March 21, 2025

Yes, put your first question. Then he
can answer, and if you have any supplementaries from his response, you get to ask two supplementaries. So let him respond.

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, off the top of my
head I would assume that the Ministry of Finance and
the Minister of Finance at the time do comply with the
law, 2020. But I will . . . No, I am relatively certain that
those things were tabled because that came in 2022. But I will go ahead and look, and if they are not, we will make the necessary submissions as necessary.
But I know that Ministry officials in the Ministry of Fi32 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly nance are listening right now, and so we will go ahead
and take a look at that.

Premier.

Hon. E. David Burt: As has been stated in this House
numerous times, recorded inside of the Hansard, especially from budget debates and discussions last year, the fact is that there are only a few changes of
which you can make to pension funds, which I am
sure the Honourable Member does know. You change either the reference year or the reference wage. You
increase [what] the age of eligibility of receiving those
benefits can be. Or you increase contributions. The solutions, as has been done previously when matters
were dealt with insofar as pension funds, is a combination of all three. It would be premature for me to state the specifics, but we are happy to debate the Bill
when it comes to the Legislature in May.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The topic of the issues with the pensions has
been a well -known topic in this House for at least five
years on many, many Government and Opposition
Statements. And so my question is, Can the Premier help us understand why it has taken so long to arrive
at the changes needed in the public sector, public
servant superannuation fund and the contributory
pension fund? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Premier.

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Government engages in broad and fulsome consultation, and I am certain that the Honourable Member is aware of the consultation which had
been outlined in this House on numerous times, probably in the other place where he used to sit, in the
public and around these particular matters when it
comes to the matter related to the public sector superannuation fund.
I am trying to start off on a good wicket, so I
am going to do my best not to be too, I guess, parliamentary. But the reality is that governing is more than
just press releases and statements. You have to actually get into the details. And the reality is, in an environment where you have to agree with public sector unions in spaces where they may have a reduction in
pay, it is important that you reach a middle ground.
The Honourable Minister for the Cabinet Office laid
out the fact that we have come to an agreement with
pay, recognising so these particular matters can move
forward. Unless the Honourable Member from the
Opposition is suggesting that we should make changes to compensation for public officers and reduce public officers’ take -home pay, that is not where the Government of Bermuda is.

The Honourable Mr. Premier
is misleading the House as to my intentions on what I may or may not be thinking to which he has no
knowledge, Mr. Speaker.


Ber muda House of Assembly The Speaker: Well, he was trying to respond. Okay.
He was trying to respond with an interpretation of
what he perceived.
Ho
n. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, much to the chagrin to the Members of the Opposition, they are going
to have 19 more months of this. So, they had better
get ready.
[Lau
ghter and crosstalk ]
Ho
n. E. David Burt: So here is the thing, Mr. Speaker. Here is the thing, Mr. Speaker. The reality is, Mr.
Speaker, that governance is difficult. For the Honour-able Member to say, What has taken this long? , you
have to work through the process. I think the Honour-able Member would welcome the fact that we have an agreement with unions, that we have come to a historic pay agreement that we are actually going to move
and fix the public sector pension fund, and the first fix that we put them on stable footing since changes were done 20 years ago. This is an accomplishment he has spoken about in numerous spaces. It is something that is particularly important. And I look forward
for his support as Shadow Minister of Finance as we move and advance that. If he wishes a briefing on these particular matters, I will be happy to arrange one for him.
On the matter related to the public, the contributory pension fund, we do know, as was stated in the consultation, that the changes that were recom-mended by the committee were significant. There was significant concern in the private sector, there was significant concern in the international business sector and there was concern in the public sector. That is the
reason why inside of my Statement I stated what
came back from that level of consultation is that per-sons said that we should consider whether or not, combined with some of the increases which may be necessary in other changes, to look to see if there is
space to supplement that from revenues from the corporate income tax. We await the report of the Tax Re-form Commission of which the Honourable Shadow Minister was a former member.
But those matters, as I addressed in my
Statement, are urgent and will have to be dealt with
after PSSF, which is significantly important as it is a
direct impact on the Consolidated Fund, shows up in our balance as a $1.2 billion liability and is something that is consistently referred to in ratings agencies. We look forward to fixing that particular matter so that that contingent liability can come off of our balance sheet
and we can look forward to more favourable ratings
from the ratings agencies.
Th
e Speaker: Supplementary?
SUPPLEMENTARY Dr. Douglas DeCouto: T hank you, Mr. Speaker.
This is of course a vital topic for the country
and hence my deep, deep interest. And so my supplementary ques tion is—

—to the Honourable Premier,
May you confirm (yes, a supplementary) what date did
you first pres ent, did the Government first present a
proposal to the unions and upon what date was the
final agreement reached? Thank you.
Hon. E. David Burt: I can assure you I do not know
the first date that it was presented off the top of my
head, Mr. Speak er. But I am sure the officials of the
Ministry of Finance have taken, but I can say these
discussions have been going on for a number of
times. These discussions predated my time coming
back to Ministry of Finance, they have been long and
ongoing, the work that has been happening, and we
have been going back and forth. So from that particular aspec t and instance, I cannot give a specific date.
But the fact is that we are at a spac e where we have
done the work so we can advance this and move it
forward in the interests of the c ountry.

Yes, supplementary.
My understanding . . . I am going to give the
context so that he can answer it precisely, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is, we passed a law last March that enabled funds to be moved from the sinking fund into other funds. My understanding is that law, the Government Loans Amendment Act, came into effect at the end of last March. So, I would like to be advised
as to what authorisation or laws enabled these funds
to be moved from the sinking fund for the payroll with-out going through the regular budget process. Thank you.

Yes.
Hon. E. David Burt: The Honourable Member is referring to a different section of law. The matters relat-ing to the excess borrowing fund able to cover deficits were passed, actually, by the One Bermuda Alliance when they were in office. And that is under the author-ity that was done. So sometimes when we are talking
about payroll, et cetera, and different things, the fact is
that sometimes the government’s cash budget may run low and it gets topped up again. That is the way that those matters are used from the excess borrow-ing fund, which is set out inside of the Government Loans Act.
So that is the reason, and that is the explanation that we are giving at this point.

Junior Minister.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Speaker, I do not have
that information right now. I can get it back to the Member. The Speaker: All right.
Do you have a second question? No. Okay.
Ministers, Members, that is the last question
for that Statement. We will move on.
The next Statement that has questions this
morning is the Statement by the Minister of Tourism
and Transport on the matter of TCD. Minister MP Robinson would like to put his questions to you.
MP.
QUESTION 1: TRANSPORT CONTROL
DEPARTMENT ADVANCEMENT
OF DIGITALISATION

Basically, that is the nutshell of it.
Hon. Owen Darrell: Well, Mr. Speaker, I think if the
Honourable Member was listening carefully to the question and the Statement, he would have under-stood that I went through a litany of positive things that were going to come out of this new digitisation of services. I think the question that he is asking was answered in the Statement. Maybe he is a little excited today, Mr. Speaker.

B ermuda House of Assembly [Laughter]

Thank you.
Minister.
Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As the Statement did say, we will be starting
with three on March 31 of this year. As we get the
three up and running, there were seven more that I did mention in the Statement that will come as the year goes on. So, we do not have a full completion
date, but we will be rolling them out one after the oth36 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report
er
. But I can tell you definitively that the first three will
be rolled out as of March 31.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Okay. No problem, no problem.
Minister of National Security, at least you
know you have a question coming; how is that?
We will move on to the next Statement.
The next Statement is actually the Minister of
National Security in reference to his first Statement on
the Fire Review. There are two Members, the first is the Opposition Leader. I will take him, and then we can go to your Member afterwards.
Opposition Leader, would you like to put your
question? Hon. Jarion Richardson: Thank you, Mr. Speak er.
Just a point of clarification, I had some questions for Honourable Minister Rabain on public salary.

That is why I am doing the first one.
So, we will do his first one now. We will get to his second one at the end of the Order Paper. His first one
was in this order.
QUESTION 1: NATIONAL FIRE CHIEFS COUNCIL
PEER-L ED REVIEW OF THE BERMUDA FIRE AND
RESCUE SERVICE
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Good morning to you and to Members and the listening audience.
Would the Honourable Minister be able to
speak to the recommendations that came out of the
NFCC 2023 report? He mentioned that the results
were used as part of a further exercise, but I am interested to know what the NFCC findings were.

Yes.
QUESTION 2: NATIONAL FIRE CHIEFS COUNCIL
PEER -LED REVIEW OF THE BERMUDA FIRE AND
RESCUE SERVICE
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Yes, actually, Mr. Speaker,
I will move on to, When will stakeholders such as the
public and/or high- risk infrastructure such as utility
docks and ships, as well as front line personnel, be
involved in these review exercises? We have not heard any mention of that.

Minister.
Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Can you clarify that? I do
not think any of that was in my Statement.
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Yes. The Honourable Minister had mentioned that persons who were not in-cluded as stakeholders during the general election, such as Members of Parliament. My question was in relation to other stakeholders, will they be involved, have they been involved? This again includes utility operators, dock operators, shipping, et cetera.
Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks for the clarification. Relevant agencies
and persons will be involved as is necessary. But the main report was done, an assessment was done by
the constabulary of the UK. So that is the foundational
report, and anybody else who needs to be involved
will be as the report becomes finalised.

Oh, end of questions. Okay.
Minister, you have questions from MP King.
MP King, would you like to put your question
now?
QUESTION 1: NATIONAL FIRE CHIEFS COUNCIL
PEER -LED REVIEW OF THE BERMUDA FIRE AND
RESCUE SERVICE Mr. Robert King: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Would the Honourable Minister of National
Security please inform this Honourable House what
the timelines are for the implementation of the rec-ommendations of the Fire Service Review?
Thank you.

That is going on to the next Statement.
Yes. No problem, we will move on. So there are no further questions on this Statement.
Members, the next Statement that has questions is the Statement by the Minister of Economy and Labour in reference to the Employment amendment.
MP Campbell, would like to put questions to
you, Minister.
MP Campbell, you have the floor.
QUESTION 1: EMPLOYMENT AMENDMENT ACT
2025
Mr
. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Honourable Minister whether the end results of this, just for clarity for the public’s sake, will result in money owed to employees. Or is he just rectifying something that was brought to the attention of his Ministry that was
causing a problem?
38 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report
B ermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: Minister.
Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, the intention of
the amendment is to ensure that every employee who
receives a gratuity receives a minimum of $16.40 for
statutory leave. What happened inadvertently when
we put the Act forward, the Act did not ex clude gratuities, whic h meant in the total calculation one could
have moved from being paid a bas e rate on statutory
leave of $5.75 up to almost $25.00 if you include gratuities. But it was always the intention of the Ministry
and the LAC [Labour Advisory Counc il] that the base
would be $16.40.
As a result of that, there could have been
where employers would have paid an employee higher than the $16.40 bas ed off of the interpretation of
the law. Now that we are c larifying it, we are clarifying
it to ensure that the $16.40 is the appropriate rate that
should be paid when fac toring in gratuities. As a res ult
of that, the Act is actually saying that if an employee
was paid above the $16.40 for the period of time in
which the law came into effect, then the employee
does not have to reimburse the employer. I do not
think there will be a cas e where the employer has paid
less than what they were actually due in this particular
circumstance.

Minister.
Hon. Jason Hayward: In actual fact, how the law is
written, the employer would not have paid more than
they were due according to law. It was a misinterpretation in terms of the intention of the law. As a result of
that, to head off this challenge we convened an LAC
meeting many months ago to clarify this with employers. All of the major employ ers I had sent a letter to
where they paid their staff gratuities. I s ent letters also
to members of the Chamber of Commerce for those
who would not have been naturally part of the LAC or
part of the Hotel Association or restaurant divis ions to
clarify this particular matter. And we all came to a consensus that we will operate according to the intention of law until the law is rectified.

Minister.
Hon. Jason Hayward: Actually, it was a combination
of both. And I would not say the word was actually “flagged.” We assumed in terms of intention it was a natural bridge to the Minimum Wage Order. However,
because gratuities were never defined separately from
tips, the only thing that was included in law was tips. Once we separately defined “gratuities,” it kind of pulled gratuities out of the definition of “tips,” creating a new definition. And therein lies where the challenge came because the Order referred to gratuities. You
would know then when we amended the legislation for
the tips and gratuities amendments to the Employ-ment Act, we actually created a new definition of “oth-er gratuities.” And that is when the challenge actually arose because now that we carved out gratuities from tips, it removed the exclusion from the calculation of
statutory leave.

Minister.
Hon. Jason Hayward: The Department of Labour
does put out guidance for the Employment Act and all of the provisions which lie in the Employment Act. We went through a great effort in terms of putting out guidance. We will continue to put out guidance. But if
anyone needs clarification as it pertains to the interBermuda House of Assembly pretation of the Employment Act, the Department of
Labour is the department to provide that accurate interpretation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to ask the Minister as it relates to
nationals of Trinidad and Tobago, particularly those
who are here in Bermuda working, there has been provided a six -week transition period. Just for clarity,
will the nationals who are working here from Trinidad
and Tobago have to leave Bermuda before the end of
the transition period to obtain the necessary visa? Or is there some other provision going to be made for
them to obtain the visa without leaving Bermuda?

Minister.
Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, as indicated in
the Statement, we are going to provide full guidance
to nationals from Trinidad and Tobago who may not possess a visa who are currently in Bermuda. Why I did not provide the clarity in this Statement is because
ongoing conversations with the United Kingdom are
ongoing to determine whether or not there will be a
pathway so that we do not interrupt our labour supply
or residents and visitors who are currently here.

Minister.

Hon. Jason Hayward: I have sought to indicate that
we will provide full guidance. I appreciate the ques-tions that are coming from the Opposition Member. The guidance that we will provide will provide clear,
concise answers to the questions that he is currently
asking. However, I think it would be premature for me
to provide those answers when we are still having conversations on the way forward.

Members, that was the last question for
that Statement. Thank you, Minister.
Members, we will move on. The next Statement that has questions this morning is the Statement
from the Minister of Works.
Minister, you have questions from Members.
The first Member is the Opposition Whip, who would
like to put a question to you.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
And let me just say, thank you for your indulgence with some of our new Members on trying to get up to
speed. I have been in this House of Assembly for 13
years, somewhat, and I still see seasoned Members
making errors. It is a daunting task, and so I commend
them for this opportunity that they have.

[Inaudible interjections]

QUESTION 1: PROTECTING OUR SHORES:
ENHANCING LIFEGUARD COVERAGE FOR THE
SAFETY OF ALL
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: On page 1 of the Honourable Member’s Statement it says, “It should also be noted that this decline in applications is despite the
Government increasing its budget to hire more life-guards.” What I would like to know is, in this budget
did it include also pay increases?

Just clarify it for him, please.
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes. You say, “It is also
noted that this decline in applications” on page 1, the
third paragraph up from the bottom, “is despite the
Government increasing its budget.” So is the budget that you have come up with for getting lifeguards and
dealing with all of the signage and all of these kinds of
[things], does that include in that budget an increase in pay?
Hon. Jache Adams: No.

Go ahead.
SUPPLEMENTARIES
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: So, a budget has been
established. But if we go back and look at former
Statements that were made, it was clear in this Honourable House that pay increase was one of those issues, that lifeguards were well underpaid. This is going over plus -year on when we have been discussing this here. What is the new pay for the lifeguards then?

Second supplementary or second
question?
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Second supplementary,
yes.
The reason I am asking the question is because we are already in the process of hiring lifeguards, and we are going to hire lifeguards without
having put the increase in place, which was flagged as one of the major issues that we are having. So, I am trying to understand why have we not come to at least hiring at a higher rate, because we are just ex-acerbating the situation by not having the pay increase already done. The Speaker: Minister.
Hon. Jache Adams: Mr. Speaker, perhaps we are
moving ahead of ourselves. We are hiring eight lifeguard consultants whilst we reconsider and reform the
position of being a lifeguard in Bermuda. So what I am
saying is, yes, we are hiring lifeguards. At the same
time, we are in the process of reviewing what it means
to be a full-t ime lifeguard in Bermuda. That means
revamping job descriptions; it means updating and
increasing the new pay scales and the like. So there
are two separate things. We have our lifeguards, eight
lifeguards that we are hiring, [which] is temporary
whilst we address the full-t ime positions that we are
looking for, which is a more long-t erm solution.

Okay.
QUESTION 2: PROTECTING OUR SHORES:
ENHANCING LIFEGUARD COVERAGE FOR THE
SAFETY OF ALL
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Second ques tion: considering back in May of 2024, and twice . . . and two
Statements were done in May. You can see those in
the Royal Gazette as well, which were copied. It
spoke then of the fact that lifeguard pay was to increase and work permits to be fast-t racked. At this
particular time, hav e we hired any new staff to this?
And I have a supplementary to this; I know he is going
to say he said it already.
[Laughter]
Hon. Jache Adams: I said it already .
[Laughter]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: So, my supplemental.
[Laughter]
SUPPLEMENTARIES
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: The Honourable Member
was almost talking about the cart before the horse.
Well, we are hiring people, and we need them urgently. Cruise ships are already here. And we are pay ing
them at a rate that is well below the standard internationally. The ques tion is, How are we going to get lifeBermuda House of Assembly guards of the calibre that we need and the numbers
that we need, and we still have not worked what the
issues are for the lifeguards? We are hiring lifeguards
without the description. It is already out.

[INAUDIBLE]

Hon. Jache Adams: No, Mr. Speaker, I am with you. I
am not even quite sure if that was a question. I wel-come the Member to rephrase and put it into a better
question.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Sure. At this point, how are
we hiring . . . sorry, Mr. Speaker.
At this point, how are we able to hire new employees, new lifeguards, when we still do not even
have a proper description or pay rate for them?

All right.

Hon. Jache Adams: Mr. Speaker, again there are
two separate things. The lifeguards whom we are currently hiring have a . . . so that we are clear, the lifeguards whom we are taking on for a long- term description will have a job description. The eight whom
we are referring to, whom we are hiring now, if you
recall, we are calling them “consultant lifeguards.” So,
they are consultants. That is why you do not have the level of job descriptions that you are referring to. They
are consultants in comparison to our long- term solution, which is job descriptions. Thank you.

Thank you.
Supplementary to that?

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, yes. So, just to be
clear . . . and I know the Honourable Member. I respect him and I know he is doing a good job to try and explain. So then, are we saying that we have employed these new recruits, consultants? Are we paying those consultants at a different rate than what we
were paying before we made them consultants? They
were actual lifeguards?

Hon. Jache Adams: So first let me be clear.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes.

Hon. Jache Adams: We are in the process of hiring.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes.

Hon. Jache Adams: They are not being hired yet; we
are not paying anyone anything yet.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Okay.

Hon. Jache Adams: In fact, I believe that the advertisement went out today for that particular position. So we recognise that there is a gap. We recognise there is a gap. We are hiring these individuals to sustain us
so that we are ready for the season whilst we establish a more long- term position in terms of our longterm and full -time lifeguards.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: At the same rate? The
consultants?

Hon. Jache Adams: The new ones in comparison to
current? Sorry, we are doing a little bit of back -andforth?
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, yes. Just for clarification, I am trying to understand. So the consultants are being paid at the normal rate at this time? As of what
was established before? Because that was one of the biggest problems of getting people. That should have
been fixed.

Hon. Jache Adams: The consultants are actually being paid a higher rate. They are being paid a higher rate whilst we . . . okay, if that is the answer. Yes, they
are being paid a higher rate.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Okay.

Minister.
Hon. Jache Adams: The short answer is yes. I would
not specifically get into the specific equipment, but I
42 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report
B ermuda House of Assembly will say that we recognise the importance of safety,
and so continued measures to improve our equip-ment, to improve safety on our beaches, is a priority and we will continue to do so. Thank you.

So, no.
Hon. Jache Adams: Now, we are not going to get off
on a bad foot.
But the short answer is no, but it can change.
And the reason that I say it can change is that it de-pends on, as you recall, many of our lifeguards are,
for example, university students and things of that nature. So these university students may, by all intents and purposes, be able to come home a lot sooner than they currently predict. So the answer is no, but the answer can be yes. It just depends. That is part of
the issue that we are having with the seasonality and
the availability that we have on Island.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you.
Any supplementary? No supplementary.
Okay.
Minister, those were the last questions that
were for you.
We will move on. The next Statement that has
questions is the Statement from the Minister of the
Cabinet in reference to the salary uplift for public officers. And the questions are from the Opposition Leader and others.
Opposition Leader, would you like to put your
question now?
QUESTION 1: SALARY UPLIFT FOR PUBLIC
OFFICERS
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Would the Honourable Minister be able to describe the financial impact assessment that has been done on the long- term costs for the new compensation arrangements?

Minister.
Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, I will try to answer for the Minister of the Cabinet Office. I do not have those exact figures if they were not covered in the
Statement. But I think it is important to note that they
are variable, I think, as the Minister outlined, the long-term thing is difficult to impact as this is going to be
inflation -indexed as well. So there are some set portions in it, but we do not know how much GHI we will
need to change in the future. We know that PSSF is
set to be a 2 per cent increase over a three- year period in order to balance the matter, so we understand
that. But on the issue that is related to the total, over-all cost, that is not exactly known. I will, if the Minister does not have it, get the exact figures for this year
because we know what it is for this year. I am sorry,
Mr. Speaker, it was covered in the Statement.

Go ahead.
QUESTION 2: SALARY UPLIFT FOR PUBLIC
OFFICERS
Hon. Jarion Richardson: The Honourable Minister
mentioned that the PwC review job evaluation reform
is being completed and implementation is being progressed. Could he speak to, or would the Honourable
Minister clarify how the job evaluation reform will align
with the digitisation and public service modernisation
efforts?
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you for that question. As I mentioned in the Statement, further comments on the job evaluation progress will come. They
are now in the process of actually looking at exactly
what the Member has asked, so there is no answer for
that at this moment. But updates as that project progresses will come to this Honourable House for sure.

Thank you.
Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, if I may help on this
one as well, as I know Ministers are transitioning,
et cetera. On the particular matter the Honourable
Opposition Leader will know that there have been
previous Statements in Throne Speeches regarding
Public Service Commission Regulation reform, which
is dealing with the streamlining, and discipline and
handling. Those matters have been through consultation and been signed off since by the Governor. Unfortunately, those matters have not been able to emerge
from the Attorney General’s Chambers. They are well
overdue, and we are looking forward to them. And I
am happy to arrange a briefing for the Opposition
Leader to understand the changes to the Public Service Commission Regulations, as he does have an
appointment -sharing role with me on that. And I am
happy to have the draft changes, which the Cabinet
has approved, which are progressive.

All right.
Minister, y ou hav e also have questions f rom
MP C ampbell.
MP
Campbell.
QUESTION 1: SALARY UPLIFT FOR PUBLIC
OFFICERS
44 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report
B ermuda House of Assembly Mr. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to ask the Honourable Minister,
Were the agreed increases anticipated and therefore
included or accounted for in the Pre- Budget Report?

Minister. Or Premier.
Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the Honourable Member would
know from the Pre- Budget Report that it is stated insofar as future increases where it made a specific provi-sion for increases to public sector salaries, as we
knew that negotiations were taking place and we understood the framework that negotiations were taking place. The Honourable Member would know that I think there was a provision inside of the Pre- Budget
Report, I do not remember off the top of my head, but I think it was around circa $20 [million] or $30 million.

Okay. Thank you.
Members, that brings us to an end of the
questions for that Statement.
The next Statement that has questions is actually by the Minister of National Security. Your sec-ond Statement has a Member who wishes to ask
questions. Your first is from the Opposition Leader.
Opposition Leader.
QUESTION 1: RECENT YOUTH VIOLENCE IN OUR
COMMUNITY
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Would the Honourable Minister be able to inform this Honourable House when the Bermuda Police Service Schools Resource Officers programmes
will be staffed?
Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Mr. Speaker, in ans wer to
that question, I do not have that off-h and, but I will
endeav our to get the answer for you.

Yes.
QUESTION 2: RECENT YOUTH VIOLENCE IN OUR
COMMUNITY
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Are the security arrangements at all of the schools being reviewed at this
time?
Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Well, actually, that is an Education problem . . . not problem. I am sorry, Mr.
Speaker. That is an Education question.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Michael A. Weeks: The answer to that is yes .

Members, even though we have gone
past the 12:30 mark, we hav e only got fiv e minutes or
so left on questions. So, we are going to finish that
and then break for lunch.
Hon. Michael A. Weeks: The views are always ongoing. So as we mov e from one step to the others, obviously the relevant parties will be informed.

B ermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: Thank you.
Second supplementary or —
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Yes. Second supplementary.

Sure. Understanding that the issue
of youth violence has been mentioned in the House
on numerous occasions, I understand that there would be a strategic plan that would involve consulting with relevant authorities, local and abroad. And with that in mind, the same way that the Fire Service had a review
with persons coming over, there would have been
some recommendations that had been made as part
of the national strategy and implementation dates for completion of said phases.
Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Thank you for that, Mr.
Speaker. If I could hopefully be helpful to the Honourable Member, the National Anti -Violence Strategy, as
we started implementing it in 2024, last November, is constantly being implemented. And our teams are there on the ground and fighting and trying to do our best to have a decrease in the youth violence that we
are experiencing. So those protocols are in place. And
they are constantly being reviewed to make them more and more effective.

Minister.
Hon. Michael A. Weeks: I will start from the beginning, the back, and work forward. First of all, the obvi-ous thing that we are trying to achieve is to eradicate new violence completely. And what we are doing now, we are trying to decrease new violence. And I feel that the teams that are in place in our schools and in our communities dealing with our youth are doing good
work in trying to get to the bottom of the antisocial behaviour. And our constant struggle, our constant job is to try to decrease violence to the point of total eradica-tion.

Mr. Speaker, I would like the
Honourable House to send a letter of congratulations
to Mr. Tariq Lynch- Wade. He is the founder of Aviators Alliance Bermuda. They had a symposium this
week, and I could only say that it was very heartwarming, heartfelt and exciting. Just to be around other
people who . . . In a previous life, everybody knows
that I used to travel around the world at nine miles a
minute. Yes, do the math and you will figure out how fast that is. But there are others who share that same
enthusiasm for aviation.
And this symposium had about around 120
other Bermudians with a panel of about 20 Bermudi-ans, all whom are in different phases of aviation. You had commercial pilots for JetBlue. You had commercial pilots for Southwest, corporate jet pilots, simulator
instructors, all of whom are born Bermudians from here in Bermuda, all the way over to being based in China. So once again this shows that the aviation in-dustry is alive and well in Bermuda and that there is another generation coming up to fulfil the seats and
the areas in the cockpits that will be left open later on in life.
But once again, Mr. Speaker, just a letter of
congratulations to Tariq Lynch- Wade for the Aviators
Alliance symposium.

Thank you, Member.
Does any other Member?
MP Tyrrell.
Mr
. Neville S. Tyrrell: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And
good afternoon, colleagues and the radio audience.
Mr. Speaker, we have not had this opportunity
to do this item for quite a while. So my congrats may seem a little dated; however, worthy of mention as they fly the Bermuda flag. The first one I would like congratulations to be sent to is one Kacey Scotland.
She is the daughter of family friends, Cleon and
Kimiko Scotland. And Kacey was given an internship with the BBC, the British Broadcasting Corporation, in London. She was chosen out of thousands of appli-cants. So she is well deserving of our congratulations.
My next one is for Dr. Jessica Jones Neilson.
Her family actually resides in my constituency in Jones Village. And Dr. Jessica is an Assistant VP and first Black woman at City St. George’s University of London. What is noteworthy, Mr. Speaker, is that there are approximately 22,000 professors in the UK
and only 70 of them are actually Black females. So,
she is actually among some elite group of people there.
The next two I would like to ask have congratulations sent to are actually sportspersons. The first one is Mustafa Ingham, who was part of the crew in
the last Sydney Hobart race. Sort of late —I think it
was December last year. And his team did quite well.
He is one of the sailors who came out of the US Cup. (I think that is what they called it.) He is doing quite well in sailing.
The other sportsperson that I would like congratulations to be sent to is actually my neighbour. His name is Oliver Betschart. Not only is he an academic student at his university, but he is also a junior golf champ on the Eastern Seaboard of Florida. And he is doing quite well. Some of us may know that he was in the championship here last year, or the year before.

Ber muda House of Assembly So he is qu ite a golfer. B ut as I s aid, he i s an academic as well.
So, I ask that congratulations be sent t o all of
them as they are Bermuda ambas sadors. Thank you,

Thank you.
Does any other Member?
Opposition Leader.
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate, and I hope
the House joins me in congratulating, Casa dos
Açores, Portuguese charity, for its 10th anniversary
gala which they had during our break. For 10 years
they had been working to advance the interests of Portuguese- descended Bermudians and culture. And I
wanted to congratulate them on their 10
th anniversary.
Also, I would like to congratulate Wendy Davis
Johnson, who finished and published her book, Faith
and Purpose, on Brian Duperreault, the gross proceeds of which, some $62,000, have been donated to the Bermuda College Foundation. I think we are all
well aware of the involvement of Mr. Duperreault’s
contributions to Bermuda, most especially in insurance but also his social endeavours.
I also want to congratulate the Chair of the
Verbal Victory Spelling Bee, Mrs. Norma Wade- Miller,
who oversaw . . . I will associate the former Education
Minister, who undoubtedly had known about it, and of
course the current Education Minister, who sits in the
other place. The winner of it was Jared Arnante, but there were 10 finalists and they were fantastic young people. The victor was from Somersfield Academy. And Somersfield Academy will be hosting next year’s Verbal Victory Spelling Bee. So congratulations to
them.
And last but not least, the Gina Spence programme on the inaugural Grief and Loss Awareness
Day. And the Minister of National Security was there as well and made the proclamation. Bermuda now has
a Grief and Loss Awareness Day, which is absolutely
key to making sure that we are aware of what hap-pens in violent and traumatic events and that we are able to understand, sympathise, console and have the ability to keep the people in our community. So again, congratulations to the Gina Spence Programme.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to send my condolences to the
family of Mrs. Eve Redford, her children Vivian, Judy and Graham, and I am sure some others will associ-ate with that as well, and all of the grandchildren. As
well as Mrs. Janet Bento. I send condolences to her on the passing of her husband, Mr. James Bento.
I want to send congratulations to the Pembroke Hamilton Club. I had the pleasure of joining them at their gala celebration on the weekend, and it
was a fabulous display of what makes that club so
strong. And I learned—
[Inaudible interjections]
Dr
. Douglas DeCouto: Yes. Of course I will associate
the Minister, Mr. Speaker —

The entire House.
Dr . Douglas DeCouto: And the entire House, if they
so desire, of course. Now I must admit it was a learning experience for me. But I will just tell you I was
blown away by the event and what I learned about that club and their community. I will leave it at that.
I also had the pleasure, Mr. Speaker, of popping by the 60
th Annual Schools Art Exhibition last
night at the Bermuda Society of Arts. And if you wish to be wowed by colour and creativity, I would urge everyone to go up there. And I congratulate the stu-dents and all of the art teachers who enabled that ex-hibition be put together.
It may be too late, but I of course would like to
be associated with the remarks regarding Mustafa Ingham and Oliver Betschart, Casa dos Aç ores and
the Gina Spence Programme.
Thank you kindly, Mr. Speaker.
Th
e Speaker: Thank you.
Minister.
Ho
n. Owen Darrell: Thank you.
Th
e Speaker: You have your three minutes, sir.
Ho
n. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
First, Mr. Speaker, I would like to start off on a
sad note and offer condolences and ask if the House would send letters of condolences to the families of the three individuals.
The first is Mr. Craig Jones. Officer Craig
Jones was a resident of Pembroke East. More specifi-cally, 83 Glebe Road was his residence. And that is an historic residence in the Progressive Labour Party as our one- time leader had interest in that property.
So Craig Jones, some of you would know him. He
was a long- time security officer at the Fairmont
Southampton Princess as it was called back in the
day. So, I just want to send condolences to his family.
Also to the family of Ms. Marsha Carey, also a
long-time Progressive Labour Party member.
[Inaudible interjections]
48 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report
Ber muda House of Assembly Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you. I would like to associate the other members of my party with that. She
was a member of constituency 15. And specifically to
her sister Simonette Carey, and all of her loved ones as she was laid to rest actually on the same day that
we had the convening of Parliament.
And also to the family of Mr. Claredon George
Burch, George Burch who was laid to rest last Sunday. Many of you would know that Claredon George Burch was the brother of Lieutenant Colonel, the
Honourable David Burch. And may a letter of condolences be sent to his family as well.
Thank you. And I will associate the Premier
with those condolences.
On happier notes, Mr. Speaker, I would like to
congratulate The Berkeley Institute on their win. I think
there are probably successive wins at the interschool
sports that were held last week Friday. I associate all
of the alma mater and the Berkeleyites who are in this House. I definitely am for Green House, but we are not talking about that right now, Deputy. We are talk-ing about the Berkeley Institute as a whole, who continue to show their sporting prowess on the sporting
scene. And we look forward to all of their participants, some of whom are going to be representing Bermuda in the CARIFTA Games next month.
Also, congratulations to Ms. Serilina Fisher.
She has a tremendous voice, as some of you would
have seen last weekend, as she is the newly crowned
Bermuda Idol.
I would also like to send congrats to artist Mr.
Bill Ming. Some of you would know Bill Ming is a leg-end on this Island as far as his art. He grew up (I do not see MP Famous) in Devonshire on St. Brandon’s
Road. And he was a neighbour and friend of my father. So, I was very happy to be able to take him to that opening on Friday.
And I will save the rest of my congrats to another day. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister.
Minister Diallo Rabain.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would like congratulations sent
to all of the participants in the [Minister of Education’s Debate Challenge] that recently was completed. It was a journey of love. I know it started under myself, but it did finish. And I am looking forward to that debate competition coming back next year. Mr. Speaker,
in the 10- to-11 category, the winning team consisted
of Russian Thompson, Connor Faries and Xela Hall. And the 12- to-14 team consisted of Nylah Matthews,
Rudy Puhekker and Etana Holdipp- Lynch. I attended
a lot of the lead- up to the final, and I can say that all of
those students learned a great deal from Mr. [Glad-stone] Thompson and his team. So congratulations to
Mr. Thompson and his team. Mr. Speaker, I would also like congratulations
sent to Ms. Lisa Reed, who was named Woman of the
Year.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: I associate the entire
House, Mr. Speaker. She was named Woman of the
Year by the Women’s Resource Centre [HRC] and the
International Woman’s Day Committee. For those of
us who do know Lisa and her role at the HRC, we
know that she is quite a lovely person to get to k now
and
actually talk with. And I do not speak out of turn
because she is
my cousin as well.
Mr. Speaker, I want to be associated with the
congratulations for Serilina Fisher, who at 14 years
old,
two weeks before her 15th birthday, won the Bermuda Idol. And it was quite a sight to see her performance on that night, Mr. Speaker.
And on a sadder note, Mr. Speaker, I would
like condolences sent to a former Member of this
House,
Mr. Jason Wade, whose father Russell Wade
has
recently passed. I remember Russell Wade as the
Chief Engineer at Public Works when I joined as a
fresh
-faced youngster. And it was very interesting. I
got
a call from the Permanent Secretary of Public
Works,
and he went down the list of the trainees who
came in under Russell Wade. And I believe he got up
to about 12. So, it was just a testament of his giveback.
Lastly,
but not least, and I am sure some other people will have more time to speak on this, condolences to the family of Eldridge Eugene James
Woods,
Mr. Speaker, the last founder of the Progressive Labour Party, who recently passed. I had the
pleasure of talking to him during the election. He actually
sat me down in his yard and we talked for about
an
hour. So, I did get a good insight. And I am happy
to know that I had that opportunity to talk with him only
maybe four weeks ago.
So I thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Good day , Mr. Speaker. Good
day
to the listening public.
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a sad note to give condolences to the family of Carolyn Smith, mother to
Wayne Furbert, Randall Furbert, Calvin Smith, Carolyn
-Lynn Smith and predeceas ed by her son Collins
Smith. She is greatly missed, and she is a great loss
to her family, and I would say to the Bermuda Regiment, as she was the adoptive mother to the Bermuda
Regiment. And I think most people would know because of the great involvement of her sons in that institution.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to give condolences
to young Mr.
Lionel Thomas , who tragically lost his life


Bermuda House of Assembly a few weeks back on the roads of St. David’s. Definitely we can say young man gone too soon.
Lastly, Mr. Speaker, I would like to give condolences to the Smith family in St. George’s. And I will
associate the Member from constituency 1 with these
condolences. A well -known family in St. George’s,
Mrs. Sandra Smith, wi fe Sub Smith, who recently left
us. Again, you can call her somewhat a matriarch. I would also like to associate Member Chris Famous,
because I think her family did move to his constituency. And he is the Member who saw to her constituen-cy needs.

[Inaudible interjections]

Yes, Mr. Speaker.
First off, I will start by extending my condolences to the family of Dr. Fulton. His sister Helen Ortiz died recently. To the family of Mr. Neville Trott, the family of Mr. [Colin Michael Hind “Dusty”] and also
Eldridge Woods.
On a lighter note, I want to offer congratulations to Jordan Roberts, who recently started a film
production company. She is a Bermudian and she
started a film production company in California. So congratulations go out to her and her family.
And also, Shanna Hollis and Nahshon Hollis,
who are two very accomplished artists in this commu-nity, who continue to do great works and gave a
speech in Dockyard approximately two weeks ago to
inspire kids to the art world. Thank you.

Thank you, MP.
Minister Weeks.
Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Thank you, Mr. Speaker,
and good afternoon.
Mr. Speaker, I have a few congrats. I would
like to first congratulate the Boulevard Blazers, they
are my constituents, on their well -deserved promotion
back to the Premier Division after a two- year absence.
My phone has been ringing off the hook because they know that I love them, but my loyalties go a little further west.

[Laughter]

Hon. Michael A. Weeks: But hats -off to the Boulevard Blazers. Congratulations also, Mr. Speaker, to nineyear-old Isabella Brielle Daniels. She is the daughter
of former Senator Marc Daniels. She is a student at
the BHS [Bermuda High School for Girls], and she
won the Fire Safety Awareness Poster Contest, a cre-ative, her name is Isabella Brielle Daniels. Her creative insight for interpretation of smoke alarms, Make
them work for you, truly stood out and highlighted the
importance of fire prevention in Bermuda. As a special thank -you, the Bermuda Fire Service actually put her
winning submission on a fire truck. So that will be
there for the next year until the next competition.
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to congratulate
the 26 dedicated Customs officers and different staff who were honoured with long- service awards in a
special ceremony held last month. Their years of commitment, resilience and unwavering service in protecting our borders and ensuring national security
are truly commendable. So a heartfelt thank you from
myself and my team at the Ministry of National Security.
Mr. Speaker, on a sombre note, I would like to
acknowledge the passing of a few of my constituents.
Mr. Michael Outerbridge, Jr., son of Michael Sr. and
Brenda Outerbridge. I would like to associate the Minister Diallo Rabain with the loss of Mr. Outerbridge.
I would also like to be associated with the remarks for Mr. Claredon George Burch. He was a for-mer employer of mine. And as it was mentioned, he
was the brother of the former MP and Minister, [David]
Burch.
And before I take my seat, I would like to also
be associated with the condolences for one of the founding members of our beloved party, Mr. Eugene
Woods.
Thank you, sir.

Good afternoon, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to start by being associated with
the remarks by MP King in relation to the condolences
to the family of Dr. Fulton, and also to the Hind family
who lost Dusty Hind.
I would also like to offer condolences —I do
not know if condolences have been offered already —
for the passing of [Winifred] LaVerne (formerly Ming), now Lau. Mr. Lau is a restaurateur, and I would like to offer my condolences to her family and their daughters Jodi Virgil, who is of course the Secretary of Paget Parish Council, and Jill Virgil, who I believe is still
at HSBC, although she may be at a different bank
now. It was an amazing service. I do not think I have
ever been in St. Theresa’s when it has been so full. I
note that there were some other MPs there as well,
including former Deputy Leader Walter Roban, no
longer in the House, and also I think MP Curtis Dickinson was there. And I am sure that they would join
50 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly with me in offering condolences and being associated
with those remarks.
The eulogy given by the . . . well, actually the
eulogy was given by the priest. But the further comments by Bishop Wieslaw of the Catholic Church
there at St. Theresa’s were very, very moving and
very personal. But he pointed out all of the goodness
that she had done very, very quietly in her own way.
And it was a testament to a true Bermudian whom we
have lost. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I would like
to be associated with the condolences to the Lau
family, which is indeed the Ming family in St. George’s in which our sister Cheryl, Johnny Ming, Darlene. I
know how very saddened her sister Cheryl was. We
were very close indeed.
And my condolences also to the family of the
late Helen Ortiz. I believe someone mentioned the
Fulton family, but that is the family. Helen, a St.
George’s girl, blue and blue, through and through. We offer condolences.
Also to the family of Nelson [Chesterfield]
“Cap” Simons, whose son was a former Opposition Leader in this House, whose family I am very close to
through the golf community.
Also to the family of musician extraordinaire,
Mr. Rudy Commissiong , who did a great deal in the
hospitality industry.
While I am on the hospitality industry, Mr. Neville Trott. I am very saddened to have learned of his passing. In my early days when I first came back
home to Bermuda, involved in the tourism and hospitality industry at Castle Harbour, it was persons like
Mr. Neville Trott that you would rely on in the Bermuda News Bureau who did great work communicating
Bermuda’s exploits of visitors on Island and their ex-periences within their communities up and down the
Eastern Seaboard and Canada and the like. And I
know he will be sadly missed by his friends and family.
Also condolences to [the family of ] Johnny
DeCosta “Fire” from Somerset, but came to St .
George’s. and like me, we are blue and blue through
and through. May he rest in peace. He was funeralised up there at Beaulah Tabernacle in Somerset.
And on a happier note, the Betschart family,
whose children Darina and Oliver are enjoying great
success in the game of golf, being coached by my childhood friend whom we played golf with in 1974,
David Ogrin. These two young juniors, I am proud to
have developed them in their formative years, are do-ing quite well. And the best is yet to come for them,
Mr. Speaker.
And finally, to be associated with the condolences to [the family of] Sandra Smith, her husband
“Sub” and her family down there in St. George’s, and around Bermuda with friends and family. They are
well loved. They love sport. They supported St.
George’s Cricket Club through and through in both
football and cricket. And I am sorry she is not going to
be here when we lift the Cup in St. George’s this year.
Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I want to be associated with the
condolences for Nelson Chesterfield Simons, the father of our former Opposition Leader, Cole Simons. I
did attend that funeral. It was well attended. Specifically, I would like to speak of the eulogy that was given by Colonel Lamb. I thought it was really well done.
I did have an opportunity to meet Mr. Simons at
Commonwealth Games, because he was actually a
shooter for Bermuda. So I know I would like full condolences to be given to the family because I know that they are missing him at this time.
I would also like to be associated with the
condolences to Eve Redford. MP DeCouto had al-ready mentioned this, so I want to be associated with
it. But for me, the specific connection is with her
grandson, Philip Hagen, who is somebody whom I coached for about 15 years. I know that he is going to
be missing his grandmother. So to him, to Judy Hagen
and to Viv Redford, sincere condolences. Thank you.

Thank you.
Does any other Member wish to make a contribution at this time?
Opposition Whip, you have the floor.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes. Thank you, Mr.
Speaker, and good afternoon, colleagues.
Due to the timing, I was not able to be in the
House while we were . . . Well, we were all on break.
And I wanted to just give condolences to [the family
of] Trudi Ann Pugh from Seabright Avenue. She was
on my task team for our constituency. And I must say, very well -schooled in the art of politics. There was
never a time when I heard her speak ill of really any-one. But she understood what it meant to canvass,
and she understood what it meant to speak to the
people within the community and understood their
needs as well. So it was a great help to myself in understanding the pathway for me, going forward in constituency 12. Her husband, unfortunately, passed
away a year before her. And in her 70
th year passing
away, we want to send condolences to the family. We


Bermuda House of Assembly have lost truly a great family from Seabright Avenue.
Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
If you would not mind, Mr. Speaker, I would
just like to be associated with the condolences that
have already been sent to [the family of] Mr. George
Burch, a faithful member of the Hamilton Seventh- day
Adventist Church. I remember as a young man that
Mr. Burch taught the Summer School class, and he
also instructed us in a number of other things. And all
of us appreciated him then, and we appreciate him as
we have gotten older even more so now. So I send
condolences out to his family, let them know that we are praying for them, and that he will forever be in our
memories.
Also, Mr. Speaker, I would like to send out
condolences to parts of my family. Johnny DeCosta is
my cousin. And I just wanted to send condolences to
parts of our family who are mourning at this time at his
passing. He was a phenomenal person. He was
known in the Somerset community and he will be
sorely missed.
Mr. Speaker, I also want to mention the wife
of Mr. Joe Bailey, Mrs. Margaret Bailey who passed. And I want to send condolences, and I want to recognise the Speaker as well, in response to that.
And lastly, Mr. Speaker, if I may, the passing
of Mr. Eldridge Eugene Woods, as a founding member of the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party certainly provides us with an opportunity to reflect on days passed. He was a phenomenal individual. He was
quiet in spirit. He was a good conversationalist. I ap-preciated his history and with so many chairs from the
Progressive Labour Party in the House, and having
served, he provided us with advice, unfiltered advice,
and we appreciate him as we appreciated him then.
So, may he rest in peace, and we thank him for the
contribution that has made the Progressive Labour
Party as strong as it is today.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would like condolences to be
sent to two of my constituents’ families, Mr. David Barnes and Mr. Charles (Sonny) Charves. I would like to also associate myself with the condolences expressed for Mrs. Trudi Ann Pugh. She was actually
one of my son’s teachers at Mount Saint Agnes. And everything that the Member said about her was absolutely true. I found the same thing.
I would also like to associate myself with the
condolences expressed to the former MP Simons and
his family on the passing of his father, Mr. Nelson
Chesterfield Simons. And, as well, I would like to express condolences to the family of Marsha Carey.
Marsha was a fellow member of my church, Better
Covenant Christian Fellowship [BCCF] . I would also
extend condolences to the BCCF family as well.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Good afternoon, Mr.
Speaker, and colleagues and people of Bermuda.
Mr. Speaker, Devonshire has lost four persons in the last couple of weeks. At least four. I associate with Ms. Sandra Smith, she was one of the first
people to say, Hey, I’m from St. George’s and I’m PLP
proud. Also, Mr. Ronald DeSilva of Sousa Estate. He
had his birthday the week before the election, then something happened and he passed.
And for those of a certain era would know the
name Alexander Arnfield. He passed as well recently.
All from constituency 11.
And just across the street, I would like to be
associated with the comments about Mr. Eugene Woods. Mr. Woods was the father of one of my best
friends. And ever since I have known him he has always been a person to guide you, to direct you, not in
a loud way, but in a very quiet way. I just want to give
condolences to his wife, Ms. Whilma- Jean Woods, his
sons Greg, Ryan and Paul, Andre and Janene, his
daughter, and a multitude of grandchildren and great -
grandchildren and the community of Loyal Hill.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to extend condolences to the family of Walter Carlington who was a man of faith and
was one of my favourite conversations on the canvassing trail. He will be missed. His family is mourning
his quite- sudden passing and I wanted to extend condolences to his wife Delores and their son.
For the congratulations, I would like to congratulate the South Hampton Parish Council. They
had a very informative community security briefing last
night that I think is an important topic for all of us in
this House to consider, especially with the mounting
pressures overseas. So, I would like to congratulate
them for their efforts to educate people on that topic.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

52 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister Adams.

Hon. Jache Adams: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I just wanted to associate myself with the
congratulations to Ms. Lisa Reed, for being awarded
the Woman of the Year by the International Women’s
Day Committee. I met Ms. Reed on several instances
on several different occasions and I have nothing more to add than it is certainly well deserved. And I
will associate the Premier.
I also would like to associate myself with the
condolences to Ms. Marsha Carey. In fact, it took me
a while to even know that her last name was Carey
because for my entire life I just knew her as Aunt Marsha. She and my grandmother were very good
friends. And she was someone who was always a positive spirit in my life who supported and encouraged me in any capacity that I chose to take on. So
she will certainly be missed dearly.
Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I did not also
associate myself with the condolences on the passing of Russell Wade. Mr. Russell Wade is the father —

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Jache Adams: I associate myself. I associate
other Members.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Jache Adams: Exactly.
I will associate myself with the condolences
for Mr. Russell Wade. He is the father of one of my
very, very, very close friends, former Member Jason
Wade. Even currently, as the Minister of Public Works, Mr. Russell Wade was the PS for what was then Works and Engineering. Certainly , it is refreshing to
hear the impact that he had on particular infrastructure that we still utilise today, most notably Tynes Bay, and
the impact that he had on the Tynes Bay plant, as well
as Watford Bridge. Those are two significant projects
that he was the lead engineer on, and that he certainly
took pride in. But, no matter what he did in his career, I always just knew him as an exemplary father and an
exemplary husband. So may he rest in peace.
Thank you.

[INAUDIBLE]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I
rise today to ask the House to give condolences to Dr.
James Brockenbrough. Mr. Speaker, you may know
that he was a cardiothoracic surgeon who practiced in
Bermuda from 1997 through 2004. He was a graduate
of Howard University College of Medicine, and he was directly responsible for the sharp decrease in amputations at KEMH during his tenure in Bermuda. And he is survived by his wife, Brenda, and his two sons. He
will certainly be missed.
I would also like to associate myself with the
remarks given to Mr. Eugene Woods, one of our
founders, as you know, Mr. Speaker. Sometimes I think all of us, especially on this side of the House,
when we have one of our founders or one of our
longstanding members pass, I just think we cannot
give them enough praise, Mr. Speaker. We just cannot. Way back when, when they decided that this is
what they were going to do and this was what they wanted to do for the people of this country, look at
what they achieved. It is just so really significant and it
cannot and should not just be, Well, you know, Mr.
Woods passed. So I think that we must continue to
honour people like Mr. Woods for the significant contribution that he made not only to this country, but to our beloved party.
I would also like to , while I am on my feet,
associate myself with the condolences for Mr. Russell Wade, whom I had the pleasure of working with on
many different projects. I even flew away with him at
one stage when we were going to do something really
significant for the country. And we did. So, my condolences go out to his family and, in particular, our former MP Wade, who used to sit in this place.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker
and good afternoon colleagues.
I would like to echo the sentiments of my colleagues who spoke before me and all of those who
have passed and been praised for their accomplishments. But I would like to focus in on Mr. Woods. We
do not often get the sad opportunity to praise a true
national hero. And a true national hero who put not
only his life and his well -being and his reputation on
the line standing up for Bermudians against injustice with the Progressive Group, but also being willing to
form a political party at a time when economic terrorism, racism and retribution was not unusual. So, there
is a particular level of courage that is unique and rep-resents a true national hero. And he will always be
remembered and honoured for that.
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to extend congratulations to the new spelldown champ, Mr. Jared
Armante of Somersfield [Academy]. And I have to say
that the last time this was held was in 2011. And my poor son Nasir has been holding the title ever since
waiting for someone to take the crown.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Undefeated!

Undefeated!
[Laughter]



Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Jamahl S. Simmons: So, I am glad to see that it
has been resumed. It is a tremendous learning opportunity for young people. It is not an easy thing to do.
And I congratulate this young man for his accomplishment.
And finally, Mr. Speaker, I would like to extend
congratulations to Premier Washington Misick and the
Progressive National Party for the successful reelection victory at the polls in Turks and Caicos, our
sister islands. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you.
Does any other Member wish to make a contribution at this time?
Premier.
Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, very much, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I did come back late from lunch
so I am uncertain if anyone did anything for the family of Ms. Grace Eileen Simmons. Well, Mr. Speaker, I would like to lead there and ask that this Honourable
House do send a letter of condolence, certainly to the
family of the late Grace Eileen Simmons who, of
course as you know, was the mother of one of our
former Members, Ianthia Simmons -Wade, who
passed recently. We certainly extend our condolences to her family, Mr. Speaker.
I would also like to ask that the House of Assembly extend condolences to the family of the late
Ashton Thomas, Sr. who passed away. I will associate the Deputy Premier. I did know Mr. Thomas for most
of my life, as he and my father were in the Breakfast
Club together. And certainly to his family who are left
to mourn, but also one who is president of the Bermuda Public Services Union, Mr. Armell Thomas, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to associate
myself with the condolences for the late Russell Wade, the father of one of our former Members. And I
will agree with the comments of the Minister of Public
Works and [Environment], who clearly knew Mr. Russel Wade better than I did. But he was a wonderful
father and a wonderful person. So I would like to be associated with those remarks. And the Minister of
Tourism, [Culture] and Transport did associate remarks to the late Mr. Claredon Burch. But I just want
to make sure that I recognise those as well.
Finally , I would like to be associated with the
condolences that have been offered by Members on this side, Mr. Speaker, to the founding member of the
Progressive Labour Party, Mr. Eldridge Eugene
Woods. As has been said by many Members, a very
fitting tribute should be given here and also given by
our party. It took courage to do what he did at that
particular point in time. And certainly all of us must remember and recognise and support those persons
who put their literal lives on the line to make sure to
advance the cause of freedom in this country, equali-ty, justice and democracy, Mr. Speaker. So I would
ask that certainly a letter be sent from this House. And
what I had said in the statement that I issued is that
Mr. Woods was a giant in history and his courage and
conviction helped to shape the Bermuda that we know today.
Mr. Speaker, I will just end if I may with being
associated with the congratulatory remarks given by the Member of constituency 24 for the Aviators Alliance of Bermuda. Of course, MP Scott and I happen to share the privilege of being pilots. We went to this particular event and it was amazing to see the lecture
hall of Bermuda College full of so many Bermudians
who were into aviation. I did not actually know how
many Bermudian pilots there were, but they were all
on the screen. There were about 10 of them. It was
amazing. I only knew one, but there were so many. So
it was really great!
So, I just wanted to extend condolences [sic]
to Bermuda’s youngest pilot, Mr. Remy Donawa,

Any other Member?
Any other Member?
No other Member. Before we move on, I
would just like to add my name to some of those
comments that were expressed, namely condolences
to the following families: the family of Mr . George
Burch. I have known the Burch family practically all of
my life having had Somerset roots as they began in
the west. And I would like to be associated with those
remarks to his family.
The condolences for the father of our former
Opposition Leader, Mr. Cole Simons’ father. I have
known Mr. Simons himself for quite some time. I know
he will be sadly missed.
To the family of Joe Bailey on the passing of
his wife. She was actually funeralised today, if I am
correct. Had I not been in this place I probably would
have been at the funeral today. So, I extend condolences to him.
And to former Member, Ms. Simmons -Wade,
whose mother passed during the time we were out.
I would like to be associated with those remarks for Mr. Russell Wade. As many have said, I had
association with him many times when he was the
former PS when I was a Minister in Government back
in the day.
And with the remarks extended to the family
of Mr. Woods. Likewise, I have known Mr. Woods for
many, many years. In fact, I knew his son from high
school days as well. Mr. Woods was always one of
those gentle giants. He was a quiet fellow but very
committed to what he put his hands to, a real shaker
and mover in helping to define the era that he fought
54 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report
B ermuda House of Assembly through and stood up and made a difference in back
then when it was needed. And we recognise his contribution to what the country is today.
And lastly, I would like to be associated with
the congratulations that were expressed to Lisa Reed on her accomplishment of being honoured as being
the outstanding women of the year.
With those remarks, we will now move on.
MATTERS OF PRIVILEGE

There are Bills that we introduce at this
time to be tabled. And I believe we have a further indulgence —no, that’s under Motions.
Go ahead.
[Crosstalk]
FIRST READING
CORPORATE INCOME TAX
(PENALTY PROVISIONS) AMENDMENT ACT 2025
Hon. E. David Burt: Sorry, 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 Corpo-rate Income Tax (Penalty Provisions) Amendment Act 2025.

Okay. Minister Hayward.
FIRST READING
EMPLOYMENT AMENDMENT ACT 2025
Hon. Jason Hayward: 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 meet-ing, the Employment Amendment Act 2025. The Speaker: Thank you.
Next, Deputy [Premier] .
FIRST READING
MUNICIPALITIES AMENDMENT ACT 2025
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: 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 Municipalities Amendment Act 2025.

Premier.
THAT THIS HONOURABLE HOUSE HEREBY
EMPOWERS THE MINISTER OF FINANCE TO
AUTHORISE THE WITHDRAWAL OF MONIE S
FROM THE CONSOLIDATED FUND
Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I hereby give notice that I propose to move
the following resolution at the next day of meeting:
WHEREAS it is provided by section 96 of the
Bermuda Constitution Order 1968 that if the Legisla-ture is dissolved less than three months before the commencement of any financial year, the estimates
for that year may be laid before the House as soon as
practicable after the commencement of that year;
AND WHEREAS it is expected that the Appropriation Act in respect of the financial year
2025/2026 will not come into operation by 1 April
2025;
AND WHEREAS section 97 of the Bermuda
Constitution Order 1968 makes provision for the au-thorisation, by resolution of the House of Assembly, of expenditures in advance of appropriation;
BE IT RESOLVED that this Honourable
House, pursuant to the provisions of sections 96 and
97 of the Bermuda Constitution, hereby empowers the
Minister of Finance to authorise the withdrawal of monies from the Consolidated Fund of the Government of Bermuda in an amount not exceeding 25 per
cent of the total expenditure authorised by the Appropriation Act for the fiscal year 2024/25 for the purpose
of meeting expenditure necessary to carry on the ser-vices of the Government and shall be effective from

Ber muda House of Assembly 1 April 2025 for a period not exceeding four months or
until the coming into operation of the Appropriation Act
2025, whichever is the earlier.

And we seek the indulgence of the
House on another motion that the Premier would lik e
to introduce at this time.
THATMINISTERS AND MEMBERS
OF THE LEGISLATURE (SALARIES AND
PENSIONS) ACT 1975 BE REVOKED
Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I hereby give notice that I propose to move
the following resolution at the next day of meeting:
WHEREAS that previous resolutions of this
House
made pursuant to sections 2 and 15A of the
Ministers and Members of the Legislature (Salaries
and Pensions) Act 1975 be revoked;
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that pursuant to section 2 of the Ministers and Members of the
Legislature (Salaries and Pensions) Act 1975 the annual
salaries payable to Members of the Legislature
listed in Part A and Officers of the Legislature listed in
Part B of the table that shall be set out in the table
below with effect from 1 January 2025.

The first item is the consideration of the
Speech with which His Excellency the Governor was
pleased to open the present session of the Legislature.
Premier, Minister of Finance.
MOTION
THATCONSIDERATION BE GIVEN
TO THE THRONE SPEECH WITH WHICH
HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR WAS
PLEASED TO OPEN THE PRESENT
SESSION OF PARLIAMENT
Ho
n. E. David Burt: Thank you very much, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I move that consideration be
given to the Throne Speech which His Excellency the
Governor was pleased to open this present session of
Parliament.
Th
e Speaker: Any objections?
There are none.
Members, we will now have the Reply to the
Throne Speech given by the Opposition Leader, and
as with the Throne Speech that was broadcast live, the Reply likewise is broadcast live. And after the Op-position Leader gives his Reply the televised live
broadcast will cease, but we will continue on the airwaves.
So, are we ready with the cameras here?
Okay. Opposition Leader, once you get the okay
that the cameras are ready to roll y ou can begin your
presentation.
[Pause]

While we are waiting for the cameras to
get resolved, the Sergeant-a t-Arms is handing out the
Reply to the Throne Speech so Members can follow
along when the Opposition Leader starts his pres entation. We have been given the go-ahead.
Opposition Leader, you can start your presentation.
2025 REPLY TO THE THRONE SPEECH
Ho
n. Jarion Richardson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, there are certain moments in
history when communities must pause, look deeply
and honestly at their challenges, and choose their
path very carefully. Today, Bermuda stands at one of these important crossroads. The choices we make now will shape the future not only for ourselves but also for our children and grandchildren. This moment
calls for clear, bold, and decisive decision -making.
Today, our island faces many difficult challenges.
Families throughout Bermuda feel the pressure of a growing cost of living. They are struggling to pay bills and put food on the table. Many families are already forced into hard choices such as buying less food to
pay for electricity, between health care or rent, and
even between staying on the Island they love or leaving to find opportunities somewhere else. Our young people, who should see Bermuda as a place full of promise, too often see their futures elsewhere. Our seniors, who have worked their entire lives, worry
whether they can afford basic medical care. These are
real stories happening right now in homes across our Island —from St. George’s to Somerset. These are our
friends, our family members, our neighbours, and our fellow Bermudians
Mr. Speaker, in recent elections, Bermudians
clearly voiced their frustration. Although the Progres-sive Labour Party remained in Government, most Bermudians voted for change. The message from our people was simple: they are tired of the word play, the games and the showmanship. They want action, they
want accountability, to face our Island’s challenges
honestly and courageously. We recognise the PLP Government has tried to address some of these is-sues. Yet, many of the same old promises have been repeated. Bermudians have heard before that the economy will improve, that prices will come down, and
that new jobs will be created. Yet, each year seems to
bring more struggle, more hardship, and less hope.
56 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly This is why today, our message is straightforward: we
cannot continue to repeat the same mistakes and expect different outcomes. We must acknowledge honestly where things have not worked, and we must urgently move towards real solutions
Our role in the Opposition is to scrutinise and
evaluate the Government’s plans and offer effective
alternatives. We come not just to critici se, but to offer
a clear path forward—one that leads Bermuda to-wards greater prosperity and fairness for all. We believe deeply in our people’s ability to overcome any challenge, but we also know that this cannot happen
without a government truly committed to change. In
our Reply to the Speech from the Throne, we will propose specific measures to ease the burdens on our
people immediately. We will also propose longer -term
actions that will help grow our economy sustainably,
create stable jobs, and ensure our young people see
their future here in Bermuda rather than overseas.
Mr. Speaker, in today’s debate, Parliament
must demonstrate that we are ready to face these
challenges directly, or if we, as leaders, will simply
continue down the same path of unfulfilled promises
and missed opportunities. Do we stay the course? Or
do we choose a new path?
As we discuss the state of our island today, let
us remember why we are here. We serve the people of Bermuda. Their needs must guide every decision we make. The One Bermuda Alliance commits itself
today to do precisely that —to listen carefully, to act
responsibly, and to deliver solutions that improve the
lives of every Bermudian. The storm may be upon us,
but if we choose wisely, work together, and lead with
integrity, Bermuda’s best days are not behind us; they lie just beyond the storm.

Reducing the Cost of Living
by Reviving our Economy

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, Bermuda is at
a critical juncture. The rising cost of living and stag-nant economic growth are the most pressing concerns
for our people. Families are struggling to afford the
basic necessities of life. Many are barely making ends meet, while others are making the heartbreaking decision to leave their homes in search of relief overseas.
It is an undeniable reality that our seniors,
who have dedicated their lives to this country, now struggle to afford health care and everyday expenses.
Parents, despite working long hours, find that their
pay cheques are not enough to cover rent, food, and
essential utilities. This crisis is not merely economic —
it is a test of our collective leadership, our policies, and our commitment to the people we serve.
Mr. Speaker, admittedly, no economy is i mmune to global pressures. The world is adjusting to new realities in supply chain management, trade, and
individual national priorities. Never mind the ongoing
wars. But Bermuda’s challenges are not solely the
result of external forces. They are rooted in a series of
policy missteps, failures in economic strategy, and a
lack of urgency in addressing long- standing problems.
Bermuda’s economic model is increasingly fragile,
and without decisive action, the cost -of-living crisis will
continue to deepen.
Mr. Speaker, we must ask ourselves:
• How can it be that in a country as wealthy as Bermuda, families are being forced to buy
less and less food to keep the electricity on?
• Why are retirees, who have contributed to our
economy for decades, now rationing their
medication? Or returning to the workforce to
afford it at all?
• Why are so many of our young, skilled Ber-mudians choosing to leave the Island, believing that their future lies abroad rather than at
home?
The facts speak for themselves:
• Food prices have increased by nearly 25 per
cent since 2019.
• Electricity bills have surged by more than
42 per cent. Inflation continues to outpace
wage growth, leaving middle- class families
struggling.
• The working population has declined significantly, straining those of us remaining in the
workforce, reducing the viability of businesses and the strength of the economy.
These are not abstract circumstances; they
represent the daily struggles of real people—families forced to tighten their budgets, young professionals
unable to find jobs, and businesses closing their doors
due to unsustainable costs. The Government has
acknowledged these problems, yet its response has
been manifestly inadequate.
Mr. Speaker, what we have seen instead are
pet projects and tweaking policies that do little to alleviate the [stress and the] crisis. Vertical farming, a
national digital bank, fish processing plants, and a
space industry was never going to put food on the
table. Instead of pursuing proven economic strategies
that generate growth, the Government has focused on
experimental ideas that have not yet delivered tangible benefits to Bermudians.
Moreover, the suggestion of price controls as
a potential solution is alarming. Around the world, his-tory has shown that price controls do not solve eco-nomic hardship—they create shortages, discourage
investment, and often lead to black markets. Countries that have attempted price control policies, from Venezuela to Zimbabwe, have seen disastrous consequences.
The solution to Bermuda’s economic challenges is clear: We do not fix the cost -of-living crisis
by controlling prices —we fix it by growing the economy. We do not lower costs by over -regulating businesses —we lower costs by fostering true competition,


Bermuda House of Assembly reducing tax burdens, growing our population, and
creating an environment where businesses can thrive.
Thriving businesses mean more Bermudian jobs, lower prices and a stable future.
Economic stewardship entails more than moving ever shrinking pools of existing money around and
around. It means figuring out how to actually pay for
all the ideas; not kicking the can down the road.
The One Bermuda Alliance proposes a clear
strategy, with real, actionable solutions, for restoring
affordability, prosperity and economic growth. Our plan focuses on tax relief, reducing regulatory barriers, attracting new investment, and ensuring that
Bermudians can afford to live and work in their own
country.

Reducing the Cost of Living

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, the cost of
everyday necessities has skyrocketed, making life
unaffordable for many. The OBA recommends imme-diate measures to address this crisis:
• Repealing the Sugar Tax —This Government’s
sugar tax has increased grocery costs without achieving its intended health benefits. Eliminating this tax will reduce the price of many
essential food items and put money back in
the pockets of families.
• Expanding Duty Relief on Essentials —We
recommend broadening the list of food staples and essential goods that receive zero per cent
import duty, ensuring savings are passed directly to consumers.
• Promoting and Investing in Farming— A country with one -in-three people suffering food insecurity ought to be using more than half of its
agricultural land, with only a handful of farm-ers. We need to make farming widespread,
increasing home gardens as well as traditional
farming.
• Lowering Energy Costs —Bermuda has some
of the highest electricity rates in the world. By introducing fair competition into the electricity
market, enhancing regulatory powers, and investing in renewable energy sources, we will
bring down power bills for households and
businesses alike.
These policies are backed by economic research, including the Fiscal Responsibility Panel’s
2024 Report, which highlights excessive taxation as a
driver of economic stagnation. Reducing these burdens will stimulate economic activity and improve household financial stability.

Supporting Small Businesses and Job Creation

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, small businesses are the backbone of Bermuda’s economy.
They provide the jobs and services we all need. And yet they are choking on red tape and stumbling over
obstacle after obstacle. We recommend:
• Cutting Red Tape for Business Owners —We
would streamline processes for starting and
operating a business, taking a cue from the
current business owners themselves, making
it easier for Bermudians to become entrepre-neurs and create jobs, without timeconsuming, bureaucratic interference.
• Introduce Targeted Payroll Tax Relief —To
encourage hiring, we would provide tax relief
for businesses that hire and retain Bermudian
workers, helping to reduce unemployment.
This will require careful monitoring and enforcement to prevent abuse.
• Expand Access to Business Loans and Grants —Many small businesses struggle due
to a lack of financial support. The OBA would
work with regulatory authorities and financial
institutions to ensure consistent, genuine ac-cess to capital for entrepreneurs.
The Economic Development Strategy has repeatedly stressed that encouraging small business growth is key to long- term job creation. Our plan directly supports this goal by removing barriers and
providing financial incentives.

Attracting Investment and Strengthening
Key Industries
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, economic
growth depends on investment. Yet under this Government, investors have been deterred by uncertainty, excessive regulations and poor execution. The OBA
would:
• Revitalise International Business and Financial Services —We would ensure Bermuda
remains competitive by modernising regulations, ensuring they are fit -for-purpose and offering incentives for firms to establish operations here.
• Diversify the Economy —We would insist that
emerging sectors such as F inTech, the blue
economy, and medical tourism create new,
tangible opportunities with on- island presence, job creation and direct participation in
the local economy.
• Revive the Tourism Industry —The Bermuda
Tourism Authority Culture Assessment highlights significant mismanagement in tourism
promotion. The OBA would remove politics
and politicians from the BTA while outlining clear, public performance measurements, to
give an independent BTA a fighting chance to
live up to its potential. This would ensure that tourism once again becomes a pillar of economic growth.

58 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Expanding the Workforce and Addressing
the Age ing Population

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, Bermuda’s
workforce is shrinking, placing immense pressure on
younger generations to sustain the economy. The Position Paper on Addressing the Ageing Population outlines the urgent need to attract and retain workers.
The OBA would:
• Implement a sensible Immigration Policy —We
must attract skilled workers and encourage young Bermudians to stay and contribute to our economy. This must be balanced with ef-fective, persuasive enforcement of the law,
ensuring that abuse is detected and eradicated.
• Offer Incentives for Returning Bermudians —
Many talented Bermudians have left due to
limited opportunities. We would introduce programmes to encourage them to return, bringing valuable skills and experience back to the
island.
• Strengthen Workforce Training Programmes —Our education system must align
with the needs of the job market. The OBA
would ensure that training programmes equip
Bermudians with the skills for today’s economy. This will specifically incorporate the feedback from industry on the sufficiency of current training programmes.

A Plan for a Prosperous Bermuda

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, Bermuda’s
economic struggles are not inevitable. They are the
result of global circumstances smacking into our fragile economy, fragile due to failed policies and poor leadership. The OBA’s plan is based on sound economic principles and is designed to deliver real results. Our plan would lower the cost of living, empower small businesses, attract investment, and expand
our workforce to ensure long- term prosperity.
Bermuda’s best days are still ahead of us —
but only if we have the courage to embrace real
change.

Ensuring Quality Education for Every Child
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, education is
the foundation upon which our future is built. It is the
key to unlocking opportunities, strengthening our
economy, and ensuring that every Bermudian has the
chance to succeed. Yet, for far too long, Bermuda’s
public education system has suffered from incon-sistent policies, underfunding, and a lack of clear direction. If we do not take urgent action to improve education, we risk failing another generation of young
Bermudians. A well -functioning education system does
more than prepare students for careers; it shapes engaged citizens, fosters innovation, and provides a
pathway to economic mobility. Every child in Bermuda
deserves access to a high- quality education that
equips them with the skills and knowledge they need
to thrive in the modern world.

Challenges Facing Bermuda’s Education System

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, the challenges in our public education system are well documented:
• Unclear Reform Strategy —The Government
has proposed multiple education reforms, yet parents, teachers, and students remain unconvinced. Constant changes without mean-ingful consultation have created confusion
and uncertainty.
• Underperformance in Core Subjects —Many
students are not achieving proficiency in basic literacy, mathematics, and science. Without
strong foundational skills, they will struggle in higher education and in the workforce.
• Lack of Technical and Vocational Training —
Not every student will pursue a university de-gree, yet our system does not offer clear, effective pathways for students interested in
trades, technology, or entrepreneurship.
• Inadequate Support for Teachers and
Schools —Teachers are working tirelessly, but
many feel unsupported. A lack of resources,
professional development, and clear policies
hampers their ability to deliver high- quality
education.
These issues are not new, Mr. Speaker. They
have persisted for years, despite promises of reform.
If we continue on this path, we will see more students
leaving school unprepared for the challenges ahead. It
is time for a new approach.

A Comprehensive Plan for Education Reform

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, the One Bermuda Alliance believes in a public education system
that offers a world- class education. It provides students with the tools and opportunities necessary to
succeed. Our vision for education is grounded in real
solutions that address systemic issues and ensure our
students receive a world- class education. Our plan
includes the following key initiatives:

Establishing an Independent Education Authority
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, as highlighted
in the Review of Public Education in Bermuda, political interference has resulted in inconsistent policies
and poor execution of reforms. An independent Edu-cation Authority will remove politics from education,


Bermuda House of Assembly allowing experts and educators to drive long- term improvements based on evidence and best practices.
We cannot overemphasise this point —politicians
should not be involved in the design and implementa-tion of education programmes. We should be focused on holding those experts accountable for the results of
their design and implementation.
Countries with independent education bodies,
such as Finland and Singapore, consistently outperform others in global education rankings. By allowing
professionals to make data- driven decisions, we can
ensure better outcomes for Bermuda’s students.

Prioritising Core Literacy and Numeracy Skills

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, the National
School Survey Report 2023 revealed a lack of proficiency in reading and mathematics at appropriate
grade levels. Addressing this crisis requires immediate intervention.
The OBA would implement early screening
and targeted support for struggling students. Investing in literacy and numeracy programmes in primary
schools will provide children with the foundational
skills they need to excel in higher education and the workforce.
Studies show that students who master core
subjects early are far more likely to graduate from high school and pursue higher education or technical
training.

Enhancing Technical and Vocational Education

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, Bermuda’s
job market is evolving, and we must prepare our students for a range of careers, not just those requiring a university degree. It’s clear we need stronger voca-tional and technical training programmes, closely connected to industry needs.
The OBA would expand and modernise technical education, working with industry leaders to develop apprenticeship programmes in trades such as
plumbing, electrical work, hospitality, and IT. This will
create direct pathways from education to employment, reducing youth unemployment and strengthening our
workforce. While such efforts have been attempted by
the Government, our understanding is it is underperforming and is not matching industry expectations.
These programmes will need better oversight including professional quality assurance.

Investing in Teacher Training and Support
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, no education
system can succeed without motivated, well -
supported teachers. We’ve heard constant reports that many teachers feel overburdened by bureaucratic
requirements and underappreciated in their roles. The OBA would establish ongoing professional development programmes for teachers, ensuring
they have access to the latest teaching methodologies
and technologies.
By reducing administrative burdens, increasing classroom support and recognising teaching excellence, we can allow teachers to focus on what truly
matters —educating our children.
Modernising School Infrastructure and Technology

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, many of Bermuda’s public schools are in disrepair, with outdated
facilities that do not support modern learning. The Review of Public Education in Bermuda highlights inadequate school conditions as a barrier to effective teaching.
The OBA would prioritise school maintenance
and renovations, ensuring that every student learns in
a safe, well -equipped environment. We will also invest
in technology, providing students with digital learning
tools to prepare them for the jobs of the future.
Research from leading education institutions
has shown that students in modernised schools with
access to updated resources perform significantly better academically.

Strengthening Special Education Services

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, the National
School Survey Report 2023 identified gaps in Bermuda’s special education services, leaving students
without the support they need.
The OBA would expand specialised programmes and ensure that students with disabilities receive tailored support, allowing them to thrive in the
education system.
By integrating special education resources into mainstream schools and providing adequate training to educators, we can create a more inclusive and
equitable system.

[A Future- Focused Education System]
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, Bermuda’s
children deserve a world- class education system that
equips them for success. This Government has promised reforms year after year, yet our schools remain
under -resourced, our teachers unsupported, and our
students unprepared for the future. The One Bermuda
Alliance is committed to delivering real change.
By removing politics from education, prioritising literacy and numeracy, expanding vocational training, supporting teachers, modernising school infrastructure, and strengthening special education, we
can build an education system that gives every child
the opportunity to succeed.
The future of Bermuda depends on the quality
of education we provide today. We cannot afford fur60 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly ther delays, and we cannot continue with failed policies that leave our students behind.

Improving Health care and Protecting Our Seniors

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, health care is
the foundation of a thriving society. Every Bermudian,
regardless of age or financial status, should have access to affordable, high- quality health care. Yet, for far
too many, health care has become an expensive privilege rather than a guaranteed right.
Seniors, who have worked their entire lives
contributing to this island, now find themselves ration-ing medication or skipping doctor’s visits because of
high out -of-pocket costs. Young families struggle to
afford private insurance, while working- class Bermudians are forced to reduce necessities even further to afford their increasing health premiums.
For years, this Government has promised a
universal health care system that would lower costs and expand access. However, like many of their other promises, this initiative has been plagued by delays,
lack of transparency, and rising health care expenses
for Bermudians. The Bermuda Health Strategy 20222027, introduced by the Ministry of Health, outlined vague goals for affordability but has yet to result in
any real change in the cost of care, insurance premiums, or prescription drug prices.
Mr. Speaker, the Chief Medical Officer’s Annual Report 2023 further reveals that Bermuda’s health care expenditures continue to rise while public satisfaction with the system has declined. This Government’s approach has not only failed to reduce
costs but has also failed to improve efficiency. Emer-gency rooms are overcrowded, mental health services
remain underfunded, and specialist care remains out of reach for many.
The One Bermuda Alliance recognises that
health care reform must be practical, evidence- based,
and focused on delivering real affordability without
sacrificing quality of care. We believe that rather than
focusing on bureaucratic restructuring with no results,
the priority must be to reduce costs for patients, improve service delivery, and ensure seniors are pro-tected.
Our health care solutions will address these
issues through the following key measures:

Expanding Access to Affordable Health care
Hon. Jarion Richardson: The current system allows
costs to spiral out of control, placing too much financial burden on the insured while failing to ensure universal access. The OBA would:
• Reduce the cost of prescription drugs by negotiating bulk pricing and targeting unnecessary markups. Recently established pharma-cies have demonstrated that modern purchas-ing strategies can significantly reduce prices to consumers.
• Enhance primary care services as given by general practitioners and urgent care centres,
reducing dependency on emergency room
visits.
• Expand preventive care initiatives, including
free annual health check -ups for seniors and
vulnerable populations. Prevention saves lives
and significantly reduces long- term health
care costs. This seems to be an area of mu-tual agreement with the Government.
The 2016 National Health Accounts Report
shows that preventable diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension, account for a major portion of Bermuda’s health care spending. Investing in early intervention programmes will reduce future medical costs
and improve overall public health.

Protecting Seniors with Sustainable
Health care Solutions
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, our seniors
deserve dignity in their retirement, but the cost of health care continues to eat away at their pensions.
The OBA would:
• Expand FutureCare by increasing the coverage for seniors while reducing co- pays and
prescription drug costs.
• Create a long- term care support fund, ensuring that seniors in need can access affordable
nursing and home- care services.
• Improve elder care facilities by investing in
public -private partnerships to increase the
availability of assisted- living spaces.
The Ministry of Health’s 2020 Roadmap
acknowledged that Bermuda’s ageing population presents a growing financial challenge, yet the Government has done little to implement concrete solutions. The OBA will take decisive action to protect our seniors from financial hardship caused by health care
costs.

Strengthening Mental Health Services

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, mental health
is often overlooked but a critical aspect of public
health. The Government has underfunded psychiatric
and addiction services, leaving many families and individuals without proper care. The OBA would:
• Increase funding for mental health clinics and
psychiatric services, ensuring timely access to
care for those in crisis.
• Introduce school -based mental health programmes to support young people dealing
with anxiety, depression, and stress.
• Expand addiction treatment and rehabilitation
programmes, reducing the social impact of
drug and alcohol abuse.


Bermuda House of Assembly In the Health in Review Report (2016) —that
report confirmed that mental health cases in Bermuda
have steadily increased, yet the funding for these services remains insufficient. A proactive approach to
mental health will not only improve individual well -
being but also reduce strain on emergency services
and law enforcement.

Investing in Health care Workforce and Technology

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, health care is
only as good as the professionals who deliver it. Yet,
Bermuda faces a shortage of doctors, nurses, and
specialists, forcing patients to wait longer for appointments or seek expensive treatment overseas. The
OBA would:
• Introduce incentives to attract and retain
health care professionals, ensuring that Bermuda has sufficient doctors and nurses to
meet the demand for services.
• Improve and streamline nursing and medical
training programmes to develop local talent
and reduce reliance on imported expertise.
• Implement electronic health records (EHRs)
across medical facilities to improve efficiency,
reduce paperwork, and streamline patient
care.
The Bermuda Health Strategy 2022- 2027 itself acknowledges that the island’s medical workforce is shrinking, yet this Government has done little to
address that issue. Although there have been expe-dited work permit processing for overseas nurses, we
understand that this is not sufficient, and we are still
losing medical professionals due to work permit processing times.
The OBA’s targeted approach will ensure
Bermuda retains top- tier medical professionals while
making the system more efficient through technology.

Holding the Government Accountable

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, the Government has failed to deliver on its promise of universal health care. Instead, it has burdened Bermudians with
rising costs, failing facilities, broken systems and an
underfunded hospital. Health care is not just about
political slogans —it is about ensuring that people can
afford to live healthy, fulfilling lives.
The One Bermuda Alliance is committed to
real health care reform. We would take action where
this Government has failed, ensuring that every Bermudian —young or old, employed or retired— has access to quality, affordable health care.
Bermuda deserves leadership that does more
than talk about solutions —it delivers them. The OBA
stands ready to build a healthier, more affordable, and
more compassionate health care system for all Bermudians.
Addressing Housing Needs and Social Challenges

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, a safe and
affordable home is not a luxury —it is a fundamental
right. Yet under this Government, Bermuda faces a growing housing crisis. Rents have surged beyond
affordability, homeownership is increasingly out of
reach, and homelessness has risen to unprecedented
levels. Instead of addressing these issues with the
resources this Government already has access to, it
intends to impose further bureaucracy on private land.
The OBA plan outlines clear, practical steps to
tackle Bermuda’s housing crisis and address social
challenges. Our plan prioritises increasing housing
availability, making homeownership accessible, and
ensuring that no Bermudian is left without shelter. Our
approach is based on sound policy, economic sus-tainability, and compassion for those in need.

Increasing Housing Supply and Affordability

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, Bermuda’s
housing crisis is largely a supply issue. Too few
homes are available at reasonable prices, forcing
rents and property values to soar. The OBA would:
• Audit and Mobilise Idle Government Proper-ties—Bermuda has numerous vacant government -owned buildings that could be repurposed for housing. We would conduct a full audit and convert properties into affordable housing or transitional shelters.
• Expand Public -Private Partnerships for Housing Development —The OBA would incentivise
private developers to build affordable housing
units by offering long- term government land
leases at reduced rates. In return, developers
would be required to allocate a percentage of
units at below -market rates for middle- income
workers such as teachers, nurses, and hospitality employees.
• Introduce a Rent -to-Own Programme —
Homeownership should not be an impossible
dream for Bermudians. The OBA would implement a structured rent -to-own programme,
allowing families to gradually transition from
renting to ownership, giving them a path to
build equity and stability.
These policies align with the recommendations in the Home Annual Report 2025, which high-lights the urgent need for innovative solutions to Bermuda’s housing shortages. The OBA’s strategy directly addresses these concerns by unlocking new housing opportunities.

Addressing Homelessness with Immediate Action

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, homelessness has surged with over 1,100 people now lacking
62 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly stable housing. This is a national crisis that demands
leadership. The OBA would:
• Establish an Emergency Shelter and Safe Zones —No one in Bermuda should be left
without a roof over their head. The OBA would repurpose existing government buildings into
emergency shelters, providing immediate relief for the homeless.
• Create Transitional Housing Programmes —
We would fund charities like HOME to devel-op structured transitional housing, where individuals can stay for a set period while receiving employment assistance, counselling and
support to regain stability.
• Implement a Coordinated Case Management
System —Currently, homelessness services
are fragmented. The OBA would create a single access point for individuals at risk, ensuring rapid placement in appropriate support
programmes.
The Consultative Draft Plan to End Homelessness in Bermuda provides a framework for reducing homelessness through targeted interventions. But
we have yet to see if this plan is finalised and what, if
any, results have been generated. But we are encour-aged that solutions can be both humane and effective.

Reforming Rental Protections and Housing Laws

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, for many
Bermudians, renting has become a financial burden
with little protection against unfair practices. The OBA
would:
• Reform the Landlord- Tenant Act —We would
strengthen tenant protections while ensuring landlords can operate fairly. Our reforms
would streamline dispute resolution and introduce clear guidelines on rental increases and
lease agreements.
• Implement a Rent Assurance Programme —
Many vacant rental units remain off -market
due to landlord concerns about tenant reliabil-ity. The OBA would introduce a programme
where the government provides limited financial guarantees for rentals to vetted tenants, increasing housing availability without burden-ing landlords.
• Encourage Development of Secondary Rental
Units —We would provide incentives for
homeowners to create and rent out secondary
suites or apartments, expanding affordable
housing options.
These measures will create a balanced and
fair rental market that benefits both tenants and land-lords.

Addressing Domestic Violence and Safe
Housing for Victims
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, Safe Lives
November 2022 Report stated that approximately 7,000 women have experienced intimate partner violence during their lifetime and in 2022 approximately
3,000 women reported being the victim of intimate partner violence during the 12- month period. Domestic violence victims often face an impossible choice:
stay in an unsafe environment or become homeless.
Bermuda currently lacks a dedicated shelter for survivors. The OBA would:
• Fund and Establish a Domestic Violence
Shelter —We would ensure a secure, confidential location for victims and their children,
providing counselling and legal assistance to
help them rebuild their lives.
• Accelerate the Domestic Violence Court Initiative—The Government promised a specialised
court to handle domestic violence cases but
has failed to deliver. The OBA would fast -
track this initiative to ensure swift justice for victims.

[A Commitment to Housing and Social Stability]

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, housing is
more than just shelter —it is the foundation of a stable
and thriving society. This Government has failed to
address Bermuda’s housing crisis, allowing rents to
rise, homelessness to increase, and homeownership
to become unattainable for many.
The One Bermuda Alliance is committed to
real action. We urge the Government to immediately create affordable housing, support those in crisis, and implement fair rental protections to ensure that every
Bermudian has a place to call home. This is not just
policy —it is a moral obligation, and we are ready to
support strong, deliberate action in this crisis.

Restoring Public Safety and Order

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, every Bermudian deserves to feel safe and secure in their community. Whether it is walking the streets, driving on our
roads, or simply relaxing in our homes, public safety is
fundamental to our way of life. It is also critical to our
economy —if Bermuda is perceived as unsafe, we risk
losing foreign investment, tourism, and the confidence
of our own citizens.
To this Government’s credit, the National Violence Reduction Strategy provides a framework for
tackling crime through community engagement, social
services, and enhanced law enforcement coordina-tion. However, while well -intentioned, it has not yielded the meaningful reduction in crime Bermudians had hoped for. The strategy lacks strong enforcement measures, suffers from slow implementation, and fails
to adequately address Bermuda’s gang violence problem. The official Crime Statistics Report shows that


Bermuda House of Assembly violent crime is a pressing issue, with gun- related incidents and burglaries rising.
Mr. Speaker, additionally, comments from the
Hansard debate on the strategy reveal concerns that
the plan is largely reactive, instead of proactive, in dealing with crime. Members of Parliament questioned
the lack of specific metrics for measuring success and
pointed out that without significant changes in job creation and education, the strategy alone will not deter
criminal activity. This Government has failed to make
the necessary investments in law enforcement, com-munity support, and economic opportunity to ensure
the success of its own plan.
The One Bermuda Alliance recognises that
public safety is not just about policing— it is about fostering a society where crime is discouraged through
opportunity, enforcement, and community engage-ment. We would implement clear policies to address
rising crime, road safety issues, and cybersecurity
threats.

Crime Prevention and Law Enforcement
Enhancement

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, the BPS Cultural Review highlights that morale among law enforcement officers is at an all -time low due to funding
shortages, outdated equipment, and a lack of political
support. The OBA would:
• Increase Police Manpower and Equipment —
Recruiting additional officers and investing in modern crime- fighting tools, including surveillance technology and forensic analysis capa-bilities.
• Enhance Community Policing—Reintroducing
visible neighbourhood units to deter crime and
build stronger relationships between officers
and the public. Further, these patrols need to
be provided with statistical intelligence and
administrative support, to enable them to pro-actively tackle crime in their specific areas.
• Expand and Strengthen Gang Prevention
Programmes —Implementing early intervention programmes that identify at -risk youth
and connect them with mentorship and voca-tional training to deter gang involvement.
• Reform the National Violence Reduction
Strategy —Ensuring measurable benchmarks
for success, greater accountability, and a
more aggressive stance on crime deterrence.

Cybersecurity and Data Protection

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, the recent
Government Cybersecurity Breach demonstrated
Bermuda’s vulnerability to digital threats. The OBA
would:
• Establish a Cyberattack Commission —It is
clear that the previous Joint Select Committee is entirely dependent on Government, who
have not demonstrated a willingness to tell Bermuda what happened in the cyberattack.
An independent body must establish the facts
and equip Parliament to hold the Government
to account to remediate our vulnerabilities.
• Implement Mandatory Cybersecurity Protocols—Requiring government agencies and
businesses handling sensitive data to meet
strict cybersecurity standards.
• Invest in Cyber Education —Creating training
programmes to develop local expertise in cybersecurity, reducing reliance on external
consultants.

Road Safety and Infrastructure Renewal

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, Bermuda’s
road conditions continue to deteriorate, with potholes,
poor signage, and reckless driving contributing to accidents. The OBA would:
• Launch an Emergency Road Raving Initiative—Targeting the worst -affected areas with
long-lasting repairs instead of temporary
patchwork.
• Improve Traffic Enforcement —Deploying
more officers to enforce speeding, reckless
driving, and impaired driving laws. This includes reforming the traffic laws and offence processing to enable quick, easy enforcement
of traffic laws instead of the hours -long process currently prohibiting enforcement
measures.
• Expand Public Transport Reliability —Ensuring
bus and ferry services are reliable so that Bermudians have safer commuting options for
longer hours during the day and night.

Addressing the Root Causes of Crime

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, crime is often
a symptom of deeper societal problems, including unemployment, lack of educational opportunities and
social inequality. The OBA’s economic and education
policies would contribute to crime reduction by:
• Creating More Jobs for Young Bermudians —
Providing vocational training and apprenticeships to give young people legitimate career
paths instead of turning to crime.
• Expanding After -School Programmes —
Keeping at -risk youth engaged in productive
activities and off the streets.
• Strengthening Social Services —Offering mental health support and family counselling to address the underlying causes of criminal be-haviour.

[A Commitment to Safety and Justice]

64 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, public safety
is not an issue that can be ignored or downplayed.
The Government’s failures in crime prevention, road
safety and cybersecurity have left Bermudians feeling
vulnerable. The One Bermuda Alliance would restore security by equipping law enforcement, improving infrastructure, and addressing crime at its root causes.
Bermuda’s people deserve a government that
prioritises their safety —not one that merely reacts to
crises after they have already happened. The OBA
stands ready to lead with a proactive, results -driven
approach to public safety, ensuring that our Island
remains a secure place to live, work, and thrive.

Demanding Good Governance and Accountability

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, underlying all
these specific issues —the economy, education,
health, housing, public safety —is a more fundamental
issue: a crisis of governance and accountability. Gov-ernment’s first job is to govern well: to manage public affairs competently, keep its promises, and be accountable to the people. Unfortunately, this administration has too often been long on talk and short on
action. Bermuda’s people are losing trust that their leaders will do what they say. And the Throne
Speech, with its recycled promises and lack of introspection, does nothing to restore that trust.
Mr. Speaker, let’s reflect on some history. The
Premier loves to repeat the slogan “Promises made, promises kept.” It’s catchy, but is it true? Look around at our island. Look at our infrastructure, our economy,
our social fabric. Do they reflect a government that
has kept its promises and delivered results? The cracks in our roads mirror the cracks in the promises.
For years we’ve heard commitments —to grow the
economy, to diversify industry, reform education, re-duce the cost of living, fix public transport, create jobs,
end gang violence, and so on and so on. And yet,
here we are, many years and Throne Speeches later,
with those problems largely unresolved and in some
cases worse. The people of Bermuda can see this.
They live it every day. They know that “promises kept”
is more of a slogan than reality.
Mr. Speaker, the Government must put aside
the pet projects. Instead of a music studio, pave the
roads. Instead of traveling to Dubai, fix the bridges.
Instead of new ministerial cars, get more trash trucks.
Government must focus on fixing the big ticket, hard
issues, like pension and immigration reform.
Mr. Speaker, credibility matters. When a government loses credibility, it loses the consent of the
governed in all but name. People start tuning out official announcements or greet them with cynicism.
People disengage, giving even more space for incompetence and inaction to grow. That’s dangerous in a democracy, because solving big problems requires
public buy -in and shared sacrifice at times. How can the public buy in if they don’t trust what they’re being sold?
Accountability means taking responsibilities
for failures, not just patting oneself on the back for
perceived successes. I listened in vain for any acknowledgement in the Throne Speech of where the
Government may have fallen short and how it plans to
improve. There was no mea culpa on, say, the mishandling of the cyberattack aftermath, or that the in-frastructure is crumbling. Instead, we got self -
congratulation on things like cost -of-living and economic management. Good governance would have
been to say: “We recognise we haven’t made enough progress on X, and here’s how we will do better.” That
kind of honesty earns public respect.
Mr. Speaker, the One Bermuda Alliance holds
itself to a higher standard of accountability. We be-lieve leadership is about service. We believe service
is transparent, accountable, and above all competent.
That means:
• Regular Public Reporting: We would institute
specific, measurable goals with regular public
progress updates. If we promised to, say, create 100 jobs through an employment programme or build 20 affordable housing units
by a certain date, we will stand up and tell you exactly how many have been done each quarter. And if targets are not met, we will explain
why and how we will get back on track.
• Financial Responsibility: We would publish
clear, on- time no -gimmick financial statements and budgets, so the public can see
where every dollar is going. And if belt -
tightening is needed, we as leaders will tighten ours first – that means scrutinising travel,
consulting contracts, and any unnecessary
spending in Cabinet’s own operations. We
cannot ask the people to sacrifice if we do not
lead by example.
• Integrity in Office: We would enhance codes
of conduct for Ministers and MPs, to include
clear enforcement and consequences. Recent years in Bermuda have seen too many questions around conflicts of interest and the handling of public contracts. Under an OBA administration, any Minister or official found violating the public trust would be swiftly removed. We do not tolerate any abuse of pow-er or corrupt behaviour. Bermuda’s reputation,
internal and external, depends on clean governance.
• Collaborative Leadership: Accountability also
means listening to others. We would actively
engage with the Opposition (if we are government), with unions, with business associations, and with citizen groups on major initiatives. No one party has a monopoly on good
ideas. For instance, if a future cyber crisis hit, we’d invite tech experts to stay involved; not


Bermuda House of Assembly just offer initial response and then be pushed
aside. If an education reform is contentious,
we’d be willing to go back to the table with
teacher representatives rather than bulldozing
ahead. That is the mature, responsible way to govern in a small community.
Bermuda used to be a model of effective governance. We had balanced budgets in the 1990s, so-cial harmony improving in the 2000s, and even in the
early 2010s under an OBA government, we saw return to growth and big projects like America’s Cup that lifted confidence.
Mr. Speaker, it saddens me to see how far we
have drifted from that. We are now at risk of being seen as a jurisdiction that lost its way. We have an
oversized, expensive government struggling to get
basic things done, an economy that’s stagnant, and a population that is understandably frustrated.
I want to stress that holding the Government
accountable is not just about criticism; it’s about guid-ing us all back to a better path. When we demand ac-countability and better governance, it’s because we
love this country and know it can be better. That’s why
I say to the Government: take responsibility for your
lacklustre approach. We are no longer leaders in the world in many areas where we used to be. Bermuda’s
star has dimmed when it should be shining bright. It is
time for this Government to either dramatically raise its game— or go. If those in power cannot meet the
expectations of the people, then make way for those who will.

There is a Better Path Forward
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker, this Reply to
the Throne Speech has highlighted a number of shortcomings in the Government’s agenda —but more
importantly, I have tried to sketch out a vision of hope
and solutions. It is easy to feel discouraged when year
after year problems persist and promises are broken.
But we should not lose heart. The very fact that so
many voters do not support the political status quo is
proof that there are still Bermudians with an alive and
strong spirit. They have not given up on this island; on the contrary, they care deeply and are willing to fight
for a Bermuda that works for all of us.
This Throne Speech may be disappointing,
but our destiny is not defined by one speech or one government. Bermuda’s story is defined by us, her
people —by our resilience, our innovation, and our
commitment to each other. When times are tough,
Bermudians pull together. We’ve seen it in hurricanes,
we saw it during COVID -19, and we see it every day
in small acts of kindness in our neighbourhoods. That
is the foundation upon which we can build a better
Bermuda.
Mr. Speaker, Bermuda can be safe, affordable, and full of opportunity for every Bermudian. Bermuda can have a strong economy that provides good jobs and fair wages, where the cost of groceries,
healthcare, and electricity isn’t a constant worry. A
Bermuda where our schools are top- notch, and every
child can fulfil their potential. A Bermuda where our seniors live comfortably and with respect, and where no one is forgotten in their time of need. A Bermuda
that once again leads the region in good governance,
transparency, and innovation —setting an example
that others follow.
Mr. Speaker, some will say this is ambitious.
Yes—it is. But Bermudians have never been afraid of
ambition. Our ancestors navigated the Atlantic and
built a thriving society on these small rocks through
ambition and hard work. In more recent memory, we
transformed our economy from shipbuilding to tourism, from tourism to international finance, by being
bold and forward- thinking. And we can do it again.
Mr. Speaker, as Leader of the Opposition, my
role is to hold the Government accountable— and I will
continue to do that vigorously. Yet, I also believe in offering a hand in partnership when possible. Bermuda is bigger than party loyalty. If the Government today were to implement some of the proposals we’ve
laid out —be it cutting the sugar tax, implementing an
independent Education Authority, reviving an independent tourism authority, putting vacant and derelict
Government properties to assisting homelessness, or
investigating our cyber failures —I would applaud them
and support those moves, because they would be
right for Bermuda. I say this to the Government:
please don’t leave problems lingering. We will all benefit if you succeed in making life better here.
Mr. Speaker, however, if this Government remains unable or unwilling to deliver, then the OBA stands prepared to step in and implement these plans
ourselves. We are not seeking power for its own sake,
but we will not shy away from the responsibility if it is
entrusted to us. Bermuda cannot afford drift and dithering for another four years. The world is moving fast;
challenges like global inflation, technological change
and climate impacts will not wait for us to get our
house in order. We need to act with urgency and unity.
Mr. Speaker, to my fellow Bermudians, I
pledge this: I will continue to listen to you, to fight for your interests, and to put Bermuda first. Whether you
voted OBA, PLP, FDM, Independent or not at all —I
am committed to working on behalf of all of you. The
Opposition’s job is not just to oppose, but to propose. You have heard many proposals today, and you will
hear more in the days to come as we roll out plans
and policies addressing our island’s needs. Engage
with us, give us your feedback, and together we will
refine these ideas.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, despite the disappointments of the Throne Speech, I am optimistic. I
am optimistic because I believe in Bermudians. I believe in our ability to adapt, to overcome adversity,
and to build a brighter future for our children.
66 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report
B ermuda House of Assembly It’s time to turn the page on mere talk and truly start doing the hard work. It’s time for a Bermuda
where promises are kept because they are made with honesty and executed with competence. Let us choose the path of action, accountability, and hope.
Bermuda’s best days are not behind us —they
are ahead of us. Just beyond this storm.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker .
[
Desk thumping]

Thank you, Leader of the Opposition.
Members, and for the listening audience, that
was the Official Opposition’s Reply to the Throne Speech that was delivered last week.
Before I acknowledge the first speaker from
the Government , I am going to give a couple of
minutes for the cameras to be shut down and sorted
out and then I will call on the first speaker for the
Government .
[
Pause]

Good afternoon.
Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, I stand here
once again being able to represent the constituents of Pembroke Central. And I thank the constituents of Pembroke Central for their trust and confidence in me and restoring me to this position in this Honourable House.
I also stand here as a proud member of the
Progressive Labour Party. A party that has won the confidence of the people of Bermuda by securing its
third consecutive election victory.
[
Desk thumping]
Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, the Opposition
called for an election. The Premier answered their call and the rest is history.

Yes!
Hon. Jason Hayward: I believe that in today’s daily is
a reference that the Opposition “threw down the gauntlet” in their call for an election. Believe it or not, Mr. Speaker, they called for an election, and they
were not ready. They were not ready for an election. As a matter of fact, in my constituency there was a discrepancy on whether the candidate— [Laughter]
Hon. Jaso n Hayward: — that t he OBA f ielded was
actually an O BA c andidate.
[Laughter]
Hon. Jason Hayward: I believ e the medi a referr ed to
it as a rent- a-candidate s cheme.
[Inaudible i nterjections]
Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, we cannot rewrite history. The facts are we went to the polls and
the Progressive Labour Party was victorious.
When I listened to what was just delivered it
seemed as though somebody said the election pamphlet or manifesto that they put out was not good
enough. As a result, somebody drafted a proper manifesto. They were not able to put it out prior to the election, so they used it as a Throne Speech Reply.
[Laughter]
Hon. Jaso n Hayward: Because they did not —
[Gavel]
Hon. Jason Hayward: —Mr. Speaker, address the
substantial matters set out in the Speech from the
Throne.
[Inaudible i nterjections]
Hon. E . David B urt: Not at al l!
Hon. Jason Hayward: They did not discuss the matters and determine whether or not . . . and indicate
whether or not the Government was moving in a good
direction or determine what tweaks would be made to
the plan in which the Government set out.
But t he fact is w e hav e secur ed another term
to ensure —
Hon. E . David B urt: Yes.
Hon. Jason Hayward: —s ocial an d economic justice
for al l.
The PLP secured another term to ensure we
can implement equitable taxation for the people of
Bermuda. We secured another term to ensure economic parity for the people of Bermuda . In securing
another term, Mr. Speaker, we will commit to providing
social protections for our seniors. We will commit to
providing a first -class education for our youth. We will
ensure that we do have accessible and affordable
housing in Bermuda.

B ermuda House of Assembly In securing another term we will ensure that
our economy provides opportunities for the people of
Bermuda. Enabling Bermuda to thrive and her people
to thrive as well. We will ens ure the economy works
for everyone. We will ensure corporations discontinue
the practice of placing profit over people. We will ensure we continue to provide political stability.
Hon. E. David Burt: Yes.
Hon. Jason Hayward: Oftentimes when I am speaking with business leaders in terms of Bermuda’s value
proposition, yes, our regulatory environment is highlighted. But the political stability is also a strong attribute that they apprec iate.
The competency of the political leadership in
Bermuda is an attribute that they artic ulate to this
Government that they appreciate. The commitment for
Government to work directly with indus try, to ensure
that we have a business environment that allows
business to thrive is what they appreciate. We can
create a narrative based off the lense of those who
only want to see doom and gloom, or we can open up
our eyes to the reality that Bermuda is still one of the
best places to live on the planet.
Mr. Speaker, what I learned in that election
process was that the people of Bermuda were not
prepared to take a gamble with the Opposition and
other political parties. I did welcome the opportunity to
engage with residents in an earnest manner. Residents made it abundantly clear that they do not want
the Government to continue to talk about We are the
party for workers. We are the party for people. They
actually want to see us demonstrate it.
But what was evidently c lear was that they
recognise that the Government—t his Government—
has their best interests at heart. They also, from a critical standpoint, recognise that this Government has
done a lot of work. Even though they highlight that
more work needs to be done. And I think that is something that . . . coming from an election c ycle, we have
to accept that at all times we do not get it right. But
what we also ac cept is that governance is not always
easy and it is c omplex.
And so, it is easy to recommend and say, We
will do this and we will do that. But
implementation takes time. And sometimes the
impact of your imple-mentation is not felt
immediately when persons are looking for instant
gratification. But they do know that this Government
will work hard on their behalf. They do know that this
Government is committed to building a better
Bermuda. And they do know that this Gov-ernment
will not leave the people behind.
Persons actually want to see transformative
politics where we use our collective energy for the
outcomes that are in . . . to produce outcomes which
are in the best interests of the people of Bermuda. If
there is one message that really resonated with me on
the doorstep it is that they always want the Government to keep the people on the forefront of all deci-sions that we make. They are not too interested in the
politics. As a matter of fact, they can see right through the politics. And we know that because they continue to put their faith and trust in the Progressive Labour Party.
To the people of Bermuda, I simply want to
reiterate that this Government has always been committed to putting the people first. In 1963, that was our root. Other political parties started as a response to the Progressive Labour Party. Every other political party started as a response to the Progressive Labour Party.

Yes.
Hon. Jason Hayward: Which means while our root
was to ensure that we advance the quality of life for people, other parties started to oppose the Progressive Labour Party.
We will continue to strive and persevere for a
fairer Bermuda for all. We will continue to put Bermudians first. We will continue to produce an environment where our youth can fulfil their dreams and aspi-rations.
Mr. Speaker, this is the people’s House. We
are put here to do the people’s business. And each
and every one of us shares in the privilege of protect-ing the hopes and dreams of Bermudians.
Despite what the Opposition may say about
the Government , Mr. Speaker, with our overwhelming
majority we will get the work done. We are committed to getting the work done and we will execute. Mr. Speaker, we have a robust set of initiatives to execute
on.
Hon. Jason Hayward: We will not waste our time
squandering in political theatrics trying to rewrite histo-ry, engage in hollow political rhetoric.
Mr. Speaker, the people sent the Opposition a
clear message.

Ooh.
Hon. Jason Hayward: While we have secured an
election victory, Mr. Speaker, we will not turn a blind eye to those individuals on the doorsteps who ex-pressed levels of concern. We listened to those concerns, and it is our responsibility to alleviate and address those concerns. Make better choices in some areas, choices to restore confidence where it may have been lost. We will show up. We will do our job. We will lead with integrity.
Mr. Speaker, we will be accountable. We will
be present in our communities. And we will remain on
68 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly the doorsteps of our residents, a place where this party never leaves —the doorsteps of the residents of
Bermuda. Something else I heard during this election cycle: Mr. Hayward, you are the only one of those
candidates who has consistently come to my house.

Yes, it would.

Hon. Jason Hayward: But, Mr. Speaker, more importantly, if the Government does not reflect on all of the information that we gained during this election cy-cle, we are simply not doing our job.
What I had to make abundantly clear, Mr.
Speaker, on the doorsteps was that this Government (despite what the naysayers say) has worked ex-tremely hard on behalf of the people of Bermuda. The
number -one issue outside of BELCO, [for] my constituency, was the cost of living. And I had the pleasure
of explaining to persons all of the work that the Gov-ernment has done to help provide additional purchasing power in their households to mitigate some of the
rising costs in Bermuda. They were simply unaware of all of the things that the Government has done.
I talked to residents as to how we froze vehicle fuel prices at the pumps. And that if we had not have done that how gas prices would have increased
for every single resident who utilises a vehicle that
requires gasoline. I told residents about our commit-ment to reduce their tax burden. Mr. Speaker, I spoke
about how we reduced payroll tax for 86 per cent of
the workers in this country. Putting more money in families’ pockets so that they have more money to
provide for their family and take care of their needs.
I spoke to seniors how this Government had a
commitment to continuously increase their pensions. I
spoke about how we increased pensions in 2018, how
we increased pensions in 2019, how we did further
increases in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. And they were grateful for those increases. I was able to show
the difference between what this Government had
done pertaining to their pensions and what the previous Government’s position was pertaining to pension
increases. That contrast was important. And then the
member says, What about my public service pension? And now I am pleased to go back on that doorstep
and tell that member that now that we were able to
work with our social partners, the unions, to secure a
wage package for public service workers we can now
focus on reforms of our public service pension plan
and look to increase the pensions of those retirees.
I spoke to the residents as to how the Government increased our subsidy on electricity fuel by
reducing the tax on that fuel. I spoke to residents as to how we have not implemented across -the-board fee
increases for the majority of government services.
How we lowered car licence fees for our residents.
How we put in place a law to cap banking fees.

Yes.

Hon. Jason Hayward: Most times after that conversation the residents simply said, Thank you, Minister Hayward, it is appreciated. And then they said, You
need to find a way to ensure that everybody hears this
information because there is too much foolishness out
there. I was able to speak to residents as to how we
progressed labour protections and social protections.
How this Government was responsible for implementing Bermuda’s first statutory minimum hourly wage
rate.

Yes.

Hon. Jason Hayward: How this Government has a
zero tolerance for bullying and harassment in the workplace and how we ensure that everybody has a
workplace policy pertaining to workplace bullying [and]
harassment.
I spoke about how we increased compensation for workplace injuries. How we have extended maternity leave, and how we implemented paternity
leave as a statutory right. How we ensure workers
receive meal breaks. How we protected the tips and
gratuities of our service workers. How we have progressed the maximum severance allowable that is to
be paid to workers. How we put guidelines in place to ensure that workers are not misclassified as independent contractors when they are indeed in fact employees. How we have put in place our obligation for
mandatory consultations before redundancy.
Those policies impact the lives of everyday
Bermudians. Through this House we have changed
the laws that provide better outcomes for the people
of Bermuda. And we have collectively done it with
members of the Opposition. But despite that, they will
go out in the public and tell individuals that this Government is not working on their behalf.
Mr. Speaker, explain— how do you reconcile
the two positions? How do you sit in the House of Assembly and pass laws that benefit the people of Bermuda, and then say that what the Government is doing is not in the people’s best interests? What senior, Mr. Speaker, in Bermuda is going to believe that the
Progressive Labour Party doesn’t care about seniors?
[Honourable Member] Doug [DeCouto] said,
Quite a few. And see, this is critical where another
Member says, waiting in the hospital room.
And this is where the Opposition continues to
fail. They continue to be critical of symptoms of a
larger problem without having a full grasp of what the
problem actually is. And we see this every single time
we see one of these hollow little articles piggybacking


Bermuda House of Assembly on some type of plight that is happening in our community. Every single time something goes wrong in
our community or there is a challenge in our community, it is echoed by the Opposition.

[Crosstalk]

Hon. Jason Hayward: But when things are going
well, the Opposition Leader says that he will be happy to support.

Yes, Minister, continue.
Hon. Jason Hayward: The reality is we have supported our seniors. We have eliminated land tax for care homes. We have a robust national senior strate-gy that we are in the mix of executing on that will ensure positive outcomes for our seniors. We have increased our financial support and our capacity to assist those with dementia. We have assisted by expanding health care benefits for our seniors. We have
subsidised health care costs. We continue to amend our public health care insurance benefits so that our
seniors get more. We have amended the social protections received by our seniors through financial assistance. We have done a lot. We recognise that there
is more to do and we are committed to doing more.
The reality is we have an ageing population.
And because we have an ageing population, it means there are multiple factors that we have to consider.
We cannot just address symptoms to the problem. We need to get to the root cause of the problem. We cannot complain about people in the hospital without ensuring that we put the appropriate measures in place
so that we have a healthier population which prevents
them from being in the hospital in the first place. We have to also ensure that there are the proper safety
nets where families can receive the support that they
need in a timely fashion. It cannot be the approach
where blame everything that is not r ight in this country
on the Government.

That’s correct.

Hon. Jason Hayward: That is not responsible. There
are social challenges that we have in our communities that do not emanate from Government policy. And
also, they are not easily addressed by Government policy but we are committed to separating the symptoms from the problem and providing a proper diagnosis to the problem.
After the Throne Speech was given, the Opposition did a press conference and basically described our Throne Speech as wanting, without a full
appreciation that we just had a Throne Speech in November 2024 and the initiatives outlined in 2025 now
form a comprehensive body of initiatives that this
Government has been tasked to execute.
And while they complain about the 2025
Throne Speech lacking substance, the combination of
our 2024 and 2025 Throne Speeches are more substantial than their entire election platform. That is a
fact. And while, Madam Deputy Speaker, their election
platform dies, ours becomes a living, breathing docu-ment that we are dedicated to execute on.
Madam Deputy Speaker, in the Bermuda
Constitution Order 1968, there are two separate sec-tions. There is the Legislature where we currently sit
and then there is the Executive. This entire document,
in terms of we will, we would, we might do, this is how
we would do it . . . hoop dreams. Their role now —
[Laughter]
Hon. Jason Hayward: They are now responsible for
passing Bills. They are not responsible for the governance of this country, according to our Constitution.

[Desk thumping]

Hon. Jason Hayward: The Executive is responsible
for the governance of this country. This we would’ve -,
could’ve -, should’ve - document should have been
rolled out prior to the election, prior to the people go-ing to the polls. The people say . . . you can say I
would’ve, could’ve , should’ve and the people say I
don’t want you to. We put our faith in the Progressive
Labour Party.

[Laughter]
70 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report
B ermuda House of Assembly Hon. Jason Hayward: Madam Deputy Speaker, while
my colleagues will highlight numerous initiatives that
will form our legislative agenda ov er the nex t year, I
will touch on items within the Minis try of Economy and
Labour.
Madam Deputy Speaker, the Ministry of
Economy and Labour is res ponsible for economic
growth, economic development and the expansion of
jobs in our economy. The way in which I position the
Ministry c urrently and the way in which I see the Ministry functioning is one that is transformative, one that
is actually focused on the future and one that puts
people first. And those are the hallmarks of which . . .
that underpin the work that is ac tually being done and
executed in the Ministry of Economy and Labour.
This Government, I repeat, was the first Government to put a s tatutory minimum wage in place.
And this Government, Madam Deputy Speaker, will be
the first Government to progress that statutory minimum wage from where it is now to a future point. We
intend to do that this year. We put out a Position Paper as it pertains to the calculation that we will use.
Once the December CPI is completed, we will find out
what was the average Consumer Price Index (CPI)
increase for the year 2024. We will apply that to the
calculation and we will come back to this Parliament
[with a] Bill to increase the minimum wages in Bermuda for the work ers who actually need it and deserve it.
Another thing that we are committed to is ensuring that we not only protect workers in the workplace but also when they receive settlements from
employers who do not fulfil their obligations as it pertains to the law. And so we will strengthen the provisions of the employment tribunal to ensure that when
awards are granted there are additional powers to
force employers to pay those awards.
We want to also incentivise those pers ons
over 65 to be retained in the workplace and so we will
be removing the payroll tax applicable to those individuals. What is important to understand, and if you
look at our numbers, the number of employees over
the age of 65 continues to increase year over year in
the workforce. And it is increasing for a number of
reasons.
Number one, we simply accept that one’s employment life should not expires simply because one
turns the age of 65. There are other soc ial fac tors
where persons want to continuously keep active.
There are financial factors where pers ons want to ensure that they receiv e adequate remuneration as well.
There are a number of factors why one remains in the
workplace after 65. And having had vast cons ultation
this Ministry is happy to support what we call alternatives to redundancy where we ask employers to sit
down with employ ees and determine whether or not
alternativ e work arrangements can be made. That can
be shorter work weeks, more flexi time, flexible work contracts, consultancies after that person reaches that
age or even the conversation around retention.
Many
persons sign off to retire at 65 unknowingly when they sign their employment contract. But we want to ensure that there are more proactive con-versations. And this goes back to the problem I identified in terms of our ageing population. We are simply
going to have a shortage as it pertains to labour sup-ply over the coming years with the number of persons who will be exiting our workforce. We do not have a natural replacement rate and as a result of that we are going to rely heavily on guest workers to f ill some of
the technical voids.
And it is important when we talk about guest
workers because we have what we consider to be a measured migration policy. One where we ensure that we match the skills demanded by employers with the skill supply with expatriate labourers through where
we have a gap with our local talent pool. And that has
been our approach. We are not just bringing people in for the sake of bringing people in. A lot of people say we need to grow our population, you know, do a, b, and c. It has to be according to some sort of strategy.
I reiterate converting long- term residents and
providing them with status does not fill the need in terms of bridging a gap to the supply and demand of labour that exists within our economy.
I am pleased to say that in the 2024 Throne
Speech we said that we were going to increase the
severance allowed payable and that has been
achieved. I wonder if the Opposition views that as
something positive or negative.
[
Crosstalk]
Hon. Jason Hayward: Jarion said that —

Thank you. Thank you, Member.
Minister, the Members are Honourable Members.

Hon. Jason Hayward: Most certainly. And no slight
was meant to him as . . . just in the course of speaking.
But the Honourable Member did say that he
will highlight and give credit where it is due. And we
are simply looking for that obligation to be met. Give credit where it is due! Some of these things have a
positive impact on not just my constituents but your
constituents and everybody who sits in this House,
our constituents. This is something that we can collec-tively go to the doorsteps and say, Hey, did you
know? And it is a positive thing. It will be received
positively by everybody who is impacted by this deci-sion.
And if a person is or has been made redundant, we are also seeking to ensure that we do not tax that redundancy pay so that the person is left whole
with that redundancy settlement. Those are positive
things that will positively impact the lives of the work-ers of Bermuda.
This document says that it will ensure that we
expand apprenticeships and technical education and vocational training. But this Government has been
extremely deliberate in our efforts to ensure that we
pivot the way in which we were operating to ensure
that we have a national certification and apprenticeship board in place, to ensure we have a pipeline for
persons to go into skills trades.
We are currently running apprenticeship programmes. I am encouraged with the work that the De-partment of Workforce Development are doing. All of
the work that we do from the . . . with the Department
of Workforce Development, we do directly in partnership with employers.
So I was kind of taken aback when the Opposition alluded to the outcomes of our training not meeting the needs of the employers when we ensure
that employers are an integral part of the problem . . .
process. Because we recognise that was a problem in
the past when we would select training, have people
engaged in training and then that training does not meet industry standards. We have rectified that problem. And that should be acknowledged. Madam Deputy Speaker, I was pleased today
to attend our hospitality training [Learn Through] Experience Programme, where seven persons graduated from the programme. They worked in various hotel
establishments. I thank the young persons for their commitments. I thank the team at Workforce Development for their commitment. And I thank the employers for taking on these individuals. That programme
was made available when we did the mid- year budget
review and the Premier then allocated additional fund-ing to training. We can see where we have allocated additional funding and Bermudians directly benefitting
from that allocation.
We are committed to ensuring that we build
the capacity of our workforce to take advantage of
current and future job opportunities. And that is what
we have been steadfast in doing. We have expanded solar energy training for electricians. And so when we
first ran solar panels . . . the solar electricity training,
we were not using electricians. But what we recognised was that it was an easy pivot for a lot of our
electricians to pivot into solar energy installation. And
as a result of that we committed to training our electricians and that programme is something I am proud
about.
We will be launching a new career development platform. That career development platform will ensure that we have a comprehensive one- stop electronic medium where persons can apply for jobs,
where persons can identify what the current jobs [are]
in our economy. They can click on that particular job.
They can get testimonials from persons who currently
work in the industry. They can have a full understand-ing of the experience requirement. They can get a full
understanding of the educational requirement. They
can get a full understanding of the educational pathway they need to take, or the career pathway they
need to take to ultimately land the job. And I am
pleased with that work.
You see, many years ago when we embarked
on this journey to produce the National Workforce Development Plan, all of these items were featured in
that plan and there is continued execution of that
work. What is important is that we have a robust workforce development system. One that connects people with jobs. And we are continuously improving our system.
Part of that is ensuring that we have a school
system that builds the capabilities of our young persons at an earlier age in terms of certain competencies that will lead them to specific jobs and puts those
individuals on career pathways earlier, ensuring that
we get ongoing feedback from industry. And so that is
why we developed the National Workforce Advisory
Board where we get that feedback from industry and
we are able to ensure that we continue to monitor our
system to determine whether or not it is meeting the
needs of the people of Bermuda.
72 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Madam Deputy Speaker, the reality is that
Bermuda has one of the lowest unemployment rates
worldwide. The reality is our current unemployment
rate falls under an economic benchmark of natural
unemployment. The reality is our unemployment rate is one of the lowest rates we have had in 40 years.
Something that should be applauded. We do have
year-over-year job growth since the pandemic. And
we will continue to have job growth in Bermuda.
But the challenge we do have is that because
we have so [many] Bermudians exiting the workforce
as they are ageing out of the workforce, the new Bermudians coming into the workforce are simply replacing those workforce . . . those Bermudians who have
left. And so when you see the job numbers you are not going to see hundreds of new jobs for Bermudians. And we recognise that that is something that we will continue to see for years to come as Bermuda’s
population is ageing more rapidly than other developed countries worldwide.
And so, yes, the Minister of Health and the
Minister responsible for Social Development and Seniors has to double down on the execution of their particular items and I am sure they will elaborate on the
initiatives that they have to better support our ageing population.
But the area I looked at it from is from a workforce standpoint. And I have been very transparent as it pertains to the challenges. I have also been transparent in trying to put forward the solutions. And so I
put out a [position] paper which says the retention of our local workforce. It had a lot of aggressive targets
in terms of lowering PRCs. I have done broad- based
consultation on those particular proposals. And I was
able to get measured feedback as to how we actually
move forward. And you will be seeing some of those initiatives. And some of those initiatives have filtered into our Throne Speech in terms of the work we have
to do to move forward.
But in order to grow our workforce we need to
ensure that there is retention. Some of the changes
we are doing in Immigration regarding our borders is
to ensure that persons get the labour that they need.
This is not as a result of the Bermuda Government not issuing work permits or us not granting work permits
in a timely fashion. A lot of this has to do with persons’
inability to obtain the necessary travel documents to
get into Bermuda. And where we can change our border policy to mitigate against some of those risks, we
will do so.
So, the way in which we look at it is that we
have ensured that first and foremost that there are
and that we maintain protections in place. And that is
why we are doing a full revision of our work permit
policy that will be rolled out shortly. But also we need
to ensure that employers get the supply of labour that they require so that they can be effective as well. And
that is also a core theme in our Economic Development Strategy. See, the Economic Development Strategy
was specifically designed to ensure that we have initiatives put in place that lead to robust economic
growth in multiple industrial sections so that we can
increase economic activity, increase jobs and then fill those jobs with able- bodied Bermudians. And then
where there is a lack of able- bodied Bermudians find
the necessary talent needed that will complement our workforce.
Some of the initiatives outlined in the Opposition’s Throne Speech [Reply] are directly correlated with the initiatives that we spoke about in the Economic Development Strategy. The Economic Development
Strategy is extremely robust. Things such as we need
to increase agriculture production. That is something
that we speak about in our strategy as areas of opportunity. How we capitalise over our blue and green economies is areas we speak about. How we diversify
our international business sector is something we
speak about.
The international business sector represents
28 per cent of all economic activity in our economy.
This means that 71 per cent of our economic activity
. . . and I am rounding now because there is more
than 28 per cent, so I can say 29 [per cent] so I don’t
get a point of order and somebody says, You missed
a percentage. Because you know how individuals can
be petty batters when they want to be. So, 71 per cent
of the economy is actually domestic. And we need to
ensure that we have the appropriate diversification in
our domestic (what we call our local) economy as
well. And those will be the areas of focus that we set
out in the Economic Development Strategy.
It is not fair to say that our economy is stagnant. The economic measures will say that we have
had robust and rapid economic growth. Every external
person who has looked at our economic situation has
validated that we have a resilient, robust economy
whether it be Standard & Poor’s, KBRA, whether it be
local industry. We continue to want to paint this picture of economic stagnation when in fact the numbers
do not support that. But I am well aware that we will
have a full economic debate in weeks to come and I
will set out where the Government’s economy is doing
extremely well. I state every single time I talk about the economy, that notwithstanding the economy doing
well there is also pressure on households with our
cost of living. Two separate things. It is not convenient
to disconnect the two for some because they would never want to highlight the positiveness that is taking
place within our economy. But we do see year over
year business growth in our domestic economy.
Washington Mall put out a press release to say that
they have exceeded pre- pandemic capacity levels as
it pertains to the businesses in the mall.
If we are doing so bad, what is that reflective
of? We are doing well in terms of progressing the
economy and as a result it is providing us additional
capacity from a fiscal side, and you can see where the

B ermuda House of Assembly mid-year review allowed us to pump additional funds
into initiatives that directly go into benefiting the people of Bermuda.
What I am excited about in terms of the initiatives that the Ministry of Economy and Labour will be executing on for . . . that emanate from this Throne
Speech is the work we are going to do around ensur-ing that we produce a national entrepreneurship strat-egy. A national entrepreneurship strategy that makes it abundantly clear that we believe that small and me-dium -sized businesses are the backbone of our economy, that we want to see greater growth for small and
medium- sized businesses, that we want to provide
better supports, that we want to understand where the
pain points [are] and reduce those pain points.
But we have been committed to ensuring that
we support local business and we want to ensure that we have a robust strategy that will provide us a
framework of execution. That would also be complemented by a digital entrepreneurship strategy where we increase our e- commerce capabilities as well.
We will also be putting forward cooperative
legislation. I am one that strongly supports collectivism. I think that organisations working together and
members within organisations then working together can achieve much more than individuals working in silos and as a result I support cooperatives . And we
will ensure that we have proper cooperative legisla-tions and frameworks in place.
One of the cooperatives that we currently
have is the Bermuda Credit Union. And for persons who have been somewhat excluded from what I would consider to be our mainstream banking system, that particular institution, has provided unquantifiable ser-vices to that particular population. Persons who will
probably go unbanked, persons who would be least
likely to secure credit from our traditional banking in-stitutions can lean on the credit union.
I had the pleasure of being a director of the
credit union for a number of years. I went on to be the
treasurer of that particular credit union. I also led a
delegation of trading to the International Cooperatives [Alliance] conference because I wanted to ensure that persons knew that cooperatives expand beyond the gambit of just a credit union and grocery stores. That cooperatives can be in every industry in our economy.
And so with increasing the knowledge through
the work at the BEDC , hopefully we can better . . .
have persons understand collectivism in a world that focuses so much on individualism and understand that we can achieve more if we collectively work together.
We also have a commitment to cut red tape.
And that is one of the items which is in the Economic Development Strategy. Reduce the bureaucracy as much as we can for businesses so that they can bring their concepts into practice in a timely manner.
Madam Deputy Speaker, I understand that it
is the Opposition’s role to be critical. But solutions are
also welcomed. And I earnestly say that. If you put, we will do a, b and c but it doesn’t have the how, it
provides difficulty to anybody who is trying to look at
that solution and determine how we would actually implement that particular solution.
Instead of the Honourable Member Pearman
continuously chirping, he should take the criticism or
what I am saying as being constructive. That if there is
something that would improve the well- being of the
people of Bermuda, this Government will be happy to implement it. If you have something pertaining to our economy that you would like to see implemented, I welcome receiving that information.
[
Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jason Hayward: Madam Deputy Speaker, the
Honourable Member Pearman continues to chirp.
[
Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jason Hayward: And I am unsure why he feels
so emboldened to continue to chirp. You know when I was standing here prior to the election, he was saying,
Oh, you are gone. I wonder where you are going to
work after this. And making all those rude—
POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Mr
. Scott Pearman: Point of order, Madam Deputy
Speaker. I would like the Honourable Minister —

Point of order, Madam Deputy
Speaker. I deny that I said that. And if the Honourable
Minister wants to point to that in the Hansard, I will
offer him an apology. But I did not say that. Thank
you.
Hon. Jason Hayward: Madam Deputy Speaker, it
came from one of his chirps and an indiv idual standing, a Minister, would not forget the remarks coming
from an individual on the floor s tating that.
Hon. E. David Burt: Yes.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jason Hayward: But, Madam Deputy Speaker,
what I am here to say is that the c hirping is not substantial because we are not suppos ed to be here as
Government. We are not supposed to lead this c ountry. According to them we were all gone. According to
them they were supposed to be the Government and
we were suppos ed to be giv ing the Reply. But as fate
would have it, it did not work out according to their
plan.
Hon. E. David Burt: Not at all! They are still over
there.
[Laughter]
Hon. Jason Hayward: And so we are here and they
are there.
[Laughter]
Hon. Jason Hayward: And so while we want to provide solutions, they can continue with their soundbites. We will continue with the effectiv e implementation of initiatives. Madam Deputy Speaker, I once said that the
30 do not need the 6. And there was an uproar. Well,
the 25 do not need the 11.
[Laughter and i naudible interjections]
Hon. Jason Hayward: Because—n ot to govern; to
legislate. And if the Honourable Leader of the Opposition can show me where it is clearly laid out that his
Shadow Cabinet has a responsibility in the general
administration of government departments, I will yield.
[Crosstalk]
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Sorry, I don’t hav e the parliamentary —
Hon. Jaso n Hayward: H e cannot j ust rise.
The Deput y Speaker: Excuse me.
Hon. Jarion Richardson: I’m sorry. I thought I was
being invited, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thought he
invited me.
[Laughter]
The Deput y Speaker: H e can’t invite you. O nly I c an.
[Laughter]
The Deput y Speaker: Thank y ou.
Hon. Jarion R ichardson: Point o f clarification.
An H on. Mem ber: No!

Do y ou yiel d to point of clarification?
Hon. J ason H ayward: No. N o. There is n o point of
clarification.
[Inaudible i nterjections]
Hon. J arion R ichardson: Point of order. H e is mi sleading the House. H e invited me to —
The D eputy S peaker: Point of or der. Y our point of
order.
POINT O F ORDER
Hon. J arion R ichardson: Yes, he i s misleading the
House. H e invited me to s peak.
[Inaudible interjections ]

B ermuda House of Assembly The Deputy Speaker: Thank you for your point of
order.
Hon. Jason Hayward: Madam Deputy Speaker, the
fact remains that we have a responsibility. We take
our responsibility seriously and we will exec ute on
those initiatives. Whether it be all of the matters that
we raised of s erious nature, the violent crime that we
see, whether it be the violence in our schools which is
a concern for us all, whether it be the challenges that
we have with the capacity of our housing inv entory,
whether it be the cost of liv ing in Bermuda, whether it
be the geopolitical threats that arise from our neighbour to the west.
There are going to be real c hallenges that
emanate from s ome of the proposed s uggestions that
are floating around our western border as it pertains to
tariff of goods and also fees on ships that Bermuda
relies on to provide s ustainable goods to our economy. There are real c hallenges that we will face that
actually require real solutions.
This Government does not have the luxury to
sit back idle and simply just criticise without putting
solutions in place. And so you will see the effec tive
delivery of solutions. But we cannot rewrite history
and continue to speak about doom and gloom and
how people feel. People feel the exact same way they
felt when they went to the polls. That the Progres sive
Labour Party is the best choice—

There you go again.
Hon. Jason Hayward: Madam Deputy Speaker, we
won the election.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jason Hayward: We won the election by the
majority of persons who voted. Secondly, those voters
that chose not to come out and vote for the Progressive Labour Party, they still did not have enough con-fidence to vote for the One Bermuda Alliance govern-ment. And as a result of that, we are the Government.
We have the responsibility and we will govern according to the expectations of the people of this country.
And we will govern for all in Bermuda. When we put
initiatives in place, they are not just for some. They are for all —those who voted for us, those who didn’t
and those that did not vote at all. But we take our re-sponsibility seriously.
When you look at the totality of the initiatives
in the 2024 and 2025 Throne Speeches, they are a robust set of initiatives that will put Bermuda in a bet-ter stead once fully executed and implemented. And that is what this Government is doing. Going back to our roots and ensuring that we have people in front of
every policy decision that we make ensuring that we
create an environment where not only current busi-nesses can thrive, but also Bermudians who have as-pirations of starting a business get the necessary support they receive.
That when our young people go off to school
that they have opportunities when they return home. And many are taking advantage of those opportunities that have been created in our economy. Notwithstand-ing that, there are still more work to be done and we are committed to doing that work on behalf of our
young persons. We want them to remain optimistic.
We want them to continue to have hope in their beloved country Bermuda.
Our seniors, we want to ensure that they are
clear that this Government has their best interests at
heart. To the workers of this country, our track record
has been abundantly clear, the support we have provided workers. To our youth, we will ensure we put an education system in place that puts them on pathways to success. To our families with young kids, we will continue to provide the necessary support in the form of child day care allowance. Those are our commitments to the people of Bermuda and that is what we
will effectively execute on.
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Let me change the tone a little
bit from the last speaker. And let me s tart, if I may,
Madam Deputy Speaker, by quoting from the Government’s Throne Speech itself. At page 1, they say:
“The people of Bermuda have entrusted this government . . . to collaborate, and to build a more inclusive
Bermuda where ev ery voice is heard . . . . ”
In my [debate] today I intend to take the Gov -
ernment at face value and believe that they would lik e
to hear my v oice on what I think the Government
should be doing. I say that because the speaker who
spoke immediately before I stood, seemed to suggest
that the only function of the Opposition is to come to
Parliament and vote upon Bills. And that is clearly not
what happens in a constitutional government where
the Opposition has a duty to hold the Government to
account. And indeed, has a duty to criticise. Although I
completely agree with the Government Minister that
that criticism should be constructive. And I intend it to
be so.
But again, let me change the tone a bit in that
I would like to look a little bit more, Madam Deputy Speaker, at our present circumstances and also be a
bit more future looking in terms of the future vision that I hope to see whether under this Government or another. And I do that, Madam Deputy Speaker, be-cause we live in a world of fractured uncertainty.
The global word around us is unravelling. It is
in unravelling to our west. It is unravelling to the east. We have a series of major conflicts around the globe that are having detrimental impact. We have various political systems in various countries that are frac-tured, divided, embittered and in jeopardy. And I very much am concerned to ensure that in Bermuda this
does not happen to us.
But I am realistic enough to know that we are
not immune from the problems of the world. It would
only take something we saw recently in the papers where a ship that might import our food happens to be built in China and suddenly we have a major food security issue. And that is just a tiny little thing that was
almost an afterthought by the current incumbent of a country to our west. And it could have massive ramifi-cations to us.
Why do I highlight that we live in a time of
fractured uncertainty? I highlight it because, and I will quote from the speech of the Opposition Leader, the Honourable Opposition Leader, we do need urgent action. And again, I will quote from the Honourable Opposition Leader’s speech today, we do need unity. And sometimes in a partisan world, it is hard to
achieve that unity. And sometimes in a world where
disagreement is often more easy than agreement, it is hard to get collaboration and consensus and most important of all, delivery of the urgent action. I have said before, Madam Deputy Speaker, that we live on a small Island but for a small Island, we seem to have
big problems. And to take a line from the Throne
Speech and turn it on its head, many people on our
Island are not thriving. They are merely surviving.
So, what do we, the 36 elected MPs in this
room, in this new Parliament plan to do about it? What
are we able to do about it? Because there are some
problems we will not be able to solve and we recog-nise that. And contrary to what the last speaker said, this Opposition does not blame everything on the Government. We recognise that there are problems beyond our shores that are not in our control and they
would not be in our control if we were the Government. And they are not in their control. But there are things that we can do that are within the control of the 36 in this Chamber if we show some unity and if we demonstrate some urgent action.
And at the risk of oversimplifying the situation,
Madam Deputy Speaker, I am going to put it like this: Basically, people just want a better quality of life. It is really all people want —a better quality of life. And
what does that mean? That means a safe home in which parents can raise happy children. It means that men and women in Bermuda can have well paid and
meaningful jobs that give them satisfaction in their

B ermuda House of Assembly lives. It means a happy, healthy prosperous life. Prosperous is important, yes, but healthy is even more so as we live longer. And as we live longer, we are facing greater health issues.
Essentially, what we want is for our Bermudian children to have a better life than their Bermudian
parents. And the question is, Is that achievable? And
if it is achievable, how do we get there? So I repeat, what people want is a better quality of life. And if we are going to try and achieve that, we, the 36 in this Chamber, whether we are in the Executive or the Government or just mere parliamentarians, if we are
going to achieve that we need that unity and we need
to get behind the urgent action.
And if there are areas on which we agree,
then let’s get it done. And let’s be real. There are go-ing to be areas on which we disagree. Why? Because when we approach a problem, we have to identify
what the problem is. We have to agree about that
problem and then we have to see if we can agree a solution. And often people do not agree on the prob-lem. So if you can’t even agree on the problem, how do you get to the solution?
Madam Deputy Speaker, with your permission, may I read one sentence from the Opposition Leader’s Reply? It is right at the end, and he says this and I quote. “The Opposition’s job is not just to op-pose, but to propose. ” And I think that is right. And so
to the extent that the Honourable Minister who spoke
before me said it is our job just to come here and be in
Parliament, I respectfully disagree. To the extent that we did not propose solutions, I respectfully disagree.
[
Inaudible interjections]

We are proposing solutions and
indeed that is part of the Opposition’s job, to propose, not just to oppose. And I am grateful that the Govern-ment, that are now starting to chirp, are prepared to listen to my voice, just like everyone else’s voice as
they said in their Throne Speech.
In the Reply to the Throne Speech, the Opposition Leader recognised rightfully (it is page 24) that
our workforce is shrinking. The same thing was said by the Honourable Minister who spoke before me. That our workforce is shrinking. So, that is at least a
problem that we can agree with commonality needs to
be addressed and solved. And one of the things that struck me about the Throne Speech is the absence of a real and positive and authentic and solving . . . solution-driven conversation about our population.
Madam Deputy Speaker, you may have seen
the statement by the Chamber of Commerce only in the last couple of days where they reckoned our popu-lation was somewhere in the region of 54,000 people, give or take, 54[,000], 55,000. I think it was banded between 54[,000] and 56,000. But let’s call it 55[,000]
for sake of discussion. And likewise I would like to add to that picture
something the Honourable Minister who spoke before me said. Which is that we have an ageing population. And about that we can agree. So, we can agree that we have too few people and we can agree that the people who are here are getting older and getting older more quickly than we would wish.
I can also agree with the Honourable Minister
who stood in this very House previously and said that
we needed 8,000 more people. Now, I remember that debate because I chirped in and said, Well, how about we say 10 [and] you say 8, let’s agree on 9 in the
middle and get on with it. But again, let me agree with
the Honourable Minister. In his speech just before me, he said, and I quote, There has to be some kind of strategy. We agree. There has to be some kind of
strategy. So, if we all, the 36 of us in this Chamber, agree that we need more people, then how do we get
there?
Hon. E. David Burt: Then how?

All right? And the Honourable
Premier has just chirped in, How? And I am grateful
again that he is willing to listen to my voice.
[
Inaudible interjections]
Mr
. Scott Pearman: So here are three ways. In fact,
they are the only three I know. If we want more people, either those of us who are here have more chil-dren, if they can still bear children. Right? So more Bermudian local births. That’s one.
Two of three is that we need more people
from elsewhere. We need more guest workers. Or we
need people who come in from abroad to do the jobs
that we do not necessarily have the skills to do. Some of us. That is a longer conversation for another day, but that is the second way that we might achieve a population growth. So we have got Dame Lois’s suggestion with more births. And we have got more people from elsewhere.
And then third and finally, is the opportunity to
return Bermudians from abroad. Because some of those people who have left would, we hope, still return to our Island if we can give them a reason to do so.
And so that begs the question— and again, we were
asked for solutions and we are trying to give them. But
that begs the question, How? How do you persuade, let’s call it 10,000, right?, 55[,000] to 65[,000]. We used to always say there were 65,000 people here. Now we are told by the Chamber of Commerce there
are 55[,000]. So how do we persuade that 10,000,
those Bermudians, wherever they may be, to return?
Well, I think there are two pretty obvious
things if we want to get them to come back. One, is we need to provide well -paid, meaningful jobs. So we
need to create jobs that are well -paid and meaningful.
Otherwise they are not going to come back because
78 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report
B ermuda House of Assembly the jobs are not here. And if the jobs elsewhere and
that is how they are going to put food on the table, and buy that home, and pay to educate those children and raise those children well and safely, they are go-ing to go where the jobs are. So we need to assist this community in creating more jobs. And I mean wellpaid, meaningful jobs not just a low -end job that really
isn’t of satisfaction to someone so that they are really
excited about going to work in the morning because it is a meaningful part of their life.
And the second impediment —and again, this
is not something we disagree about. It was in the
Throne Speech, it was in the Reply, it was in Minister
Hayward’s speech earlier. It is the cost of living. So, what are we going to do about it? The Opposition Leader, on page 5 of the Reply, actually described it as a cost -of-living crisis. And I think he is right. It is a
cost-of-living crisis. And again, just [using] common
sense here, what are the factors that contribute to the cost of living?
Well, I suggest, Madam Deputy Speaker,
there are four of them. They are the four biggies. There may be more, but these are the four big ones.
There is food. There is health care. There is housing.
And then there is energy. So let me just touch briefly on some possible solutions in each of those four cate-gories. Because if we are able to unify, and if we are able to work urgently to try to solve the problems, we are going to need a bit of moral imagination to get to
the solutions that are going to solve people’s problems. And what problem am I looking at? At the mo-ment, of course, Madam Deputy Speaker, I am look-ing at how to get Bermudians to come home because we need more people.
So, food. The answer on this side of the aisle
is a very simple one. Repeal the sugar tax. When I first joined the House in 2018, unfortunately one of the first Bills on my first day (and I see someone nodding, he was there on my first day) was the Sugar Tax Bill. This seven- year adventure in taxation has proved to
be a demonstrably dumb idea.
It has been a stealth tax applied across the
board on food coming in. Food, which I might add, is already expensive. Why? Because we live in one of the most isolated places in the world. And so if we are not growing it here, we are importing it from elsewhere. And that ship that might have been made in
China has to bring it to us.
So, let’s get rid of the sugar tax. Let’s admit
we were wrong about it and get rid of it. And the Op-position would support the Government in that and it will bring down food costs, which is what Bermudians
want.
And while I am there let me tell you what is
not the answer, Madam Deputy Speaker. What is not
the answer is the suggestion in the Throne Speech of socialistic price controls. That is a bad idea of all bad ideas. And it has been demonstrated as a failure in policy in country after country that tried it. So, let’s not go down that road. So that is one.
Two, Madam Deputy Speaker, is health care.
Now, the easiest solve on health care . . . or perhaps
putting it a different way. One of the reasons our health care . . . which is actually very, very good, but
very expensive. One of the reasons it is so expensive, if you talk to people in the industry is overutilisation. Now, one of the suggestions in the Throne Speech . . . it is at page 7. I won’t quote from it. But it is about
the need in relation to our hospital, our urgent care provision centre, to get people who are well enough to
be out of the hospital, out of the hospital. This is the
Government’s proposal. And we agree. Again, biparti-san. We agree with that. How do you do it? How do you achieve it?
During the election campaign I had the good
fortune of sitting down and talking for not just a little
bit, but for three hours or so, give or take, with someone who is a nurse in our hospital. And I won’t identify the gender or the nationality of that person just to keep his or her comments safe. I was shocked. Not only was I shocked, I was shocked as someone who
is aware, as those in this Chamber usually are, about
the problems our health care sector is facing.
So I had some awareness of the difficulties
that we are facing. But when I heard, you know, grounds -eye view, stories of what is going on in the
hospital from a nurse there, I really couldn’t believe it.
And what I asked that person to do was to share his
or her views with my colleagues in the OBA and I hope that he or she will do that, anonymously, hope-fully, because it was sad.
But one of the points said was this: It is true,
sad though it may be, it is true that families are leaving their seniors at the hospital because they cannot
care for them or afford to care for them. And I am not ascribing ill- will to those families. I know that there is
that expression which I am not going to use. I am not saying that they are putting that senior in the hospital
because they don’t care. I am saying it because they
likely have no other choice either financially or from time. And that is another conversation for another day. But I point that out.
Another suggestion is to expand health care,
universal health care. Again, that is something that I
think we in Bermuda, everyone, would want to see if
we can get there. Where we differ fundamentally with the Government is whether we would do that through the private sector or through the public sector. And I think that that is a massive difference between the two parties in terms of health care solutions and the provision of universal health care. And I would invite the
Government to recognise that putting the Government or the State in charge of health care in Bermuda is a bad idea. Get rid of that and start to look at private health care provision through the private sector.
While I am on health care, I think it is fair to
say that the seven- year experiment not just in sugar

B ermuda House of Assembly tax, but in hospital grant, has not worked. And we
have seen that during the budgeting process where we have these cost overruns. So we have to have a rethink on that.
Madam Deputy Speaker, turning to the third of
the four cost drivers that I was identifying for cost of
living, is housing. Now, one of the problems we have
with dealing with housing, and some say there are not enough houses. Some say there are enough houses, they are just not accessible. Some say that they are accessible houses, they are just not affordable. So there is a discrepancy of the facts that people are
bringing to the table. And so it is always better to try
and take decisions with data that is accurate and help-ful that leads you to a data- driven decision.
We suggest a housing audit. And it is in the
Reply. It is at page 21. And that makes eminent good sense. I mean, we have a census of our population.
We try to determine age and gender and other things
to help us make decisions about where we go in the future for the Government, whatever Government of the day it may be. Well, let’s have a housing audit. Because it would really be helpful to understand
whether there are actual units out there that are empty. And if so, why? Is it Airbnb? Some have said it is. Possibly it is. Is it a high degree of rent control? Are there too many rent control properties? Again, I am not asserting that. But let’s have a housing audit so we know it.
There are also some very good ideas. If new
build is needed, there are some very good ideas about how to reduce the cost of new builds through the use of alternative building methods and construc-tion materials. So, we can agree with the Government that this is something that is urgently needed and I
commend the Premier for his decision to now have a
Cabinet Minister dedicated to housing. And I hope the firs thing that that Minister does is to carry out a hous-ing audit so that we have the facts before us.
Hon. Zane J . S. De Silva: It’s already done, brother.
Mr
. Scott Pearman: I am told by the Honourable
Deputy Leader, Minister De Silva, it is already done. So I look forward to the housing audit being shared with Parliament.
[
Inaudible interjections and laughter ]
Mr
. Scott Pearman: The fourth element is energy.
We now have got some chirping. I am going to ignore it, Madam Deputy Speaker, and continue on my way.
[
Inaudible interjections]

I didn’t . . . I’m sorry. I didn’t hear
what the Honourable Member said and I am now told he is being nice so I thank him if he is being nice. [
Inaudible interjections]
Mr
. Scott Pearman: No doubt . . . I am going to continue on with trusting the Government in its Throne Speech promise that it wants to hear from other voic-es and it wants to be collaborative. And so I go.
Energy. Energy. It is right, and I believe this
appeared both in the Throne Speech and in the Throne Speech Reply, that we have some of the most expensive energy in the world. Indeed, I have heard, and I don’t know if this is factually accurate, but I’ve heard we have the most expensive energy in the
world. If that is true, it is deeply lamentable and some-thing about which we should take no pride to be top of that table.
Whether we have the most or just some of the
most expensive energy costs in the world, you know, let us look at some solutions that would be sensible. I
love the fact that both the Government and the Opposition are calling for renewable energy. That is a won-derful thing. But let’s be real. It is going to take us time to get there. And what we need is we need to try to solve the problems facing Bermudians here and now
in terms of energy costs.
And the best way we can think of . . . and
there is no monopoly on good ideas. The best way we
think we can think of is [to] look at the regulatory sys-tem. We went and met with the regulator and what the regulator told the Opposition when we met with them
is that it doesn’t have the statutory teeth to be able to
compel the dropping costs because it doesn’t have under section 23 of its Act which empowers it, it doesn’t have broad enough powers to consider public policy. So if that is true, and I take them at their word, then let’s amend that Act and give them that power.
Because either we need a regulator that has the teeth
to regulate or the regulator is a waste of time and money. One of those two.
So, moving on, let me touch on a few points in
the Throne Speech in the time left to me because I
would like to say that there are some points in here
that we certainly are supportive of, or that I am cer-tainly in support of. Obviously my comments of sup-port are subject to seeing the Bills themselves, and we haven’t seen the Bills but again, as it was said, no party has a monopoly on good ideas. So, in terms of
the Government’s . . . the mention of the Government’s vacant and derelict properties, at page 4 of the
Throne Speech, it is something that we certainly should look at. And I would invite some bipartisan ap-proach to that.
At page 3 of the Throne Speech there is a
discussion of giving equal rights to legal guardians of children as opposed to their parents. So, will the par-ents have rights that the legal guardians don’t? Ex-tending that right to legal guardians and adoptive par-ents . . . that’s page 3 of the Throne Speech. Again,
subject to seeing the Bill, that is something that I
would very much be supportive of.
80 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report
B ermuda House of Assembly Likewise, at page 6 of the Throne Speech, we
understand . . . and I am no longer the Shadow for
Home Affairs. It is now my colleague to my right. So, I
do not wish to tread on his toes, but I see that the Government is pledging a pause on the proposed proposals for . . . for . . . It’s not Blue Halo anymore.
It’s another “Blue.” To listen to the fishermen’s con-cerns. And I am delighted to see that. It is something we in the Opposition have been calling for and certainly a pause has our support because our fishermen . . . it is their lifeblood, and they need to be listened to.
Likewise, also on page 6 of the Throne
Speech, there is a National Entrepreneurship Strate-gy. Now, we haven’t seen it yet. Minister Hayward spoke to it in his speech. But obviously we would like to see it and I imagine Bermudians would like to see it because it is a very good idea. A lot of Bermudians are entrepreneurs because it is easier to go around
with your white van and make a living than it is sometimes to do white- collar or blue- collar jobs. If you can
be your own boss, why wouldn’t you want to be?
My fundamental point, Madam Deputy
Speaker, is that bipartisanship is possible and it can
work. But it requires both parties to approach it in
good faith. And I will repeat that. Both parties have to approach it in good faith.
In terms of . . . moving from the Throne
Speech now to the Reply. I would just like to quote one more thing that was said in the Reply by the Opposition Leader because it really resonated with me.
And this, Madam Deputy Speaker, is at page 29 of the Reply. And with your leave, I quote. “ Government’s
first job is to govern well: to manage public affairs competently, keep its promises, and be accountable to the people. ” Government’s first job is to govern
well: to manage public affairs competently, keep its promises, and be accountable to the people.
Madam Deputy Speaker, if I may, I respectfully agree with the Opposition Leader and I invite the Government to consider that statement and hopefully
see if they agree with it too. Because if the message
the PLP has taken from the General Election, is that they have some sort of tub -thumping mandate, then I
would respectfully suggest that they have not listened to the Bermudian people and we in the Opposition want Bermuda to succeed. We want Bermudians to
thrive and prosper. They may not believe it, but we
want this Government to go from strength- to-strength.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: You’re right. We don’t.
Mr
. Scott Pearman: And MP De Silva, the new Deputy [Premier] has just said that [they] don’t believe that. Well, I am a Bermudian first.
[
Inaudible interjections]
Mr
. Scott Pearman: Then I would take you, if I may,
finally, before I sit, Madam Deputy Speaker, to a cou-ple of comments from the Governor that were made at the end of the Throne Speech.
With your leave, he said this: “The importance
of fairness, good governance and accountability are at the heart of the Constitution. I therefore welcome the Government’s commitment to serve every Bermudian
with fairness and accountability.” I entirely agree.
Fairness and accountability. I note that this Govern-ment ran its election campaign on the concept of fair-ness. If it sticks to that concept, it will have the support of many, if not all. But I would invite this Government to also consider the concept of accountability. Because it was a concept that was absent from the Throne Speech other than in the Governor’s remarks.
If I may then further quote, the Governor said
this: “ Bermuda is not immune to global issues. As we
convene, the world feels increasingly uncertain and unstable. In such times there is a need not just to
maintain these principles of good governance, but to
protect and strengthen them.” I entirely agree.
At a time of global uncertainty, when things
are unravelling to the east and unravelling to the west, we are not immune. So we must come together. We
must show unity. And we must show decisive action.
And if we cannot agree on all things, then at least let’s try and solve the things on which we can agree. Be-cause we have more in common than that which di-vides us.
I do now still hold the role of Shadow Attorney
General. Although I think my title has been changed to Shadow Minister of Justice or some such like. And so let me just make one point. Again, from the Gover-nor’s statement in the Throne Speech, where the Governor praised our independent judiciary. I agree with that praise and I echo it.
What I would invite this Government to consider with my Shadow affairs judiciary hat on . . . and I
know that the Honourable Minister, who sits in another place, is to increase the independence of the judiciary to allow them to have their own funding, to be separate from the Government, wholly, to ensure that
those sort of statements by the Governor can be maintained into the future and upheld with pride by all Bermudians.
Just as I commented on the General Election
mantra of the Government being that of fairness, let
me turn to the mantra that was offered by the Opposition in the election. And that was opportunity. What do I mean by that? Again, it comes back to the basic principle, What do people want? A better quality of life. They want the opportunity to finish life better than they started. They want the opportunity for their children to have a better life than their parents. They want
the opportunity for our Bermudian communities (plu-ral) to prosper and succeed. We must raise all the boats with the tide.
And before I sit down, Madam Deputy Speaker, let me just go back to what I really found resonated
in the Reply. I have said it once, but I will quote it

B ermuda House of Assembly again. “Government’s first job is to govern well: to
manage public affairs competently, keep its promises,
and be accountable to the people.” And I know that
that is the pledge of the One Bermuda Alliance and I
invite this Government to borrow that and take it if
they will.
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.
[Timer chimes]

—t o the speaker. So you have
30 minutes.
Hon. Owen Darrell: Let them bring the heat.
[Inaudible interjections]
MAIDEN SPEECH
Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam Deputy
Speaker. And again, I would like to echo the sentiments of the Member from acros s the aisle of constituency 22 who welcomed you to the seat of which you
now hold. Congratulations to you, Madam Deputy
Speaker.
Madam Deputy Speaker, also before I get into
the meat of my speec h this afternoon I would like to
recognise the 421 individuals who decided that they
were going to go to the polls on February 18 and cast
a ballot for Owen K. Darrell. I would like to say thank
you to them. And thank you for—
[Desk thumping]
Hon. Owen Darrell: —t he other individuals in constituency 15 who for whatev er reason decided that they
could not or did not want to attend the polls and cast a
vote for Owen K. Darrell on February 18 and also,
Madam Deputy Speaker, to those who decided to cast
their vote elsewhere. But I will tell you this, I am here
to serve. I am here to represent. And I will represent
everyone in this country. But first and foremost, I will
represent the cons tituents of Pembroke East, constituency 1 5.
With that said, Madam Deputy Speaker, in
another place I have kind of developed the reputation
of giving my speec hes a title. So, before I even get
into titles, I like to look at the titles of the speeches
that have been put before me. And I had a chuckle
over at . . . the Member, the Deputy Leader from the other side and I noticed that they decided to literally
go right in this year and say “Weather the Storm.”
I
have had a joke with him before and I said,
One thing the One Bermuda Alliance will always do is bring doom and gloom to this place and others. So as
we say, my mate C’Daynger (that’s his stage name,
Trevor Corday is his real name), dark clouds can’t rain
on my parade, Madam Deputy Speaker. Some of you
will know that tune from some time ago.
Hon. E. David Burt: Yes.
Hon. Owen Darrell: So when I see Trevor I know he
will have a good laugh at me with that.
But in all seriousness, Madam Deputy Speaker, I would like to entitle this submission to the House of Assembly as “Empowering Bermudians.” Empower-ing Bermudians .
And as you would see in our last two Throne
Speeches (that came a lot sooner than some would have thought) “A Fairer Bermuda For All” and “Build-ing a Fairer, More Stable and Affordable Bermuda.” But in layman’s terms what that means, Madam Deputy Speaker, is empowering Bermudians and building a
fairer Bermuda for everyone.
See, Madam Deputy Speaker, I believe, and I
am sure that most of my colleagues here believe, that the strength of Bermuda is in her people. Most defi-nitely! And I can attest to that, Madam Deputy Speaker, because sometime last summer when it was decided that I would be the representative to replace long-serving Deputy Leader of this party, the Honourable Walter Roban, people started using the terminol-ogy of a “safe seat.” But, as I started in July, and I pushed on until the nights got . . . or until the days got
short, I felt it necessary . . . as I know you [know],
Madam Deputy Speaker, and many others here [know], that if you do not connect with your people you will be lost in the wilderness.
And I started to coin a term, it turned from
canvassing into I’m going up in the hills. They said,
You are going up in the hills. What does that mean? And if you would go back to the Throne Speech that was given last fall, a quote by Nelson Mandela was used. If I may quote it from the Speech from last year, it says, “ After climbing a great hill, one only finds that
there are many more hills to climb.”
And I would tell you this, Madam Deputy
Speaker, as I have climbed the hills of Glebe Road, as I have climbed that Mission Lane hill. Ms. O’Neka, I
hope you are listening. As I have climbed the hills of Long Ridge Pass, I can tell you without a shadow of a
doubt, Madam Deputy Speaker, that the strength of
this country lies with its people.
I am happy, and I am proud to be, as they say
in other places, a card- carrying member, and now an
MP, an elected official representing the Progressive Labour Party, because nothing gives me greater joy,
Madam Deputy Speaker, than serving the people, not
82 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report
B ermuda House of Assembly only of this country . . . I’m sorry, not only of Pembroke East, but of this country. And Bermuda has always been strong because of its people.
Our communities, I do not think it is by chance
or by luck that the portfolio of which I hold includes many or all of the sports clubs of this country. It also
includes our families, Madam Deputy Speaker, and
the determination of this country and our people to push through during tough times.
And you know, it has almost become a clich é,
especially since what happened five years ago, but we faced our challenges. We have pushed through
them, and we have come out stronger. And now we
are going to make sure that every Bermudian has a fair shot to succeed in this country.

Yes.
Hon. Owen Darrell: This Government is committed to
putting people first. And I must admit, Madam Deputy Speaker, I sat here and I struggled to hear the em-phasis [from] the other side of the people of which we serve. We are building a future in this party, in this
Government where no one is going to be left behind.
And you know, Madam Deputy Speaker, as I walked those hills of Pembroke East and I said to my col-leagues and my friends, I do not care what the per-centages have said in the past. I don’t care what you may think is safe or unsafe. I want to meet every single resident in this constituency. I didn’t get 100 [per
cent] but I got close.
[
Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Owen Darrell: And what you recognise when
you walk these hills and you knock on these doors is
that, as my colleague said earlier, we are not ignoring the struggles of the past. Many of them up in the North Village area will tell you that they have econom-ic hardships. They have lacked opportunities. They
have been part of an unfair system that has left far too
many Bermudians behind.
And when we continue to show up it shows
our constituents, it shows the people of this country that we are committed to open, honest leadership that listens and puts the needs of the people first. It was
not lost on me [that] the constituency which I now represent, even when it was dual -seat constituencies,
had some of the giants of the political atmosphere in Bermuda, whether it be Nelson Bascome (when it was joint seats), whether it be Ottiwell Simmons (the late Ottiwell Simmons who first took it over when they
went to single- seat constituencies), followed by the
Honourable Walter Roban.

Yes.
Hon. Owen Darrell: Those are giants in this community. And they have worked hard to make this country better and we have a responsibility to do the same for
our future generations.
I cannot tell you the number of times that I
walked and they said, Well, you know, when Nelson
was our MP . . . Or they said, Well, you know, I remember when Otti used to . . . Or, You know, I used
to always get a birthday card from MP Roban. I said,
Give me the opportunity. I said, I can guarantee you that hard work has never scared me. And it will no longer scare me with any title that I have or election that I have won.
It is a fact. Especially seeing the community of
which I grew up in and I am still a part of. People know it as Devil’s Hole. Some people would know it as Harris’ Bay. Right, MP?
[
Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Owen Darrell: That community is a strong
community. And what this party is doing for communi-ties proves that stronger communities build a stronger Bermuda. The best ideas do not come from the Gov-ernment Administration Building. The best ideas do
not come from 105 Front Street. The best ideas do not
come from Global House or TCD. The best ideas come from those hills that we all walk and those doors that we knock on. They come from the people, Mad-am Deputy Speaker.
This Progressive Labour Party has shown, not
only in this Speech from a couple of months ago, but in the new one, that we are working directly with community groups, directly with sports clubs, and di-rectly with small businesses to give them the re-sources and the support that they need to grow.
Let me give you an example. Just a couple of
weeks ago the BEDC [Bermuda Economic Develop-ment Corporation] reached out to the Department of Sport and Recreation and they said, What can we do
to help these sporting clubs? And we said, believe it or not, it is the basics. Some of them need to know
how to write a business plan. Some of them need accounting help. And they said, Well, we are going to
have a networking event. And I am pleased to say that these community clubs have taken up the opportunity to learn how they can get better.
They had one a couple of months ago up at
Warwick Workmen’s [Club]. The place was packed, as the then Chair of the BEDC would attest to. And they were just grabbing for information because they real-ised that when you have community involvement not only do their clubs get better but the entire Island and all of the communities around them also get better.
And although I don’t have the portfolio that
includes youth any longer, Madam Deputy Speaker, I am also very happy as an educator (as yourself) that young people still have the tools in this country. And we will continue to give them the tools to build bright futures, whether it be sports, whether it be culture or
whether it be job opportunities. This party has shown

B ermuda House of Assembly that we invest in our people. That is jobs, that is tourism, that is culture.
And we will continue, especially under my
watch, to make sure that we are growing tourism the right way. Tourism is a large part of our community. I heard earlier it seems like it was slipped in and it was
tried to be downplayed. But we need to make sure
and we will continue to make sure that it benefits all Bermudians and not just a few.
And to that end, Madam Deputy Speaker, you
will see the Tourism Investment Act 2017 was men-tioned in both Throne Speeches. And we haven’t taken one and thrown it out. In the first one it mentioned
that the Tourism Investment Act 2017 would include categories which includes attractions [in the] adven-ture tourism category. We will then streamline and reduce the complexity of the application process.
One of the shocking parts that I have had to
realise is that a lot of our people don’t know where to find this information. And when they do find it, it seems like a pipedream. It is unattainable to them. So I am happy that we have sat down and said, You know what? Here is the application. This is how you
get through it. And we will invest in you. Because we
are not just investing in the hotels on South Shore and
the ones down on Pitts Bay Road. We are looking, as you see in this one, that we are going to include in the Tourism Investment Act 2017 smaller guest houses as well as health, medical sites. And to make these developments eligible for the suite of concessions available under the Act.
So when guest house owners call and say,
How can you help me? We can no longer say, Well, you are not really eligible under this Act. We can say,
Here is the Act. This is what the Progressive Labour
Party Government is doing for you and this is how you
can get your guest house back on track.
I have heard the calls. I have heard the pleas
from my colleagues about individuals and guest house owners in their constituencies [who are] looking for the
Government to do more. How can we help them?
We are backing major projects, as you have
seen.

Yes.
Hon. Owen Darrell: Not just photo ops. Not just photo
ops. Mind you, I would have liked to have seen some
of them in the photo because it is that important. But
we are backing major projects such as the Fairmont Southampton redevelopment. Because they create jobs for Bermudians.
I’ll tell you, Madam Deputy Speaker, I started
by telling you that sometimes they tell you the reward for hard work is more work. So I am going to pivot a bit to what we are doing —
[
Inaudible interjections] Hon. Owen Darrell: —in Transportation [and] —
[
Laughter]
Hon. Owen Darrell: —how we are investing in
transport in this country. We are improving public
transportation.

Yes, you are.
Hon. Owen Darrell: Now, it was announced some
time ago that there are currently two new ferries being
built. That has been in the infrastructure because although I come from down the East End, I can tell you
that the moment that the water is a little choppy and they can’t run those ferries or the ferries break down, whatever happens, it is a scramble for Bermudians to get into Hamilton to school or work. So I know how important they are to the public transport infrastructure. So that is an investment that we are making.
But one of the things that almost brought tears
to my eyes, Madam Deputy Speaker, and you see
when you become a Minister and you take on these new portfolios or these new responsibilities, the first
thing they want to do (Right MP Adams?) is take you
on a tour. And they take you and they want to show you this department and they want to show this de-partment and, you know, for the most part everybody is happy to see you. Oh, what are you going to do for
us?
But one of the facilities that literally brought
tears to my eyes was the new maintenance facility
that they are building at the Dockyard. And the young man (I forget his name, forgive me) who gave me the tour was excited. He is the acting manager up there. He was excited to show me the possibilities that are
going to be opened by this investing into this infrastructure. And you know, when a lot of people might have just walked by and said, Oh, this is nice. This is
a nice building. This is going to support our ferries and boats. I said, No, no. Take me in. I want to see what is
in it. And he took me to the current one before he took
me over to the new one and there was this machine shop in the back.
And see, if anybody knows me, they would
know that I grew up around a gentleman who spent all his life in a machine shop. It is all he does. And he
talked about this machine and that machine and as I
grew up as a young man I was like, Daddy, I don’t really need to know about all this stuff. But when I saw
the machine shop I said, Wait. You guys do this type
of stuff up here?
And [the young man] said, Yes. You know,
outside of BELCO we are the largest machine shop in the country.
And I immediately thought of the possibilities
of what is happening in education. And these signa-ture schools and how we can actually get our stu-dents. And we have seen all the videos, but how can
we get those young men up to Dockyard and put them
84 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report
B ermuda House of Assembly in that machine shop and say, Hey, this is what your
job is going to be and this is how you support the transportation infrastructure.
So that, Madam Deputy Speaker, was just
something that just blew my mind away. And I am go-ing to make sure that once it opens that the public
gets to see what we are investing in up there for this
country. As I said, the signature learning programmes will help students use that facility and gain real world skills that lead to solid careers.
But as I come down the hill, Madam Deputy
Speaker, one thing that continues to be said over and
over is that this Progressive Labour Party Government
provides support to a Bermuda that works for every-one. As I said, it is about fairness. It is about making sure that every Bermudian —not just the wealthy, not
just the well -connected—has a solid chance to succeed. Our Government is focused on real solutions,
not just talk. And I will say that . . . I will put this in
here, Madam President . . . I’m sorry, Madam Deputy
Speaker. (I am going back to another place, look at
that.)
I will tell you this —

Don’t go back.
Hon. Owen Darrell: I was sitting in a particular meeting earlier this week and the question came up and said, We are having this general debate. It is the
Throne Speech Reply. We need to know who is speaking. I put my hand up. I think I shocked a couple
of people. They said, But wait. You are new.
[
Inaudible interjections and laughter ]
Hon. Owen Darrell: I said, Let me tell you something.
I learned a long time ago that this is parliament . . . Let
me see if I can get this right for my French teacher
back in the day. The word “parliament” comes from a French word parler .
[
Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Owen Darrell: Don’t let the French people beat
up on me.
[
Inaudible interjections and laughter ]
Hon. Owen Darrell: Parler means “to speak.” So I
can tell you this, Madam Deputy Speaker, there was no way that I spent 40 days during an election cam-paign and about five months before that knocking on
doors, walking hills, listening to people give me their
problems and their issues and how we can fix it and what they want the Government to be. There was no way that I was coming to this place and not speak on their behalf, because my speaking in this place, Mad-am Deputy Speaker, is one part of me representing
the people of this country. So we can call this a maiden speech. We can
call it whatever you want. But I am coming to work,
Madam Deputy Speaker. I am coming to work for the individuals who say, Show me a better way. I am coming to work for the individuals who say, Can you introduce me to a better life? I am coming to work for the
people who say, Life just doesn’t seem fair. And I will
continue to come to work in this place. I will continue to speak on their behalf.
At lunchtime today I walked by a group of
gentlemen parked on Church Street. And I just wanted to get back to the House so I tried to go across the
street. They said, Hey, hey, hey, hey! Come around
here and talk to us. A group of taxi drivers. They said, We want to speak to you. We want to talk to you. They said, We heard you are avoiding us. I said, Well,
here is my number. You can text me. You can call me. You can come to my office. My job is to serve the
people of this country.
[
Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Owen Darrell: So, . . . I was trying to see how I
was going to slip this in. Hmm! So I am just going to
go right in with my last couple of minutes before I close my speech.
But 14 years ago on Monday, Madam Deputy
Speaker, a little girl came into this world. Her name was Tatum Suraeya Darrell. And she turns 14 years
old on Monday. And I am going to use this opportunity and use my voice, if she is listening, to wish her a very happy birthday on Monday. But you might say, Well,
why are you telling your daughter happy birthday in this speech?
[
Laughter]
Hon. Owen Darrell: Because, Madam Deputy
Speaker, it is important that when we come to this place we don’t just represent those who voted for us.
But we have to represent those who are coming behind them. Because I took her up in the hills with me. And I said, It is important for you to see why Daddy may miss your play this afternoon. It is important for you to see why Daddy has so many meetings.
Hon. E. David Burt: Yes.
Hon. Owen Darrell: And I think as she approaches
14, and I think as I took her with me up into those hills of Pembroke East, and I drag her to football games and netball games and everything else that I do in the
name of service, she gets it. And she sees what her
father [and] his colleagues are doing and the party of which we represent for the people of this country.
So as I close, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will
say this: Our Government will continue to focus on real solutions. And I am not going to start calling
names, but to all of those up in Pembroke East and

B ermuda House of Assembly Bermuda, we will keep working for you. We will keep
working with you. We will keep working alongside you
to build a Bermuda where everyone can thrive.
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.
[
Desk thumping]

From when we were in another place,
he referred to the doom and gloom and the storms
that always happen whenever we are having these kinds of debates.
Well, Madam Deputy Speaker, what happens
is when you are doing the door knocking that he was referring to, so many times it is the stories that those families are telling you that make you realise that not everybody is feeling the same way that we may feel. And there are perspectives in this country depending
on your job, where you live, your circumstances.
Madam Deputy Speaker, although there are important
things that the Government has done to progress this country, we acknowledge that. When you sit in a living room and the family is telling you their story that is not
usually the story that they want to tell you. When a
loved one spends over a week in the hallway of the emergency room, that becomes the story they tell you. They feel it. They express that to you.
So when we repeat that, it is not because we
want to paint a picture of doom and gloom, but it is the
reality that some of our citizens who do not have the
ability to stand here and speak in this House, are giv-ing to us.
So, Madam Deputy Speaker, when people are
telling us that they are struggling to pay health insur-ance and because of the weight of that health insurance they are contemplating leaving, we are not repeating that because we want to just be negative. It is because that is what a portion of our population is feeling. And that portion seems to be growing.
And the real issue that we have is that we
spend so much time on the divide that sometimes we
can’t even understand that we are actually on the same side on many issues. Because it is not possible
that the Government Members did not hear some of these same stories when they were on those door-steps.
So it is not that the Government isn’t trying to
solve some of the problems, but the problems seem to
be growing faster than we can solve them. Some of
these things are because of outside pressures. But many are because we are not willing to even admit our problems.
So, Madam Deputy Speaker, the portfolio for
me to discuss today is education. And education is
obviously the foundation of how all of us were able to
achieve the things we have to get to where we are today. It has helped to build a country that we have and I believe everybody here believes that that is the foundation that we must continue to build on for the future. And we have many successful students in our
public education system. And the danger is that
whenever we speak about public education it usually is the negative side.
So I do want to thank the Government for the
added finances that they have given toward scholarships because giving an opportunity to our young
people to be able to get tertiary education, to be able to get the certifications that will allow them to come back and work in our country. That is important. But something that bothers me is that so many of our young people now are leaving here, becoming educated and not thinking that Bermuda is a place that
they want to return to.
Now that has always happened. There are
people in Bermuda for generations who have decided that they want to go somewhere else for other oppor-tunities. The problem is that the number is growing at
a time that we are also in a population crisis. So an
ageing population, a low birth rate, that is what high-lights that we cannot afford to lose any of our young, educated people who have gone away to better them-selves. We really need to do everything we can to attract them to come back to Bermuda.
Madam Deputy Speaker, the One Bermuda
Alliance said during the election campaign, and it is
also in our Leader’s Reply to the Throne [Speech] that there are certain things within education that we think need to be dealt with. I think everybody here agrees
that a reform had to happen. There were changes that
needed to happen in order for us to fix the trajectory of where education has been in the population.
But as I said, when we talk about the people
who we get to talk to who give us the information, that is the message that I have to bring to the House. So, it
is when teachers are frustrated with the process, frustrated with not feeling they know exactly what is going to happen next. It is not because I am here to say everything is bad, but I have to point out that that anx-iety from our teachers has to be listened to.
Earlier today there was some conversation
about some specific things that are happening in our
86 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report
B ermuda House of Assembly public school environment. Some of our young people
who are not being able to be on the positive side, what we would like to be able to talk about. How we want our young public school students to be repre-sented. But there are teachers who are frustrated be-cause those behaviours have been happening —
ongoing.
It is not new. And incidents happen and sometimes teachers are suspended while that process is happening, while they have to figure out what is hap-pening during that specific situation. And then they return, and they find out that the same student who
was causing the issue will continue to be in that class.
And that is causing frustration.
And I have said it over and over again, our
teachers do not to withhold their work. The people who are in that specific field, teaching, that is a calling. Teaching is probably the most important job in the
country. In their hands [teachers] have the future.
They are the ones who are responsible for moulding those young people to be the future that all of us want to see.
So when you see the frustration and you hear
their frustration, we have to bring that information here. We have to speak about it because if they are feeling that they are not being heard, and they do not actually have the ability to say it because of the job, somebody else has to be their voice. And it is our op-portunity to be that voice. Not just the Opposition. Any
of us who have that opportunity to talk to teachers and
they voice their frustration in how the reform is being handled, whether they are being supported at the cor-rect level, these are discussions that we have seen bubble up over and over again and most of the time . . . and only when it is in the headlines that people
really get to know this frustration. But if they have the most important job in the country, we need to make sure that we are supporting them as if that is the most important job.
So, Madam Deputy Speaker, there is another
group that has voiced their frustration when it comes to education— public education, specifically. And that
is parents. Now, I understand as you are making change there will be frustration because change is difficult for anybody. But some of these changes seem as if they were not thought all the way through. So
now you are having parents see their child go through
a transition that maybe has an interruption because it was not thought all the way through to the end. And it is frustrating them. And that is the situation when the parent is actually involved. That is the parent who is trying their very best to make sure that their child gets
the best opportunity for the future.
But we cannot kid ourselves, we know that
there are many of our young people who do not have
that kind of support. So, they get left behind without somebody advocating for them. So when schools close and parents do not know what school their child
is going to go to — Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Point of order.

Your point of order, Member?
POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Again, the Member is misleading the House, and this time he is doing it intentionally.
I have already said that no school clos es
without a student being allocated to another school. I
do fully admit, you may not get your first choice. And
very rarely will you not get your second choic e. But
there are always c hoices. You just might not like the
choice that y ou happened to get.

Member, your point of order?
POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Again, the Member is misleading the House. What he is implying is that one
school, or a particular set of schools does not offer the


Bermuda House of Assembly same thing that another particular set of schools does.
That is the problem that we have. If the people will
stop pitting schools against schools, we would make
more progress than we have made.
So, to say that the child is not going to the
school that they want to go to so they therefore will
not succeed is blatantly false. And he needs to withdraw that statement.

Madam Deputy Speaker. So, the issue is parents . Right? Because I’m not lucky enough
to be a parent. So the people that I am speaking to
are telling me how they feel about their children. So, if
the Minister disagrees with these parents, that’s fine. But understand something. That disagreement with
these parents has been ongoing throughout the reform and they have not been listened to. That is the
actual thing that has been happening in this country.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Again —

Oh-oh! Oh- oh!
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: And so while he stands
here and says that he has spoken to parents, he has
spoken to teachers —
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: —he has not spoken to the
Reform Unit. He has not spoken to the Ministry of Education. Or he has not spoken to the Department of
Education.

—when teachers contact you and tell
you that the stench of sewage early in the morning is
what they are greeted with in the school and it has not
been dealt with for an extended period of time, I would
say that is something that I should talk about here.
Because that is the issue they have written in, com-plained about, nothing is changed. So when we talk
about facilities of these schools and it is our opinion
that these are the things that should be dealt with immediately —
[Inaudible interjections]

—so as we are actually moving forward, our position is that some of the reform seems
like it has not been finished all the way through. Even though we have spent millions of dollars from a consultant who should have told us how this process
works, the frustration has been happening through the
parents, through the teachers, through the administrators.
But they do not have the ability to go anywhere else after they have been complaining and the changes have not happened. So, it is not doom and
gloom if the frustration is . . . and this is where I will
connect it, because those parents who are having to
go to a different school are speaking to the parents
who are already in certain schools and being given
the feedback, You don’t want to bring your child here.
Once again, these are the exact words coming from parents. I can’t tell you anything else.
So, if the Minister, the new Minister, is hearing
similar things then we will get advised what changes
are being put in place in order to fix those things. But it is the Opposition’s position that an independent education authority needs to be put in place as soon as
possible. Get politics out of education. Give the support to the teachers.
Another year of not having enough substitute
teachers. Another year of having classes without hav-ing teachers and then having to have teachers take
their period of preparation to cover another class.
Once again, these are all the frustrations that are being given to us by those teachers, by those parents.
So the question is: If these things are not
happening . . . so, these parents and teachers are just
making it up, because I don’t see what the benefit is.
The headline that we see is that teachers are with88 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly holding their work because of their frustration. The
frustration cannot just be for nothing.
Our situation is that same frustration that I am
speaking about here we are also hearing coming out
of the hospital. So once again, it is not about . . . and I
will say it over and over again. There are good policies that we are working towards, but the frustration of
our population is what is bubbling over.
Those are the messages that we get when we
are sitting in someone’s living room and they are frustrated because a parent says, I don’t know if I can risk this. So now I am being forced to take my child to private education. Those are their words. They feel like
they are forced because they do not have a choice.
And in a country where we already know the cost is
completely out of control, having to now pay to go to
private education, when you should have been able to get same world- class education without the cost.
Now, the answer . . . so it is their choice. So it
is their . . . the first choice they had they didn’t get.
The second choice they didn’t get. And they have sent their child to private. And now they have to pay that
cost. And other parents are making the decision, I
can’t afford that. So now I am having to leave the
country. This is just the reality of the people in the
country. It is not because we want to point out only
negative. But we have to highlight the things that the
people in the country are telling us.
And the truth of the matter is, Madam Deputy
Speaker, we are pretty sure there are 20- something
people on the other side that will talk about all the positive things they are doing. So, the Opposition
needs to stand up and tap the Government on the
back.

So, most important thing in this education is the student and that needs to be our focus.
COVID -19. We do not like to talk about it, but it had an
impact on all of our students —public, private, it
doesn’t matter. It is the . . . the statistics are telling you
that there has been an impact on our students. Not
just our students, worldwide.
We have also heard the issues with mental
health. So, anxiety and stress with our students. Right? The testing that was done, the young people
were telling us that that is the position that they are in. So once again, from our standpoint, we want to focus
on the basics of our education system to make sure that the foundation is in place for us to get to these next levels that we agree are important.
One of the problems that we have had for a
long time isn’t that we didn’t have the ability to teach
technical. It is that our students weren’t actually want-ing to do technical. So, part of that is the fault of our
society because we have spent so much time telling
everybody that they are only a success if they are going to be in certain industries. So now we have to educate our population on those differences.
So we support a system that allows for those
young people to be exposed. For them to understand
that these are real opportunities that can allow them to
have a strong life in Bermuda. But if we do not build
the foundation, and this is based off of the statistics,
then they actually cannot even take on those opportunities. And then we continue to have to bring in work-ers from overseas in order to do the jobs that could be
done by our young people. So we have to, and we will
continue to support all of the positive initiatives within
education. But it is also important that we give the
support that is necessary.
And when I say support that is necessary, to
make sure that the facilities that our students are
learning in, that our teachers are working in are up to
par. To make sure that the security level in those
schools is high enough so that parents can feel com-fortable that their child is safe when they go to school.
To make sure that there are substitute teachers so
that when a teacher cannot be in the classroom, the
learning continues at the level that it was expected to
happen.
Education is the most important thing that we
can give to the next generation. And we understand that we have a threat from external. And it also means
that we have to prepare for a future that is completely
different from the present that we are living in right
now with technology potentially impacting jobs. And
for that reason we have to make sure that our children
have the highest level of education to give them the
opportunities to be able to flourish in the future Bermuda.
But if we are not providing the support, the
assessment, and then the support for our young people at the youngest ages so that they are prepared to take on the opportunities in education and then in employment, then we fail them.
And that is why the education cycle cannot be
connected to our political cycle. That is why the authority has to be independent. There will be oversight
because there is funding that has to come from Government, from taxpayers’ money.

[Laughter]

And it will be wonderful to see how
long we are going to continue with them and how
much they will continue to get paid considering the
amount of interruptions that we have, including what
will be happening in September when some of the
students who should have been going to senior school
have now had to be rerouted.
So considering those things, it will be important to know whether those parents should continue to be frustrated. Whether those children will continue to be displaced and whether their teachers will
continue to be frus trated because they do not have
the support that is needed and they are in facilities
that they are saying are causing them health issues.
So if that is the case, it will be interesting to
hear those reports and to have transparency and accountability so that we k now exactly what is happening s tep by s tep through this reform. And an audit—
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Point of order.

Your point of order, Member?
POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Once again, the Member is
misleading, bec ause if he would come and sit with the
Education Reform Unit—a s we have asked him to do
for the last five years—h e would actually see those
reports , becaus e he would be able to ask for them
and he would get them. So set up the meeting, sit
down with the Reform team and he would get the answers that he claims he cannot find. It’s simple. [
Laughter]

Point of order!
Member, do not keep speaking when there is
a point of order on the floor.
Okay.
POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Again, if the Member would
. . . it is interesting that the Member keeps finding the
same people to talk to because there are lots of other persons that he can talk to.
[
Timer chimes]

Hey, you are sick, brother.
[
Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jache Adams: I am a bit disappointed this
evening. I am bit disappointed this evening because the Throne Speech Debate and Budget Debate tend to be my favourite days in Parliament. I enjoy those days . . . or these days. And I am a bit disappointed,
because I don’t know if my voice is going to hold out
90 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly for the next 30 minutes. So, I may end up being briefer than I intended. But nevertheless, I shall plough
forward.
Madam Deputy Speaker, there are a few
items that I noticed in the Throne Speech Reply that I took quite interest in and I welcome any Member from
the OBA who plans to speak this evening to respond.
You know, the first is, I noticed on page 29, it said,
“Instead of new ministerial cars, [how about they] get
more trash trucks. ”

Yay!

[Desk thumping and i naudible interjections]

Hon. Jache Adams: Thank you very much.
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Jache Adams: So that is tick number one—tick
number —

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Jache Adams: Not quite. Not quite. Not quite.
Not quite. Not quite.
Madam Deputy Speaker, then there was a
comment in relation to small businesses. And I believe
the comment basically said that the One Bermuda
Alliance would introduce targeted payroll tax relief for
new start -up businesses. And I thought that was a
great idea but then it dawned on me, cousin. I said,
Well, look. Let me go on the BEDC's website —

And what did you find?

Hon. Jache Adams: And what I found . . . and if you
would allow me, Madam Deputy Speaker, it said, in
quotes, “The Government of Bermuda has pledged to
provide new tax relief for entrepreneurs [ of] new
startups to assist them in creating new jobs. ” You see,
we are doing exactly what they said we should do.

[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jache Adams: Yes? Another . . . no?

[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jache Adams: All right. No, we are doing it.
Then I saw a comment that spoke to we
would conduct a full audit and convert properties into affordable housing. So again, Madam Deputy Speaker, if you would allow me I would go to the most recent
Budget Statement —
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Jache Adams: Yes. The most recent Budget
Statement where the Government or the Premier and Minister of Finance said, “. . . the Government will invest an additional $10 million to the Bermuda Housing
Corporation to accelerate the provision of affordable
housing . . . ”. Again, we are doing exactly what they
said we should do.

[Crosstalk]

Hon. Jache Adams: So the audit exists.

Where does it exist?
Hon. Jache Adams: The audit exists and we have
taken the liberty to ensure that appropriate financing is made to address some of the government properties
into affordable housing.
He then said “[Emergency] road repaving initiatives.” Well, I can say that we are currently in the road repaving efforts. And in fact, I think they said
they would address some of the most critical roads
first. And that is exactly what we are doing.
I welcome Members to travel up on the western end and they will see an entire repaving team that is repaving along Middle Road and they are working
their way toward Southampton towards Evans Bay.
And the reason they are doing that is because those
roads were recently trenched. And then when they
complete that, the areas or the path that they will take
going forward are areas that were recently trenched
as well.
So those are the areas that are critically in
need of repaving and that is exactly what we are doing. Those are the steps that we are taking. So I
would wonder why there is still no commendation
coming from the OBA considering that is exactly what we are doing.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Jache Adams: Well, well done. Thank you.
See, we can work together.

[Crosstalk ]

Hon. Jache Adams: Madam Deputy Speaker, I am
pleased to rise in this Honourable House to speak in support of our Throne Speech. A Throne Speech that
in my opinion reflects a Government that is focused

Ber muda House of Assembly on progress, focused on stability, focused on delivering on the needs of the very people we serve.
Well, Madam Deputy Speaker, before I do
that, I must first speak to the spectacle I believe was the Opposition’s Reply. You see, I call it a spectacle because in my opinion it has now been reduced to an
annual performance. It is the same tired script. It is the
same stale arguments. It is the same mundane narra-tive from a party that evidently still does not get it.
Madam Deputy Speaker, I listened carefully. I
tried to find the spark. I tried to find the new idea. But evidently it appears to me that the Opposition still
does not get it. I mean, how many landslide defeats
must they suffer?
[Inaudible interjections]
Ho
n. Jache Adams: Let’s try this again. There have
now been three consecutive landslide defeats.
[Inaudible interjection]
Ho
n. Jache Adams: How many landslide defeats . . .
Listen, if that —
[Inaudible interjection]
Th
e Deputy Speaker: Talk to the Chair.
[Lau
ghter]
Th
e Deputy Speaker: Don’t be distracted.
[Inaudible interjections]
Th
e Deputy Speaker: Thank you, Members.
Ho
n. Jache Adams: Madam Deputy Speaker, what
the people of this country deserve is not just opposi-tion for the sake of opposition. Yes?

Equality Act. Hon. Jache Adams: Equality Act. But until . . . that is
the only time that I have ever heard of them introducing or speaking about an Opposition Bill. It is totally
within their right to discuss and raise what sort of Oppositi
on Bills they plan to bring forward. But we never
hear about this.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jache Adams: Well, let’s go. That is one in
years.

So you are going to bring it back?
Hon. Jache Adams: If it is decent.
[Laughter and crosstalk ]
Hon.
Jache Adams: If it makes sense. If it makes
sense.
But,
Madam Deputy Speaker—
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jache Adams: Yes. Listen.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jache Adams: I remember.
But
, Madam Deputy Speaker, enough about
them.
[Lau
ghter]
[Inaudible interjections]
Ho
n. Jache Adams: Because while they like to point
fingers, this Government has been working. Working
through a pandemic, global inflation, and the weight of the very mess the OBA left.
Madam Deputy Speaker, I need the public to
fully understand. I need for the public to fully under-stand that the Government has never tried to convince you that everything is great. That has never been our position. You see, when the Premier and my other colleagues give you data, such as having the first fiscal surplus in over 20 years —
[Lau
ghter]
Dr
. Douglas DeCouto: Point of order, Madam Deputy
Speaker.
Ho
n. Jache Adams: Go ahead.

Your point of order?
POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
92 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report
B ermuda House of Assembly Dr. Douglas DeCouto: The Minister is perhaps inadvertently mis leading the House because if you read
the Fiscal Responsibility Panel Report, for example, it
will highlight the over $100 million of deficit s pending
undertaken by this Government. Thank you, Madam
Deputy Speaker.

Thank y ou, Member.
Minister, continue.
Hon. Jache Adams: Madam Deputy Speaker, our
fiscal year ends on March 31, in a few days . We will
then be subjec t to an annual audit as we always are.
And I am fairly confident that that audit will announce
that the consolidated fund for this current fis cal year
will report a surplus. And it will report the first surplus
in ov er 21 years.
Point-o f-order that!
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Say it again!
[Desk thumping]
Hon. Jache Adams: Point-o f-order that!
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Say it again!
Hon. Jache Adams: We have the lowest unemployment rate in over 40 years.
Hon. E. David Burt: Tell them! Tell them!
Hon. Jache Adams: There are more Bermudians
working in international business than ever before.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jache Adams: Google is building their presence here in Bermuda. Cranes are in the City of Hamilton. Southampton Princess is on its way. Our tourism
figures continue to improve.
Madam Deputy Speaker, when we mention
statistics s uch as these it is not as though we are trying to present a pic ture that everything is great. What
we are saying is that progress is being made. That is
what we are saying. I am proud to be a part of a team.
Proud of what we have done and proud of where we
are going.
Now, Madam Deputy Speaker, let me now
speak to some of the initiatives directly under my Ministry in the most recent Throne Speech. Now, Madam
Deputy Speaker, I will be the firs t to admit that when I
was appointed this Ministry I spoke to the Deputy
Governor and he asked me, How does it feel? And I
said, To be honest, it feels like being at the bottom of
a mountain looking up. It has been less than a month
and I can tell you it is certainly a tall task—w ithout
question. But with the same level of conviction, I am
confident that I am capable of doing the job. An Hon. Member: You are.
Hon. Jache Adams: And I am happy and proud and
appreciative of the Premier’s confidence in me to do it.
Hon. E. David Burt: I support you.
Hon. Jache Adams: Thank you. I appreciate that.
But, you know, in order for me to proceed forward I must first recognise and appreciate my predecessors because—
[Crosstalk]

COVID -19.
Hon. Jache Adams: I have COVID -19, yes.
[Laughter]
Hon. Jache Adams: Sit down. Everybody take it
easy.
[Laughter]
Hon. Jache Adams: Let me acknowledge my predecessors. My predecessors recognise that the Ministry has slightly shifted. It is Public Works and Environ-ment. So, much of my Ministry is what the former
Lieutenant Colonel Burch, had but also Walter Roban.
And those are two significant people in my life, both
personally and professionally. They are people who I
hold in high regard. And to take on the mantle, to stand on their shoulders, to proceed forward and con-tinue along the path that they blazed—
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Jache Adams: I am appreciative of it, yes. Yes.
Yes.
[Laughter]
Hon. Jache Adams: Now, Madam Deputy Speaker,
the Throne Speech outlines some amendments to the Private Roads Acts. At first glance, to some it may
seem like a small matter. But if you live on a private
road, you know just how frustrating and bureaucratic it can be to get a basic safety measure completed and
implemented. Whether it is a mirror on a blind corner
or a speed bump to slow reckless drivers, or better lighting for our seniors and children. The red tape often means residents are left waiting—waiting while
lives are still put at risk. And it is this Government that has said Enough is enough and we will act.
These amendments will empower the Minister, grant the Minister additional responsibility and au-thority to intervene where necessary, where common
sense should tell us that safety should never be held

B ermuda House of Assembly hostage by outdated legislation or procedural hurdles.
Because at the end of the day, Madam Deputy Speaker, what is good for the role of Government if not to protect its people? On every road, on every neighbourhood, in every parish in this country.
Madam Deputy Speaker, another area that
falls under my responsibility is one that is more com-plex, challenging and, yes, controversial. And that is the issue involving the marine spatial protection. Let
me be very clear. The Government is committed to protecting Bermuda’s environment and protecting and preserving our oceans —full stop. But we are equally
committed to doing what is fair. We are equally creat-ing a space where we can be better informed, that brings all of the stakeholders to the table. Especially those who rely on those waters for their living.
Madam Deputy Speaker, the debate around
the entire Bermuda Ocean Prosperity Programme
[BOPP] initiative exposed some real frustrations within
our local fishing industry. Their message was simple and powerful. Do a better job enforcing the current
laws before you start to layer on more regulations. And I completely agree.
It is why we have put it in our platform. It is
why we have put it in our Throne Statement. We will pause the initiative until we reach an agreement with the fishermen on better and effective ways of en-forcement and data collection. That is our commit-ment. We have heard the fishermen and we have responded. Madam Deputy Speaker, we will get this
right. Not by rushing, not by ignoring anyone but by working together for Bermudians as Bermudians.
Now, Madam Deputy Speaker, I want to address an issue that the Opposition often raise in rela-tion to corporate income tax. And the reason why I
mention that is because in our Throne Speech we
mentioned that we will use the funds from the corpo-rate income tax, new funds from the corporate income tax, part of the funds, to invest in infrastructure. And part of the criticism . . . I think this needs to be said.
Part of the criticism is that perhaps there is too much reliance on this corporate income tax.

True.
Hon. Jache Adams: There is too much reliance on
this corporate income tax.
Well, Madam Deputy Speaker, here is the key
point to the entire argument. We will soon have it con-firmed that the Government has positioned ourselves, as I said earlier, to have its first fiscal surplus in over 21 years. And the reason why I emphasise that is because even if we did not get a dime of corporate income tax, we are still operating now at a surplus.

Thank you, Member.
Minister.
Hon. Jache Adams: So, let’s be clear. Those are
separate items. Those are separate items. What I am
referring to is revenue vers us expenditure. And I am
simply say ing this year it will be confirmed that we will
be receiv ing a fiscal surplus, a fiscal surplus, for the
first time in over 21 years. That is a fact.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Jache Adams: Now, when I say this—
You are correct. It is not a fact yet. It will be, in
my opinion. How about that? In my opinion, it will be.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jache Adams: Yes?
[Laughter]
Hon. Jache Adams: And the reas on why that is so
important is because it speaks to the very foundation
that we have built.
So, when we speak about potential use of
corporate income tax revenues, particularly to invest
in critical infrastructure, we are not being reckless. We
are not being naïve. We are being responsible. We
are being transparent, open to the people about what
we project, what we plan and why it matters.
Madam Deputy Speaker, what Government in
their right mind would ignore the potential of new revenue streams? What responsible leader would fail to
tell the public how those funds might be used for the
betterment of the country. Again, I repeat, even if we
did not rec eive a dime from c orporate income tax . . .
How about this ? Even if we did not receive a dime of
corporate income tax , I believe it is without question
that our fisc al position is improving.
Hon. E. David Burt: Yes.
Hon. Jache Adams: Okay .
[Laughter and crosstalk]
Hon. Jache Adams: So let me be specific . We will be
investing those funds in infrastructure, as we said,
because that is where ev ery Bermudian will feel the
94 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report
B ermuda House of Assembly impact. Improved roads and bridges. Modernised and
repurposed buildings, upgraded waste management facilities.
Madam Deputy Speaker, when we invest in
infrastructure, we are investing in the backbone of our society. We are investing in the dignity and the pride
and the quality of life of our people. And that is what
this Government is focused on —results that the people can see. The results that they can feel. The results that they can benefit from every single day. I could almost feel me cracking up now, so I am going to close with this.
[
Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jache Adams: Fair enough. Fair enough. This
won’t be every time. I assure you of that.
[
Laughter]
Hon. Jache Adams: This won’t be every time.
So, as I close, I want to speak directly to the
people of Bermuda—to the mothers, to the fathers,
the workers, the seniors, the young people, wondering
what the future holds.
I want them to know that they have a Government that sees them, hears them, that will continue to fight for them. Not just during debate season. Not just during election time. But every single day. We are
balancing the books. We are building homes. We are
supporting our seniors. We are creating jobs and op-portunities for Bermudians in industries where for far too long were not looked out for.
And, Madam Deputy Speaker, to our supporters, to those who put their trust in us, because, again,
I take the point that at this present time these are
words. The people of this country are counting on us actually for the execution. I encourage those individu-als to be proud, because what we are doing is not easy, but it is necessary. What we are building is not
just today, but for generations to come.
Thank you.

[INAUDIBLE]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: What? [Inaudible interjections and laughter]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Absolutely.
[Inaudible interjections and laughter]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Typically, I enjoy lively
a debate. And the tone was set from the Reply,
which I will say after 13 years . . . or maybe 14 (I will
have to do the count), but this was probably the
most tame and less confrontational Reply that has
been present-ed.
[Inaudible interjections ]

Honourable Opposition Leader.
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: I w ill take that half a minute
back.
[Laughter]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: It has left me a bit
bewil-dered because I am like . . . I am used to a little
bit of brimstone and fire. And the honourable
colleague knows that I am very passionate about
where we are going as a country and this
opportunity to lay out the year is important. So I
agree with the Honourable Shadow Minister of
Public Works . . . I am sorry, Min-ister. I am still trying
to get you voted out, man. Geez.
[Laughter]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Thank goodness for
that Independent, he must be saying.
[Inaudible interjections and laughter]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: The Honourable Minister, I
have grown to actually be affectionate towards his
plight for his politics and his career and so I must say
that I enjoy listening to him. Unfortunately, he is not
feeling too sharp today. But no exc uses in this arena.

B ermuda House of Assembly So, you know, I am sitting here and I am
thinking to myself, Well, no one really is saying anything of any consequence to this debate. We have
already had a Throne Speech in November and now
we have got a partial Throne Speech to the Throne Speech from November.
And I will say this for the Minister, there was
not much there about Public Works other than this private roads thing and Mary Victoria Road and we are going to do some work over there. What I will say to that is that in 2015 I had just become the Minister of Public Works and it was a whole lot of noise being
made about the fact that it was yellow water. And the
yellow water is still there.
So, I heard earlier in some comments, you
know, how we are just always . . . going at the first
speaker, the Honourable Member . . . who was it?

Hayward.
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Hayward, yes. The Honourable Member Jason Hayward spoke about, you know, we are just always . . . Opposition, Opposition,
Opposition. Just going at it. And quite frankly, we have been kind of tame on this side, to a whole lot, Madam Deputy Speaker.
But now that we got 11 in here, I think we can
liven up things a little bit.
[
Laughter and inaudible interjections]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: We can liven things up.
We can liven things up! And they are going to see, as
we go through this process, starting today.
[
Inaudible interjections]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Now, when we look at . . .
when we look at talking about solutions and . . . you
know. Where are the solutions? Well, you have been
in this House for quite some time, Madam Deputy
Speaker. There have been a lot of solutions thrown out there. And I am just going to say that the Honour-able Minister from Public Works was talking about what . . . what, you know, where are the solutions,
basically.
Well, let me just talk about the paved
roads. And I will put the Minister on notice, if the Min-ister and budget process do not come with a substan-tial financial contribution to getting the roads done, there is going to be noise. Now, the solution to this is this: If we take the process that the former Minister
talked about, and the cost of doing a mile of paving
roads, we are going to be the next 10 years getting things fixed. So what I am suggesting to the Honoura-ble Minister, is that yes, the Public Works guys are out there. We see them paving the roads. But if we want to speed things up, because we are seeing the results
of bad roads on the tyres, and accidents, and the like . . . and so me people will t ake it ev en further. We
need to speed up the process.
Take some of those capital projects, mov e
them as ide, put some more money into the roads, and
get these other contractors . . . I don’t k now about in
construction, those paving roads, but some of these
other contractors out there and put the money to getting the roads done because it is—
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Point of order, Madam
Deputy Speaker.

Your point of order?
POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: The Honourable Member
probably is misleading the House. Because maybe,
just maybe, he is not aware of what is going on.
But he just suggested that other contrac tors
should help the Gov ernment with the paving. In case
the Honourable Member, who is Shadow Minister,
should know, they are actually doing that. The East
End [Asphalt] at one end of the Island, and Public
Works are at the other. There are only two companies
on the Island and they are both paving roads.

Thank y ou, Member.
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, I would beg to differ
that there are only two. We know of some smaller,
private companies as well who have been bidding.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes. Who have been bidding with Public Works—
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: There are a lot of roads.
Small roads as well. There are other roads that can be
done and so what I am suggesting is we put more
money into this to beef up the process so that we can
get these roads done.
[Inaudible interjections ]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: This is one of the number
one things, Madam Deputy Speaker, that I heard on
the doorstep—
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: —as we were out during
this election. And the Premier can chirp all he wants.
One of the major issues . . . and if he wants to continue to interpolate let me just say this here. People are
96 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly dying on our streets. And people are pointing to the
Government because of this.
So if we want to interpolate, let’s talk about
what the people are saying. We need the roads fixed.
And we cannot wait 10- plus years to get them fixed.
So whatever we need to do, let’s move into the process of speeding it up. I have not heard a statement
from the Honourable Minister, Jache Adams, for the
roads. I have not heard a statement being put out that
we have got other people doing the roads. Okay? I am
not up in—

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

Thank you, Member.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, Madam Deputy
Speaker, and unfortunately the gentleman who just
stood up is misguiding everyone because there was
no mention that other companies were doing the roads in that statement. So if he wants —

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

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: —to produce it, produce it!
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Point of order.

[Inaudible interjections]

Thank you, Member.
Member, continue.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Thank you. We hear a lot
. . . yes, yes. But no one seems to be able to produce
it. So I will be waiting to see if they can produce that
statement.
I do not recall hearing that from the Honourable former Minister. But what I do know is that, again,
we are avoiding the real issue here. And that is the
roads are deplorable. And there needs to be a major
contribution made to those areas. We can back off of
some other areas if the roads are a problem.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: If they are a problem. The
flooding is a major problem.
Now, I want to say to the Honourable Minister,
he has just come into the Ministry, I got to give him
kudos because he set up a system that we were talking about within our caucus about how they should
proceed. So, I have not received an email privately
yet, or directly from him, but I do know that an email was sent out talking about a process.
But what I do understand is when we are putting out third parties to fix some of these issues, we are at the behest of those third parties. And a schedule of what is a priority. And I have already found that
out as we have been going through the last couple of months trying to understand how we get some of
these things fixed.
I have confidence that the Honourable Minister is going to address these things, but I am just re-assuring and letting him know that if we do not put
some financial support behind this, major support, we
are going to have more problems.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
And so if they want to interpolate about being pretty
smart, look at the situation that we are in. We are in a
crisis. We are in a crisis!

Hon. E. David Burt: Point of order, Madam Deputy
Speaker.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Oh-oh!

Your point of order?

POINT OF ORDER
Hon. E. David Burt: Madam Deputy Speaker, if you
would allow me I would like to read from Colonel


Bermuda House of Assembly Burch’s [ press conference ] statement [10 February
2025].

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Oh-oh!

Hon. E. David Burt: In which he says, “ To assist the
Ministry in accelerating paving efforts, East End Asphalt Ltd. has been retained to pave the following areas in February and March 2025: A portion of Loyal Hill
in Devonshire—”

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. E. David Burt: I am just saying. So, the fact is I
hope the Honourable Member will withdraw his state-ment as that is what the Government . . . which is the
theme of the Throne Speech Reply, everything that
the Government is already doing.

Thank you.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Thank you.
I will move on with my time because I know
they like to take up my time.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: No apologies.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: So, we are . . . there are
no apologies. I said, Show it to me. You showed it to
me.

[Inaudible interjections]

That’s wrong!

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: There is a crisis in Bermuda right now.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: And because of the crisis,
the Government should be apologising for allowing
the streets to get into the mess that they are in now.
That is where the apology should be. If we got people
on the roads who are having accidents and, dare I
say, fatal almost —
[Inaudible interjections]

Thank you, Member.
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Out of order.
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: So—
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Come on now.
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Come on now.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: The people of Bermuda
. . . this is what they are saying. So whether the Honourable Minister wants to acknowledge it or not, it doesn’t matter to me.
He is not acknowledging it? Okay, fine. I know
what they are saying.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: I know what they are saying. There are some serious issues that we are hav-ing. And not just one or two.
So, let me talk about this here. We are in a
crisis. We have got two crises going on here because
I only got . . . what was that? Oh, I got almost 20
minutes.
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Crisis. We have a crisis
going on right now. We have an economic crisis,
[Madam] Deputy Speaker, and we have a social crisis
right now.
The economic crisis has been said over and
over and over. People cannot afford Bermuda right
now. The middle class is being obliterated. The sandwich people in Bermuda, as the Premier notes in this
Throne Speech that he has given, the sandwich peo-ple are becoming less and less and less . . . it is becoming more and more and more difficult because the stress of the cost of living in Bermuda is making it almost impossible.
There are, when governments put rules in
place, and legislation in place, unintended conse98 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly quences to some of these decisions. And let me just
give you one of those unintended consequences. We
had a plight with bananas, and I talked to the farmers
not too long ago about how we can resolve this —and
that is going to be for another day. But the fact that we
had this crisis and we did without bananas for a long
time, which is probably one the number one fruits that
Bermudians eat because we like to get our potassium
in.
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: After resolving it, [Madam]
Deputy Speaker, the cost of bananas is three times
the price. Three times the price for a banana! And
talking about economic crisis, when I look into the
Throne Speech and it goes on and on and on about regulation. More regulation. I mean, we have heard in
this House how we recognise that the banks are regulating just a simple man for $50 that gets transferred
into his account. Government, in my opinion, it feels
like they are becoming more of a regulator than the
banks! When you go and talk to small businesses who
are primarily . . . and let us just say the Black businesses, small businesses in Bermuda. And maybe
some of the Portuguese businesses in Bermuda.
Right? Small businesses in Bermuda. If you sit down
and you talk to them . . . this regulation and overregulating of us, this is a problem for us.
You know. We are in a position here where
we are going to go after and say . . . I am just going to
use this as an example. I am going to go to the supermarkets —which supermarkets in and of themselves are trying to survive. You see supermarkets
now being sold off like candy right now because they
cannot make it. And they have lost so much money since the recession of Bermuda in 2009 forward, they
are still trying to get back on ground and these supermarket [owners] are like, I am tired of this. My kids
don’t want to do it anymore. So if somebody wants to
come and buy it, buy it. Because there are too many
problems .
But yet we have a Government here saying,
Well, we are going to go and take your books and we are going to look at all of your underwear within these
books. When you are a small to medium- sized businessperson, you do some incredible things for your
employees. Incredible things. And in the construction
industry as well, as the Honourable Member would
note, some guys are hired just to walk around with
$2,000 or $3,000 just to lend it out to their employees
on any particular day. Just to help them get by. Right?
Now, the Government is not going to understand all of those things, but if they are not spending enough time with the industry, explaining and listening
to the industry and about what is going on. I will tell you what, I used to buy bikes for my employees because they could not make it to work on time. Right? Now, does the Government need to know I
bought a bike for a cashier? They do not need to
know all of that. But yet we want to go in with an X -ray
and say okay. Anybody who knows the supermarket industry —because we are using that as an example —
[knows it] is now working on some pretty tight margins. And no matter how much we reduce duty on
food products, including essentials, the price is still
going to go up. It is still going to go up and people are
trying to catch up, but they cannot even catch up even
with a rate of inflation increase because they are behind.
We are going to be another 10 years before
some people can afford it. And unfortunately for sen-iors, that is too late. It is way too late. And then you
add the added complexity . . . finally somebody comes
up with somewhat of a figure, but Chamber of Commerce says, Well, you know what? We are probably
about 56,000 people. Well that is probably why unemployment is low! We have way less people than we
anticipated here. And the small business and the medium sized business . . . you know what they need?
Customers! They need customers. And the one elephant in the room that we are not addressing . . . we
may be given, and the Government has done a good
job at aiding and giving the cutbacks and the like, but
the one thing that they have not moved forward with is getting (with some urgency) the population up.
Half of the babies that are being born in Bermuda are being born to ex -pats. Yes! We cannot survive. We have a negative birth rate. So something has
to happen. All around the world they are trying to do
something about it. So we can on one side say, Yes,
we need to give more money to our seniors. We need
to give more money and duty relief on these different
things . But people cannot catch up. So people are still
complaining. Yes, you might have won a third term,
but people are still complaining. They need help. So
the missing link is what? We need more people.
Now, I am not going to spend any more time
there. I have talked about regulation up the yin- yang.
They need to take that page, that number one and two of that page when it comes to regulating and tear it up
and burn it. Because if you go to a private sector
business and you talk about you want to see this and you want to see that. Guess what? They are going to
get litigated to the n th degree. Because it ain’t going
to happen. So stop talking about regulating something
and sit down with the industry like the fishermen (as the Honourable Member said) and listen to them.
But we have been flip- flopping back and forth.
My goodness, a farmer was up here with a tractor .
They are not listening to us! Sit down and have a real conversation about what some of their solutions are
and we can get it done amicably.
But when one of the most docile groups in
Bermuda, right after the election —nurses —gets up
screaming and protesting . . . we still have a serious
problem here. We still have a serious problem here.


Bermuda House of Assembly So I am going to move over to this other situation that
is perplexing me to the n th degree.
The Honourable Minister Weeks is not here,
but I wanted to . . . I received a video of a fight. So I
immediately, as he suggested, I called a detective. I
don’t want to say the name, but that is the person I
call when I see these things. I send these videos to
them. I want to, if you will, let me just read you something when we start talking about where are as an Island and if you permit, [Madam] Deputy Speaker,
when it comes to our youth and this proliferation of fighting in the schools.
“For some, moral bankruptcy is where we
stand right now, when our youngest of people are par-ticipating in such organised events. Entitlement is the
rule of the day. It is always someone else’s fault. Accountability no longer is needed, while situational eth-ics rules. Power and possessions are honoured, while
standards are lost. All this while the streets are bleeding out. Looking for justice in a forest of he- said and
she-said, keenly aware that the truth is lost out to a
good story. We live in a time where taking a video has precedence over human interaction and intervention.
We have become a voyeuristic society (talking about
Bermuda) where we take pride and joy in the pain of other people.”
And I can speak to that first -hand. Twenty -
four-hour gas station —people will come and sit and
video waiting for a fight to break out. And I am not just
talking about young people. I am talking about adults.
And then when you look at these videos and you see in these videos adults , possibly even parents, encouraging these fights to go on.
Let me break down this video for you, looking
at the one that was sent to me. Our schools have become an arena for gladiator sports. They have got lookouts at the door, [Madam] Deputy Speaker. You have got people who are not afraid of being videoed,
knowing that it will go out to the public. Knowing that
the police will see it. Knowing that their teachers and
principals will see this. And wilfully engaging in gladiator warfare.
Now the video that I saw, they instigated it to
the nth degree. Everyone standing around. So much
so that one of the boys, after he fought for a while, he
was so exhausted he said, I am done. That is it. I am
done. I am done. I am done. He said he was done! I
accept defeat. I am done. Gues what happened? The third party instigators encouraged the fight to continue. And so the boy in defence because of swinging at him had to defend himself. What did the third party —
who was not in the initial fight —do? So, I could say,
well, you know, I have been in some fights in my day. Right? But I got a good whooping by the time I got
home and then my mother —and she only had to do it
one time— my mother took me back to the school. And
what was surprising was I was young. My daddy was there. And guess what? They told the principal to
whoop me. Cane me! So what is happening? And this is not a onetime thing. This is a repeated thing over and over and
over. Teachers are tired. Students, they have got to
be exhausted. Something is going on for it to be that
prolific that they are not afraid to engage in this activi-ty. It does not matter who is watching. And before
long, something even worse is going to happen in our
schools because these kids at this point don’t care.
My question is, what are we going to do about
it? What are we going to do about it? Government,
what are you going to do about it? I stand here ready. Hey, let’s go. A heavy hand has to be dealt here. And
that third party boy, when that poor young man was
on his knees and on his side, was repeatedly kicked
by somebody who was not a part of the fight. You
want to know what needs to happen? He needs to get
. . . and I want the parents to hear this and I want the
school to hear this. I want the Minister to hear this. I
want the police to hear this! He should get the worst
punishment out of all of them! Because he kept the
fight going on after the young man said, That’s it,
enough.
And then a second one, [Madam] Deputy
Speaker, the poor boy was not even fighting back. He
just . . . was just covering himself. And they pounded
him. All on video! And those [by -standers] who were
watching, who did not participate in it but they were there . . . they need to be dealt with! And I am going to
wait to see what the police do. I want to see what the
teachers are going to do. I want to see what Minister
Weeks (after giving his Statement today) . . . what is
he going to do? This is killing off of small Bermuda . . .
a society that cannot afford to lose its young people.
And let us add to that. Let us add to this here.
This is Black -on-Black crime. Where has the pride
gone in being Black? Entrepreneurship was our foot-hold. How many Black small businesses do you know
now? Parents are stressed out. Everyone is stressed
out. So obviously if we are in this position, [Madam]
Deputy Speaker, the frustration is to a height. It is to a
height. And so we can say we are doing this, and we
are doing that and we are doing this in the House of
Assembly for this person and that person. Clearly, it is
not enough! And that is why I say if we need more
customers, let us get the customers.
Who, as an investor in their right mind, is going to want to come to Bermuda knowing that the private schools . . . and they are starting to have problems too. Who is going to want to come to Bermuda,
invest in a Bermudian so that they can start a small
business knowing that when their kids go to school
. . . fights are going to break out. Who? Why invest in
Bermuda ? It makes no sense to me. You can say
come on all you want. That is the problem. We are
denying what is in our face. We are denying it!
I may be a little passionate about it. But I tell
you what. There was a time when my son stepped
into a situation with two adults. Okay? Yes. And he
was trying to break up a little scuffle that might have
100 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly broken out. And all I had to say to him was, Trae . Just
one word: his name. And he recognised that voice. He
knew not to go any further. Where has the respect for
one another gone?
And the Honourable Minister is saying to me,
Come on, Craig. He is in town just as much as I am
walking the streets. You want to know what I have
noticed in town with the school kids?
[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: I did not say you were with
me.

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, but you are bigger
than me. So, let me tell you something else. You need
to walk some more.
So, you know, you want to interpolate. The
kids now? When I used to come to town . . . I am from
St. David’s, right. I very rarely had the opportunity to come to town, right, because back then St. George’s
had everything that town had. But when I did, I would
just go with my buddy. We would go . . . check it out
now. The kids out of protection . . . they are all in
groups. You don’t see . . . you see very few kids isolated, just one or two, walking through town. They are
in groups after school. That is following after nature. If
you want protection: group. And so they are moving
as groups.
We have a serious problem on our hands.
And after we had debated and looked at the National
Security . . . Violence Reduction . . . I said it then. It is
too soft of an approach. When a 14- or a 15- year-old
looks you in the eye and does not care if you are videoing or not, puts his middle finger up to you, curses
at you . . . he does not care! So what are we going to
do about it?
Nobody is answering what we are going to do
about it. But yet when a video comes, we want to
have a Statement and all of this stuff. But at the end of
the day, what are we doing? And this is not like it is
close to home, you know. I have got some serious
little young bad boys in my family. I am worried about them! I left this House of Assembly for a six -year-old,
bad boy, to make sure that when he hears my name,
he stops. Respect! We have lost complete respect for
one another.
Some people would say it starts at the top.
Right? And they are only emulating what they see. Well, it is more complicated than that. I would say that
there are serious stresses going on. And even in the
education system . . . when I say we need to be listening more, it has been a flip -flop, flip -flop . . . Okay, we
are going to do this. We are going to . . . no, no. Okay,
we are going to this now. Well, hold on. We have got
to hold up because we have to wait for this .
Okay. Things happen. But this is going on for
too long. Too long. And people are stressed out. And when kids decide that their school becomes an arena
for gladiator sports like that . . . this is not a one- time
thing. This was so well organised. And then we heard today how a principal had to break up a fight with a
young man with a knife! And so people get upset when I get up here and talk about this stuff but guess
what. We are not doing . . . I will not say anything. We
are not doing enough. We are not doing enough to
deal with this situation here.
And so one of these young men, I was told,
had some drugs on him and the like. We have got to deal with this stuff from a young, young age. Now, we
have just moved here from 8 to 14. I am not sure how
. . . in the Throne Speech here it talks about using this
accountability age and we have moved it to 14. I do not know if it is 12 years old in the UK, maybe somebody can correct me or not. So all I am saying is that if we are going to start . . . we need to start talking about
it with some sincerity. And I am not blaming anyone in
this room, all 36 of us, for anything in particular. But
something has got to happen. Something has got to
happen.
So we can get up here and say a whole bunch
of things about well this and that , and oh, come on
Cannonier and the like. But guess what? If it was your
child who was getting beat up by third parties you
would be screaming and shouting.
So what investor wants to come here? We
need more revenue in this Island and that is what I am
getting to: get more people here. Bermudians and expats. Because they represent a dollar value. If we had
lost 5,000 (let us just use that as an example), multiply
that 5,000 by $4,000 a month. That is the amount of money we are losing on a monthly basis in this Island.
It is extraordinary! So whatever way we find to do it,
let us do it. Let us get it done. There is cooperation
here to do it.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker .

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

Minister Rabain, you have the floor.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Speaker .
Thank you, Honourable Member s, for this debate that
we have had today, this conversation that we have
had today. Interesting reading through this particular
document.
Mr. Speaker, when I read through this, you
know, I look at it . . . it feels more like a post -election
manifesto than a Throne Speech [Reply] or a response to the Government ’s legislative agenda for the


Bermuda House of Assembly year. So I was curious to read through it. And I was
just thinking to myself, if I was a One Bermuda Alliance supporter I would feel a bit bamboozled and
wonder Where was this before the election?
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: You know because now
that we are here post -election, what do we get now?
We get a sweeping manifesto with rhetoric and seemingly no memory of what has actually happened to this country over the last decade.
But let me remind Members opposite—
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Let me remind Members
opposite, they have lost three consecutive elections.
They now sit with 11 members in this House.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: And so we are here today
to talk about what we are doing. We are here to talk
about what the Opposition says we are not doing. And we are here to determine where we are moving forward.
Now, obviously one of the things that I have
been asked to speak to or respond to is . . . and they
took quite a few pages to talk about education. I have
been asked to respond to education. But I do want to start by saying that I am passionate about education.
Not because that I am the Minister. And unlike the
Shadow Minister of Education who did say he is not fortunate to have children in the system, I do have a
child in the system. So I speak from the point of a parent in the system. Something that very few Mem-bers in this House can say hand over heart. So I do
speak from the point of a parent. And that is why I do
get passionate about it because I am there.
And as I spoke to earlier, and the point that I
was trying to make . . . leadership is about meeting
with everyone. Not just the people who feed into the complaint you want to make. You meet with everyone because you want to get everybody’s perspective.
You do not just want to get one perspective and then
you keep hammering that home.
We keep hearing, Take politics out of education. I plead with the One Bermuda Alliance to take
politics out of education because every time they
speak about education it is from a political standpoint.
Take the politics out of education and watch us get
better and watch us move forward.
We read on page 12 of this manifesto, it says
“Unclear Reform Strategy.” Now, the Opposition often
accuses the Government of not having a clear education reform strategy and introducing consistent change
without consultation. That is what they talk about. And
saying that it is creating confusion within what it is that we are doing. Not only is this misleading, it is demonstrating a lack of understanding of what is actually
going on and it is just simply false.
Our education reform strategy is built on four
pillars, Mr. Speaker . It is a powerful case for change.
And actually when I read through this, this document
and some of the suggestions that they had that are
actually already taking place . . . I thought for a moment that maybe they had actually read the case for change which governs what it is that is happening
within education reform. There is a shared and clear vision for where we want to go.
The part about education reform is capacity
building with the teachers. We have to build capacity. And I am going to stand here, hand over heart . . . we
have not done a good job of educating our children for at least 25 years. That does not get turned around overnight because people are entrenched in the way
that they want to do things. So we have to start small.
Instead of what happened previously, we made a
conscious decision to say we are not going to repeat
what happened when we went from the two- tier to the
three- tier system. And why do we say that? Because
we consulted. And one of the main themes that came
back from every parent was, I went through that system. I do not want my child to go through that . So this
is why we are doing this in phases.
So if you spend time talking to the people who
have not participated, they are not going to be able to
tell you some of the things that are going right. They
are going to tell you the things that they do not like
because they see it coming down the pipeline. They
see it coming down the pipeline.
I would love to have Members opposite come
to one of our induction sessions where teachers come
in and they find out this is the work that they are going
to be doing for the next 12 months, and they would be
surprised. The last one that I attended was about two
weeks before the election up at CedarBridge. I was
shocked to see teachers from St. George’s Prep and
from East End Primary and from Somerset Primary and from West End Primary saying, We did not realise
this is what this is about. We see the vision now . We
see where we are going to go. And we see how this
works.
You have got to come and actually witness
that so you can have an appreciation for that. Not everybody is going to be on board when we first start. But we work with everybody and the idea is to get them all to understand this is where we want to go.
Now, Mr. Speaker, page 14 speaks about enhancing technical and vocational education. I am happy that they finally agree with something that we are
doing. This is the purpose of entering the signature
programmes. And I will explain it as it has always
been explained, Mr. Speaker, when you go to high
school now there are what we call the core curriculum that everyone does and then you have the encore curriculum. You are required to get credits from those two
102 21 March 2025 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly sides that you need to do. You have to do the core.
The encore is . . . when we were in college, we would
call those the optional classes that you take —