance reduced the annual funding for the BHB by $25 million. And for the last
two months almost, I have needed the services of the
hospital. I broke an ankle, as most people know. I had
a cast on my foot. Once the cast was taken off after seven weeks, I went around to the physio to make an appointment to get some physiotherapy. But lo and behold, to my surprise, Madam Deputy Speaker, I was
told that there was a six -week waiti ng list.
Now, I am not saying that the $25 million that
was reduced to the BHB, and perhaps given to the
America’s Cup to make sure that runs, has affected services, has affected staffing. I am just saying what I experienced. And the overwhelming response to me
was not enough staffing. But my concern is really not more me, Madam Deputy Speaker, because I am one of the few lucky ones to be able to go out into the pr ivate sector and make an appointment and get my physio. We stand up here as parliamentarians to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. So what I am saying is that my concern is for those u nderinsured or uninsured persons that may need the physio and do not have the benefit, do not have the
enjoyment of being able to say, Oh, okay, they have a
six-week wait, I am going out to the private sector and
get that service. Something must be done to make
sure that the least among us are taken care of, b ecause that is our job. That is our job and that is our
duty, Madam Deputy Speaker.
I do not want to keep reflecting on that church
service, but the topic was so relevant. While I was
reading the Budget, I kept saying to myself, Can the
people trust the OBA now to walk with them? That is
the question. And I keep coming up with the answer of no.
Madam Deputy Speaker, in the Budget
Statement on page 21, I was reading about the em-ployment and I noticed the construction numbers, in particular. And I was a little confused, Madam Deputy
Speaker, when I read there was major construction
activity up in Dockyard, Morgan’s Point, Pink Beach . . . but the employment numbers only showed an i ncrease of 10 in the Budget Statement. I am more baf-fled now than when I saw that —

In construction, I am sorry. It
showed an increase of only 10 in construction. But I
am more baffled now because the Honourable Member from constituency 28 had said something, if I may,
Madam Deputy Speaker, our construction jobs ha ve
picked up, joined this building boom, he called it, wit h
the Loren Hotel coming online, and Morgan’s Point was about to come online and all this bustling activity. But the Budget Book says the construction has only
added 10 jobs. I know there is a lagging indicator but
it is collective responsibility. So if th e Budget is being
prepared, it is the responsibility of the Government to get the correct figures in the Budget Book. So, what I understand is there are only 10 jobs have been created.
But also, Madam Deputy Speaker, the Honourable Member from constituency 22 [sic], Ms. Go rdon-Pamplin —C-22? C -21?

Constituency 23. I was close,
yes, she said that her Ministry has seen 900- plus new
jobs. But, again, that does not . . . it did not reflect
those numbers in the Budget Book. So I have to say,
inquiring minds want to know that if all this construction is going on and the Budget is only showing that
there has been an increase of 10 workers, is it fair for me to say that most of the workers are foreign?

[Inaudible interjection]



Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Michael A. Weeks: And all of them are foreign—
okay, I must have missed that because I just came to
that conclusion just by deduction because all of that construction could not have been done just by 10 Bermudian men on the job. Madam Deputy Speaker, going to the payroll
tax structure on page 30. Now, on the face of it, the
payroll tax looks good. But as I kept reading, by the
time I got to page 39 I saw that the duty on fuel has been raised 5 [cents]. Doing a little bit of homework,
listening to some of my other honourable colleagues, and over the last four years this equates to an i ncrease of 49 per cent. So in actual fact, Madam Deputy Speaker, it is that old saying of robbing Peter to pay Paul. In one door and out the other.
Also, Madam Deputy Speaker, as I close—
how much time do I have? Five minutes?

Okay. All right.
Madam Deputy Speaker, also on page 39 of
the Budget [Statement], I see where the OBA antic ipates $3 million in receipts from the sale of Gover nment properties. My suggestion is that we need to
think outside the box. We need to earmark one or more of these available properties for the homeless. We talk about this. I have talked about it, others have talked about it over and over for these last three or
four years. We talk about what we want to do; we talk
about what we should do. But right now the Gover nment is saying that they have vacant properties . . . let
us be creative and turn one or two of them immediat ely into homeless shelters.
Just recently, Madam Deputy Speaker, I
heard on the New York news the other night that the Governor of New York is allocating 90 homeless shelters for the state. New York is doing 90 homeless shelters —

[Inaudible interjecti ons]

Yes, it was in the New York
Times .
We must be able to allocate one or two pro perties for our homeless. Again, those are the ones that
are least among us that we need to look out for. With
all these properties that we have available, it is not
always about revenue and financial capital —there is
human capital that we must also be mindful of.
But, Madam Deputy Speaker, as I close it will
be easy for me as the Shadow Minister for Social D evelopment and Sport to focus on all that this Gover nment has not done for the needy and the common man in Bermuda. However, Madam Deputy Speaker, it has already been done. See, my colleagues have eloquently pointed out most of the stuff that I have talked about and some other stuff, but I must say that
the country —the people of this country —will not be fooled this time. They will not be fooled again. Hence
our focus, the Progressive Labour Party, is on the f uture and what the people can know for certain is that
they, the people, can trust us and walk with the Pr ogressive Labour Party when we return to Government.
As I take my seat, Madam Deputy Speaker, I
again want to commend the fine work done by our
Opposition Leader and the Shadow Minister of F inance.
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Thank you and good evening, Ma dam Deputy Speaker.
The Honourable Member that just took his
seat, he and I share a boundary together and we quite often run into each other when we are out canvassing
or we are in the area together.
One thing that this struck home to me—
because he is talking about me, what he just said— he
said I do not care and people do not trust me. Well,
that is not true at all. The reason why we got into pol itics, at the end of the day, was not to stand up here to
be the best speaker. Because I am certainly not by any stretch of the imagination, and I did not take that job on to do that. What I did do was to be committed to the people in my constituency to help better their
lives. Not a handout, but a hand up. And that comes from intellectual knowledge of when you are down and people need help, you can use what you have learned from your past to help them. So for him to say that I
am not trusted is false. Absolutely false. And, you know what? A majority of my colleagues fall into the
same category —all of them fall into the same category as I do today.
Moving on, I would like to thank the Minister of
Finance, E. T. Bob Richards, for putting together a
budget that is not easy. Anybody would love to give
and sell things to say that can give this, they can give
that. But we are in tough times. We are not sailing smoothly whatsoever. The other day, Madam Deputy Speaker, the
Minister of Finance mentioned how fragile Bermuda is
with the forces that are outside of us or outside of our
control. What am I talking about? Brexit. I am talking
about Trump. We have no control over what button they push, what document they sign. However, when I look back —and I have looked more into it —I have
spoken to some of my colleagues in international business and they are very happy that we have the
Solvency II regulations and legislation because what
they are hoping is in the event Brexit does take place
that it could drive business to Bermuda which was to help their business.
The other side, with Mr. Trump is that he is an
unknown entity. And I was speaking to a colleague of
796 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly mine who sits on the Ways and Means Committee in
the US. I was asking him about what does this mean if
the cross -border taxes happen, what does that mean
for Bermuda. He says, Glen, you will have nothing.
You will be gone.
I said, Well, how confident do you feel that is
going to happen?
He said, You know what ? Don’t worry about
Mr. Trump. It is Mr. Pence that will finally have the say.
And I think we are starting to see a lot of that.
What Trump has said has not coming to fruition. And let us hope it goes that way.
Now, Madam Deputy Speaker, I am very o ptimistic of 2017 in regard to growth in revenue and growth of jobs. As we saw on our sign today as you go down to the bottom of Front Street, I think it says 86 days left before, I guess, the boats cross the line to take off.

No, it is—I saw it was 86 days. But if
you say it is 83, it is 83.
But never mind, the good news is it is happening and it is coming to reality. And what came the ot her night, my wife happened to make me watch the red carpet before the Oscars and, of course, I noticed in
this whole hour or two hours leading up to the Oscars
there was absolutely no car commercials, only wom-en’s clothing and makeup and so forth. So it clearly
shows that that part of the segment is for females. Lo and behold, who should just drop out of there, the America’s Cup had an ad. I googled it. There was b asically 32.9 million people viewed the Oscars—32.9
[million]. We have never had that in one big showing
ever, ever promoting Bermuda. And it was phenom enal.
At the end of the day, I also googled what
would an ad like that cost? Well, $2.2 million. Well,
that did not come from the Tourism Authority. That
came from the America’s Cup, they paid for that.
[Inaudible interjections]

The other side that I would like to
share is I was recently overseas and I happened to meet a very wealthy individual that had heard about
the America’s Cup but wanted to know more. So I had dinner with him, my wife and I did. And consequently
he said, Well, I am interested in perhaps sending my
yach t up to Bermuda. His yacht is based in the Cari bbean and the Mediterranean— it goes both ways but
never stops in between here.
So, last weekend he sent his captain to Bermuda, who is also the manager of his yacht. It is a small boat; it is 90 feet, compared to the megayachts that are coming in at 200 feet. So essentially what his captain did was to book restaurants, his family has over 36 groups of people coming to Bermuda—just
one boat —over the six weeks. Right? And at the end
of the day, he wants two taxis on standby 24/7. Done.
That creates jobs. They will also be staying at hotels. They have booked hotels and in actual fact they have rented homes in Tucker’s Town, which locals run, which they paint their homes, they cut the grass, they
do things.
So the multiplier effect is there. To say that it
does not create jobs is absolutely nonsense. Nonsense! And at the end of the day, his friends that will be coming here, to say there is no long- term growth,
but once they have come to Bermuda and they do
have a good time, because I am absolutely confident
they will, there could be a possibility to invest in Ber-muda. Not only to perhaps purchase a home, but cer-tainly set up a business here as in any type of money management side.
I also would like just to focus a little bit, we
have spent a long time (I think two years) talking about the airport. Well, it is real. It is happening. You can see that they are starting to do a lot of scouting, a lot of work. There are people on the ground here look-ing for homes, looking to buy vehicles. So it is real
and the ground will be broken which will create jobs —
400 jobs I am told, but one would think, I believe it will
be probably be more than that at the end of the day.
We have had the Loren Hotel that is complete. It is up and running. Is it a big hotel? No, it is a boutique hotel. But once again it is an investment that
has been put into Bermuda. And we also have the
likes of the St. Regis Club that has happened in St. George’s, and it has been a very long time coming for any hotel to come down there. But we are
100 per cent confident that they will be breaking
ground this year.
And then there is the Caroline Bay. I was told
this past week (as I have not been up there for a while) that there was a container ship dropping of f . . .
I assume it was prefab concrete to build the houses a lot quicker and probably more efficient today, and at
the end of the day probably a lot less expensive to
build for the developer. So those are signs. There are jobs happening up there. And my H onourable Member
from constituency 28, he talked about Mr. Durham, he
is doing well with some of the construction work or excavation work that he is doing up there.
The long- term is when you look at the inves tment that is going in with Caroline Bay, whic h I believe is going to be the Ritz Reserve, it also has a megayacht marina. Once again, this will create a place for megayachts to come and stop by or hopeful-ly stay here for a while before they either head south
or over to the Med. And hopefully with the America’s
Cup that is coming down we will see, our eyes will
open when you see these boats of 90- plus feet coming here, and let us hope they will be returning to visit and what have you. So, once again, that is another economic event that will stimulate t he economy.


Bermuda House of Assembly I have a habit of reading the paper every day.
First of all I go to page six or seven just to make sure
that I am not there in the obituaries, and what have you. But also, every Friday I have a habit, because in my blood, I do not know why, but I do have an interest in construction. And what I have noticed over this last year is certainly the increase of it is either building
permission or planning permission, or they have to
gazette it before they can do it. And it is a lot bigger than what it was three years ago. That is for sure.
So the Honourable Member from [constituency] 16, he talked about, I think he said 10 construction
jobs, I have to say, I do not think this is quite correct,
those numbers in that book. The Honourable Member
from co nstituency 29 who is in the industry knows that
there has been some growth in the construction bus iness.
[Inaudible interjections and crosstalk ]

And the Bermuda Tourism Authority
has done a fantastic job. You know, to me, when I
look at that, that was a start -up business in 2014, and
it takes time. It certainly does. And at this time I would
like to publicly thank Mr. Bill Hanbury, because with his perseverance he stuck through and he made it happen. I would also like to thank the Honourable
Member , the former Tourism Minister, Shawn Croc kwell, who was the driving force behind to get the BTA
up and running. I also would like to thank the Berm udians that run and work at the Tourism Authority. They are a breath of fresh air. It is fantastic. And obviously we wish Mr. Dallas all the best in coming back to
Bermuda to get it going.
Madam Deputy Speaker, I do not like to r eflect on the past, because that is not me. I am a future
person. I never look back. I always look ahead. I look back at the mistakes I make, but I always look forward. But one thing that we cannot neglect is we i nherited a deficit of $330 million when we first came in.
The truth of the matter is, you know we are borrowing US dollars just to pay the interest which costs a lot of
money. It has been said. I think it is $500,000 a day. When I broke it down, that is basically $8 a day per
person. Maybe you can buy a hamburger and a soda
with that. And then if you look at it per a nnum, it is
close to $3,000. So there is a lot that could be done with that money. But I am not here to cry over the past. It is about the future, and the good news is since 2014 we have reduced it by $164 million.
On a happier note, you know, businesses are
certainly going in the right direction, small and medium ones. We have seen statistics that will show us that over several consecutive quarters we have seen growth, over the last 16 months. The Consumer Index has been up which shows there is confidenc e. If the consumer confidence is not up, then you are doomed
further. We have also seen GDP grow and the Ho nourable Member from constituency 34, she talked
about GDP and it is almost, but it is not, it is the
chicken and the egg. You do not create the job first and then GDP comes. What you have is the foreign investment that comes in, that creates jobs. When you
have the foreign investment come in, that also creates
jobs and also helps people purchase more goods and more services. So, it does not come the other way. You do not create the job first. You get the foreign investment in, or the investment is invested by the investors, which creates jobs. That is reality.
We have also seen in the Budget Statement
the growth of the volume of containers that have been coming in over last year. I believe it is up 11 per cent,
which is a good sign. That is a sure sign that the economy is going in the right direction. Yes, some of that is from America’s Cup. Yes, a lot of that is
through, obviously, the construction machine that is
coming in. But at the end of the day, it is going up. And I could speak from a business perspective, and I will declare my interests, I have a company by the name of Auto Solutions, and I am managing director.
So I have the numbers and I will share them with you.
On average, the whole car industry, or vehicle indus-try, we roughly sell 170 new vehicles a month.

Yes. And vans over the last year.
I look at my own business. I started wit h the
business three and a half years ago. We started with
32 staff. Today we are at 45, which is an increase of 38 per cent—and those are Bermudians. The Honourable Member , the Opposition Leader, said I would
have to find other people to keep on giving pe ople
from my constituency jobs. Well, I have done that. I do hire other people, not just in my constituency.
Also, which is a big factor, is the growth in the
commercial division. This year there has probably
been the biggest growth out of any time, and that is up
38 per cent. And those are businesses, and we all
know because we have had businesses when we are not doing well. But one of the last things you do is in-vest in purchasing a van. You just keep sticking it t ogether, welding it together, just to get it through because your main goal is to be able to make payroll,
then at the end of the day, pay your taxes and what have you. The last thing you do is buy new vehicle. And that is true. That is right across the board from the construction side. That is from the cleaner side,
and that is also in regard to landscaping we have
seen and a lot of small individual entrepreneurs opening up business. A bee guy just got his first permit last week because there is obviously a demand in either controlling the bees or getting the honey to sell.
We have also seen . . . our business alone in
the last three years sold 152 new taxis. Well, that ba798 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly sically represents 25 per cent of the taxi fleet has
been renewed, new vehicles. Why? A lot of them are
saying it is not only the America’s Cup, they are sa ying that there is a new hotel, we have got things that are happening, and particularly with the America’s Cup they are booked out. I was talking to a gentleman the other day who was telling me that essentially
60 per cent of the taxi fleet are booked already for the
America’s Cup. Not just eight hours a day.

Sure. And, you know, with the a dvent of Airbnb, my understanding is . . . and this hap-pened to be in a Public Account meeting the other day
the Tourism Authority came. I believe they said there
were over 480 residences and it is growing, and that is great. When I look back when I was a very young man, my grandparents used to have—it was college weeks then—but they would rent out rooms and when
my grandparents would oversell, guess what? They would be sent down to our house and my family and I all bunked in one room while they stayed in the room. So, essentially, it is reciprocal coming around but in a higher end than what it was. And it is great because at the end of the day the tourists, or the overseas
guests, person, coming gets to feel a real Bermuda
and gets a taste of it. I believe, there are a couple people in this Chamber that have started doing the
Airbnb.
Madam Deputy Speaker, I do believe that we
need to find a way to spread the burden equally. I cer-tainly believe that, across the entire population, and this is a time that perhaps both sides should come together and put heads together to say what is goin g
to be the best for Bermuda and her people at the end of the day.

[Inaudible interjections]

So, you know, we need to do that. I
know we are revising tax structures. I know we are
looking at GST, but at the end of the day the moral of the story is, either we like it or do not, we need pe ople. And I am talking about overseas people. I am not talking domestic help. I am not talking gardeners. I am
not talking construction workers. I am talking people
with wealth and people that would domicile, spend time here. And I am not suggesting by any stretch of
the imagination giving passports or status. We need to find a way to attract those, and hopefully with the ad-vent of the America’s Cup we will have an opportunity
to do that.
We know we have an ageing population and
at the end of the day for the ageing population it puts
stress on us for our insurances in what we have to pay. We have a declining population—I think it says 1 percent or 1.59 percent. That is not good because at
the end of the day we all have to pay additional fund-ing for insurance. So, I reiterate that we need the ad-ditional people here.
Bermuda is a great place. It is centrally located if you are coming from the US to live here . . . from the UK or York it is central. And that is what they
want. But they also want an Island or a country that is
going to welcome them with welcoming arms and al-low them to participate in the Bermuda lifestyle and culture.
Before I take my seat, one thing I will do, b ecause I cannot neglect by not saying in reference to the Opposition’s Reply today, this document truly is election platform.

[Inaudible interjection]

Okay, thank you. Please pr oceed.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: The part that is misleading is
that in the Budget . . . in the Reply he clearly shows
how the thing that we will do as far as tax reform and


Bermuda House of Assembly producing new business in Bermuda, as far as reducing debt. That is how the debt will be reduced.

Madam Deputy Speaker, you can go
to the World Bank and borrow money of off this that is
for sure.
So, in closing, Madam Deputy Speaker, we
will continue to serve the people— everybody. We will
continue to try to grow jobs. We will continue to r educe the debt, which we are doing. We are creating
jobs. And you know what? The good news is that this
Island is in safe hands and the safe hands are on this
side of the House.
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.
[Desk thumping]

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE DEPUTY
SPEAKER

HOUSE VISITOR

The Chair now recognises the
Member from constituency 29.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you, Madam Deputy
Speaker.
The speaker who just took his seat said that
we are creating jobs and we are in safe hands. Well, I
will let the Bermudian people judge that last statement because it is obvious that the OBA consultants have been to work and their tagline is going to be “safe hands” for the next couple of months. So we know that. But, of course, the people of Bermuda will make
their own decisions about, you know, safe hands.
Now, Madam Deputy Speaker, I have to congratulate the OBA tonight. I have to give them a hearty congratulations. Hearty congratulations! I am not going to congratulate my Leader, yet. I want to
congratulate the OBA because not too long ago we
heard the Honourable Member from the OBA consti t-uency 28 (I think), Jeff Sousa, say that 4,000 jobs
would be created in the next 12 weeks. He said that.
Why do I say he said t hat? Because you know what,
Madam Deputy Speaker? On 27 May 2016 he said,
(and he said it clearly in Hansard
), I Jefferson Sou sa,
I am making this statement today (27 May 2016) that
Bermuda will have overemployment in one year.

A year or two.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: And what he said today is
that May is only about 12 weeks awa y. So, I have to
congratulate . . . you know, Bermudians are going to
be fully employed. We have 4,000 jobs that we will
see in 12 weeks —less than 12 weeks. I do not know if
the Honourable Member has been celebrating Chris tmas or not. Maybe he has had a bit too much to drink, I do not know. But that certainly, certainly was what he said.
But, Madam [Deputy Speaker], we have a lot
of ground to cover, so I will move swiftly along. Mem-bers on the other side today, I think it was Dr. Grant Gibbons from constituency 22, said that the PLP were responsible for the loss of 5,000 jobs. Madam Deputy
Speaker, with your indulgence, in the Bottom Line
magazine February 2016, the CEO from Bank of Butterfield Mr. Mike Collins, and if I may quote, it says, “The health of Bermuda’s economy hasn’t recovered to pre- crisis levels; our recovery has been a very pr otracted one. That’s largely due to the fact that, during
the crisis and ensuing economic downturn, many
companies in the international business sector scaled back their operations and the Island’s population d eclined. It was a sudden and significant knock to the economy; one that we are still trying to recover from. There are no quick fixes for it.” Mike Collins, CEO,
Bank of Butterfield last February —one year.
So, Madam Deputy Speaker, when you hear
the Government officials and Ministers talk about the
PLP were responsible for the loss of 5,000 jobs, ma ybe they disagree with the CEO of Bank of Butterfield,
who I know is good friends with some of those folks
on the other side of the aisle.
Now, Madam Deputy Speaker, there is an old
saying, Putting a dog ’s tail on a duck won’t make it a
dog. The Honourable Member Grant Gibbons today
could not help himself from saying the OB United,
United OB . . . he could not make up his mind if he was
OBA or United Bermuda Party. It is amazing, you see,
because you can try to pin tails on the donkey. You can try putting tails on a dog and all that stuff. But you see at the end of the day, we know the real deal.
So, Madam Deputy S peaker, I just had to
drop in a few of those comments on some of the comments that came from the other side.

And as we proceed as per the
Standing Orders, you will refer to the constituencies of
which the Members come from rather than names.
800 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you, Madam Deputy
Speaker .
Madam Deputy Speaker, it is clear from the
Budget that was produced by the Finance Minister
that his policies are not working. They did not work in his first year. They did not work in his second year.
They did not work in his third year. And you know
what, Madam Deputy Speaker ? They are not going to
work this year.
In 2012 the Bermudian people were promised
2,000 jobs. Madam Deputy Speaker, we have lost
2,000 more jobs. In 2013 the Finance Minister stood
in this House, not long after being elected, and borrowed $800 million —$800 million he borrowed—and
he said that that was going to last for three years. It
would hold our deficit for three years, and we all know now that did not last long. It failed. The Minister then went on to borrow another $150 million some 18, 20 months later, $150 million, and guess what? That is
gone, too!
The great Finance Minister, when he was O pposition Shadow Finance Minister we used to say that
he has got a crystal ball. Well, where is his crystal ball? He must have lost it. Can you imagine for just a
moment, had the Progressive Labour Party won the
election in 2012 and three months thereafter we said that we would borrow another, let us say, a measly $100 million. Can you imagine the uproar from the Opposition and their supporters?

Yes.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: My, my, my.
Madam Deputy Speaker, the Progressive L abour Party in 14 years ended up with a debt of $1.1
billion. The OBA has doubled that —borrowed a billion
dollars in four years. A billion dollars in four years. A billion!
You know the funny thing I find about it, Madam Deputy Speaker, is that those who have fairly
good memories will remember back in 2012. Almost
weekly there were articles by Larry Burchall and Sir
John Swan talking about our debt. It seemed endless. It seemed endless . . . every week, every week. But I
will give Larry Burchall his due. He has come out and flogged the OBA for taking our debt and throwing it straight through the ceiling. I will give him that, because he criticised us and he is criticising the OBA. I
will give him that. But where is John Swan? The great UBP/OBA saviour?

Thank you.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Sir John Swan. Where is he? Where is he? Have not heard a
peep about this billion dollars. He used to say, you
know, every day we are spending $150,000 in inter-est. Then it went up to $200,000 and we got lam basted for that. Now it is $500,000 per day! Madam Depu-ty Speaker, where are those number crunchers now?
Now, Madam Deputy Speaker, on page 26 of
the Minister of Finance’s Statement, and I will quote, he says, “if Government cannot pare back spending on social programmes, the debt will increase [even]
further and initiate a vicious downward spiral of dow ngrades.” He makes that statement. But let us look at some of the things the OBA have done and continue
to do. [There was] $77 million on the America’s Cup
last year; $28 million this year. Over $2 million for a
Commission of Inquiry. Over $3 million on investigat-ing former Premier Dr. Brown. Potential hundreds of millions of dollars on a lawsuit from maybe the Lahey Clinic in Boston. They do not fool around, Madam
Deputy Speaker, and I have a feeling that Bermuda is
going to have a heavy price to pay.
Rent on ferries every year . . . what do we pay
for those tenders in rent every year, Madam Deputy Speaker ? You know, you might have experience of
owning your own home and how you struggled before
you got to own your own home. I certainly know what it felt like. I know what it felt like to pay rent. But I tell you what, it did not take me long in my life, in my
young life, Madam Deputy Speaker, to say, L isten,
you know what, I want to stop paying rent. I want to own my own home because it just . . . you know, I was
obsessed with it. So the thing is, why are we continuing to rent these, these ferries for huge amounts of money every month? Why are we doing that?

Per month.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Per month! I had to say per
year because I am sure the listening public think it has
to be a year. How much is a new ferry? We have
heard today that you had a Minister, a Government Minister, spend $40,000 taking a trip to Brazil.
$40,000, $40,000!
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: The Honourable Minister
from . . . I do not know, they switch around so much—

Member, have a seat.

Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: —in London.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you. See, Madam,
the reason I said $40,000, Okay, let us clarify it. Thi rty-five thousand dollars, or the Minister just said
$36,000, but how about the $5,000 for the unused
room? Five thousand dollars for an unused room! But, yet, the Minister says that we cannot pare back
spend ing on social programmes without the debt i ncreasing to further initiate a vicious downward spiral. But, we can spend all this money doing these types of
things. And I mentioned before in this House, Madam
Deputy Speaker, there are tens of millions of dollars of
uncollected tax on adjudication of property —stamp
taxes. Tens of millions! Tens of millions of dollars that
are outstanding. But yet, the reason for it is that the Tax Department are understaffed. We know that $18
million we have a challenge with the Corporation of
Hamilton. We know that we had a debate in this
House and we were promised that, No, no, no we got
it covered. We know what we are doing. There is no
risk. We have done all the due diligenc e, $18 million is
covered. It is gone. We had the Bermuda Tourism Authority board
members still pulling in $20,000 a year —$20,000 a
year—and the last I checked, I think they had 10
meetings in one year.

Oh, $2,000 a meeting.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: No a bad pull, $2,000 a
meeting. That is more than my QC lawyer. Two thousand dollars a meeting! That is if they had 10. Now, they might have had eight —then that number goes
up. Let us hope they had 12. But that is the type of money the OBA spends and they say that they cannot
spend money on social programmes.
I will give you another little quote while we are
on social programmes, Madam. I think it was . . . I cannot remember who said it but this is what they
said. I t is easier to train young children than to repair
broken men. Okay? But yet, we had our at -risk youth
programme cut and then we wonder why people run
around Bermuda shooting themselves! Our young black men. I have not seen any white men killing each other yet. We have a problem. Has that been a ddressed? It is easier to train young children than it is
to repair a broken man.
Now, Madam Deputy Speaker, how is my time
going? Fifteen minutes left? Sixteen? Beautiful. Okay.
We have heard almost to a person from the
Members of the Government talking about a hotel is coming in St. George’s. A hotel is coming in St.
George’s. Well, Madam Deputy Speaker, we have
heard that promise month in and month out, year in
and year out, since they first started having those conversations about a new hotel in St. George’s. And while I am on my feet, let me thank former Minister of Works, Derrick Burgess, for imploding that building
and saving the taxpayer $7 million which they seem to
forget all the time. He saved us $7 million. He should have just gone with the Technical Director’s advice and took it down their way. That would have been an-other $7 million blown.
But let us get back to that hotel because my
understanding is, Madam Deputy Speaker, and you
are from St. George’s so this is important f or you —

St. David’s.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: St. David’s, St. George’s —
you know, okay, sorry, sorry.

[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Okay, all right, but you’re
out on the East End and it is important, that hot el.
I know it is because I remember you distinctly
asking the former Minister of Tourism if financing was
in place when we had that debate. I got it right here in my Hansard . So I know you asked the question. Why
did you ask it? Because you are very concer ned. And
802 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly we have heard all the Members over there so far talking about this hotel is going forward. We cannot wait.
Well, we have been hearing that . . . but it is my u nderstanding that these new gaming fees that have been implemented are a show stopper. Why did it not pass in the Senate? Shall we ask? Why did it not . . . it has been very quiet.
Why have we not seen something come back
to this House? Why is that? I think they are getting some pressure, Madam. That is what I believe. And do you know what else? I would like someone on that side over the next two weeks during this Budget D ebate to tell us if the hotel is going to be built first, because that was a big bone of contention. And I think, Madam, you may have even said, Look, we want to
make sure t hat the hotel goes up first because that is
what is going to create all the jobs for our Bermudi-ans. But do you know what, Madam Deputy Speaker ?
I have a little funny feeling that that hotel is not going
to happen first, if it happens at all. And let me sa y,
again, I hope for all of Bermuda and our people that
this hotel does go— and yesterday, because we know
we need it. We know it is going to create jobs, so, yes. But I will tell you what, those are two very important
questions: gaming fees and is the hote l going to be
built first.
Now, Madam Deputy Speaker, Members opposite and the Finance Minister, in particular, really
made a good bit of noise about this $25 million reduc-tion at the hospital. That is interesting. Very interes ting. And he said it was because of the strong liquidity position of BHB. Well, if I remember correctly, not long after they won the election, Madam Deputy Speaker,
they were talking about all these payments they have to make for the new hospital —$27 million a month.
And they were not going to be able to make it! All of a
sudden, they are flush with cash. So, was that being a
little economical with the truth or was it just lack of education? Or was it fuzzing up the numbers a little bit? Was it a position of convenience?
Madam Deputy Speaker, as a former Minister
of Health I can tell you I caught a lot of flak in this House because I had to come back every year for supplementaries. And in Health, as you know, it is one of the toughest ministries, I think, to budget for be-cause as we know, you cannot turn people away from the hospital. You cannot do it. So, no matter what your
budgets are, if Mrs. Smith walks in, she has got a b aby, she has been hit by a car, or she has had a bad
accident, she does not have any insurance, that child is going to be looked after. So, we know that is what
happens. So, it will be interesting to see what supple-mentaries will be coming in the future.
Now, the one thing that I wanted to talk about
with tax, because everyone is talking about how sweet this tax is, I hear (because I have some friends in the international business, too), Madam Deputy Speaker,
that there is talk already from the CEO and the human resource managers that the benefits that used to get paid 100 percent by the company will no longer be.
What do I mean by that? Well, you will know . . . I am sure you have heard it, Madam Deputy Speaker . I
wish I was smart enough to work for international business when I was coming up . . . even though I did
work for American International for a little while. But I will say this, I wish I would have continued, because
the packages that they offer are tremendous. Fantastic! I take my hat off to them because they take care of Bermudian staff well in that regard. Well, they used to. But I understand that there are many who are having
conversations now with their employees about they will no longer be able to offer 100 percent coverage of
benefits. So look for that groundswell.
Now, Madam Deputy Speaker, how is the
time going?

[You have] 10 minutes.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Okay, 10 minutes.
Now, we have heard already from the other
side, we will hear some more tonight because I reckon
we will be here till one or two o’clock this morning, maybe later. But we have heard from the other side,
Well, we are paying $500,000 a day in interest be-cause the PLP just ran up debt in this country and you just left us in a big hole. We looked under the hood and it was a mess . Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay?
But let us talk about a few things. Madam D eputy
Speaker . From 1998 to 2008 Bermuda had its largest
percentage of growth in our history. The largest GDP in our history. We had the largest employment figures in our history —in our history —between 1998 and
2008. Now, what happened in 2008, Madam Deput y
Speaker ? Do you know what happened? The PLP
woke up. We were Government, and on that morning
in 2008, September, we forgot how to govern. We just
woke up and we forgot everything. We forgot ever ything! Had to! Because we have been at fault for the econom ic downturn; we have been at fault for 5,000
jobs leaving Bermuda. We are at fault for businesses
failing.
So in 2008, September, Bermuda woke up
and we forgot how to govern. And, by the way, because the PLP forgot how to govern, Greece failed, Portugal failed, Ireland failed, the US failed— we
caused a world economic crash! That is what we did.
That is what we did, they would have you believe. So
that is why we had this huge debt. But I will tell you what, Madam Deputy Speaker. The OBA could talk
about that debt that the PLP left till the cows come home. But I am proud of that debt! And why do I say that? Why do I say it? We built the Dame Lois
Browne -Evans Building. We built the cruise boat wharf
up in Dockyard. Had we not built it, those cruise ships
probably would not be here today. And it jumps —it
puts $70 million in our pockets every year, had we not built those docks as quickly as we did.


Bermuda House of Assembly We have childcare for our families —never had
before. FutureCare . . . Look, you know, FutureCare is
a big thing with me, Madam Deputy Speaker. My former colleague, Nelson Bascome, brought that here to this House. It is the best thing that ever happened for our seniors. You would think that it was only for black people in this country. But I tell you what. A lot of
white people are on FutureCare.

What a revelation.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: That is a revelation. We
built Loughlands houses up by Paraquet for our peo-ple. Perimeter Lane, another group of houses,
geared- to-income—first time in our history. Those
folks at Perimeter Lane— geared- to-income.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Geared- to-income. And the
Honourable Member earlier talked about one up
South Shore, Grand Atlantic. Oh, yes. Well, guess
what? If they would not have cr ied wolf . . . well, let us
talk about that for a minute if he wants to bring it up.
Okay? We would build it. We were looking at selling
them. They were on the radios, the TVs, the newspapers, the cliff is falling in, this place is , you know, g oing to fall over next week . Guess what? [In] 2012 they
got elected. January, everything was lovely! Whoa!
Now, everything is lovely over there at Grand Atlantic.
No caving in no more. The cliff is fine. All of a sudden
they do not have any issues!

[Inaudible interj ection]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: And they got America’s
Cup people living in there. Wow, wow, wow, wow,
wow.
Uh-uh, uh- uh.
And someone just mentioned Port Royal just
now. Port Royal is one of the top public golf courses in
the world— in the world, Madam Deputy Speaker . It
held the Grand Slam of golf, one of the greatest golf
events ever. Four major champions taking part in that tournament —88 million TV viewers. Someone said—
the Honourable Member Glen Smith, constituency 13
[sic] said that he clicked on t he Oscars the other night
or the Grammy’s or something and it was like 30 mi llion viewers. Well, if he were here and had done some
statistics on the Grand Slam he would have found that we had 88 million TV viewers —three or four days on
the track. And how about the Aquatics Centre? How about those couple of million dollars we spent up
there? They cried that down, too. Now, they cannot . .
. it is probably overbooked! They got people swim-ming up there when we Bermudians do not think about jumping in until May 24
th. Those guys are up
there training tonight! So, you see, Madam Deputy Speaker, that is where our money goes; that is where
our money went.
Now, how is the time going now?

Five minutes.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Five minutes.
What the people of this country have to ask is,
Does this OBA Government really care for me? It is
time for assessment. Election year is upon us. Silly season is going to get ripe. They have already started. And what the people in this country need to ask them-selves and discuss amongst their families is this: Do
the OBA really care about me?
Well, let us look at some of the things they
have done. They tried to cut out mammography exams. They tried to cut that out until all the bras were pinned up on the fences down at Cabinet office. That was squashed.
They tried (and probably might still do it) precertification for our people. Who the heck is going to tell my doctor that I must call a 1- 800 number to get
some doctor that does not know me to call my doctor
and say, Hey, guess what? He can have that exam now, I have checked it out . Madam, let me tell you, my
mother died from an aneurism. And if I think . . . and
that was her third. If I think that one of my children or my wife or family member who has a history of ane urisms and had complained that they have a headache or something is not right, what do you think I am going
to do? Do you think I am calling Argus or Colonial to say, Listen, um, I want my mama to have a CT. Do
you think so? [Then they say], I do not think so. No,
you do not. No, you will not. Uh-uh.
Do they care?
You have an Attorney General that releases
the worst paedophile in Bermuda’s history and does
not tell anyone —probably because he is too busy i nvestigating people rather than looking after people. That same Attorney General when he was Minister turned off people’s water up in Dockyard. Does the
OBA care for you and your family?
You have the Finance Minister who told our
seniors money does not grow on trees. Slapped them
right in their face with a backhand slap —the same
seniors that built this country. Does the OBA care for you? You remember they were going to shut down
Lamb Foggo—another place that is a little close to
you, Madam, but they were going to shut that down too, were they not ? Mm -hmm.
You know what I always wonder, just those
couple of things I mentioned to you, none of that was in their election platform of 2012, was it? Do you think
the OBA Government would have been elected and
have been the Government today had just those few
points been in their programme? We are going to
raise FutureCare prices. We are going to stop people
from getting exams. We are . . . I do not want to waste
804 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly up all my time, Madam Deputy Speaker, I really do
not.
Then of course, let us not forget that they are
the most transparent Government we have ever seen
in our history. The same transparent Government that when the Premier first took over from the former
Premier said, I am going to have an investigation into
the $350,000 that came into this part y.
So, he asked his Chairman, Go and invest igate it; but don’t you investigate my Ministers over
there. And what happened? He resigned! Why is that?
If I remember correctly, the Premier said he was going
to tell everybody about this report. I have not seen it.
But we have a transparent Government.
We have one of their Senators who sits in
another place say that born Bermudians were acc idental births. Born Bermudians are accidental births. Let us not forget they wanted guest workers’ children to work in grocery stores. Madam Deputy Speaker, I
do not know about you, but I know people that have kids working in grocery stores. They play a big part in helping their household in these times, let alone other times. But they really do. Some of those kids take home $400 or $500 on a weekend, you know. That is
right. It is huge. Okay? So to say that you want them to take over from, you know, and let us . . . and, of
course, that was quickly squashed. But do the OBA care about you?
Madam Deputy Speaker, let me just s ay this, I
will finish on this note because I know you gave me a
finger about 30 seconds ago. Let me finish on this
note: If you read through the Honourable Opposition Leader’s Reply to the Budget you will get all the an-swers. When they talk about how are you going to pay for debt, you will get them all. It is a fantastic doc ument. It lays out how we are going to generate income
because they will say how are you going to pay for
this, how are you going to pay for that. Read the doc-ument and read it clearly and carefully —

[Timer beeps]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you, Madam Deput y
Speaker.

Thank you, Member.
The Chair recognises the Member from constituency 7. You have the floor.
Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Thank you, Madam
Deputy Speaker .
Madam Deputy Speaker, before I get into my
remarks about the Budget which is what we are here to debate tonight, I just want to reference the remarks
that the Member from constituency 29 made regarding
my trip to Rio de Janeiro when I was Sports Minister.

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: And I would also like
to reference—

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Point of order.

I got it. Thank you.
The Chair recognises the Minister.
Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Thank you, Madam
Deputy Speaker. The Honourable Member is just co nfused. He is confused. I am not confused.
I am going to set the record straight. On
page 4 of the Opposition’s Reply, the Opposition
Leader mentioned $30,000 trips to Rio. Fine. I have
no problem with that. I did go to Rio de Janeiro as the Sport s Minister for Bermuda. I had to go to Rio de
Janeiro as the Sports Minister for Bermuda. If I would not have gone to Rio de Janeiro as the Sports Mini ster for Bermuda, I would be subject to a whole differ-ent round of criticism for not going to Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics.

[Inaudible interjections ]
Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: So, for clarity, Madam
Deputy Speaker, I went to Rio de Janeiro on official
Government business as the Sports Minister for Ber-muda. I met other Sports Ministers from all around the
world and I networked with sports dignitaries from all
around the world. I went and I visited athletes in the Olympic Village and I supported our athletes at all of the events that I could [humanly] attend— I could have
cloned myself and gone to every single one. I did my
Government duty. Fine. Some people had a problem
with the cost. I get that. But I was the Sports Minister for Bermuda and I had to go to the Olympics. And I was appointed close to the time of the Olympics, so we did not have the advantage of shopping around for cheaper prices.


Bermuda House of Assembly I have been trying to leave it alone, but I knew
somebody was going to bring it up during this partic ular debate. And I have had it in my bag for the last
month or so, the figures for the 2012 Bermuda conti ngent from Government that went to the Olympics in
London. And the cost was $36,491. Just for the rec-ord—$36,491. They had to go to the Olympics. I believe Dale Butler was the Sports Minister at the time;
he had to go to the Olympics. So with that being said, now I will move on and talk about the Budget.
You know, Madam Deputy Speaker, what we
have here in this Chamber and with the Government and with the Opposition is clear to me and to anybody
sitting in this Chamber and anyone listening at home
on the radio, that we both want what is best for Ber-muda. I am not going to sit and castigate anybody over on that side, their intentions. We all want what is best for Bermuda. To want anything otherwise would be ludicrous. However, there are two very different
and distinct philosophies on how to manage an eco nomy. The One Bermuda Alliance was elected in 2012
by the people of this country because they showed extreme dissatisfaction with the Government of the day. We inherited an economy in freefall and to hear
that Honourable Member from constituency 29 state
proudly that he is proud of that debt —proud of that
debt—that is like me saying, in my household, I am
going to overspend and overspend and charge up my
credit card to such an extent where I cannot pay my bills—
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Point of order, point of order!
Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: —and I am proud of it.

And your point of order is?

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: He is certainly misleading
the House, Mada m Deputy Speaker, because there is
a big difference between what I said, being proud of
what we have done with the money to accumulate that debt [versus] running up debt on a credit card be-cause they are totally two difference debts. And he
knows it, too.

I really only want to hear one
voice.
Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Debt has to be paid
for. There is a bill that comes due and the debt that
that Honourable— he is over there laughing because
he knows. He is a business man.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Madam Deputy
Speaker, he knows it. The debt that the Honourable
Member , when he was a Minister of the Government,
and his cohorts ran up when they were Government
put this country financially in extreme peril. Extreme peril . . . so much so that when we took over the reins
of Government, unless we went out and borrowed the country would have defaulted and Bermuda would have been bankrupt. That is how dire the situation
was. So, for that Honourable Member to try and just ify
the reckless, undisciplined spending that occurred
under the Progressive Labour Party Government tells me and should tell the Bermudian public that they have not learned their lesson.

[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: And, Madam Deputy
Speaker, if they ever become Government they will
continue the same strategy of spend, spend, spend. Good debt, good debt, all that good debt that the
Honourable Member refers to put us in the situation
where we are today. So, let us just state fac ts and
reality here because there has been a lot of spin put on what has been said in this place tonight. And yes, it is an election year, perhaps, nobody knows. There is
only one person who knows when the election will be
held, and we all know who that is. But the Bermudian public will have to make a very sober decision when-ever they do cast their vote on do they want a Gov-ernment that is disciplined, that exercises fiscal r esponsibility —and it hurts. Nobody likes bitter medicine. But sometimes bitter medicine is necessary to preserve the life of a patient.
Or, do they want a Government that has a t otally different philosophy that says let us just spend, spend, spend and borrow and borrow and borrow and
increase the annual deficit and increase the debt to
such an extent where it no longer becomes servicea-ble, Madam Deputy Speaker. That is the clear choice
that Bermudians will have to make. Now, my good friend, the Honourable Member
Shadow Minister for Sports —Social Development and
Sports, we had a conversation shortly after the last election in a social setting. He is a good friend of mine. We went to University together. I respect him and I believe he respects me, and I hope he is listen-ing to the radio.

806 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly An Hon. Member: Howard University?

Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Yes, Howard Univers ity, the mecca.

The mecca.

Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: The mecca.

[Laughter]
Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: But that Honourable
Member pulled me aside, he said, You know, Syl, we
are glad we lost this last election. Ha, ha, ha. Best
thing that could happen because we are a Labour Government and we are not going to be able to do the things that are necessary to turn the economy around and to get things back on track. We cannot do it be-cause we are a Labour Government . I had this co nversation.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: We had this convers ation. And I said it before in this House. And then he said, And you guys, you are going to have to do it and
you are going to make everybody so upset with you
that they are not going to re- elect you at the next election.
And I said, You know what, my good friend?
You are probably right. But we are going to do what we have to do to save this country, to get it back on track financially. You see, because all this stuff about
we are going to do this, set up incubators at South
Side and we are going to do all this stuff, all these wonderful great things we are going to do to grow our
economy and create jobs and turn things around. You
cannot do any of it if you do not have money. You cannot do any of it if your highest line item is debt ser-vice, which is where we are at now because of the irresponsible, reckless spending of the Progressive
Labour Party.
Now, you know, Mr. Speaker —
[Hon. K. H . Randolph Horton, Speaker, in the Chair]
Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: —I am a fan of politics.
My TV stays on CNN. I cannot stop watching this train
wreck in the United States right now with Donald Trump. And, you know, I have been listening for months now to his rhetoric and the stuff that he says.
He has obviously got political advisors that are telling him, before the election and now, what to do.
And Donald Trump uses language like, There
are two Americas; those with the haves and those with the hav e-nots. And then, Things are terrible. Jobs
are leaving the country. Manufacturing is leaving the country. Crime everywhere . . . you would think listening to Donald Trump, before when he was a candidate and now as President, that the United States was the
worst country in the world. It is a strategy, Mr. Speak-er. And I just listen to him and I see similar, similar
references being made by the Progressive Labour
Party to Bermuda. There are two Bermudas. Two
Bermudas. The sky is falling. Nothing is going good in Bermuda right now. Woe, woe, woe . . . like Chicken
Little, Mr. Speaker . And it is . . . I do not even want to
say the words “alternative facts” because a lie cannot be a fact. It is a lie.
I see it clear as day, Mr. Speaker, and I hope
that the Bermudian public is seeing it for what it is. And it makes me curious. It makes me wonder who is
advising the Progressive Labour Party because it is
Trump -like politics. It is Trump -like politics, Mr.
Speaker . Mm -hmm.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: It is Trump -like politics.
Two Bermudas. Things are terrible. And, you know,
there has been a lot of talk in this House tonight about
income inequality. Income inequality. I have heard it so much tonight —income inequality. Well, Mr. Speaker, the Progressive Labour Party was Government of
this country for 14 years. They had 14 years to a ddress this income inequality because it did not start in 2012. It has been going on in this country for cent uries. Since the first man stepped foot on this Is land, it
has always been about haves and have- nots. People
with money try to control people who do not have money in order to make money. It is very quiet over on that side and they know what I am talking about, Mr. Speaker .

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Fourteen years, Mr.
Speaker .

Thank you.
You better.
[Laughter]
Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Thank you, Mr.
Speaker . I appreciate that, Mr. Speaker, because this
is your House.
[Laughter]
Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Fourteen years, Mr.
Speaker, to deal with income inequality. And I was not
even involved in politics at the time, Mr. Speaker . I am


Bermuda House of Assembly so upset. I do not know what to do, Mr. Speaker . I was
just sitting here just listening to this nonsense all
day—14 years to deal with income inequality and all I
saw were contracts going to people who do not look like me.

[Laughter]
Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: I saw big jobs go to
people who . . . let me be more specific, to people
who are not my hue. I saw contracts going to people. Okay? They had this in their ear and they were giving
money to everybody else who does not look like me,
Mr. Speaker. Everybody know s it, Mr. Speaker . This is
not a secret. I am just saying it, Mr. Speaker .
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: It is a fact. And I r emember canvassing in my constituency and talking to
young black contractors and masons and carpenters ,
and they were angry because they saw it too, Mr. Speaker .
So, what are they going to do differently if
they are ever elected? It is wired in their DNA, Mr.
Speaker . They cannot do anything different because
they refuse to acknowledge the mistakes that t hey
made. They refuse to acknowledge it. The national debt . . . and, you know, we can talk numbers until the cows come home. We can talk graphs and ratios and
percentages. To be honest, it goes over a lot of pe ople’s heads. Sometimes it goes over my head, Mr.
Speaker . But I have to say this: Bermuda’s national
debt is the single biggest threat to the future prosper ity, standard of living, and social stability of Bermuda.
The single biggest threat.

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: I heard a little voice
from that side say we agree. But their actions do not show that, Mr. Speaker .
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Their actions do not
show that, Mr. Speaker. This Government knows that we must eliminate the annua l deficit in order to pay
down the debt. And if at the end of the year there is
not enough money to pay your expenses, you are in trouble and you have to borrow. And this Government had to borrow, and it hurt because we inherited debt and an annual deficit from the prior Government.
They refuse to even acknowledge it. They
owe the Bermudian public a formal apology . . . a fo rmal apology that has never been forthcoming, Mr.
Speaker . Reducing the debt is the most important
step to growing the economy, creating jobs, and free-ing up dollars to meet people’s needs, Mr. Speaker . My last Ministry was Social Development and Sports. I
walked the streets of this country. As soon as you are
appointed a Minister, everybody calls you. Yes, ev erybody calls you because everybody needs som ething. Some of those needs are real, and it hurt my heart, Mr. Speaker, to know that. I wish I had a ba lanced budget. I wish I had an economy where we did
not have to spend the highest line item on debt service because that debt service is taking away from giving to our seniors and assisting families that are in dire straits, and buying vehicles for Child and Family Services and all the other helping agencies.
Mr. Speaker, there is a direct correlation between the deficit, the debt, and a government’s ability
to do what it needs to do, which is to protect those who need it most. This Government bit the bullet and did the hard things. The hard things, Mr. Speaker, that
had to be done because it is mathematics, Mr. Speaker . The numbers are the numbers. Either the
OBA services the debt or the Progressive Labour Par-ty is going to service the debt. It is mathematics. It is not going to change. The problem is what the problem is.
So, the members of the Progressive Labour
Party can say all they want about all the wonderful grand things that they are going to do. But guess what? They are going to pay that debt because it is mathematics. There is nothing warm and fuzzy or sen-timental about it. That is what they are not telling the people, Mr. Speaker . That is what they are not being
honest about, Mr. Speaker. All that is in this book that was handed out, Vision 2025, nothing in here will happen until you service that debt. They do not get it. I can lead them to the water but I cannot make them drink, Mr. Speaker .

Finish up.

Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: They want me to finish
because the truth is an offence, but not a sin, Mr.
Speaker . The truth is an offence, but not a sin.
The Honourable Finance Minister, Bob Ric hards, I have seen this gentleman hold us all to account when we come saying we need this. I am talking about we need this or we need that, Minister. He says we have to service this debt. We have to get rid of this annual deficit. If we do not, we are all done.
The Titanic is sinking. And if the Titanic is sinking you
do not go up on the deck and rearrange the deck
chairs so you get a better suntan. It is all about saving yourself and saving those around you. So, I cannot emphasise enough, Mr. Speaker, just how important
getting a handle, wrestling this monster that is the
debt and the annual deficit, to the ground is. It is like wrestling. It is like Olympic wrestling. Somebody is going to be pinned to the mat, and in this case either the debt is going to be pinned to the mat and tap out or Bermuda is going to be pinned to the mat by the debt. And guess what? Bermuda will tap out and then
808 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly we will have to go to some international monetary authority or somebody with our hands out begging, begging for money to run our economy. Because if you cannot service your debt, you get downgraded.
A little bit of Business 101 for you all that do
not know. If you cannot service your debt, you get downgraded. The country gets downgraded; your i nsurance companies can no longer operate in Berm uda
because they are not going to operate in a country that has a low rating. And then things change over-night, Mr. Speaker. Our way of life will be no more.
And if I sound like I am being an alarmist, Mr. Speak-er, it is because this is the situation that we are dealing with, Mr. Speaker .
So, the OBA Budget, it is the second year of a
three- year plan to eliminate the deficit which drives
Bermuda’s debt problem. The Minister has listened to stakeholders and he has introduced a progressive tax reform to make it fairer to lower income earners. Talk
about income inequality, the Finance Minister is listen-ing. And we are doing what is necessary to bring down this deficit and this debt. We must —either the
One Bermuda Government must or the Progressive Labour Government, if they are ever elected, must
eliminate the deficit once and for all. We have to do it, Mr. Speaker .
Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have left?

Four minutes and—

Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Okay, Mr. Speaker .
With your indulgence, Mr. Speaker, I would
just like to read some quick quotes from individuals in
Bermuda who have looked at this OBA Budget and given their views on it. One that really struck me when I heard it on the news the other night was the pres ident of the BPSU [Bermuda Public Services Union], President Jason Hayward. He said, and I quote (and this is a man whom I have a lot of respect for, a lot of respect for, even though we do not always see eye to eye):
“The current Budget”. . . “is a welcomed deviation from the status quo fiscal policies that we have
seen in past budgets. The BPSU has openly called for and supports:
“˃ Progressive taxation;
“˃ A Financial Services Tax; and
“˃ The roll back of payroll tax concessions in various sectors.
“The Budget,” (meaning the OBA Budget) “ reflects the reality that the tax burden has not been equally shared in Bermuda for many years. The tax base needed to be broadened and I believe that is
what the Minister attempted to do . . . ”.
That is from Jason Hayward of the BPSU who
a lot of people in this country look up to like the second coming of Martin Luther King. Yes, he gave us big props, MP Commissiong.
[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Because you have
been talking to me.

Honourable Members —

Hon. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Thank you, Thank
you.
You have been interpolating trying to take me
off my stride.
You know, Mr. Speaker, Craig Simmons of
the Bermuda College, where I went to school and who
I always had a lot of respect for said, “ Two b ig cha llenges to sustainable growth are debt —and, by impl ication, debt service—and rising inequality. This year’s
Budget deals with both head- on.”
“It’s just a matter of time ,” (with this budget),
“before we can begin paying down the debt in a
mean ingful way.”
And then he said on inequality, “t he Minis ter
of Finance was parsimonious . . . [though] admittedly,
he has limited space in which to operate. ” I will just
leave it there, Mr. Speaker .
You see, Mr. Speaker, we get in this place
and we deal with politics. And I get it. We want to r etain Government because we feel we are the best team to take the country forward, onward, and up-ward. The Progressive Labour Party wants to win the next election because they believe that they want to
take the country onward and upward. But, Mr. Speaker, I will leave with this: When I get on an airplane,
when I fly, I look into the cockpit and I always want to see the pilot. Does he have a pilot suit on? Does he have wings on? Is he a real pilot, Mr. Speaker ? And
everybody has got a job to play and no one job is
more honourable than the other, Mr. Speaker . But
when I look in that cockpit I do not want to see the guy sitting at the controls who told me to take my shoes off and put them through the scanner. I want to see the pilot, Mr. Speaker. The One Bermuda Alliance are the
pilots.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker .

[Desk thumping]

Thank you, Honourable Member .
The Chair will now recognise the Honourable
Member from constituency 6, MP Wayne Furbert.
You have the floor .
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Thank you, Mr. Speaker .
Mr. Speaker, let me first say that I heard the
Honourable Member from constituency 7 mention that
the PLP has never acknowledged their mistakes.
There are many times when I have heard Members from this sid e recognise that there were things that we
have done wrong, and we are not going to hide from that. We make mistakes because human beings make


Bermuda House of Assembly mistakes from time to time. So I am not going to go on
forever what the mistakes were, but we have
acknowledged that from time to time. I have heard the former Leader, Marc Bean, when he was Leader, acknowledge that we made mistakes, and so that is where we are.
Mr. Speaker, as you know I flew back early
this evening, yesterday, just for this budget meeting.
The Spe aker: Yes, you really, really wanted to be
here.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Well, I am a little disappoin ted that the room has cleared out —

I really appreciate it, Honourable Member.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: I am really disappointed that
the room is pretty well empty. As you know, I hoped to
sing to a larger audience. But I am going to imagine
that there are thousands of people listening on the air tonight to hear exactly what we have to say in regard to the Progressive Labour Party’s Budget Reply .
First of all, let me congratulate the Opposition
Leader, the Honourable David Burt, Shadow Minister of Finance, for such an extraordinary and visionary
reply. We are the P eople’s Budget , the PLP Budget
Reply, which, Mr. Speaker, which was a huge contras t
to the One Bermuda Alliance Budget.
Mr. Speaker, the PLP Budget has the only
plan, and it is clear. And no one can deny this has the
only plan which outlines how we will create jobs when we become the next Government. All the OBA Gov-ernment talks about is creating jobs during the Amer ica’s Cup which will last for about one month. But what
happens after that? The OBA Budget fails to talk
about diversification in the economy. Not one single time do they mention about diversification.
Mr. Speaker, I understand that there are
members within the aid work community who have
expressed concerns about the tax hike and have pr edicted that it is possible that some jobs will be lost due to the tax increase.
Mr. Speaker, the PLP speaks to working with
our clubs to help out some of our social issues. The PLP has a plan to spur entrepreneurship in this Budget which deals with some of our social issues. Mr.
Speaker, the PLP Budget Reply is the only budget
that talks about an agenda for growth. Mr. Speaker —
and I will speak more on the Budget Reply later on.
Mr. Speaker, I have heard Members on that
side speak how well, they talked about the Budget. If
they are so confident in their Budget, if they are so confident in what they have achieved over the last four years, five years, Mr. Speaker, I am challenging
them tonight to call the election on their record and the Budget that is before us right now. If they are so confident, call the election right now. Or, Mr. Speaker, are they not finished with a smear campaign and innuendos that they think will rescue them at the end of the day?
Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the OBA
that the United Bermuda Party, which I was a member of in 1998, and, Mr. Speaker, it is when you beat
me—

You remember that?
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: I sure do. It was terrible. It
was a terrible day, Mr. Speaker .

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: The United Bermuda Party
did not lose the election in 1998 because they were
not running an efficient and proper economy. T here
was very little debt. Very little. But what they forgot
and left out was taking care of the ordinary people.
That message was sent loud and clear: You have forgotten us. So I am going to put the Honourable
Speaker over you, Mr. Furbert .
It was a terr ible day, Mr. Speaker .
[Laughter]

Say that, “ for me”—meaning you.
[Laughter]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: It was a very good day!
And, Mr. Speaker, but everybody talked about
how bad things will be the next day, Mr. Speaker . I
woke up and the sun was out! Everything was going
to fall in —

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: But the sun came out the
day after you beat me, Mr. Speaker. It was the most
awful feeling.
But what I am saying, Mr. Speaker, they talk
about we are going to balance this, we are going to do this and do this, but they forgot the ordinary man, and
that has been the signal that has been sent for the last four years. You have forgotten me. You have so well taken care of those who have, and forgotten those
810 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly who do not have. They have not learned their lesson
because the same people who are guiding the ship as
my Honourable Member, Mr. Mark Pettingill, from
constituency [25] said, When we formed the One
Bermuda Alliance it has now left and gone back to the United Bermuda Party.
Mr. Speaker, they did not learn a lesson. They
have this pompous attitude that they know best. We
are here now in 2012, we can do what we want :
America’s Cup, airport , and the list goes on. We do
not have to go for tendering. We can give away our airport and we do not have to worry about what the people say. We can increase our debt and they still
call it good governance. We can increase our rev enue-to-debt ratio and still think we are the best since
sliced cheese. We can hoodwink the people to believe
that giving away the airport will not affect our balance sheet. But this year, we are losing $20 million on d eparture tax. For years, for months they were saying it
is not going to affect the balance sheet. But in the
Budget this year, $20 million just disappears from the passenger tax.
We can use the words “tax reform” and use
“fairness” in the same breath, but this is all smoke and
mirrors. Mr. Speaker, I heard my honourable colleague say early on that those individuals which are the low income are paying income tax on everything they make. Mr. Speaker, let us look at this idea. A
person who receives $48,000 will now get a [reduc-tion], pay payroll tax for 4.75, on everything they have.
That means they got to pay rent, electricity —just like
everyone else. Go to the gas tank and pay the same
thing as another person. But someone who i s a
chairman of the board of BTA, the Bermuda Tourism Authority, let us say he makes over $100,000 (I do not know what he makes, but he makes over $100,000 at
his place of employment). He is also going to get a tax
reduction based on the suggestion by the Minister, but
he is also making $20,000 a year on board fees where there is no tax. So he is not paying payroll tax on his total income. And I am not calling for income tax. Let
me make it very clear.
But what I am saying is the way this is laid out
by our Honourable Member, the Honourable Cole S imons, as far as tax reform, we can do some things
that are more progressive. We can do some things more progressive. If you went the way as far as pa yroll tax by changing the bands, we can do other things that make the thing much fairer. I said I am not calling
for income tax. That is something I do not believe in. But there are things that we can call, work for, and I am glad that my Leader and former Minister of F inance, the Minister of Finance to be, is talking about
working together. I have not heard them talking about
working with us. But all we have said is let us work together, us and them and the international business and local so that we can form a tax structure that works for all of us which will help to bring down the cost of living for the ordinary man but on top of that be able to pay down the debt which the Honourable
Member is talking about. We know that debt is a ser ious problem in Bermuda and so we have to move forward on that basis.
Mr. Speaker, let me make it very clear, if
Honourable Member s . . . and I see the Honourable
Minister is writing. I think she is the next Member
speaking. As an accountant she understands what I
am going to say. From 1998 to 2006, 2007 we had a boom economy. There were people making more money around here, they did not know where to put it, making money coming out of their ying- yang. It was
just on and on. Something happened. Something
happened. Well, ask the Bank of Butterfield, they will
tell you. Ask Argus Insurance, t hey will tell you. Ask
American International, they will tell you. Ask XL, they will tell you. It was not . . . and we did not have an i mpact on them. But, Mr. Speaker, what happened? A
caring Government stepped in and said, We will give
payroll tax exemptions for hotels, restaurants, retail stores, construction companies . So our tax revenue
that we were getting went out.
And the reason why we did that was because
we wanted to ensure that jobs were kept. That is what
had an impact on our deficit. That is w hat had an i mpact on our deficit. We could have balanced the books
at the time and increase taxes. But the Government of
the day stepped in and said, Look, we got a problem.
If we are going to save jobs and have some dignity in
this community, we have to give some tax breaks so
that entrepreneurs or business can hold onto our people. That, to me, made sense.
Obama gave tax breaks to the car industry.
They paid it back. So, Mr. Speaker, those are the
things that caused an impact on our economy from 2008 to 2012.
Mr. Speaker, the Honourable Member who
may speak next . . . there is nothing creative that the Minister has done over the last four years as far as raising revenue. What did the Honourable Minister
do? He just rolled back the exemptions. There is nothing creative about that. We could have done the same
thing. We could have rolled back the exemptions from 2012 and which is what we were doing, what we had planned to do. And on top of that, they have these huge tax increases. What is so creative about that?
We would have done the same thing, Mr. Speaker .
Mr. Speaker, I accept that we have to get the
debt situation under control. It affects this country and future generations. Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind
the Honourable Members on that side when they had
produced an ad in 2012 during the election showing that if the PLP got back in the debt was so . . . they
had a graph with the debt going up with the PLP, but
debt going down under their OBA administration. Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind them that the debt has
gone from $1.4 [billion] to $2.5 billion. I do not know whether they were prophets. I do not know whether they were trying to predict the future but, Mr. Speaker,


Bermuda House of Assembly they predicted it on the wrong side. The debt went up
under their administration. They have a right —it is
about time that they admit that the responsibility has
fallen on their shoulders.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind you again,
and the Honourable Members in this House, that they mentioned (and I have mentioned [this] i n this House
before) that in 2012 during the election, a child that was being born around that time would have owed $35,000. Mr. Speaker, I mention it today, a child born
today will [owe] $67,000. It did not happen under the Progressive Labour Party. It happened under the One Bermuda Alliance. Who would have thought that that
was taking place, Mr. Speaker ? The debt -to-revenue
has gone from 127 percent to 244 percent under the
One Bermuda Alliance.
Mr. Speaker, the interest payment has gone
from $70 millio n to $124 million under the One Bermuda Alliance. Mr. Speaker, do you get the picture? It
is clear that they have not handled the economy the way it should have been handled.
Mr. Speaker, let me just say this to you. I
heard somebody say to this Honourable House that they acquired a deficit of some $300- and-some- million
when they became Government, 2013’s Budget in February. We lost the election in December and they say, Mr. Speaker, that they produced the Progressive
Labour Party’s Budget, hence there was a deficit.
Well, I am not going to say that they did not. It
was dumb for them that they did not make any changes. That was dumb. But, Mr. Speaker, my honourable
friend who may speak next, who is an accountant,
recognised that they could have come to his Honour-able House, Mr. Speaker, and probably produced an
interim budget. If they said that it was our Budget in February, they could have come back in July and pr oduced an interim budget for what they wanted to cor-rect. But they did not, Mr. Speaker .
M r. Speaker, what they also did not do is that
during that Budget for three years straight, Mr. Speaker, in the Budget was a cushion where the
Government put money aside for civil servants who were never hired. That was worth $30- some million a
year. I told the Minister in 2012/13 that he should cut
that, make it go zero- based budgeting. He did not cut
that until last year’s budget. Three years of budgeting for staff they never hired, and once the Ministers get a
hold of that money they never let it go, Mr. Speaker .
Mr. Speaker, they want to point their finger at
the Progressive Labour Party. They were the ones
who came in in 2012 promising the world, promising Bermuda so much. But they have not delivered on one iota, particularly when it comes to the budget deficit and those types of things.
Mr. Speaker, it is extraordinary that the five
top line expenditures this year are $124 million for interest on debt; $67 million on police; $54 million on Financial Assistance; $120 million for hospital; $109 million f or [Department of] education. Out of those four of them, five of them, that is 43 percent of Gover nment’s total budget, interest being the highest for the first time in history. The OBA has broken records —the
largest debt this country has ever had; the largest i nterest payment that this country has ever had; the largest debt service that this country has ever had. And they say that they are in safe hands.
Mr. Speaker, somebody is going cuckoo. And
it is not us on this side. We accept our fault. I have never heard the Honourable Member s on that side
say why things went the way they did. They have not stood up and said the reason why we did not get our get down because of blah, blah, blah. They have ne ver mentioned that. Do you not think, Mr. Speaker, that
normally governments, normally governments make tough decisions in their first year of government? They could have come back, as I said, brought an interim budget to this Honourable House, correcting that $300 million deficit and done the same tax reform for payroll
as they have done now. They could have removed . . . they could have rolled back those tax exemptions we gave way back in 2012. But they were not willing to make the tough decisions. And now that we are com-ing near an election they are trying to hoodwink the
people of Bermuda.
Mr. Speaker, I had the fortunate opportunity to
go to my house this afternoon, because I was seeing
some young people who stayed in my vacation rental.
And I asked them the question, Why are you here? Do
you know what the young lady told me? Because
Bermuda does not have the Zika virus. It speaks to
the point, as my honourable colleague said earlier on, and the Opposition Leader and the Shadow Minister of Finance, that a lot of young people came to this Island in 2016 because they are so frightened of Zika virus. And the young lady is about . . . I think she is
just about two months pregnant right now. So I cannot
go to . . . but Bermuda is safe. That is good.
So it was not about anyone putting some ad
stuck up in New York. It was not about the BTA. It was about Zika! We do better for some time from unfort unate circumstances in other jurisdictions. People do not want to travel to the Middle East because some of the situations, so I will travel closer to home.

You have 10 minutes.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Okay. So they talk about
creating jobs in so many different ways. The agenda
for growth, tax reform (the first one) they talk about . .
812 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly . and the tax reform, like I said, it is not about income
tax. It is about adjusting. And we will hopefully bring
down some of the taxes that some of these people are paying who may just leave the Island because the international business, when they are done, Mr.
Speaker, international business pays pr actically all
their employees benefits —payroll tax, social insurance, health insurance. So, when you are increasing, they are increasing their . . . having an effect on their
bottom line, and when it gets too close, they have to
make a decision on whether Trump says, I am going
to reduce corporate tax by 20 percent and go put my
business back over to Miami or New York or wherever they may be.
Those are the serious impacts so that a company will make a decision on whether it is too costly to
live here in Bermuda or ship some of their staff and sit in New York because they do not have to pay certain taxes. Because as you know, Mr. Speaker, you can
be anywhere now with these computers and just do everything you have to do and just have a simple op-eration here in Bermuda. That is one of the reasons why people have lost . . . some companies have
downsized. We just heard, PartnerRe downsized six
employees. This is not the end. I am sure more will
come.
Mr. Speaker, my Leader talks about the ec onomic diversification, which I mentioned early on. He talks about creating a Bermuda Fund. He talks about establishing a technology incubator to become an i ntellectual property hub. He talks about promoting en-trepreneurship. He talks about immigration reform, reducing the cost of Government. These are things, Mr. Speaker, that will help the growth within our economy.
Now, many times before I have stood up on
this floor of the House and talked about a technologi-cal park down at South Side. And I have heard Ministers on that side say, You are dreaming. Well, I just
read from the BDA, the Bermuda Development Age ncy, talking about the same thing. These are things that they are looking at. I am not sure if the Minister of
Economic Development has been in touch with them lately, b ut he is looking at these technological growth
patterns that can take place in Bermuda. We have not heard one iota coming out of the mouths of the One Bermuda Alliance.
Mr. Speaker, it is time for us to accept that the
safe hands that we thought were coming from the One Bermuda Alliance are not there anymore. It is time to accept that the OBA has lost contact with what they intentionally pledged to do, and that was create 2,000 jobs and balance the budget.
Mr. Speaker, it is time to accept that the Pr ogressive Labour Party has learned the lesson. Mr.
Speaker, it is time to accept that we have a vision
about taking this country forward. Mr. Speaker, I am
confident that when the Progressive Labour Party takes back the Government within the next . . . wha t-ever day you want to call it. Whatever day they want
to call it, Mr. Speaker, I am confident that the people
of Bermuda will recognise and we have recognised that the things that we should have done . . . and I heard the Honourable Minister say early on that we
should have done some things differently. But the Progressive Labour Party is the party of now and the
party of the future.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker .

All right. Thank you very much. Just so
I make it clear.
Carry on. Carry on, please.
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Twenty minutes. Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to say that I am
really pleased that I am following the Honourable Member that just sat down because what he said ac-tually frames where I am coming from.
I do not accept that the PLP has learned its
lesson. I do not accept that the PLP has plans and that they have visions, because when I look at the
PLP Vision [2025], the People’s Budget , I am left,
once again, wondering . . . I see a lot of why they b elieve we have to have a budget. I do not see a lot of how they are going to achieve it. And that is som eBermuda House of Assembly thing that I have always had a concern about because
there was a suggestion earlier that a budget is supposed to be about the people.
Well, a budget is about the people, but we
keep forgetting that the Throne Speech was supposed to be about the people, it was supposed to be about what we were going to do for the people during the
upcoming year. And the Budget Debate was to talk
about how we are going to actually put it in place and the funds that we were going to use to achieve these programmes. So I find that sometimes there is a little bit of a disconnect between the emphasis that one is putting on in terms of vision, as opposed to the actual
reality of implementation and how we are going to
make it happen. So, when I try and frame my r esponse to the Opposition’s Reply, I have to keep r eminding myself that it is very important for us to talk about the budget that we have, how we are using it, and how we got here. And I think that that was why
when the Finance Minister started to talk about the
national debt, he was reminding us that these are the funds that he has to work with, and he has to turn around and prioritise how these funds are going to be used.
And, Mr. Speaker, as I said in a recent press
statement, I used to recognise that Health was the largest Ministry, but it has been overtaken by the na-tional debt, which is a sad state. But that is where we
are. And now what we have to do is use the funds that
are available to us, Mr. Speaker, to turn around and
achieve programmes that are going to have to help
the people. Which is true, we are trying to do things with the funds that are available to us to make sure that the programmes that we put into place are going to achieve the goals for the people of the Island. They are not put there just because we like theoretical exercises. They are put there bec ause we want to
achieve programmes that are going to make our country and the people of our country benefit from the ind ividual programmes that we come up with.
So, Mr. Speaker, I just want to go through and
address a few things that have been said tonight with respect to where the Opposition says they are going to do something (or a vision), but I do not see an ac-tual programme, and some of the other things that they have suggested that the Government has not dealt with. It has been suggested we are not a caring
Government. Well, I think, Mr. Speaker, we are.
What I will try and do . . . and we will obviously have the opportunity during the Budget Debate to really, actually, lay out all of our programmes. But I just want to make sure that people understand it is not
just about saying an idea. You have to actually see
how it is going to be put into place. And for me, I did
not feel that there was enough substance in this Budget [Reply] to make me feel that the Opposition had thought it through.
I have an expression that the devil is in the
details. So when I go through and I look at this Budget [Reply], Mr. Speaker . . .there is a suggestion on page
8 about the “Agenda for Growth.” It is talking about the cost of doing business. They are going to “reduce the cost of doing business . . . tackle income inequality,
reform our tax system, diversify our economy, create jobs . . .”
Well, Mr. Speaker, when you start to go and
you talk about some of the ideas that have been put in here, I have to start to remember . . . on page 9 there
is a suggestion that while we looked at more taxes, what are they going to do? They are going to talk about looking at different taxes. There is a suggestion that there are people up here who have properties
and therefore they are going to tax those properties in
the City of Hamilton because tax reform and broaden-ing the tax base could not be effective if they are not prepared to look at taxing the passive income of the privileged persons in society.
Well, Mr. Speaker, if you go around and if you
think about that, most people in Bermuda are what I call the middle -class people. They have passive i ncome. Most people have created properties. They have either homes that they built bigger for their chi ldren and they have turned them into flats that they
rent out, apartments. That is passive income. It does not matter whether it is in the City of Hamilton or whether it is in Warwick or in Dockyard. If you are talk-ing about passive income, real estate which people have for their investment, where they get rental i ncome, that is passive income. So I think the people of
Bermuda need to understand that while the suggestion is talking about the Corporation of Hamilton, to me, once you start to go along those lines, you have to recognise that you have to go along the lines even more.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: But I think, Mr. Speaker,
what I find is interesting is the fact that the Finance
Minister has been criticised for not doing all the things
that were suggested in terms of broadening the base
of the economy, talking about looking at the payroll . . . the tax reforms. But I think the interesting part was
that the Fiscal Responsibility Panel acknowledged what the Minister of Finance was trying to do. They acknowledged that the Minister of Finance was wor king his way through implementing these various tax changes because they recognised that you cannot do this in one fell swoop. It was going to be something that was going to take some energy, and they were recognising that the Minister of Finance was working
through it in a systematic way. So starting to deal with
the banks, starting to deal with having the levels of tax
higher, starting to have conversations with the interna-tional businesses, as well as the persons that are in
the service industries, to tell them that this is what is coming next, he has at least made them aware so that they can start to prepare.
814 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly And, to me, Mr. Speaker, that is the type of
thing that a Finance Minister does when he wants to
make sure that he has collaboration and an under-standing by the people who ultimately will become the tax base. Those individuals who will actually feel the changes that are being made.
But, Mr. Speaker, when I started to look at the
People’s Budget, there was the suggestion of promoting entrepreneurship. This is on page 12. “Red tape and bureaucracy have strangled far too many legit imate business concepts . . .” And there is a suggestion about creating the concierge [service] and, Mr.
Speaker, if I were to go to page B-333 . . . if you go to
page B-333, you will see—

That is in the Budget Book?

Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: In the Budget Book. If you
go to page B -333, you will actually see that there is
. . . under the Ministry of Economic Development
Headquarters [Head 95], there is a performance measure, and it actually talks about the number of companies that could be shown to have used the co ncierge service in the fiscal year. I am only saying that
because this demonstrates these things are already in
existence. And some of the things that are being put
out there already exist. So it is not like they are not being—
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Point of order, Mr. Speaker.

All right.
Minister.

Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Mr. Speaker, I don’t take
the point of order. The concierge service was dealing
with international business —
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Yes.
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: —and as it goes forward,
it is not suggested here which way this bureaucracy
was going to take effect. But all I can say to you, Mr.
Speaker, although you call it concierge service, I know
the Business Development Group already does lots of things with the local business. They make sure that the local business have their business plans and they help them move it forward, so I believe that this is al-ready taken care of. This is what concerns me as we go forward. I
do not want people to believe that some of these things are new and not taken care of. Many of these things already have a portion of it already being i mplemented. So, we are just talking about making sug-gestions that is something new, but it is really rec ycling.
So, Mr. Speaker, when I start to look at the
other suggestions here in terms of immigration reform, well, I must admit, I believe that when it says the “next PLP government will undertake comprehensive an d
bipartisan immigration reform” and you will do the fol-lowing, and it talks about Bermudians coming first,
policies being developed, I believe that that is an excellent idea. But this Government tried to do that as well. I do not believe that we have had the type of bi-partisan conversations that we should have, so I really worry about these things that are put in there that talk about bipartisanism and talks about things that will
happen. Because the bottom line is, from my perception, the Opposition has always looked at what things
are political that they will not be prepared to support because it is not in their interest.
Therefore, I believe the people of Bermuda
have to know that going forward it does not make sense talking about something in this document. The proof is in the eating. If the Opposition is not coming forth with things to put forward, then they should turn around and the population should look at it and say,
Hey, you have to walk the walk and talk the talk.
So, Mr. Speaker, if you turn around and talk
about, on page 14 of the People’s Budget, employees
being in a position to be retrained, and the use of
technologies, many of these things are already in place. I do not want use a lot of my time because I think . . . how many more minutes do I have, Mr.
Speaker?

Nine.

Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Nine, okay.
What I do not want to do is go through and
talk a lot about what they are not doing. But I do want
to make sure that I make the people of Bermuda know that some of these things, as it relates to how they work. You need to understand that with respect to the America’s Cup or anything else, you have to turn
around and you have to look at how the funds are being utilised and what is going to be the impact on the economy. Because if those funds turn around and
generate more revenue, many times it is not revenue back to government, but it is revenue back to the economy, to all the people out there who have jobs
and all the people that will have jobs from this, then i t
is doing what the Finance Minister wants, which is to
get people working and to turn around and make sure that the economy grows. Because if people are wor king, that results in payroll tax and that results in more


Bermuda House of Assembly people not having to be on financial ass istance.
Therefore, it is very important.
Now, Mr. Speaker, there were a couple suggestions that were made and I am just going to try and
make sure that I deal with them because sometimes there are things that get thrown out there and they are not totally correct.
There was a suggestion here with respect to
the $25 million that the Health budget was reduced by. Well, we all have to recognise, and we said it and I say it all the time, that the hospital (when we started to work with them) was really concerned about being able to meet their debt payment and being able to
make sure that they have sufficient funds. As we said,
we worked with the hospital. The hospital has been dealing with managing their processes and making sure that they have come up with a way to put themselves in a better financial position.
So the suggestion about not being economical
with the truth and fuzzing up the numbers and the lack of information, I actually find that very . . . I’m not sure
of the word I want. But to me, I just find that offensive to make the suggestion that because we were able to work with the hospital to turn around, and based on
the changes that they have made and how they have
tried to right -size themselves, that it was going to be
suggested that this was not correct.
Mr. Speaker, when you start to look at some
of the other suggestions that have been put out there with respect to the Budget and supporting the indivi duals that are there, I want to be sure that . . . there
was a suggestion by one of the speakers that we are
not looking out for the people, that we are not doing enough stuff for them. But at the time of the Budget Debate, when we start to talk about Health, we will actually be able to go through and we will be able to
discuss many of the things that are there. But I think I
really need to go . . . the page that is talking about the
Health section . . . (let me get my hand on that).

[Pause]
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Sorry, I thought I had . . .

You can come back next year.
Hon. J eanne J. Atherden: No, I won’t come back
next year; but I will make sure that I use my time.
Oh, I know.There are two things that I want to
talk about.
There was the talk about the Zika virus and
the fact that it was impactive and tourism did not have
anything to do about it. It was just because young
people were coming here. Well, people do not under-stand. The Health Ministry, in consultation with the Tourism Department, was giving information about what we are doing in Bermuda, how it is Zika free, what we are doing all the time. That stuff was incorp orated into information that the Tourism Authority was putting on its website. So that is how the information
was getting out there.
You do not think that people all of a sudden
looked, and said, Oh, I want to speak to my friend,
and suddenly know that this is the place to come?
These people came because the Tourism Authority went and made sure that they got this information out
to them. So, we have to turn around and recognise
that Health works with all the authorities, and tries to
make sure that it is something that is going to benefit Bermuda. We worked with them not only with respect to Zika. Do you remember last time when we had chikungunya and all sorts of others? The Health D epartment works with the Tourism because people come to Bermuda not just for its beaches; they come here to do lots of other things. Doing it in a healthy environment is very important.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I also want to make sure
that I made it clear to everyone that the OBA Go vernm ent, even with our reduced budget, has been
doing lots of other things for our people. We keep for-getting that we already have an Enhanced Care [Pr ogramme] Pilot, which is dealing with persons who are the vulnerable people. We already have the hospital,
which has its medical home. We already have things
put in place, so we are continuing our programmes
that we put into place. We are just now utilising the money that is available to us to make sure that these things continue. So it was not like we needed to use
as many things before as we had to do in the past.
I do want to go to page 26 [in the Reply],
which is Reducing the Cost of Health Care. There has been a suggestion that we should implement a sugar tax with revenue derived to be used for health educ ation and early intervention. Well, Mr. Speaker, all I can say is, we are not waiting for the sugar tax. We already have things out there in terms of a Well Berm uda strategy, which lets people know about health education. We let people know about what they need to
do to prevent them from becoming obese and prevent them from getting diabetes. Already we have a situation where sugary drinks are no longer in the gover nment schools. We are doing things to make sure that
that happens. We are not waiting for tax because the tax then creates another burden on the people of Bermuda.
So, with respect to some other suggestions
that are here, in terms of creating health education and nutritional information, well, obviously, we have already started to work with the grocery stores to make sure that nutritional information is put up—

You have two minutes.

Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
—nutrition information is put in their stores so
that when they go and buy products, they know what is go od for them, they know things about salt and
816 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly sugar, et cetera. So, I am saying that lots of things are
already in place.
With respect to medical tourism, that is som ething we looked at. We have never stopped looking at
all of this because we operate in an environment
where we know people are out there doing different things, and in Bermuda we have to look at whether
they can work for us. The big thing about anything that
we looked at with all of this is making sure. How will it work in Bermuda? Because, as I say, the devil is in
the details. It is not about just coming up with an idea. It is about how you can implement it.
And I think, Mr. Speaker, the OBA has proven
that it has become a good implementer. I look at the ideas here and if there is anything that they have come up with as it relates to my Ministry, I will make sure that they will be implemented. I also, Mr. Speak-er, want to once again remind everybody that if we did not have the debt, we would not have to do all the
things.
The one last thing I want to say. People of
Bermuda need to remember that when the PLP Go vernment came into effect, I did not begrudge them
turning around and doing things with respect to infr astructure and money. My concern was when those things did not come in under budget, it meant that the monies that you could have used for other things then were wasted. That, to me, the people of Bermuda need to understand. It is not just about what they had,
it was how these things were used.
As we go forward, I believe that the OBA is
the government that has shown that it can keep its
eye on the ball and we have the safe hands, and I applaud the Finance Minister for coming up with a Budget that is going to reduce the impact [of] the na-tional debt and making sure that Bermuda still gets
the programmes we need.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And
good evening everyone.
Mr. Speaker, it is really hard to follow such
eloquent Government -in-waiting speakers because
they have already said most of the things that I have
in my notes, but I will still persevere. Before I start, please allow me to make one correction. The Honourable Member from constituency 6, said that the Honourable Pettingill was in constituency 26. Well, I am
feeling the love of constituency 26, so I would hope he
is not coming to take over my patch at this time.

[Laughter]

Mr. Speaker, let me start with a
quote. Politics is like football; if you see daylight, go
through the hole. John F. Kennedy.
Mr. Speaker, I believe the One Bermuda Alliance has misunderstood that quote. The light that
they are seeing, is that train coming down the track at them. It is not going to be long now, guys. You will see
much more light than that.
Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate my Honourable Shadow Finance Minister for his Reply and response to the Budget, entitled, The People’s Bud get. I think most of us have already said that it is a sort
of budget that is a caring budget. It is looking after people who we would say are the have- nots. So, I
really think he needs to be congratulated. I certainly
support it. As you can see from the speakers on this
side, we obviously are in unison on that point.
Mr. Speaker, in doing the Budget, you can
see that we have tried to invest in our human r esource. We have had a lot of it take flight away from the country as a result of the hard times that they have had under this OBA Government over the last four years, not being able to afford living here in Ber-muda. But we need to get some of that intellectual
capital back. It is something that will help us in the
country. So, I really would encourage our people, those who are abroad, to consider coming back so that they can get themselves involved because there is going to be a new administration in town.
The speaker who just sat down, the Honour able Minister from constituency 19, took up the point of
the $25 million that they have decided not to give to the Bermuda Hospitals Board. Now, it all sounds good in what she is saying in the fact that they looked at it and hoped that they . . . well, the hospital has obv iously told them they can manage. But what I believe
is that . . . what could they have done with that $25 million? I am sure it is going to impact on the services that they are doing now. And staff, I am sure, maybe it means that they are not going to be able to take on
more staff. So, the quality of service could possibly be
dropping as a result of that. That is just my observ ation of it, Mr. Speaker.
If I could move on to my next point. The Honourable Economic Minister, from constituency 22, very
early in his speec h this morning . . . I do not know if a
lot of colleagues picked up on it, but he was accusing us of possibly wanting to bring in an income tax. I
want to make it very, very clear that that is not the case, Cole, it is not the case. Okay?

Honourable Minister . . . such a
friend of mine, Mr. Speaker, that I lost my train [of
thought] that time.
I am also sort of curious that the Honourable
Economic Minister, from constituency 22, seems to be
taking over the conductorship of the OBA choir in


Bermuda House of Assembly singing, Blame the former Government. He says that
every time he stands up. Blame the former Gover nment for whatever happens. The sky is falling. Blame
the former Government. Mr. Speaker, he is either going to have to change the tune, change that song, let him sing a different song—

Change the words or som ething, I do not know. But you cannot keep blaming us
for everything.
And then what really amazes me is that I also
get the Honourable Minister from constituency 23, I
wanted to say, Well, let’s sing Kumbaya together. I
mean, you cannot flog us one minute and then want
us to sing Kumbaya. So, I am a little confused there
as to where [she] is actually heading .
Mr. Speaker, I am going to use the word
“election.” Election, election, election. We are in an
election year. So, to accuse us of presenting an election response is a bit duplicitous when the OBA Budg-et is an election budget. It is, if you look at it. Y ou
know, they are trying to do some things, obviously, to
get votes. So to accuse us of our response to the
Budget, you know, being an election campaign speech is just a bit duplicitous. So, I understand. It is an election year.
Let me say that the people are not going to
forget how they were duped in 2012. The promises of
jobs and all the other promises that they made to the
people, it is not going to work this time. I think four years of this OBA Government, and certainly this Budget they are presenting, is not something that is
going to encourage them and entice them to want to be going to the polls for them. So, I really think, as I
said, they are going to have to start a new song. They cannot keep saying, Blame the former Government.
Blame the former G overnment. They are going to
have to come up with, Maybe once we were there.
That is the name of that song. How’s that? Maybe
once we were there.
[Inaudible interjection]

At least someone got that.
Let me also say that an earlier , in fact, I think
one of the newest Ministers, from constituency 2, I
believe she is from, said that, Oh, eat a chocolate a
day. That is when we were talking about the amount
of money that people are going to be able to save in this reduction, this tax reform that the OBA Gover nment has. She said, Well, at least they can get a
chocolate a day. I mean, I could not believe what I
was hearing from her.
I say that because there was not much in the
OBA Budget concerning seniors, the improvement for
seniors, which is really an area we have to look at. These are the people who built this country. You know, hard work. I believe that we need to look after
our seniors a lot more. I believe if you look at our
Budget Reply, you will see that we are going to be a lot m ore caring in our approach to things.
People are talking about what they are hearing on the streets. Well, I am telling you, I am still knocking on doors and people are certainly saying,
There are two Bermudas. Now, if the Honourable
Members on the other side do not believe that there
are two Bermudas, they should probably come out with me on occasion and listen to some of the consti tuents who tell me, There are definitely two Bermudas
here. One of my colleagues said that it is either black
or white, or it is rich or poor, or it is the haves and the have- nots. There are definitely two Bermudas here.
Let me end, Mr. Speaker, by saying that the
Progressive Labour Party is the party that will unite us. I am looking forward to us becoming the next Government and, hopefully, it will not be a long time. I
am telling them, Call the election.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

All right.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: I read the Opposition Leader’s, the Shadow Finance Minister’s Budget [Reply]
with interest and intrigue. I have to admit the delivery
was first class. I mean, you probably could not find a
more eloquent speaker in this House. But be that as it may, I was looking beyond that and I was hoping that I would find something transformational. Again, nothing transformational. I have been here for 20 years, and we have seen the rehash of other previous PLP
Budgets. It was all superficial, theoretical, and nothing
substantive. I mean, when I was reading through the Opposition [Reply], theoretically, I said, Oh, these are
good ideas. Good ideas. Let’s see if they are drilling
down to put some real meat on these bones. And
there was no meat on these bones in a lot of cases.
And so I am disappointed that they were not able to
provide more in- depth details on their recommendations and how they wish to take Bermuda forward f inancially.
818 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Now, before I get into my own comments, I
would like to respond to some of the issues raised in
this speech that I thought that I could not let go.
The honourable colleague who just took his
seat, and a few others, said, Oh, we are not talking about income tax. And then I heard the Shadow Att orney General say, Well, don’t be apologetic. Because
when I read on page 9, Mr. Speaker, “Our Tax System
Contributes to Inequality” and we talk about dividends, we talk about director fees, we talk about rental i ncome and as a person said, You know, Bermudians, middle class Bermudians, they depend on their apartments. They depend on that income for educ ation, for retirement, for supplemental income. So, if the
Opposition were so concerned about them, I just have
a question as to why are they raising this i ssue? But
yet they say they want no income [tax]. And they say that this issue should be addressed because it is a form of income.
So what I am hearing is, Mr. Speaker, we
have framed the situation whereby the PLP are inter-ested . . . and let no one fool you, they are interested
and will probably bring in an income tax.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Because if this was not a
concern, tell me why have they presented so much
information on other forms of income other than sal aries?

Fairer.
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: And they say, Fairer i ncome. To me, Mr. Speaker, again, you are talking
about people’s income. So you want more fairer situa-tions, you want to tax that income, it is the income tax.
You cannot have it any other way, Mr. Speaker.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: So, Mr. Speaker —

[Gavel]
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, they are framing—

Well, I believe the Minister
is misleading the House. Certainly, what is in the doc-ument clearly calls for a bipartisan committee com-prised of both political parties and stakeholders, and
talks about that potential tax being one that would be directed toward, mainly, persons who own commercial property and [have] extensive property holdings. Cer-tainly, that has to be on table. Thank you.

All right. Thank you.
Go ahead, Minister.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: That supports my arg ument.
Mr. Speaker, then I go to page 13 and they
talk about immigration. Now, Mr. Speaker, the imm igration issues that they say . . . and if you give me a
second, if you do not mind. “The next PLP gover nment will undertake comprehensive and bipartisan
immigration reform and will do so under the following clear principles . . .” What they have here is nothing
original. All of Bermuda will agree with it. And these principles, they say they will basically have immigr ation reform placed on Bermudians first in their country. I agree with that. Any Bermudian would agree with that. That is the purpose of the Immigration Act.
“Policies will be developed through dialogue
with the business community to ensure immigration policy and developing our economy move in tandem.” The PLP government has done it. We do it. Any gov-ernment going forward will always dialogue with the business community to ensure immigration policy is in
tandem with the economy. I mean, this is Basic 101.
“We will have clear policies to protect vulnerable guest workers from employer abuse and to sanction abusing employers.” No argument there. We all do it. The Immigration Department is set up to have people investigating these abuses. So this, Mr.
Speaker, is nothing new. There is nothing transform ational in the Immigration Department. Any Bermudian who is concerned about employment in this country, and the state of the employment industry, will accept these policies.
So I am just looking for something transform ational, something new that I can say, Wow! This is transformational. This is important. They have got it right. But nothing new, Mr. Speaker. And that is my
point. There is nothing, nothing new. Same old, same old. Rehash, rehash, rehash.
Vacation Rentals on page 20. Again, vacation
rentals have been going on for centuries in this coun-try. People have been renting out their homes to guests for years. I have friends who rent out bed-rooms, that rent out apartments. My grandparents di d
it. They used to work for houses in Warwick, and Ri ddell’s Bay, and Tucker’s Town where whole houses were rented out to tourists. And even if you had an apartment up in Warwick, on South Shore Road, you rented them out to tourists. These vacation rentals
have been a part of Bermuda’s inventory for the past 30, 40 years. In fact, if you look on Airbnb, you will


Bermuda House of Assembly see hundreds of accommodations. So, again, nothing
new. I agree that they can be better regulated to make
sure that the standards are second to none. But, again, this is nothing new. Bermuda has had vacation rentals for years and years and years and years. Where is the new vision? Where is the product that the PLP intends to bring forward for our tourism industry?
Page 21, Education. “ We will phase out mi ddle schools, and implement a curriculum with an i ncreased focus on science, technology, engineering,
and maths.”
Mr. Speaker, I spoke to one of the leading educators and he said, Middle schools are doing well,
thank you. He said, They are the best schools for
young men in that age category. He said to me, When I hear people talking about middle schools in Parli ament, my skin cringes, because they don’t know what they are talking about. It is the best place for a young
teenager, especially male ones. The primary schools
are immature, and the senior schools are not mature enough, so they can’t fit in anywhere. And the best place for them is in middle school where the teachers are qualified to address students of that age and help
them.
Now, I heard my colleague talk about gangs.
Gangs are a problem. But, again, that is a social problem that we all have to take ownership of. Some of our parents, brothers and sisters, need to take ownership of our own young men and young women. We cannot
leave that at the steps of our schools. We cannot
blame our schools for the gangs. We all in this country must take ownership of what we have in regard to the young people and the deviant behaviour which exists in some corners of Bermuda. And I might add, Mr. Speaker, this deviant behaviour is representative of a
small minority of young people. Because we have
many, many young people that are doing exceedingly well. But, like everything else, they get tarred with the bad brush. And I say to the young people who are
doing well , Keep your head up. Keep your vision in
view and do what you have to do to succeed. Do not
let the few bad apples ruin your opportunity and ruin your hope.
Mr. Speaker, the PLP on Education also
speaks to “Signature Schools.” Well, if I remember correctly , Mr. Speaker, again, nothing new. My dear
friend, the Honourable Elvin James, when he was the Education Minister, he brought up the same theory, the same concept. In fact, I spoke to him about it a couple of days ago. Signature Schools are for children who want to do technical studies, arts, sports, and
special needs education. I endorse that theory. I am a
proponent of every child has a right to an education.
Every child has the right to success. And this Go vernment, and any education system, must address all
of the learning styles that are available to our people.
There are no dumb ones. There are no i ncompetent ones. We all have different talents and our schools must play to those talents and develop those
talents. We must speak to our students, listen to them,
and help them achieve their full potential.
Mr. Speaker, then we get on to the banks,
page 22. “The PLP will accomplish this by amending the Credit Union Act, allowing Bermuda’s only credit union to carry on business with members of affiliated
unions and not just members of the BIU. ” Mr. Speaker, this is an easy fix. This is a fix that could have
been done years and years ago. In fact, they are quot-ing a piece of legislation made in the US in 1990. Again, if the PLP were serious about this, if I re member correctly, they came into power in 1998, because I
came to the House at that time. And at that time, the
legislature in the US was in place. They could have amended our Act, to include all affiliated unions. But they chose not to. So, again, nothing transformational,
just catching up, same old, same old.
They also talked about interest rates on mor tgages. Well, Mr. Speaker, to be honest, our interest rates are competitive. And I am saying that because I had an experience with the bank just yesterday . We
had a gentleman who wanted to buy a place here and he is living in the States. So, he was shopping around
and so he asked me, What are you providing interest
rates for US dollars? I am looking for around 3.5 to
4.5 per cent, because that is what we pay in the US.
I said, Well, we charge 4.5 to 5.0 per cent b ecause we are off shore and, you know, US dollars are not our base currency so we have to get it off the currency markets.
So, again, I am stating that because the var iance between the US mortgage rates and Bermuda
US dollar mortgage rates are negligible. And, even if you have the credit union, you still have to get the base currency because there is a cost of money, and
then you have to put a spread on top of the cost of
money, and if the Bermuda base rate is around 4.0 per cent, and the credit union puts a spread on it of 2.5 per cent, you are still talking 6.0 per cent. So,
again, you have to understand how banking operates
and you have to understand the integral parts of credit
financing when it comes to mortgages. So, again, I just say that. And I forgot to mention, I did not declare my interest as a banker.
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, those are my
comments in regard to the PLP and their [Reply] to
the [Budget Statement]. Now, I have some other i ssues that I would like to address personally.
I know we heard a lot of negative things t oday, but the facts speak for themselves, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the Bermuda economy is basically trend-ing up. As you saw in the Budget, presented by the
Finance Minister, retail sales were up 5.7 per cent.
The GDP growth was up 4.0 per cent to 5.9 [per cent]
. . . $8 billion. And this GDP growth was supported by
a 5.3 per cent increase in international business, and
a 10 per cent increase, almost 11 per cent increase in
wholesale business, retail business, and repair ser820 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly vices. So, again, Mr. Speaker, we are on a positive
trajectory and Bermuda has basically found its way
out of the recession and it is on the way up econom ically. In fact, we have even seen the empl oyment i ncome rise by 1.2 per cent, and therefore consumption
is up.
Mr. Speaker, I also saw evidence that building
materials stores —S.A.L, Gorham’s —in the third quarter of 2016, their sales were up 15 per cent. For the
years 2016, their sales were up 6.4 per cent. This is a
true indicator of the confidence that people have in Bermuda and that they are, basically, improving their properties, investing in their properties, and making
capital investments because they feel confident about
Bermuda’s future.
So, again, you cannot dispute the facts as
they are. I am delighted that we are on this trajectory to economic success. It has not been easy. And it will not be easy. I think part of the success is attributed to
the capital projects that the One Bermuda Alli ance
has embarked upon, and these projects include the
Cross Island in Dockyard; Caroline Bay; the airport project; St. Regis project; and we are working on the casinos; and the Loren hotel. These are major pr ojects that the One Bermuda Alliance has embark ed
upon, and we are making great strides to ensure that Bermuda—

All right. Thank you, Honourable Member. Yes, it s tarted under .
Carry on, Minister.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Thank you very much.
Now, Mr. Speaker, as you know, I recently
have taken over the role of Education Minister. One of
the things that kept recurring in my mind was, What percentage of our public spending is attributed to edu-cation? And how does that compare to other jurisdictions?
Mr. Speaker, I found the findings very, very i nteresting. Because people complain and complain
about Bermuda not committing enough resources to education. Well, let me share some statistics that I found from the OECD [Organisation for Economi c Co -operation and Development] website. The OECD
website states this: “In the US 8.2 percent of the national budget is attributed to education.”
In the UK, that number is 9.0 per cent; Australia is 10.0 per cent; Ireland is 10.0 per cent; Norway
is 8.7 per cent; Germany is 6.5 per cent; Finland is
7.0 per cent. The average OECD country, from an aggregated point, the average spending for an OECD
country is 8.0 per cent.
Mr. Speaker, you wouldn’t guess what Bermuda is?
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, Bermuda
spends 10.8 per cent of total budget on education.
We, basically, are spending the highest amount of any public spending programme on education based on OECD statistics. So, yes, we are committing r esources to education a nd we are beginning to bear
fruit. Yes. Is there work to be done? Absolutely, abs olutely, absolutely. Do we need to improve the sof tware? Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. I have made it my commitment as Education Minister to provide our
teachers with resources that they need to help them
improve soft skills, to also ensure that their supplies and equipment are up to scratch so they can do the best job that they can to engender excellence in our young people, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, in addition, we have to ensure
that the capital plant in education is operating. In par-ticular, the IT area.

[Timer beeps]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good
evening, Bermuda.
Mr. Speaker, I am glad to stand as a Member
of the Progressive Labour Party to speak to what we
have described as the People’s Budget. Because,
indeed, Mr. Speaker, it is the People’s Budget. I am a
member of a Government -to-be that holds the people
of its country in the highest and greatest esteem, and
a Government -to-be which believes that what we have
to do needs to be people- centred first, because, after
all, that is what makes up our nation, the people who are born and bred in the country in which we live. So, I just wanted to state that first.
So, reflected in our People’s Budget are the
various ideas that we believe will help change this economy to make it more of a level playing field and


Bermuda House of Assembly will provide more opportunity for many of those who
we believe have not been allowed to be equal players,
or at least players on any level, in our economic pla ying field. Many people have been left out, and much of that has to do with the way in which our economy, historically, has been designed.
Mr. Speaker, when you operate in an economy that has a trickle- down form of economics, you
have to admit and accept that it does not work. Where it seems to work is that when you have tax cuts . . . sorry, I said that wrong, Mr. Speaker. The reason why it does not work is when you have tax cuts, it always seems that the r ich are allowed to benefit with what
would be termed as a “redistribution” of income for them. It never seems to work out for those who are on the lower rungs of that economic ladder. And, Mr. Speaker, that is what we are about trying to turn around.
Yes, the Government of today is putting in tax
changes that will mean that those, especially at the lower levels of the economic ladder, will get to take home more money. But the reality of that, Mr. Speak-er, is that with all those other things that will go up,
very little will be realised in terms of a real economic
benefit to those people. Insurance will go up. Cost of
goods will go up. And $700, which will end up being about $50- some a month, will be lost in all of that. But,
none of the less, that has been an effort on the Gov-ernment’s side, and it is a good thing to a degree.
Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, when you look at
it, one can say that we live in a system which we all espouse merits equality and a level playing field. But it really, again, exalts those with wealth and power, and
it does not matter how that wealth, power, celebrity, (whatever you will) is gained.
So, Mr. Speaker, the reality is that there is no
such thing as equality. But we must —we must, Mr.
Speaker —provide an equal opportunity for us to be
players in our country. And, Mr. Speaker, the PLP has said the way to best do that is to ensure a sound and proper education. The way to do that is to take care of
those people who we find in far more economic challenging situations. And if we do not do that, Mr.
Speaker, then we see what we have observed for these past few years. We see the economic gap wid-ening. We see the haves getting more and the have -
nots having less. And it is not success when a Go vernment can say (and I am paraphrasing) that t hey
are getting it right, that they are providing safe hands for its people, but the economic divide is growing—something is wrong.
I believe that our Leader, the Shadow Minister
of Finance, did an excellent job in pointing out av enues that he believes, and we believe on this side, will create some of those opportunities to allow our people to be more successful players in our Bermuda.
Now, speaking directly to Education, Mr.
Speaker, since I am the Shadow Minister of Educ ation, let me just say this. I heard my honourable col-league, who is the Minister of Education, talk about
our People’s Budget not being transformational. Well,
Mr. Speaker, I heard that word “transformational” being used when the OBA Government talked about our educational system. And they were going to impl ement transformational reform at the middle school level.
Mr. Speaker, I heard the Minister basically say
he spoke to one person. Well, we, on this side, have reached out to the public. We have been up and down this Island, having meeti ngs about what we would like
to do with education, and I can say without exception, the majority of educators we have spoken to— and
there have been many, countless, I cannot even say how many —the majority of parents we have spoken to
have mulled time and time again that they do not have confidence in the system as it is designed right now. And let me say this, Mr. Speaker, and you have heard me say it a million times: I am an advocate for public
education. I believe in our public school system. I
have seen the excellent results year in, year out of what our students do in the public educational system.
I am in no way decrying the performance wit hin our schools. But what I am saying, and what I
acknowledge, as did the Minister, is that there is room
for improvement. And, yes, we have talked about r estructuring our system and phasing out the middle school. Let me just say this. It was Dr. Hopkins who said that he felt that we would realise increased suc-cess by doing that. And that is something that we b elieve, Mr. Speaker, especially when we look over the
decades of the statistics, or the performance, of our students in that mid- level. And one of the things that
we recognise is, it is not that we do not have phenom-enal teachers in the middle school system or even phenomenal students. That mid -tier, just in its stru cture, somehow renders many of our students in a si tuation where I guess they almost become direction-less in that they do not have those role models that you and I, Mr. Speaker, when we went from elemen-tary to high school had before us to help walk us
through success going into that secondary level. We
are not going to throw the baby out with the bat hwater.
In our redesigning the system we will keep all
of the measures —and many are positive— in the mi ddle school system and implement them in a two- tier
system because I can tell you, on this side we have looked at it and asked all the crucial questions. And you will find a person here and a person there who may think that the middle school system as it stands is a good thing. All we are saying is that we are going to make it better by replacing those students who are in
that mid- tier back into a system where what was lost,
again I will say, were the role models that helped
guide them through to success when they were in their secondary levels. We are not going to throw away all of the positive things that take place in the middle school system.
822 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Let me say this, Mr. Speaker: Everything that
we plan to do with education will be with those who
are key stakeholders, with those who are the pract itioners. I can tell you that as a Minister of Education—if my Leader sees fit to make me the Minister of Edu-cation, Mr. Speaker, when we become the Gover nment (and I think he will) —as a Minister of Education
we will work wi th the teaching body to ensure . . . in
fact, I can tell you this, Mr. Speaker. We are doing that now. From every level of education we will have the benefit of their expertise and input to make certain that as we re- model our system that it has buy -in fro m
everyone, right down to the parents and students, because the students are what matter the most. We will
make certain that they get the professional develop-ment that will be needed to ensure that our students graduate with the 21
st century skills to be successful in
our society.
You can look far and wide, and one of the key
things that has been recognised throughout other j urisdictions is that teachers must be properly trained first themselves to ensure . . . they must understand
the skills that are needed to have success in this 21
st
century system. They must. So we must ensure that
they have it. How else will they be able to help our
students get there? So, Mr. Speaker, we are not tal king willy -nilly pie- in-the-sky. We recognise that it takes
a collaborative effort. And we will ensure that that will happen because Bermuda cannot afford not to have a public school system that does not enjoy the conf idence of its people.
As I said, Mr. Speaker, I have always been an
advocate, and I am still an advocate, for public schools. That is because I worked there, Mr. Speaker, and I know these success stories first hand. But not everybody can say that, like me. So it is my job to e nsure . . . my party’s job, to ensure that things are done
to assure the public of Bermuda that they will have a system that they can believe in and that they will have a system that will graduate students prepared no mat-ter what, whether it is for the immediate workforce,
whether it is for some tertiary education elsewhere,
they will have students who will graduate with the skills necessary to be successful in their next stage of life.
Mr. Speaker, I heard the Honourable Minister.
I can say back in 2008 about $150 million was the
budget for education. Here we are in 2017 —nine
years later, no, almost 10 years later —and we are
operating with a budget that is $25,000 short of that
budget. Teachers, and those who were in education then, lamented that there was not sufficient monies. We know that to be true first hand because every day
teachers spend out of their personal pockets to ensure that the classroom environment that they are in is resourced with materials that are going to help them in their instructional delivery to guide those children to success. In a Bermuda today we should not have to r ely on educators to [pay] out of their pockets personally to ensure success for their students. If we are talking about a successful education system, then we need to demonstrate that in our actions by ensuring that there is a budget in place that is going to allow our schools to have the resources needed, the technology needed, the safe environment needed so that our children
can get on with doing their work without any impedi-ments due to lack of resources, poor structure and the like.
Looking at the figures in the Budget, I think
that there is an increase of $2 million. That is a laugh.
Yet, in the public domain, Mr. Speaker, we had the
former Minister saying that he believes that he—

Wow! Twenty minut es went
that fast, Mr. Speaker?
He said that he believed that building school
buildings can be raised, that there is $90 million out there to build new buildings. Well, Mr. Speaker, the Progressive Labour Party will be realistic, we understand what is needed first, and that is adequate r esources, professional development for teachers so
that they remain trained in those areas that will allow students to always be aligned with the demands of society in terms of the workforce and the like. So, Mr. Speaker, I welcome when I get the
chance to go through the Budget with the Minister and ask those crucial questions that need to be asked to ensure that our students are not going to once again find themselves in a situation of not having proper r esources. And I can say this, Mr. Speaker, the OBA had the school review done, which made clear some
of the things that are crucial for success in our
schools. And with the Budget that they have put for-ward I cannot see that allowing the type of changes that need to take place to move education along.
So, Mr. Speaker, since I probably now have
half a second, I will take my seat.

Thank you, Honourable Member.
The Chair will now recognise the Minister of
[Public] Works, from constituency [12].

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It has kind of tamed out now , which probably
is a good thing as we move on into the evening. One
of the good things about the budgetary period for m yself is that I must say good ideas are probably more so at this time during our sessions here at the House
of Assembly. This is one of the times where I believe
good ideas get thrown around. They do not necessary always get hashed out as to implementation, but the budgetary period, or time, does allow for some ideas to be put on the table. So, I must say that I tend to try
and concentrate on some of those good ideas, but


Bermuda House of Assembly invariably, as we go through some of the debate it
tends to deteriorate into the cat calling, as I would call
it, and some of the name blaming and the like that traditionally has gone on in the past.
I will say from the outset that I must thank the
Minister of Finance, Minister Richards. This has been a very difficult couple of years for him as Finance Mi nister understanding what was inherited without going into the details of some of us and what we believe and
how we got here. The fact is that when the Gover nment did take over there was an extreme debt that we had not seen before. And the question really was how do we get to a point whereby we balance the budget.
And I will get to balancing the budget and the i mportance of that in just a minute.
I had the opportunity to listen to the Budget
Reply. I am not sure . . . you know, I always take notice of the graphics and the message that is trying to
be sent. I was kind of excited and some of us in Cab inet when we saw the Budget cover with the blue and red colours. We recognised it was the East End and the West End Cup Match colours and the like, and kind of like that theme. But before I even had an op-portunity to open up the Reply to the Budget . . . it is
not a Bermuda picture. I know that for sure. Because that looks like Fiddlewood in the back picture. So I
am hoping that are aware of copyright issues and e nsure that we are not infringing on anyone with a pi cture from somewhere else. It certainly is not Bermuda,
that is for sure.
What I do want to do is draw us to page 4. On
page 4 of the Reply . . . let me preface it by saying it
was not until after page 8 that we really started getting into some budgetary stuff. It was a bit of casting blame and shadows upon the OBA Government, and I was very keen to pick up on page 4 that it was said,
under the “Budget in Review” that “It seems the OBA
wants Bermudians to forget what they did in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. It seems they want us to forget
about the cuts to scholarships, education, training, the Bermuda College, and programmes to assist at -risk
youth.”
And then it continues on at the end of the paragraph, “They want us to forget about the lack of i nvestment in public education and the $30,000 trips to Rio de Janeiro.”
Really not getting anywhere here with an ything with that kind of rhetoric in the very beginning of the first eight pages of the Budget Reply. I mean, why would you even bring up travel when we had the records of the travel that was done just prior to that us as administration? It does not make any sense to me to get up and argue a point about travel when we know
that you travelled way more and spent way more than
this particular administration, the OBA administration. It does not make any sense.
We also recognise cuts. Yes. But we also
recognise over on page 5 where it says, “There is no
such thing as a free lunch . . . ” Yes, there is no such thing as a free lunch. No, there is not. And we went
through a period of time when, you know, bus was
free and it was taken back, you know tuition was free
and it was taken back to a certain degree. These are the kinds of things we have seen, and I just do not understand if we are trying to move forward with some good ideas, which invariably some good ideas, I mean
some we have seen before came out of the Reply.
And I said already that this is a great opportunity to throw back ideas that will progress the Island. But why would we scar such good ideas with the first eight pages of this kind of vitriol? It just does not make any sense to me.
And if we are talking about moving ahead and
we see where it is quoted we want to move ahead,
and bring Bermuda together , to only start out with
that, we are just starting the divide all over again. It
just does not make any sense to me, Mr. Speaker.
One thing for sure, on page 5 of the Reply,
where it says that there is no such thing as a free lunch, well, I can assure you that our investors will always ensure this. And any investors that come be-fore the PLP, if they were to become Government, will ensure that they understand that there is no free
lunch. There is not. We pay for everything. Anything
that we endeavour to do, there is a cost to that. And that is why, Mr. Speaker, when we start talking about
the Budget and the Honourable Minister of Finance, Minister Richards, has said it from the beginning and continues to say it, that invariably if we do not wrestle
down the debt this is our greatest detractor. This is
our greatest challenge, because for any of us who owns business or has been involved in business, rec-ognise that during those tough times if you need help and you go to the bank the very first thing the banks
are going to be asking is, How are you managing right now? How are you handling your debt? What are your
revenues, and what are you doing to help correct the
situation? There will be no investment in you unless
you can demonstrate to us (this is the bank talking)
that you can bring these things and wrestle them
down to a manageable position.
And it is not until page 24 of the Reply that it
actually mentions balancing the Budget. It actually
says it in there, that it equates it to crime. That is the first time . . . I was looking through and was [wondering] where do they mention about balancing the
Budget. I am going through and going through and
that is the first time it is mentioned. This balancing of the Budget, the public must understand that is what investors are looking for, not just the banks, if we go to the bank for a loan. Investors on the Island want to
know that we know how to manage our money, ot herwise there is no investment.
So all of the wonderful things that we want to
do included in the Budget and also included in the Reply to the Budget, none of these things will come to
fruition if we are not able to wrestle the debt down. If we are not able to show that we can balance the
824 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Budget there will be no investment and the banks will
continue to look at us like, Well, we can’t help you.
There is no help. So all of these things are predicated
upon the ability of this Government to get that debt
wrestled down and to balance the Budget.
Now, people are saying, Well, this is an ele ctioneering year, la, la, la, and all of these kinds of
things. Well, why woul d you say it is an election budget when the Reply is simply the same thing? We know when the election is coming. But, guess what. These plans were in place years ago when the Finance Min-ister sat down and started looking at how we do this. I guess when I started looking at what we inherited, I
start thinking about Spider -Man 2, and that scene
where Spider -Man is trying to hold back a runaway
train. And several people in the Opposition have mentioned about a train and the lights of the train and di fferent kinds of scenarios. Well, the scenario that came to my mind, I recall very clearly when the train could
not be stopped. It had picked up such speed there
was no way of stopping it. And, of course, Spider -Man
is trying to stop it, and what does he do? He gets in
front of it and puts his feet down. Things are flying all over the place, and people on the train are scared
because it is not manageable. It does not seem to be
able to be managed. And Spider -Man is trying to show
some way of managing this runaway train.
Simply, what we have inherited here, casting
no blame on anyone at all, we inherited a runaway debt, a train that was going to be very difficult to stop.
Eventually Spider -Man figured out, he had an idea in
his head that if he kept spinning his webs on buildings
and holding on he would be able to slow down the train. So this Government has been looking for oppor-tunities, looking for whatever angles it can to get to that situation. I give all kudos to the Minister of F inance for the efforts that he has put in to get us to a position whereby we should be able to balance our budget. Not there yet; but it is a work in progress. We are trying to get there.
That is why the Honourable Finance Minister
says, on page 26, “Mr. Speaker, Moody’s, one of the two main credit rating agencies, publishes reports on all the countries it rates. Bermuda with its A2 rating has a debt service score using the metric of inter-est/total revenue of 11.8%. Countries with the same A2 rating like Botswana with interest/revenue score of
1.1% and Poland with a score of 4.3% are in much better shape than us using this metric, even though Botswana is a poor country. Of the Moody’s grouping of countries with ratings ranging from Aaa to A3, Ber-muda has the second highest interest/revenue sc ore.
What this means is that” (and this is the critical part) “if
we don’t top the debt from growing we will fall out of
this peer group and be downgraded.”
And that is critical to us. Critical to us. That is
why I was wondering . . . and I believe the Hon ourable
Leader of the Opposition is an astute man. But I just could not see within the Budget Reply anything of substance that talks about the most critical issue that
we have as a country and that is to wrestle down this
debt to show that if we need to get investment into this country that if we have to go to the bank that we are responsible with our finances.
And, yes, we have issues that we must address of social importance. We do recognise that. But
I have become also very concerned when Honourable
Mem bers get up, like the Honourable Member who
just sat down, and say, Well look, you know, I don’t think that an extra $2 million in the education finances is really going to make any difference. You know, I am
sitting here and . . . I am dealing in my Minis try with
mould issues that go way before December 2012, way before that, and they were never addressed in the schools. So we have to find the finances to be able to address these issues. But why would you even get up and say such a thing and not qualify how you think the $2 million should be spent?
How do you think we should spend it?
We have all of these legacy issues, schools
that are old as the hills falling down, falling apart, old build, but yet you do not talk about how we are going to address that. You cannot have new technology and
the like with these old buildings. Major renovations
have to be done. And with some of those major reno-vations, quite frankly, Mr. Speaker, we should just knock the building down ourselves and rebuild a new one. But these are some of the issues we are facing
as far as infrastructure is concerned. And we say that
we invested in infrastructure, yet we are in a position
right now where our infrastructure is falling apart so drastically I am still trying to figure out where was the priority.
Unemployment . . . Listen, under PLP unemployment went down to almost like two point som ething per cent. That is remarkable. In 2000, I think it was three or four sometimes during that period of time. Incredible. I also recognise that during that exact same time, GDP was high, 4.41 per cent. And higher.
It went up to 6.11 [per cent]. But at that same time,
between that 2003 period to that 2008 period, guess
what. Unemployment was going up. So, I want som ebody to explain to me how that is possible. There may be a reason, but I am trying to understand that the highest of our GDP period unemployment is going up. What? Somebody needs to explain that.
So people want to understand what is going
on in the country. And, again, I am not trying to cas t
any blame on anyone. I am simply saying that we i nherited a situation that was never going to be resolved overnight. It was never going to be resolved within just a couple of years. That kind of debt for our economy
just is not overcome overnight. So things have to be
put in place. And the Government of this country must give fertile ground to entrepreneurship and for inves tment.
But we certainly just cannot go out, as we
have already learned from the former administration,


Bermuda House of Assembly and give things away only to take them back, because
we realise that we cannot afford it. The unintended
consequences of debt is the fact that, guess what? Sometimes just cutting our cable is not enough. Sometimes you have to go down to . . . I cannot even
afford to have the number of employees I would like to have. Those are the realities of debt. And most people
in here who have businesses or have been involved in
businesses if they do not have one, understand this. They understand it. But we are not going to get the investment. And if we do not talk the language of the investor, then we are at a zero game here.
I say language because I recognise that when
we became Government we sat down with hoteliers. And they started to explain what is going on around the world, and why investment has not come. These
are leading experts up at Southampton Princess. So we had to adjust how we came to the table as well. And one of those issues was balancing the Budget so
we could show that if they brought millions of dollars
to this country and invested, that we would do our part as well. I am sure the Opposition understand that.
So, as we move along, and we get up in here,
we love to joke and we listen to what is going on back
and forth. But the truth is that all of the bells and whi stles and all of the trinkets that you want to put on the
tree are not going to happen. It ain’t going to happen until you can show that you know how to balance the Budget, until you can show that you know how to manage those monies. So it is foolhardy to get up
here and sa y, Oh, I want to do this, and we should do
that, and we should do this, and this should be a priority. Guess what. At this point in our history, just about
every interest group out there believes that their prior ity is number one. So when a Government is l ooking at
a situation, the roads are old, the schools are old,
buildings are old, all the like, where are we going to
get the revenue from? I am looking at my capital budget shrinking, shrinking, shrinking, because we have not balanced the Budget yet, we do not have the surplus to put back into the economy.
We also know from history that for six consecutive Finance Ministers, and also under the PLP, there was a priority to balance the Budget. There was. And it was not until recent years that that went out of whack.

You have two minutes.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Two minutes. Thank you,
Mr. Speaker.
So, I go back to the fact that our borrowing
ability, Mr. Speaker, our increase ratings, are directly connected to our ability to balance the budget. You
can talk race, and you can talk all kinds of things dur-ing a budgetary period of time, but guess what. None of these things and the resources that we need to put to solve these issues are also tied to our ability to ba lance our Budget. You think I do not care about what is going on, the black race in this country and the in equality that is there? I get up here and speak about it. I do!

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: You’re not listening if you
ain’t heard it, Opposition Leader. You are not listening. I have spoken about it.
I do not like the fact that we are in this pos ition, but we have to do something about it. And it is
only going to happen, Mr. Speaker, if we work toget her, as he ended up in his Reply, that we would work
together. Not by starting out with eight pages of the
vitriol that was coming out that made no sense what-soever. No sense whatsoever. Talking about [$]30,000 on a trip, when I know what was spent on trips—and what it was spent on, at that!

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Member from constituency 12, who just
took his seat, he does talk about race, but always in a
very reactionary way, much like his colleague from constituency 7, in a way that almost places the onus
of these issues of income and inequality and racial disparity on the victims as opposed to those who are privileged in this society.
Mr. Speaker, I would also add that with r espect to the comments by the Minister from constit uency 12, Minister Cannonier, yes, jobs did disappear,
were lost during that 2000 period under the PLP. We do know that technological innovations were respon-sible for a large part of that, particularly in the shrink-ing of our banking sector at that time, but also the widespread adoption of low cost foreign labour which
particularly helped to marginalise Bermudian workers
within this economy. Yes, that occurred during the PLP’s term in Government.
The issue that we cannot overlook, though, is
the fact that we had an economy that doubled in size in terms of GDP from the early 2000s up until mid2000s, subsequent to the 9/11 event in New York City
and the Katrina event down in New Orleans, which saw a massive influx of major capital going into the insurance sector here.
So, my point is that I think all of us, both within
the public and private sector, became complacent, we
826 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly though that that gravy train would never end. And I
think that, again, afflicted not only decision- makers
within our Government, but also decision- makers wit hin our private sector. Many of the same critics of this
Government, or the former PLP Government, did very well during that period. Thank you very much.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to move on, finally, by
saying the Member from [const ituency] 12 also talked
about the potential for downgrading by the rating agencies, while ignoring the fact that I believe the Government of which he is a Member and a Minister has been downgraded a couple of times since 2012. I believe the last one may have occurred in 2016 (I
stand to be corrected).
Mr. Speaker, after dealing with those hous ekeeping issues, let me start my formal presentation by
quoting from a CURB report on the living wage of, circa, 2015. Ms. Winfield , who is the head of CURB,
as we a ll know, reminded us that in 1941, the Amer ican Vice Counsel in Bermuda who was here during the building of the US bases during the war wrote a thoroughly astute observation concerning the then white oligarchy here and their position on taxa tion:
“For a hu ndred years ” (she wrote) “a small group has
made Bermuda its own paradise by controlling legisl ation and by seeing that tax policy kept all but them-selves in strict economic subjugation. While they ac-cumulated fortunes subject to no taxes whatsoever. ’”
And I conclude. So we have a long history of
this type of behaviour. The question before us now is
whether we have the courage to break the cycle.
Certainly the Shadow Minister of Finance, the
Opposition Leader, David Burt, in what I thought was
a brilliant performance this morning, asserted that the
Progressive Labour Party is committed to breaking the cycle. And on the issue of the reform of the tax sy stem, there were a couple of speakers on the other side who mischaracterised the position outlined in our response to their Budget. And, if I may, Mr. Speaker, at page 9, I just want to reiterate what was said earlier
to put it back where it belongs, and put it in context.
Under the heading: “Our Tax System Contributes to Inequality” I quote from page 9 of our . . . The
People’s Budget , Vision 2025:
“In Bermuda, if you are privileged enough to
have inherited wealth- generating passive income, you
keep it without taxation. However, if you happen to be
born into a family who may not have centuries of
wealth or a trust portfolio of mortgage- free real estate
to inherit, you pay taxes on your labour income be-cause the only income you have is from your labour.
“Mr. Speaker, this is why our taxation system
promotes and fuels economic inequality. This is our
challenge, and this is what we, as a country, must get
to grips with.
“While we may look to make our taxes more
just, which the One Bermuda Alliance tried to do with the payroll tax changes, the fact remains that we are taxing jobs at a higher level, which may lessen our competitive advantage as a jurisdiction and lead us
into more trouble.
“Quite simply, we could tax ourselves out of
being an attractive jurisdiction.”
Furthermore, and more to the point about the
mischaracterisation of these comments earlier, on
page 10 we state:
“When the PLP is returned to government,
one of our first actions will be to create a Tax Reform Commission. This commission will draw participants from both political parties, international business, local business, trade unions, hoteliers, academia and the Bermuda Bar. Its mission will be to conduct a whol esale review of our system of revenue collection and taxation, to make recommendations to parliament on revenue and tax reform and measures to increase tax compliance. Following the commission’s report, the PLP government will engage in consultation and, fol-lowing the completion of the consultation, publish a
white paper on tax reform to be debated in parli ament.”
Now, certainly, Mr. Speaker, we have a first -
past-the-post system; whoever wins gets the spoils.
But the Opposition Leader indicated this morning that even if the PLP won he would make sure that any
consideration of this issue is a bipartisan one and more broadly involve the stakeholders from the private sector. So let us just get that out of the way beyond all of the boogie man sort of comments that have been attributed to some of the speakers on the other side
over there.
Mr. Speaker, unless we can have a more equitable sacrifice within the context of the shared sacr ifice we kept hearing about from the OBA over the last
four or five years, then we are not going to have the sort of refashioning of our social cohesion and to bring
our country forward in a way that is going to be able to
meet the challenges of a 21
st century environment that
we are in. For example, we had Mr. Nathan Kowalski the other day at the Finance Minister’s breakfast still talking about more of the shared sacrifice. But in his
view this shared sacrifice is one in which the burden
of sacrifice is placed upon our civil service, our civil servants and, possibly, in reducing the level of em-ployment within that sector of our economy, while those who are doing very well, such as himself, do not carry sufficient enough of that burden. That is not
shared sacrifice.
The document that we gave today, the People’s Budget, gives some indication, goes a long way
to give an indication what shared and progressive
sacrifice really looks like. To whom more is given, more is expected. That should be a principle that all of
us sig n up to. But I am not sure the OBA is of that
view.
Mr. Speaker, as someone who has created
the Cup Match classic Safe Hands Award, I am a little
saddened, somewhat, with its overuse by the current Government in its document by the Minister in terms


Bermuda House of Assembly of his Budget Statement. I can assert without fear or
favour that the OBA’s claim that they represent the
Safe Hands that we need in this country is a little overblown and that if they were to be judged, as they will be by the electorate, I am sure that they will not receive the Safe Hands trophy or the Calvin Bummy Symonds Cup as is given to winners every year. The
OBA has consistently dropped the ball on economic
growth, consistently dropped the ball on job creation in terms of the promised 2,000 jobs, yet presided over the loss of 2,000- plus jobs over the last four years.
I repeat, they promised Bermuda 2,000 jobs
being created; yet have presided over the loss of
2,000 jobs during their tenure over the last four or five
years. And despite the claim that for the first time we have seen a net increase in jobs, we now know by the Finance Minister’s own admission that most of those jobs were held or created, or had been filled by for-eign workers. So, while we have seen a slight i ncrease in the number of jobs, circa 2016, none of
them have gone to Bermudians. That is not something that any Government should want to brag about.
They have dropped the ball while income inequality and racial disparities have grown, Mr. Speaker.
They have dropped the ball while real poverty has
grown. Mr. Speaker, I get out there and canvass from time to time and I can tell you that I am seeing levels of poverty in Bermuda that I have not seen in a very, very long time. And in some ways the way that some persons are living in this country . . . really, it’s heart
breaking. And we know that they have been subjected to these various economic forces that are completely wearing down many in our community. It is also lead-ing to a hollowing out of our community over the last five or six years as numbers of Bermudians, as indicated in our People’s Budget , have migrated out of
here, who are, in essence, refugees, economic ref ugees leaving Bermuda.
Mr. Speaker, part of that of course has been
driven by the inordinate rise in the cost of living. Most
surveys, even though every time one comes out they
say, Well, that’s not scientific; you can’t go by that , but
most surveys, global surveys, conducted by reputable
companies and publications have indicated that Ber-muda has reached number one status as being the most high- cost jurisdiction in the world. So, if I can
just, Mr. Speaker, go from there to talk about a recent
comment by economic lecturer of Bermuda College,
Mr. Craig Simmons, and I quote from his Febr uary 27
th column in the Royal Gazette , he said:
“In respect to the second challenge of rising
inequality, the Minister of Finance was parsimonious. Admittedly, he has limited space in which to operate.
In his Budget statement, he let us know that he is well
aware that the recent rising economic tide has not raised all boats.
“Acknowledgement, however, is of little solace
to the thousands of Bermudians at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. That the benefits of the reco v-ery have not yet reached the tables of working- class
people should concern all middle and upper -income
households.
“One possible reason for this occurrence”
(and this is key, Mr. Speaker) “is that our economic model of exporting high- skilled financial services and
low-skilled hospitality services to pay for imports of
merchandise and overseas travel is not working for many Bermudians.”
I think this is very key, Mr. Speaker. And there
is more I want to read here, but I am going to stop here and just reflect on that. He says that the “ec onomic model of exporting high- skilled financial se rvices and low -skilled hospitality services to pay for
imports of merchandise and overseas travel is not working for many Bermudians.” Mr. Speaker, what I am taking from this, and what I have been thinking about for some time, is that Bermuda has been i ncreasing caught within a vice here, in terms of jobs
and opportunities. So at the high end, particularly in
terms of international business at the corporate level,
with some of the changes put in place by the OBA, for example, the elimination of term limits, the recent amendments to the Job Makers Act, the liberalisation
of the framework of that Act itself as recently indicated
by the granting or the application of permanent res idency certificates by long- time foreign employees at
the marketplace chain, leads me to basically come to the conclusion that even Bermudians are getting it at both ends, as I said, particularly those at one end who
are college educated, who have got qualifications and
who are young, who are prepared to come back and work in Bermuda and finding these impediments to either being hired, or, if being hired, not being able to move up the ranks within these private sector organ isations to the extent that is warranted and to the extent that they deserve because we are seeing increasing numbers of foreign workers in these professional environments being able to entrench themselves in Bermuda at the expense of Bermudians.
At the other end of the last quarter century,
including during the time the PLP was in power, but again obscured by the illusion of this overheated economy which made us complacent, I believe, to what structural changes were happening during our time in office, we have seen that there has been a
growing reliance on low -cost foreign labour. To me,
that has impacted the ability of largely non- college
educated, low skilled (and I am not saying that to be denigrating) Bermudians and their ability to be able to get jobs and earn a decent living in Bermuda. So
these are sort of the twin factors along with the overall recession and its aftermath that has led to what I ca lculate at least 3,000 to 4,000 mostly black Bermudi-ans leaving the country.
Of course, it is only a guestimate, because
despite the best efforts of some of us on this side who have repeatedly over the last four years implored the Government to find a way that it can collect more ac828 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly curate statistics on those Bermudians who have m igrated out of here, we are still left having to rely perhaps on the census survey that will come out very
soon. But that will only be a projection. But we know, again from our presence in the communities in terms of canvassing and the rest that there is a silent hollo wing out of our communities all up and down the country.
Just moving on, Mr. Speaker, if I may, continuing on with Craig Simmons here, the economic
sector at the college, again on February 27
th, One
possible . . . occurrence . . .” (as he says) [with] “ highskilled finan cial services and low -skilled hospitality
services to pay for imports of merchandise and over-seas travel is not working for many Bermudians. ”
Again, that is a model, though, that, apparently, the OBA is prepared to try to keep working, even though, not only internally but in terms of the strategic chal-lenges and changes of that occurring with respect to
Brexit in the east, and with the ascension of Donald
Trump to the presidency in the west of us in the US and what they represent, to me indicates that the old
model laissez -faire neo-liberal model of economics
free trade is not something that is going to be continu-ing the way that it has over the last 30, 40 years or so.
But moving on, Mr. Simmons then adds,
“While the demand for skilled work has increased, the
demand for unskilled work has been fighting a tide of
technological innovation” (as I talked about) “and out-sourcing that is unfriendly to unskilled job creation. As
a result, working- class inflation -adjusted incomes are
falling. It is not difficult to see why some see a causeand-effect between our openness to the outside
[world] and a reverse Robin Hood effect.”
Moreover, “To make things worse,” (he says)
“less -skilled workers have a harder time getting jobs in
the growing sectors.” (of the economy) “That helps to
explain why we see declining labour -force participation rates among unskilled, prime- aged men.”
Now, with respect to the Finance Minister’s
supposed progressive reforms to payroll tax, Mr.
Simmons says something that we should all bear noting. He says this, Mr. Speaker, and I continue to
quote, “The financial impact on low -income workers is
small.” (Talking about the Finance Minister’s reforms.) “An individual earning $60,000 a year will see an add itional $13 a week or a 1 per cent increase. Once 2 per
cent inflation is accounted for, a worker’s income will continue to fall, as it has been for almost a decade. A system of earned tax credits” he says, could be som ething that could be used as a more effective way of alleviating poverty and the marginalisation of growing numbers of Bermudian workers.
But, Mr. Speaker, we believe, and I do, and
the PLP, that there is another way in which we can begin to tackle some of this as well, and that is through the adoption of a living wage for Bermudians.
As was spoken about earlier, page 23 of the People’s
Budget , delivered by the Shadow Minister of Finance, he writes, Mr. Speaker, “Mr. Speaker, it is also i mportant that the government ensures that persons who
are employed fulltime earn a wage that keeps t hem
out of poverty. That is one of the reasons why the Progressive Labour Party pushed for a Joint Select Committee to examine the issue of a living wage. We look forward to reporting on this committee's work, as
it is essential that as a country we ensure that workers
can live in dignity and are not working simply to r emain in poverty. Work must pay and the PLP will ensure that work does pay.”
Mr. Speaker, I am a little disappointed to note,
however, that not only was the Joint Select Committee
empanelled to examine the efficacy of establishing a
living wage for Bermuda, which in my mind is long
overdue, I had a conversation with a Canadian who
just started working here at the Royal Gazette, and he
himself could not believe, considering the cost of living
in Bermuda, that Bermuda did not even have a minimum wage. So, we believe that it is an idea whose time has come and one that is fully necessary. But you will note —

Thank you.
But you will note, Mr. Speaker, that during the
time of the Pathways to Status protest there was an
agreement made between the Government and the
representative of the various groups including the union, that were at the forefront, the vanguard of that protest. And one of the items agreed upon was that the Labour Advisory Council in the Home Affairs Min-istry would also undertake that issue of a living wage for Bermuda. My reports indicate that they have met
once, or they have not met at all since the time of that
agreement. And that has placed a real stumbling block in the overall attempts to get to more broader agreements on some of the other issues.
I think that the Government is dropping the
ball there, and I would hope that they will have some response that can explain why, once that agreement was signed, there has been no follow through on the Labour Advisory Council establishing that committee to work on the living wage issue.
Mr. Speaker, I know I only have a minute or
so left, I know we have 20 minutes or so —

[Inaudible interjection]

Twenty seconds. Well, I am
going to have to try to get some of this in at some ot her time, but I just want to say again, we have a changing strategic environment. I would like to see this Government recognise that the old status quo and the entrenched interests that it represents can no longer take this country forward, and that it is time for change. Thank you, sir.


Bermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: The Chair will recognise the Honour able Member Jamahl Simmons.

Today, Mr. Speaker, earlier
this morning, our Leader brought forward our vision, the People’s Budget . It is a framewo rk, a blueprint for
our vision, our priorities and our values in terms of
how we will govern once successful in the next election.
Mr. Speaker, it is clear that both parties are in
election mode. It is clear that the Government has an
agenda to destabilise confidence in the Opposition, to destabilise trust in the Opposition, to cast aspersions on the ability of our Leader, and cast aspersions on
the ability of the PLP team.
Mr. Speaker, when I hear some of the things
that have been said about my Leader I get offended
because I think of all little boys, little black boys whose
parents spend money for them to be educated to
spend money for them to acquire the skills to take
leadership roles in our country and to be disparaged with code words, not of any concrete substance, but innuendo and sly, emotionally charged, words de-signed to undermine trust and confidence in the abil ities. When you speak of David Burt in that way, I want
every black parent in Bermuda to think that that is how
they will talk about your son, Mr. Speaker. That is how they are going to talk about your son if you dare to oppose them and dare to have a vision that speaks for Bermudians first. Bermudians first, Mr. Speaker.
It is clear that the OBA is in election mode,
and there is a saying that Bernie Sanders said, they
will take the low road to get to the highest office. We
have seen it online with the slick, probably foreign produced little memes that have been going around.
We have seen it with the amped up presence of the
trolls online carrying the OBA’s agenda.
Mr. Speaker, our Leader spoke earlier today
about a choice that Bermudians have to make, a
choice that will be made very soon, Mr. Speaker. A choice between the tired, old . . . I do not want to mi sstep and say some unparliamentary language. The
tired old personal attacks, the tired old message of
1980s style UBP, Mr. Speaker. They have a choice between going backwards to where the OBA wants to take us, where people’s intellect and ability is ques-tioned, their character is besmirched, or they can em-brace the vision that talks about elevating the conditions of Bermudians to the point where they should be
in our own country.
It is disturbing, Mr. Speaker, that the One
Bermuda Alliance, speaker after speaker after speak-er, have spent more time attempting to dismantle the intellect, ability and reputation of our Members and the plan that we have put forward, a plan that puts Bermudians first, then they have spent promoting their
own plan. Why, one Member spent more time talking about Spider -Man than talking about their own plan,
Mr. Speaker. This is where we are at. And if that were my party’s plan, I probably would want to talk about Spider -Man too. I probably would, because it is a lot
more entertaining and more fun than what they have to carry forward, Mr. Speaker. And that is why the at-tack has been on. That is why we have not heard the pushing of their agenda.
We know the Chamber of Commerce has no
confidence in their agenda. So I am sure that there
are Members sitting over there saying, Well, let me
work with what I can.
Mr. Speaker, the OBA wants this Budget debate and the election that will soon follow to be about
David Burt, the Honourable Member who leads my party. They want it to be about the past. They want it
to be about going in directions that the country is pretty clear it does not want to go. Mr. Speaker, this elec-tion is not about David Burt, the Honourable Member; it is not about Michael Dunkley, the Honourable Prem-ier; it is not about me, it is not about the Honourable
Member, it is about who has the best vision to elevate
the condition of our people. That is what this election is about. And I call on the people do not allow the One Bermuda Alliance to take the low road back to power, Mr. Speaker. Don’t let them do it .
The next election is about the needs of Bermudians, not just Bermudians today, but the next generation. It is about ensuring that being a Bermudi-an still means something more than the ability to vote and make money in this country. It is about preserving
our culture. It is about preserving our heritage. It is about ensuring that the children that I have and the
grandchildren that you have, and the grandchildren
that the Honourable Member from constituency 26
has have the opportunity to enjoy a life in the ir country
that we have, Mr. Speaker, in our country.
Mr. Speaker, the OBA has said a lot about
safe hands. But those safe hands have waved bye-bye to almost 2,000 jobs. Those safe hands have waved bye- bye to managing the debt. They have
waved bye- bye to c reating 2,000 jobs, Mr. Speaker.
They have waved bye- bye to thousands of Bermudians who have not embraced the OBA’s vision because they know it does not include them, Mr. Speaker. They know.
I heard the Honourable Member from constituency 22, 23, one of the Pagets, castigate Bermudi-ans saying that the America’s Cup . . . they are not
getting a piece of it because they are not making the
effort, Mr. Speaker. Let me tell you the message that
the One Bermuda Alliance sent when the Cup arrived in Bermuda when it was greeted by a bagpiper —not a
Gombey, a bagpiper —that message was simple. It
ain’t about you. That is the message that was sent.
830 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly When I go to the Land Rover BAR opening
and the only black people there are MPs and workers
at the BTA, the message is clear —It’s not about you.
You know, Mr. Speaker, I am amazed in the
event that was announced in November of 2014, in
March 2017 is just getting around to reaching out to entrepreneurs. And do you know why they are just
reaching out to entrepreneurs? Because it ain’t about
you. It is now about, Oh my goodness, we took all the
pie and gave a few here. And you know what? I
looked about the room, it is election year, and I do not see quite a few people that look like the people that we are going to need to add on to our base. So let’s
throw a few cookies out there at the eleventh hour and hope for the best.
But, Mr. Speaker, a Government that cared
about people beyond the elite and privileged would not be at the eleventh hour scrambling around trying to figure out how they can find a few black people and
put some money in their pockets. They would not be
having to put black people out in front doing the PR campaign for them to cover for the overwhelmingly non-black organisation that is running this show, Mr.
Speak er. No. It is the fundamental lack of honesty
about this event why black people have not embraced it.
We saw very clearly from day one that it ain’t
about us. Okay? Now, there will be people, and I en-courage people, to get involved, do what you can, get paid. I encourage you. Get paid if you can, right? But
for an Honourable Member who has sat in this House
for many years said, Well, if there are no construction
jobs, then go over to the America’s Cup and start a
business. What Bermuda is the One Bermuda A lliance living in, Mr. Speaker? It is not the Bermuda where you have been made redundant, Mr. Speaker.
And your redundancy cheque would dwindle
away because the jobs that you are qualified for in your field do not exist. Now, if you were a non -
Bermudian, Mr. Speaker, you might feel a sense of
optimism, because under this Government nonBermudian jobs are the only jobs growing. Mm -hmm.
And that, Mr. Speaker, is the fundamental flaw in the
approach of the One Bermuda Alliance, because they have forgotten who is the most important. They tried
to sweet -talk us of rising tides lifting all boats, but really do not care about you if you do not have a boat.
Okay? They do not care, Mr. Speaker.
And we can have people get up here and say,
Well, you are talking about me. I care. Mr. Speaker, I
look at how we have Members of this Chamber who
will pose for pictures with black children and send them to schools covered in mould and when people
speak out, call them mischievous. There are people in
this Chamber, Mr. Speaker, who on Friday, pepper sprayed seniors and then go and pose for a picture with them at a tea.

[Inaudible interjection] Mr. Jamahl S. Simmons: Well, Mr. Speaker, let me
rephrase this. There are people who did not condemn, did not want to take responsibility for the actions of the people who sprayed seniors, but were perfectly con-tent to pose for pictures with them. That is the One Bermuda Alliance that the people have seen from the day after the election. That is the One Bermuda All iance they have seen. And you can shuffle your little
deck of crayons all you want, as my Honourable for-mer Leader used to say. People know who you are. When you put a black face to cover your white space, the people know what you are about. We have seen this movie before. The people have seen this movie
before.
So, Mr. Speaker, now after three years of telling the people pretty clearly how they feel about them, now is the time to put on the cloak of social con-science. Now is the hour to have compassion for the
working man. Now is the time to sing Kumbaya. Now
is the time, Mr. Speaker. But it has not been that time
from the moment the last ballot was cast in 2012. It ain’t been that time.
So, Mr. Speaker, the OBA speaks of safe
hands, the safe hands that wave good- bye to soci al
cohesion in our country, the safe hands that dropped the ball on gang violence, the same safe hands that waved bye- bye to our airport and millions of dollars of
revenue are sent off to Canada. Safe hands? The safe hands who cared so much about Bermudians that they tried to give the children of expatriates the
right to compete with our children for jobs. Safe hands
for who, Mr. Speaker?
So, Mr. Speaker, the OBA has failed to r educe the debt. They have dealt with it. They have failed to balance the Budget. They have failed to cr eate 2,000 jobs. They have failed, they have failed,
they have failed. And to come to this Chamber and boast and say, Oh, but this is the first year we have
had some job increases —and the job increases are
not for Bermudians, Mr. Sp eaker , what Bermuda does
the One Bermuda Alliance live in? What Bermuda do
they live in, Mr. Speaker? Safe hands for who?
Is it safe hands for our children? Is it safe
hands for our grandchildren? Certainly not , certainly
not, Mr. Speaker.
This Budget Debate as a prelude to the next
election is a clear choice, a very clear choice, perhaps the clearest choice in Bermuda’s history between an
organisation in the PLP that understands what is it like to struggle to pay your bills. They understand what it is like to have trouble getting a loan, who understand
how to make your money stretch when you have none, who understands that when your children have
gotten an education and they are not respected and
they have to go and deal with being interviewed by expats or management ex -pats less qualified then
they are, Mr. Speaker. We know, because that is the Bermuda we live in. And the land of yachts and champagne and private jets and all that . . . well, a few


Bermuda House of Assembly of us may have that luxury. But, you know what? We
move through both worlds because we have to, Mr.
Speaker.
We understand Bermudians are working so
hard and taking home so little. That is why we believe in a living wage. That is why we will fight for a living wage. The One Bermuda Alliance understands in the
interests of their business friends. And that is why
they will fight against it, Mr. Speaker. We stand for a
living wage, they do not.
Mr. Speaker, you can stand with us, a PLP
that has offered solutions that include all Bermudians and is glad to elevate all Bermudians. Or, you can
stand with a Government that has so little confidence,
no agenda, they resorted to name- calling attacks, all
of that.

[Inaudible interjection]

Spider -Man.
Ooh.
Mr. Speaker, it is the PLP that believes that
taxes should be fair in this country. It is the One Bermuda Alliance that will fight to protect the wealthy and
privileged from paying their fair share. That is a fundamental difference, Mr. Speaker. They will fight for the wealthy. They will fight to ensure that every one of their millions go untouched while we fight for fairness and true shared sacrifice, Mr. Speaker.
There are some people in our country, as
there were in the last election, who will say there is no difference between the PLP and the One Bermuda
Alliance. They will say, I’m not voting, because they
are no different . Mr. Speaker, to them I put a challenge and say examine the record of the One Berm uda Alliance, examine the vision of the Progressive
Labour Party, examine the vision of the One Bermuda Alliance, and ask yourself if you can say there is no
difference. It is a very clear difference of values and
priorities, Mr. Speaker. A very clear difference.
I can tell you that we will care about Bermudians not just the year before an election as an after -
thought, as a convenience because it is time to face
judgment day. So if you are thinking about staying home, if you are thinking about letting somebody buy your vote, Mr. Speaker, if you are thinking about tak-ing money and going to another c onstituency and voting where you do not live, understand the choice that you are making. Understand that staying home is a vote for a One Bermuda Alliance that will not fight for you. Maybe four or five years from now when it gets close to an election they might show a little sign, a
little fight in them. But they are not going to fight for
you every day. They are not going to fight for you
when the sun rises and when the sun sets. They are not going to fight for you; they are going to be too busy fighting for the wealthy, the privileged and the elite, not ace boys. Not ace boys. That is what is go-ing to happen. So, Mr. Speaker, our plan [is] to get Bermudians back. There is one thing that particularly excites me, Mr. Speaker. We want to draw back the talent that has been chased out of our country because they believe that it is better overseas, opportunities are more prosperous, conditions are better for their chil-dren in England.
Mr. Speaker, could you have ever thought the
day would come when a Bermudian would say he had a better chance in England? Would you . . . I mean, I
remember when we used to go through Customs in the United States when travelling from Jamaica or
somewhere, and people would say, Oh, you must
want to stay here. And I would say, No, I don’t; I want
to go home. I don’t want to be here. There was a time
when that is how Bermudians felt. I will go Disney World, I’ll go to the mall. I ain’t trying to stay here.
But now, that has changed. It has changed
because we have an approach that tells Bermudians
just like the Government said with the America’s Cup,
It ain’t about you. It ain’t about you. People get it.
They judge not by the words, not by whose children
you pose and use as props at photo- ops, they see you
by your actions. So all this here that they are doing, all
the games that they are playing, the people are hip to
it. The people are hip to it, and they are waiting for them, Mr. Speaker. Ooh, they are waiting.
All they say to us is, When is the day? When
is the day so we can take them out, go to the polls
and take them out. The remorse of the voter who stayed home not realising that there was a difference between the One Bermuda Alliance and the Progres-sive Labour Party. The remorse of the voter who had their light bill, groceries and things taken care of who decided to go a certain way. The remorse, Mr. Speak-er, because they thought there was no difference between the PLP and the OBA. But they know now, Mr.
Speaker. Oh, they know now.
Mr. Speaker, this PLP will create jobs and
make Be rmuda more attractive to both local and international business. This PLP in our People’s Budget
will reduce the cost of doing business in Bermuda,
take on income inequality, and make the tax system fairer. We are going to attack the cost of living. We will
end the pension discrepancy that makes hiring ex-pats, “guest workers” if you prefer, less expensive than hiring Bermudians. Mr. Speaker, we will embrace
vacation rentals and protect them from over -regulation
and over -taxation.

We will reverse the OBA’s
crippling 53 per cent tax on fuel hikes, and we will do
so much more.
Mr. Speaker, the PLP of 2017 is very different
from the PLP of 1998. The PLP of 2017 has two Members, three Members left from the class of 1998. But, Mr. Speaker, I embrace my history in the PLP in
832 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly its entirety —the good and the bad. And so when my
Leader, the former Leader, stood on his feet in his first
Throne Speech Reply and apologised to the people for the mistakes of the Progressive Labour Party, and when my current Leader stood in his first Budget R eply and apologised for the mistakes of the PLP, we own our success and our failures. We will not use the
One Bermuda Alliance philosophy of you- too-ism to
say, Well, it’s okay to make mistakes because you did
too. We own our past; we own our present. And we
will own the future for Bermudians.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Good evening.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, I listened
intently to most of this debate and to the Honourable
Member who just took his seat, I recall very clearly he talked about values and priorities. And I wondered when he said those two words how they shift like the sands on the beach in Bermuda when the winds and the waves rush them, because that Honourable Member has been a Member of every party in Bermuda,
other than the One Bermuda Alliance. So this is from a man who, I guess, his values and his priorities have shifted like those sands on the beach.
It is interesting because we are here today
talking about the Budge t Debate. And it is clear from
our Budget that we put out, it has continued to take care of the people’s business with safe hands. But, the Opposition has been very clear that they have an election platform that has been put out and sprinkled through that, just as the Honourable Member has
spoken before me, it was laced with hatred, divide and personal attacks. And that is certainly not going to carry us forward, Mr. Speaker.
Let me focus in on this Budget for a minute,
Mr. Speaker, because we have to get back to the rea-sons why we are going to be in this Chamber for
many hours over the next couple of weeks. And that is
to ensure that we fund the programmes and policies of the Bermuda Government and make sure that we have a roadmap to put ourselves in a much better p osition as we go forward. So, as my honourable col-league the Deputy Premier and the Minister of F inance has clearly stated on page 24, the national debt
is “the single biggest threat to the future prosperity, standard of living and social stability of Bermuda.”
The Opposition made very little mention of
that in any of the debate today. And there was very little in the Opposition’s Reply. And I am not surprised, Mr. Speaker, because 1) it is something that they
started to create to a massive mountain; and 2) I do
not think they realise the severity of the challenge we face because without us dealing with the $500,000 a day we have to pay in debt, there will be very little that will flow from that, Mr. Speaker.
So we have to deal with that. And we have
made progress. In spite of what the Opposition says, we have made tremendous progress, so much so, that we have cut our deficit down significantly with this Budget calling for a bottom line of $135 million deficit and on the current account we will have a surplus for the third year.
Another threat that has received little amplif ication today, Mr. Speaker, is the threat that we face with international business and the dangers we see from our east and our west with Brexit and the new President of the United States. And that is why we have put significant time and resources into planning
with our partners to deal with those threats. And I
think we are going to make some real progress on those as we go forward.
And then, Mr. Speaker, we have the ongoing
challenge of making sure that we have the appropriate
social programmes in place in our community to deal with the real and pressing issues that our people face. So all in all, Mr. Speaker, as the Finance Minister said on page 12 of the Budget, this total situation that we
are faced with calls for very careful, calculated and targeted action by us here in Bermuda.
This Budget was not an election platform, as
we heard from the Honourable Leader of the Oppos ition this morning. This Budget is our roadmap to con-tinue to dig us out of the hole and put us in a better position to face the challenge that we have. The goal, Mr. Speaker, and I will quote from page 26 of the
Budget, to eliminate the annual deficit which would position Bermuda to start paying down the debt. This is the most important step to ensuring the long- term
prosperity of the Bermudian people. In doing this we grow the economy, we create jobs, we free- up dollars
to meet people’s needs and we are able to respond to the challenges we face in a very uncertain world. So this Budget, simply put, Mr. Speaker, is our second year of a three- year plan to eliminate the deficit. In
spite of what Opposition Members have said, this is the second year of a three -year plan to eliminate the
deficit which drives our debt problem.
Mr. Speaker, we have heard the Opposition
talk about debt and deficit in scattered shot responses here this afternoon. But the fact of the matter is, $1.5 billion was turned over to us in a deficit on the first year in the year 2013/14 Budget of $331 million. You
are not going to turn that around overnight. And we
have done a tremendous job with the stewardship and the guidance of my honourable colleague the Deputy Premier and the Minister of Finance to make it happen and turn it around. And now we are seeing light at the


Bermuda House of Assembly end of the tunnel. Very clear light at the end of the
tunnel.
Another important part of this Budget, and I
am surprised the Opposition has not tried to take
some credit for this, is that we have seen very pr ogressive payroll tax reform to make this system fair to the lower income levels and to broaden that tax base.
And these reforms are more for those who earn less.
And it is critical for what we have to do going forward. So I was quite surprised earlier this morning when the Honourable Member from constituency 34 (who no
longer is in the room) said there was no mention of economic inequality in the Budget of the Government.
If you turn to page 28, Mr. Speaker, we spent
pretty much that whole page and the next page talking
about the objectives of tax reform would be to i ncrease the fairness of payroll tax structure. It goes on to say, “In addition to raising taxes to help to ultimately balance the budget, the other primary objective was to
inject fairness into the structure.”
It goes on to say at the bottom of the page,
Mr. Speaker “This inequity has long been acknow ledged by former Governments, but this OBA Go vernment, as a Government of action, has seized the nettle and made the decision to do the right thing: - to
make th e system fair.”
I get it, Mr. Speaker. A lot of times we play
politics up here and we are pretty good at spinning our
words and getting our point across. But Honourable Members, when they talk about economic inequality,
they need to do more than just talk the talk. We have
heard a lot of talk this afternoon and this evening
about a living wage. Well, Mr. Speaker, I believe we are all very concerned about the need for a living wage. And then if that is the case, Mr. Speaker, why has it not been delivered? The Opposition held in their
Reply, which they call t he People’s Budget, it is not
the people’s budget, it is an election manifesto, Mr.
Speaker. If they are so sure that they care about the living wage, why has it taken months to even have any type of report delivered to this floor for an update
on that committee that was formed and chaired by
Opposition Members.
Mr. Speaker, I am just guessing, because I
have not heard anything. I hear pontification, so I guess maybe they are arguing in the committee about what to do. That could be. Committees go back and
forth, they cannot make decisions. Maybe they have
not put the time in to have the meetings. I do not know, because they have not reported on it. Maybe, Mr. Speaker, they do not know what to do. That coul d
be something else. But, Mr. Speaker, plain facts to the Opposition Leader who now has found his voice
again, after speaking for two hours this morning, plain
facts, Mr. Speaker, is talk is cheap. If you want to talk about a living wage and you formed a committee to deal with it, we need to hear what is going on, not just keep reading about it and talking about it. So, Mr. Speaker, page 28 deals with the pr evarication that came from the Honourable Member. We are doing it.

Hon. E. David Burt: Point of order, Mr. Speaker.

All right. Carry on.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, that is not a
point of order. I will carry on.
Mr. Speaker, payroll tax. Let me just go
through these numbers again. And then somebody on
the other side has pooh- poohed this, but for anyone
earning less than $137,000 a year, they will receive
more take- home pay because of the decrease in the
bands under them. And it is significant in some areas, Mr. Speaker. A person earning $95,000 will see a r ebate or an increase in pay of $717.50. A person ear ning $75,000 will see $667.50.
And I hear Honourable Members on that side
dismissing that. Well, Mr. Speaker, all I have to say is this is real money. And I know they are pretty defensive about this because they could not do it, and they did not do it, Mr. Speaker, so they are very defensive about this. But, Mr. Speaker, this Government has
come forward and we have done it. And the least that
the Opposition could do is support it. Support it and
say, Yeah, we support this thing. Maybe we would do
it in a different way, but we support this. But no, they
have castigated. And then they talk about the cost of living, Mr. Speaker.
You know, I listened intently this morning to
the Leader of the Opposition’s Reply to the Budget —
Hon. E. David Burt: Point of order, Mr. Speaker.

Honourable Member, Roban. Please.
Hon
. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, if he does
not like to hear what I have to say, I will continue on.
We heard a lot of talk about cost of living, Mr.
Speaker. And here is what I am sure that many pe ople in the community got quite disturbed at. Mr.
Speaker, when they talk about cost of living and I will quote [from the Reply] (Mr. Speaker while he chir ps
on I will continue), page 14, “ . . . the cost of living is
the primary concern among our people and is the rea-son why many Bermudians leave to live overseas . . .”
The cost of living is a big concern, Mr. Speaker. I agree with that.
And they go on. An d while they keep chirping
over there, Mr. Speaker, I will continue. Mr. Speaker,
manners are taught, and we will keep learning them.
[Inau
dible interjection]
Hon
. Michael H. Dunkley: And it says, “. . . we ther efore have to construct an economy where a parent
only needs one job in order to raise their family, not
two or, even in some cases, three jobs.”
I agree with that, Mr. Speaker.
So I turn the page and it says, “The next Pr ogressive Labour Party government will focus its efforts
on attacking Bermuda’s cost of living problem.” Good
idea, Mr. Speaker. “Our policies must reduce the cost of living across all areas — including health care,
housing, food and electricity — to ensure that Berm uda is affordable. Our People’s Budget will ensure that this urgent issue is addressed.”
Mr. Speaker, that is good stuff. So I looked for
the next paragraph where I hear how they can do it. And they change the subject to something else. So, Mr. Speaker, you tell me you are concerned about the cost of living and you say what areas you are con-cerned about, but you have no solution. Just vacuous words like we hear all the time from the Opposition
Leader. And that is nice. That is nice, Mr. Speaker.
We continue to hear —
Hon
. E. David Burt: Point of order, Mr. Speaker.
The S p
eaker: Yes, yes, Honourable Member.
POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Hon
. E. David Burt: The Honourable Member is mi sleading the House. If the Honourable Member would
have read the entire Reply he would see where there
were specific points speaking about addressing those points of the cost of living.

Honourable Member, I will tell you
again, you had a whole two hours and I made ever ybody keep their lips tight while you were speaking.
Premier.
Hon
. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Now, there was a lot of talk about jobs. Well,
Mr. Speaker, my honour able colleague, the Minister
from constituency 12, referred to that a little bit. And I
need to amplify that because talk, again, is cheap. Mr. Speaker, in 2004 the unemployment level was 2.1 per
cent. In 2012 it had risen to 8 per cent. Every year
from 20 014 to 2012 it rose.
Mr. Speaker, I think most people will reme mber that between 2004 and 2008 the economy was booming. During those years the GDP rose from, I think it was about $4.4 billion to about $6.1 billion. So, Mr. Speaker, if the current Opposition, many of them were the former Government, are so concerned about jobs and believe they have plans to show job growth
in Bermuda, how then in a boom were Bermudians
losing jobs, Mr. Speaker? And how now can we b elieve that they can create jobs when during good times they could not? The jobless rate was going up. While the GDP was growing up, the jobless rate was going up.


Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Speaker, that is probably unheard of in
the history of Bermuda.

Hon. E. David Burt: Point of order, Mr. Speaker.

Premier.
Hon. Mic hael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, that is not a
point of order again. Maybe it is late at night and he
cannot follow it, but, Mr. Speaker, it is very clear. In
2004 to 2012 the jobless rate went up, and in 2004 to
2008 the economy was booming. So how do you ad d
that up, Mr. Speaker?
Hon. E. David Burt: Point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: And I am happy to talk to
the Honourable Member afterwards.

Well absolutely. But that . . . so he, the
Honourable Member can say that —

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, the Honourable Member has had a long day, so he might not r eally be listening tonight.
So, it is very clear that as the Opposition talk
about job growth, under their watch Bermudian jobs were going down even in boom years, Mr. Speaker.
And it gets back to the point that we have said over
and over again, you have to set the foundation for job growth. And I believe we have done that here in Bermuda with what is taking place in the economy now with hotel development in a number of important ar e-as in the East End of the Island, in the West End of
the Island. The Loren Hotel is just opening up.
And I heard the Honourable Member from
constituency say last week, and it galled me a bit
when he said that we were opening hotels and tourism was starting to go on the upswing but Bermudian jobs were not being created. Well, Mr. Speaker, I went
down to the Loren. I saw Bermudians working there.
So what did they do? Just drop out of the sky? No one knows about them, Mr. Speaker?
I mean, you cannot paint a cloth that is full of
fiction and expect it to stand up, Mr. Speaker, be-cause when properties open up, this Government is
going to fight for Bermudian rights just like the guys on the other side say they will, Mr. Speaker. No one has the monopoly on fighting for Bermuda’s rights, be-cause we are all Bermudians. So, we are creating jobs, Mr. Speaker. And it is a slow progressive pr ocess because of the mess that we were left.
Now, Mr. Speaker, there has been quite a bit
of conversation today about the strength of this Bud get. And what I found interesting about it, Mr. Speaker, is looking at the support across the spectrum of the political commentators and social community commentators. Craig Simmons from the Bermuda College
says,
1“Two big challenges to sustainable growth are
debt—and, by implication, debt service— and rising
inequality. This year’s Budget deals with both headon.”
Sheelagh Cooper says that payroll tax reform
is a good start; it shows a willingness to begin to dis-tribute the burden a little more evenly.
Kevin O’Donnell from ABIR says, “ABIR fully
supports the introduction of payroll tax ‘progressiv ity’—an applaudable effort to build some equity for
taxpayers in the . . . system, and right away.”
The Royal Gazette, not a friend of politicians
on both sides from time to time, “The progressive pa yroll tax reform addresses the deepening issue of ec onomic inequality in our community, and few would
dispute the fairness of that.”
And, Mr. Speaker, the BPSU, “The current
Budget is a ‘welcomed deviation from the status quo fiscal policies that we have seen in the past budgets.’”
“The BPSU has openly called for an supports:
‘Progressive taxation; A Financial Services tax; and The rollback of payroll tax concessions in various
[sectors].”

Two minutes, Mr. Premier.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: It goes on.
Mr. Speaker, as I close let me just deal wi th
public sector reform for a bit. We have done a tr emendous job on public sector reform in making sure
that we have made it more efficient and more effective as we have gone on. And even the BPS[U] is suppor t1 Royal Gazette , 27 February 2017
836 3 March 2017 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly ive of that, Mr. Speaker. They said “. . . cuts have
been made in a measured approach through early
retirements and attrition. With eight consecutive years of Bermudians experiencing job losses, the last thing the country needs is a further reduction of Bermudians in the workforce. ”
So, Mr. Speaker, w e have made significant
progress, and I think the people of Bermuda are see-ing that this progress has taken some time because of the deep hole we are in. And I do not think the people of Bermuda will be fooled by the smooth talk that has come from the election platform of the Opposition. Mr. Speaker, words are often hollow unless they are carried out. Words often do not mean much unless there
is some backing to how you are going to get there. The Opposition has talked today about cutting taxes with new poli cies and new money, Mr. Speaker. But
no mention about how we are going to pay for it.
And as I close, Mr. Speaker, the Opposition
continues to try to divide the community —black
against white, rich against poor —continues to divide
it. Mr. Speaker, if you turn to one of the final pages, the Opposition tries to reach out across the aisle and they say that we are all in this together, whether you
are black or white, whether you are young or old, and,
Mr. Speaker (this is the second time the Leader of the Oppos ition said it), whether you are gay or straight.
Well, Mr. Speaker, I find that amazing because Mem-bers on that side have not moved forward with human rights discrimination, Mr. Speaker. So that sentence
in itself shows how low they will stoop —

[Timer beeps]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I will first congratulate my colleague and
Leader, the Shadow Minister of Finance, Honourable
David Burt, constituency 18, for presenting an outstanding Budget Reply.
I perhaps think that the Government does not
quite understand the Opposition, Mr. Speaker. They do not quite seem to understand that we do not spend
too much time replying to them. We like to spend
more time speaking to the people and constructing ideas that will address their needs. We have seen year after year most of the Government Members get up and complain about our Reply. That is what the
Premier has pretty much done just now. But where I
find it extremely puzzling that they cannot talk about
their own plan, that none of their Members will use their 30 or 20 minutes to talk about their own plan and how wonderful it is and what it is going to do, and the
vision that is apparently embodied and how wonderful it is all going to work for the Bermudian people. We saw this morning their opening speaker,
the Minister of Economic Development, open with a bat, Mr. Speaker. And there is one thing I wanted to ask the Minister, if he were here, because I walked past the desk of the Minister and I looked for the dust. And you might wonder why I am asking about the dust. It is the dust from the old UBP playbook that that
man, the Honourable Member, was articulating this
morning. In the first few sentences the Honourable
Member could not contain himself, but mentioned, I
think there is a bit of income tax here . That is the e xact same playbook that we used to witness from the United Bermuda Party, of which most of those people
at the front were actually members of. Right?
The Honourable Mr. Dunkley, the Honourable
Member, Mr. Richards, the Honourable Member, Ms.
Atherden, the Honourable Member, Ms. [Gordon- ]
Pamplin, the Honourable Member Mr. Gibbons, the Honourable Member, former Minister, Mr. Wayne
Scott, and other Members who sit on the benches behind them were Members of, Mr. Speaker. So I was almost titillated by the sudden appearance of a UBP playbook once again. What it shows is intellectu al
bankruptcy, Mr. Speaker. Lack of creativity, lack or
originality, and, frankly, just lack of ideas at all, Mr.
Speaker, from the One Bermuda Alliance, the political child of the United Bermuda Party. And the child cer-tainly exemplifies the attributes of the parent, with almost great skill.
So, we heard the murmur of income tax, i ncome tax, income tax. Mr. Speaker, we then were b elaboured for 50 minutes prior to lunch with bemoaning what went on before 2012, not talking about the 2017/18 (as the Premier leaves the room) Budget Statement in support of the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure, presented by the Honourable E. T. Ric hards, JP, MP, Minister of Finance, Friday, 24 February 2017, Mr. Speaker. We heard a bemoaning about years gone by. Fifty minutes, a quarter . . . well, a
substantial amount of the gentleman’s time, talking about what happened before 2012.
All right , okay, Mr. Speaker. Here we go
again. This is the, what, fourth, third or fourth Budget Statement and it seems as if, again, the Gov ernment,
cannot find the confidence, perhaps (I don’t know), the
muster to promote themselves. They spent their time mostly (and not all their Members did it this time,
maybe they have gotten a little bit better), talking
about how terrible our Reply is to their Budget. You
know? So I have lost any hope of expectation of an ything higher than what we continuously have seen from the Members of the Government. Just, you know, why do you not talk about how wonderful your
plans are if they are so wonderful?
Maybe they are having confidence trouble,
Mr. Speaker. They have had a rough year. Last March
was not a nice time for them. During the Budget it was not a nice time for this Government. And maybe they are having flashbacks of last year and the trauma due


Bermuda House of Assembly to their lack of sensitivity and care for the people’s
needs that they were faced with, people gathered on
the grounds of this House in protest to their policy.
In December of [last] year they had a similar
challenge of being faced with people not happy with the One Bermuda Alliance and its policy, which su ggests they did not learn the lesson of earlier in the
year.
Now, we have seen a Budget that appears by
the Government to want to show some care and sensitivity to those who have a little nest. So, there is the
proposal for tax changes. There is perhaps going to be increase in funding in some areas of educ ation,
maybe more money for scholarships. And some other
things that one might care to suggest they might be a more caring and sensitive Government after w hat one
might argue has been four years of severity for many people in Bermuda, many of Bermuda’s cit izens.
Now, I do not have to go over a whole lot of
other stuff that has been talked about today, because Honourable Members on this side have covered a lo t
of ground. So I can almost take a different tack, Mr. Speaker. But, I ponder if at this point the people of Bermuda can trust a Government that has failed to
keep many of its promises, that has taken a route in
many policy initiatives that if they had presented them when they were first being considered to be elected as Government they would not have been elected on.
Now, we all know that governance is a hard
thing. Certainly, I understand. I have been where they
are. It can be tough. You find yourself confronted with
decisions and situations that you feel you have to make a choice on. And sometimes those choices will be difficult for you and for those who they might i mpact. But I do think that irrespective of that, you must show to those who you are responsible for that you
have care, sensitivity and empathy for their situation,
particularly where the country was in 2012 in the midst of a recession, the global situation not looking very good, and action having to be taken to make adjus tments. We all understand that. If it had been a PLP
Government, we would have to have made some
tough decisions as well. But it was the OBA, and they had to do it.
But there was a certain lack of care and sens itivity. It was almost as if they told the people, It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be severe, and honestly, trust
us. You are going to be better for it. We heard comments like, to certain interest groups, Money doesn’t
grow on trees. Right? To particularly groups that are
experiencing the greatest amount of income exasperation in the country. I did not hear that being told to the well -heeled people who gather at the Chamber of
Commerce breakfast every year by the Minister. He was not telling them that. But he told to tell som ebody’s grandma, the vulnerable, the people who act ually cannot say anything, or do not have a powerful advocacy behind them. Right? But then, those are the same people who told
the Minister in this particular breakfast, at which I just happened to be at this time, that they have exuded some of their statements about the Minister needing to attack further shrinking of the government and lo wering of expenditure. But I will say this: ironically, those are the same people who supported the airport
plan. Now, did they not perhaps think that the airport
plan is going to perhaps cut large amounts of potential
revenue from the Government’s coffers? And at the time the Government had not even come forth with a complete abandonment of the tax concessions to r etailers, hotels and hospitality. But certainly, that has
been announced now. But still this does not move the
prospect of severe amounts of revenue being lost be-cause of the proposed airport project.
But maybe those people, ABIC, ABIR, Chamber of Commerce, should have thought about that that would maybe hamstring any further efforts in that area
by the Government. And guess what? That might
mean he would have to increase taxes on them. I know my Honourable Leader in his own discussions that he has been doing very widely, said those very things to the Government not knowing, because my
Leader does not have a crystal ball like the Honour able Finance Minister does. So he can only surmise
what might come and certainly talk to him about that, Mr. Speaker.
So, I wonder now what those interest groups
are saying, because those are the interest groups that
really have the muscle around here. It is not our st udents who are in schools that are crumbling. They do not have the advocacy and the muscle to talk to the Finance Minister and flex themselves and tell him,
Minister, we don’t like what you’re doing. It is only the
business groups that seemingly have this persuasive posture towards the Government. And that is why the Minister can tell seniors, Money don’t grow on trees.
But I do not believe that has been told to the bankers,
or the business community, I do not think this has been told to other more powerful interest groups in
this country.

[Inaudible interjection]