February 23, 2024

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and
good morning, Minister.
On page 3, obviously this is a tough time for
yourself in having to manage these unfortunate circumstances we are in. You mentioned in the quote there
from December 15 that the asphalt miller in particular
is causing problems as well, being down. Has ther e
been any consideration at any point in time to maybe —
because it has been down for a while —that potentially
we could rent a miller from, I think it is Caterpillar that
has that equipment? But has there been a consideration of potentially renting, since it has been so long?

Mr. Speaker, let me first
say that the miller is back in service. But it is old and
unreliable. And we both trade millers on occasion with East End Asphalt. There has been an attempt to see if
not only could we rent a miller, but rent a plant. And the
answer to that is negative. But included in the equipment that we are going to buy is a new miller.
And I can report that whilst it is going to take
about six months for the plant to be fully operational, the equipment will come as soon as we pay for it. They
have the equipment that we are looking to purchase,
which is a miller, a roller and a new piece of equipment
called a shuttle buggy , which is a machine that goes on
site where you are paving works, and the asphalt goes into that so that that machine will keep the asphalt hot so that when you lay it, you do not have some of the
challenges that we are facing now.

Mr. Speaker, yes, I am
aware. About four years ago when they finished paving
at the airport, they offered it to us. It was too expensive
at that time. That piece of equipment is still here. We
have had a recent look at it. The challenge with it is that it is Spanish -made. So, the ability to get parts and support will be a challenge. And my information is that they,
having declined to purchase it, intend to ship it off the
Island.

Good morning, Mr. Speaker,
and thank you.
My question to the Minister is, I am wondering
if he would remind the Honourable House and the general public why the private, large utilities are not repaving the roads after they have finished their roadwork and make them either the same as they were when
they first started the roadworks or better than they had
found them?

Mr. Speaker, the private
utilities, as in this case BELCO, do pay to reinstate the
roads. The challenge with the trenching that BELCO
has done is that it must settle before you can go back
and pave the whole half of the road. That is the requirement under the new instructions that, if they dig up the
road, they have got to do the whole half of the road. So BELCO has paid for the reinstatement of the trenches
and will make a contribution to the repaving of the
whole road. So we will pay for half, and they will pay for half.

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a
very sad note initially to have condolences sent to the
family of Ms. Pam Ben from St. George’s, whose siblings and [her] I knew very well. She was a constituent.
Sisters Helen and Mona Lisa, and brother Lynwood, and her family and friends. She was a well -loved person, familiar with East End Mini Yacht Club. And many others in St. George’s will mourn her passing.
Also, Mr. Speaker, my cousin whose son [MP
Jache Adams] sits in this House, Antoine Brangman, whom I grew up with (his sister Jennifer was in my


Bermuda House of Assembly class, the brightest of the class). Cousin Iona, his mom;
cousin Randy and Joanne and late Gina, Vaughn and
other siblings, Everett. Have condolences sent to the
family, especially cousin Jache.
Also, and I would like MP Jamahl Simmons associated with these condolences, to the Lambert family
of White Hill, whom I grew up with. Mr. Hubert Lambert
died this week. But his wife, Eleanor Lambert, died two
months ago. There is a double whammy for the Lambert family. But I grew up with that family. Steven, his
son . . . we used to race to see who could be the first
up to the Salvation Army to beat the drum. But he had
access; he had the key.

[Laughter]

And he could lock the window, and then we boys were trying to get in around the
back side, and he was always going to beat the drum.
But Mrs. Lambert was a stalwart of the Salvation Army church, came to Bermuda from Canada and
made her home in White Hill. And Mr. Lambert and his
family are very much stalwarts in that community. My
condolences go out to them, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you.

Thank you.
Does any other Member wish to make a contribution?
Premier.

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today and will take the liberty, if I may, of associating all Honourable Members to ask this House to send a letter of condolence, but also
to note the passing of Mr. Antoine Brangman, the father of the Honourable Member, MP Jache Adams from constituency number 19.

You are following your colleague that
started that one.

Hon. E. David Burt: Okay.
Affectionately known as “Slip,” Antoine was a
cherished member of our community, known for his kind demeanour and unwavering presence and a symbol of tranquillity amidst life’s tumultuous ways. Certainly this community will mourn the memory of a true
son of our culture, fondly known for his hummer kites
which rippled across the skies of the Somerset community on Good Friday, and known for the calming sounds
of reggae on a Sunday. As I said, Mr. Speaker, I would
love to associate all of my parliamentary col leagues in
extending our deepest condolences, unwavering love
and steadfast support during this difficult time to Antoine’s family, especially to his son, MP Adams, and to his granddaughter, Diara Michelle Adams, the rest of
his family, his friends and the entire Somerset community. There is certainly a personal story to share. I
know that at a point in time I did have the opportunity
when there was a GP -1 to give Mr. Brangman a ride
when we were going somewhere and he was going. I said, You can come along with me. And I know that he
spoke about that opportunity and the chance that he
actually got to ride with the Premier in a GP -1. But I had
the good fortune of knowing him, and he was a truly
remarkable person. And again, Mr. Speaker, I would
like to extend the condolences to the family and ask
that our thoughts and prayers are with our Honourable Member and colleague, MP Jache Adams.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to send condolences to the family
of June Morris. She was a long- standing constituent,
and she certainly stayed loyal till the very end. And although our visits turned into telephone calls in the last
few years, whether it was because we were shelteringin-place and as she became less mobile. But we did
have very good conversations. She was the wife of the late Arthur Morris. And so a very good family, and certainly will be missed. I just want to extend a real thank -
you and appreciation for her caregiver. She has been
there for a bit. She was committed and certainly most
responsive to Ms. Morris and her needs at the most vulnerable time.
I would also like to send condolences to the
family of Phyllis Simons. She was also affectionately
known as “Twiggy.” I would like to associate her godson, the Premier, and also just specifically Shawn and
Shane and the entire family. I knew Ms. Simons for her
amazing goat curry. She also was the first to introduce
me to sorrel. And I really enjoyed her company. I will
always, always remember the taste of her curried goat
and her good spirit. And although she was living at the
Eastern End and I was at the Western End, I certainly
enjoyed every visit. And the best regards to her family at this time.
Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, thank you.
I would like to be associated with the condolences [regarding] Mr. Antoine Brangman, the father of
MP Jache Adams.
I would also like to extend condolences to the
family of Ms. Delores G. Thomas, who was eulogised
this week, Mr. Speaker. If you knew Ms. Thomas, “Mrs.
T” as she was called by many visitors to this Island, she
treated everybody the same, with grace and wel coming
400 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly arms. And it was an interesting service. She had three
sons, Kevin, Darion and Dudley. And Dudley is a person of his own character who gave a 37- minute tribute
to his mother. It covered just about every aspect of her life. I am not so sure she would have been well pleased with his speaking that long because she had little tolerance for lengthy diatribes. But I do extend condolences
to the three brothers and the wider family of Ms. Delores Thomas.
And finally, Mr. Speaker, I would like to offer
congratulations to Paget Primary, who yesterday held their Black History Month [observation] honouring a
number of Black Bermudian heroes. A number of colleagues within here now will probably speak to this as
well. But what inspired me the most, Mr. Speaker, is that the students were so disciplined and excited about
what it was that they were doing and learning. And as you went around to each classroom that highlighted
each honouree, the students relayed their life story to
you. One of the honourees, Mr. Speaker, is a constituent of mine, Dr. . . . I am trying to think of her first name.

[Inaudible interjections]

As I mentioned previously, I have approximately 33 per cent seniors in my
constituency. And in honour of their birthdays, I am going to give six of them birthday wishes. Joseph Roque,
who turned 75; Wellington Masters , who turned 75;
Kenneth Wainwright, who turned 91; Albert Jackson,
who turned 85; Emily Sousa, who turned 94; Gwyneth
Rollins, who turned 75; Edith Webb, who turned 87; and
Linda Manders, who turned 75. I would also like to associate myself with Paget
Primary’s annual Black History Month. Colonel Burch
certainly covered most of what occurred. But I think it
was so significant, as he mentioned, the number of students who did so much research and had so much knowledge of these individuals. And they also were
able to speak for these individuals. Our previous
Speaker, Randolph Horton, was one of the people who
were acknowledged. He was also there. And everyone,
all of the different students played a different role in
terms of what he did.
Now, in regard to Dr. Matthews, not only was
she there, but she was there having conversations, talking about her life and all of the things that she did.
So she goes 102 this year. She was very articulate, did
not seem like there was any dementia there. So I would
like to congratulate her on her 102
nd year.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes. I beat the Deputy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good morning to the
House, and good morning to the public.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to say condolences
for at least two persons.
One for my constituent, octogenarian and matriarch for St. David’s, Ms. Relda Jones, who is sorely
missed, a sweet and lovely person and I guess the
backbone of her family. St. David’s will definitely miss her.
The second person, and I would like to associate Minister Michael Weeks with this, is Michael Swan, who was one of our classmates. Michael was an outstanding athlete. He was also quite versed in IT. Untimely death. What makes him outstanding is that, until
the arrival of —also I would like to associate Minister
Roban. Until the arrival of Usain Bolt, Michael had an athletic CARIFTA record that he had set. And that record was not met or beaten until Usain Bolt arrived on
these shores. He was also the son of a well-known matriarch who has long since passed, but who is very well -
known to the Berkeley Institute and the Berkeley Edu-cational Society, his mother, Mrs. Swan. I would also
like to associate the Premier with these condolences,
because we will sorely mis s Michael, his classmates.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you.
Deputy Premier.

Hon. Walter H. Roban: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, Michael was a cousin of mine. So I appreciate condolences being brought there.
But I would like to bring a very positive recognition, Mr. Speaker, to the House. This past weekend a
centenarian celebrated her birthday, Ms. Helena Bryce of Devonshire. Many of us who are familiar with


Bermuda House of Assembly Devonshire, we know of Ms. Bryce. She lives in a particular part of Devonshire, and I am going to (even
though you have not asked) associate the Premier with
this part because I believe that his family and her family
have a very close association. I would like to associate the Minister of Education and also MP Christopher Famous as well.
She is a well -known matriarch of the Devonshire community. As there was some description made
of Dr. Matthews, I would put Ms. Bryce into the same
category. You would not know that she is 100 years old if you meet her and you deal with her because of her
liveliness, her alertness and just her spirit. And there
was an event for her, a private event held for her on the
weekend. And she had multiple generations of her family in her small, humble home on Watlington Road in
Devonshire, recognising her birthday. And the Gom-beys also turned up. But she is a true treasure of the
Devonshire community and a treasure of Bermuda.
I would just like to make sure that her centenarian celebration is recognised, Mr. Speaker. Thank
you.

First of all I would like to be associated with the comments for Winifred Pam Ben and also
for Ms. Simons, Ms. Twiggy Simons.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today on a very sad note.
You have iconic people who live in your constituencies.
And one of mine was Mary Elizabeth Basden. And for
those St. George’s people, Mary is Aunt Mary, she is
Mama, she is Ma.

She was much to many. She served
in a capacity of volunteer for 10 years at the Centre for Abuse. And in 2015 you may recall there was an article in the Royal Gazette where she spoke about why she
did that for so long and her upbringing and the strength
that she got from her Ma. She was truly just that
strength. I know in my role as politician for St. George’s,
she often would drop you a nugget, a good nugget, a
bad nug get. But she definitely let you know how she
felt.
Aunt Mary in my view was very spicey, but
loved by many because she clearly was a person who exuded a whole lot of love. She was supportive in just
about everything you could name for St. George’s, from
her church to —she used to be active in Tons of Fun at
the RAA Club [Royal Artillery]. And so what she shared
was, she was diverse and she got around many people.
And everyone who dealt with her always would say one thing: She was truly loving and supportive. I would not
say she never had a bad word to tell you because if she
had something to tell you, trust me, she would let you
know.
She will truly be missed in St. George’s. She
will definitely be missed at Richard Allen AME Church.
I would like to associate MP Lovitta Foggo with these
comments and also Kim Swan, because these St.
Georgians, we know the void that will be there with the
passing of our Mary Basden. And I would like for her
family to know that they are in our thoughts and prayers at this very difficult time.
On a positive note, Mr. Speaker, I would also
like to wish [happy birthday to] one of my constituents, Ms. Kathleen Blakeney, “Aunt Kath,” as she is called,
who celebrated her 95
th birthday. Thank you, Mr.
Speaker.

Thank you.
Minister Weeks.

Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Good morning.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to be associated with
the remarks for a former classmate, Michael Swan. He
was probably the shortest in our class, but the quickest,
as the MP from C -3 has said. So we used to tease him
sometimes, but as you can imagine, you never got
away from him when he started chasing you. He was a
very good friend of mine and ours, and he will be sorely
missed.
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to be associated
with the remarks for fellow MP, Jache Adams. I too knew his parents, and my heartfelt condolences go out
to him and his family.
Mr. Speaker, on a brighter note, I too would like
to be associated with the remarks for Paget Primary. I
was up there with Minister Burch and a few of my other
colleagues. And there were I think 13 people who were
honoured for Black History Month. But in particular, former speaker, our Randolph Horton, H. Randolph Horton was there to greet us. And his history is vast, the
contribution he has made to the Island. You know, it is
something when you see it all written down.
Mr. Speaker, another one of the honourees
was Dame Neletha Butterfield, a former MP and colleague of ours here on this side of the aisle. She too
was honoured for her contribution to our community.
And before I take my seat, I also want to be
associated with the congrats for Keeva Joell -Benjamin.
She is actually the first Commissioner of Corrections.

You said first commissioner.

402 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Michael A. Weeks: First female Commissioner of
Corrections. Pardon me, Mr. Speaker.
She is something that our young ladies can aspire to and be proud of. And I send my congratulations
out to her and all of the other honourees for Black His-tory Month. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Go right ahead.
Hon. Tinee Furbert: Good morning to you.
I would like to send condolences to three families, Mr. Speaker. [To the family of] Mr. Darryl Edwards
of Hamilton Parish, Kitty’s Lane, his parents, Delbert
and Veronica Edwards, wanting to send sympathies
and condolences to the family. Mr. Edwards also h ad
siblings, Karen, Damon, Denise and Delbert as well.
And then also one of my high school friends,
Ms. Elaine (Brown) Crockwell, a known taxi driver. I would like to send condolences to her family. Wife of Garrett Crockwell and mother of the late Lyna Brown,
alumna of the Whitney Institute.
Mr. Speaker, I also wanted to send condolences to [the family of] another one of my constituents,
Mr. Michael Fahy, who is the father of former Minister
Michael Fahy and his brother Stephen. Wanting to send condolences to the Fahy family, his wife, Gwen.
Mr. Speaker, I want to take the opportunity to
acknowledge Paget Primary like other colleagues have. They are in their sixth year of acknowledging
Black history in Bermuda. Many of us say, You know,
well, Black History Month, which is usually acknowl-edged in the month of February, is one that is celebrated for the United States. But I want to congratulate
Paget Primary for consecutively, in their sixth year, acknowledging Bermuda history.
And I think it is very important that our children
remain abreast of the information and history that we
have in our community. And it is my hope that other schools take the opportunity to visit the museum and
exhibit that Paget Primary puts on, or anyone in our
community if you have time to go and visit. Because
how they described it as a museum is stellar. And I only
wish that they and we are able to capture all of the
presentations that they have done over the past six years because it is very museum- like.
And also just wanting to send a congratulations
to the Mirrors SuperCamp. They held their first Super-Camp for middle schoolers during the break of school
where we brought in persons from all over the country,
about nine countries to participate in the Quantum Learning curriculum. And we had the opportunity to
also educate parents and educators in regard to the
Quantum Learning curriculum. [Timer chimes]

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister.
Would any other Member like—
Minister Campbell.
Hon. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to send condolences
to two families, the first being that of Melvina Louise Robinson, who was in her 91
st year. I had the privilege
of speaking at her funeral, saying a few words. She was a constituent of mine. I would like to associate the Deputy Leader with that as well, with my comments. Condolences to her children, Eugenia, Barclay and Laquita.
And she was the wife of the late Erskine Eugene Robinson and the sister of a former Member of this House,
the late Stanley Morton. I h ad the honour of attending
her 90
th birthday party with the Premier last year. And
so I would like condolences to go out to her family.
Also to the family of Millicent Brown. She was
in her 98th year. And again I would like to associate the
Deputy Premier and the Premier with my remarks. She
was the wife of the late Charles Boo Brown, mother of
Wendall, Warren, Dwayne and special son MP Neville
Tyrrell.

Associate me, too.

Hon. Vance Campbell: Yes.
[Also mother of] Savannah, Valerie, Paula and
Lesseline Brown. She was the aunt of MP Chris Fa-mous and the great -aunt, I believe, of Minister Jason
Hayward.
Both of these ladies were constituents of mine.
Both lived on Boundary Crescent a couple of houses of
each other. So the Devonshire community and Boundary Crescent in particular have lost 180- plus years, almost 190 years of motherly correction, motherly l ove
and motherly wisdom. Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you, Minister.
MP De Silva, you have your three minutes.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you. Thank you, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to be associated with
the condolences of our fellow MP, Jache Adams, for the loss of his father.
Also associating with the condolences for
Wendell Brown’s mother’s passing.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate (and I declare my interest) Dr.
Lynette Thomas, who is a nephrologist at Bermuda Life
Centre; and also head nurse, Joel Caines. The staff at
Bermuda Life Centre and also some of the staff at Bermuda Hospitals Board who together ably assisted the
Bermuda Hospitals Board recently when their dialysis


Bermuda House of Assembly water treatment plant went down. They did a fantastic
job, I think, and I thank them for their huge effort into
accommodating and helping the hospital during that
time.
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to send out congratulations to the Seventh Day Adventist School in
Southampton. As you know, Mr. Speaker, you will be
aware of the science fair that they used to have every
year. And of course COVID -19 stopped that. So for t he
first time in a few years I had the opportunity to attend, along with the Minister of Education, last night. And there are virtually hundreds of people who attended,
Mr. Speaker. And you will know because you have attended many times in the past. And it was a joy, it
warmed the heart to look at some of the creations from our students at Seventh Day Adventist School.
And in particular the Head Boy produced his
project, too long for me to go into details now. But it was
very interesting. I spent about 30 minutes with this
young man, whose aspirations are to become an engineer. And I have no doubt that he will get to that space in due course.
Again, Mr. Speaker, while I am on my feet, I
have to declare my interest in giving congratulations to my great -nephew, Giuseppe O. Aruda, who is six years
old and plays for PHC.

Yeah!

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: But hopefully when he gets
a little older, he will realise that that is where his place should be.
But in the recent mini -tournament that the BFA
[Bermuda Football Association] held in preparation for the Kappa tournament, he scored eight goals during
that mini -tournament, four against Warwick, two
against Crossroads and two against Colts. I will predic t
that this young man is going to play for Bermuda when
he gets older. Thank you.

Yes. Thank you again, Mr.
Speaker.
I would like to be associated with the condolences to Minister Tinee Furbert’s constituent, Michael
Fahy, Sr. I did get to know him quite well, very much a
quiet man, unlike his son, the well -known former Minister from Senate, Michael Fahy’s son. So I would like to extend condolences to the family, to the sons and the grandsons, because it is truly a loss. He did a lot in Bermuda in a very quiet way. But he loved the country. So we must extend our condolences to a former Member in Senate on the loss.
I would also like to be associated with the Honourable Member Jache Adams’s loss as well. It is tough
when you lose a family member that close, a mother or father, or even a son or daughter. We have seen that
in the past within this House, that we have not been
spared of that.
So all of us would like to extend our condolences because we know it is not an easy time for you.
And you are here! You are here.
So again, our condolences as well to the Honourable Member. Thank you.

I would first like to start off by
associating myself with the comments for Ms. Delores Tucker, the passing of her. She was actually my wife’s
godmother. So I would like to just add my condolences.
Mr. Speaker, it is always good to open up the
newspaper and see good news of Bermudians. I would like to send some congratulations to the Bermuda
Dance Academy. They were recently overseas in Chicago competing at the Adrenaline Dance Convention
and Compet ition, ages 6 to 13. And they won numerous
awards. As a result, a few of those who won awards
also received scholarships to continue and further their
dancing. So it is always good to see young people . . .
Also, Mr. Speaker, a son of the soil whose from
time to time name does pop up. But of course as a foot-baller, it does resonate with me, Mr. Khano Smith, formerly a footballer. He has now gone into coaching. And
this season he will be starting his debut season as
Coach of Rhode Island FC in the USL League [United
Soccer League]. So we wish him a good debut season,
and associate Members of the House, a few, MP Caesar, MP Foggo . . . I associate the whole House, too
many to name.
Also, Mr. Speaker, I would also like to continue
on where MP De Silva finished. As an alumni of Bermuda Institute [BI], it is good that they have the science
fair. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend. But if you go back a week or two before that, they also hosted
their 100 Men on Campus Day. And I want to say it is
maybe over 20 y ears ago that they started it, and they
have been continuing it. I remember when I went to BI and we used to have it. And we had the football game,
students versus teachers, or male parents. So it was
good to see that day continued, the 100 Men on Campus Day.
And last, Mr. Speaker, to show how much hard
work and coming together pays off, last weekend I with
404 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly members of my branch in Warwick West, we hosted a
cleanup in our constituency in support with KBB [Keep
Bermuda Beautiful], and also, ironically, the property
that we were cleaning up, there was also the Bermuda
National Trust out there. It was good to know that we were able to clean up over 700 pounds of trash —700
pounds of trash, Mr. Speaker, to help make that area
look a lot better.

Thank you.
Does any other MP wish to make a contribution
at this time?
None other.
Before we move on from condolences and congratulations, let me just add my remarks to a few that
have been expressed already. I will start off on the
lighter notes and the comments that have been expressed to Paget Primary on their Black history recog-nition for this time of year, for this month. I was not able
to attend this year, but I was actually one of the honourees last year. So I know the dedication and commit-ment that not only the school, but the individual students themselves put into making it a s uccess. And I
am sure this year was just as successful as those that
I have seen in the past.
To Bermuda Institute, to support their science
fair activity restarting.
But on a sadder note, I would like to be associated with the condolences that have been expressed to MP Adams on the passing of his father. As you will
know, his father was a Somerset boy. In fact, I have
probably known him all of his life because his sis ter and
I were the same age, his older sister. And we grew up playing together as children, and we still have a friend-ship. So my condolences are not only to him, but to his
entire family. Because I know the family well. And we
will miss him in the communi ty.
The Lambert family. Likewise, the Lamberts
are a Somerset family as well. His son Stephen went to
. . . where is MP Swan . . . he is not there. His son Stephen was at [Somerset] Glebe with MP Swan and me.
So I have known that family most of my life as well, and
I share in those condolences.
And to the Thomas family, Ms. Thomas’s sons
Kevin and Darion again are young guys whom I grew
up with and spent a lot of time with in my younger years. So condolences to them as well.
And to Michael Swan, classmate to two of our
colleagues here. I always tease them. I do not remember them behind me at Berkeley, but I remember
Mike. I always remember Mike, and Mike was always a
good friend all the time when I saw him. And yes, he
was always very fast at Berkeley. He did have that
CARIFTA record until Usain Bolt turned up here. So my
condolences to their family.
With that, we will move on.

MATTERS OF PRIVILEGE

Today is a follow -up from last week
when we had the Budget [Statement] presented. Today
we get the official Reply from the Opposition. And we
will start with that. The Premier will lead us.
Then, Opposition Leader, you will have your
start. At that time the cameras will roll, as they did last
week for the presentation. And you will have a clear presentation for your Reply.
Premier.

MOTION



Bermuda House of Assembly APPROVAL OF THE ESTIMATES OF REVENUE
AND EXPENDITURE FOR THE YEAR 2024/25

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you very much, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, in regard to Order No. 1, I move
that the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the year 2024/25 be approved.

Any objections?
There are none.
One second. (Do you need a minute? You are
good? Okay.)
Opposition Leader, it is all in hand. They are
ready to go as soon as you are ready to start.

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

THE OPPOSITION’S REPLY TO THE
BUDGET STATEMENT 2024/25

A BUDGET TO BUILD AND RENEW
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Good morning, Mr. Speaker.
Today it is my pleasure to present to you the
One Bermuda Alliance response to Government’s
Budget. We will address the Government’s plans, but
our focus is to share with the people of Bermuda our
alternative vision of how we will handle our country’s
finances and to share what the OBA vision means for our people, many of whom are struggling daily. We
want to let Bermudians know that we see their reality
and acknowledge how they feel. It will not take long to
cover the current Government’s plans. Most people in
Bermuda agree that the PLP Government has been in-effective. Its pronouncements and proclamations have
been unreliable. The public has lost confidence in this
Government.
And the public are right. Despite the Government ’s patting itself on the back with this budget, outside of international business [IB] the economic situation for most people in Bermuda has stalled or gone
backwards. Under this Government the I sland has deteriorated. Just look around. Miles of potholes. Exorbitant grocery bills. Vacant buildings. Increased homelessness. No local job growth. The list goes on and on.
Sadly, all of this has become Bermuda’s new normal.
And this has to change.
The OBA offers a back to basics approach, doing things the way they ought to be done. Our plans are
designed to lay a new foundation for a strong, fair and
prosperous community. Our vision is for an island that
can start to build and renew. Build and renew businesses, build and renew housing, and build and renew
the economy. Yet most important, we must build and renew our faith in the future, our confidence and trust
in one another , and our vision of a shared and successful future. A future not just for our selves, but for our children and their children, and the children who come
under them.
While the path forward is not complicated, it
may not be particularly easy to navigate. Grave mismanagement by successi ve PLP Governments has put
Bermuda in a very difficult position. Our people—by
which we mean all Bermudians —are struggling. Solutions are badly needed. The One Bermuda Alliance is
ready to work together with Bermuda to get the job
done. Instead of simply plucking the fruit from today’s
dwindling orchard, we will plant the fruit trees to feed
our future generations.

Corporate Income Tax

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker , it is clear to us
that the current Government has no idea how to turn around Bermuda’s finances. This budget is the most recent proof of that with its failure to address any of the
fundamental issues underlying Bermuda’s problems.
Instead, the Minister of Finance has decided to kick the
can down the road, play ing a waiting game with Bermuda’s finances. He is gambling with Bermuda’s future
in the hopes that the forthcoming corporate income tax
(or CIT ) will be the magic solution for Bermuda’s economic problems. He is hoping that money will rain down
from the sky to rescue us from our precarious position
in which successive PLP Governments have placed us.
As we have said before, while there may be an
upside for Bermuda from the CIT, it is very hard to quantify. There are many, many risks along the way.
Long story short , we do not even have enough information to plan properly for how the CIT may impact our Island. We do not know the income it may bring. We do
not know how much it will cost us to run it. And importantly, we do not know how it will impact international business in Bermuda. Will companies leave? Will
companies be attracted to the I sland? Will Be rmuda be
able to keep these potential IB taxpayers happy
enough to stay here? And will the current Government
properly handle any CIT revenue?
Given the CIT has been well debated recently,
we w ill not get into much more detail now other than to
say this : The OBA’s approach at this time is to plan for
Bermuda’s financial future without the benefit of the
CIT. When or if the CIT comes into effect and we learn
more about the actual financial impact, then and only
then can we reliably incorporate the CIT into our financial planning. Put another way , we hope the CIT will
work out, but we also need to be ready if it does not. In
the meantime, we are pleased to meaningfully engage
with the Tax Reform Commission. We play our role to
get the best outcome for Bermuda.

Global Economic State

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker , this is the General Economic Debate, so let us turn now to some facts
and figures. It is important for us to look first at the state
406 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly of the global economy. Bermuda exists in an interconnected global economy in which we often have little to
no influence. It is important to understand the context
and circumstance in which we exist and how we are affected in Bermuda.
We used to say that when the United States
sneezes, Bermuda catches a cold. But in today’s massively connected world of global commerce, even small events on the other side of the world can disrupt global
shipping and increase the cost of everything imported
to Bermuda. Global events impact each and every one
of us, especially those with the least to spare. Inflation,
fuel prices and shipping costs eat into Bermudian pay
cheques and savings. Global economic uncertainty
slows or stops local job creation. Int erest rate increases
raise mortgage payments.
This also means there may be setbacks in the
finances of Bermuda and our people that will be completely out of our control. And do not forget the upcoming elections in the United States, in the United Kingdom and elsewhere where political changes could im-pact our international business environment. That is not
to say that we should be passive. When a hurricane
bears down on us, we act before it lands. We stock supplies, we check the roof and house, we plug gaps, we
protect the water tanks and we secure items. When the
storm is blowing its hardest, we open and close windows, we tie down things that bec ome loose and we
keep the kids calm. Once the storm has gone, we clear
the roads, check on neighbours and start repairs. We
are realistic and pragmatic , and above all we act.
Mr. Speaker , to speak plainly, this means that
a government must plan judiciously when looking to the
future. A government must arrange its finances to have
the flexibility to react to events so that we can properly
take care of our people and our community as a whole.
We refer first and most urgently to our people who need
the most help. Those who are most vulnerable to economic disruption. Taking care of those who need it the
most is always the right thing to do. And we will do it.
The number of Bermudians most in need has
swelled. There are many on Bermuda ’s socio -economic ladder with dwindling options. Too many of our
fellow Bermudians are sprinting just to stay in place.
We will support and encourage Bermudians to change
this unfortunate reality. Bermudians need hope again.
But not just hope. Bermudians need a g overnment that
knows how to empower its people to create businesses and earn a living, a government that knows how to create economic value so Bermudians will actually want to
stay in Bermuda, and those who have left will consider
coming back so that we can build a better future and
renew our Island— together.
We need a g overnment to ensure Bermudians
can be successful in Bermuda. To ensure Bermuda remains an attractive place for international business and investments. To attract capital from overseas which will
contribute to our economy. A government that understands what needs to be done. And a government
that will get it done.
The One Bermuda Alliance has posed this
question many times: Are you better off now than you
were six years ago? Bermudians have answered with
a resounding No . And my next question to Bermuda is
this one: What do we plan to actually do about it? Because we will only succeed by facing this challenge to-gether.
Mr. Speaker , now to specific facts. According
to the International Monetary Fund’ s [IMF] World Economic Outlook, published in October 2023, global
growth is expected to slow in 2024. This is a continuing
deceleration from 3.5 per cent growth in 2022 and
3.0 [per cent] in 2023 to the projected growth of 2.9 per
cent in 2024. To place these numbers in context, note
that historical average growth from 2000 to 2019 was
3.8 per cent . So in the year ahead, the world will likely
experience a below -average rate of growth. That is a
global statistic. In what the IMF calls “advanced economies ,” growth will be even [slower ]: 2.6 per cent in 2022
down to 1.5 per cent in 2023 and flattening at 1.4 per
cent in 2024.
This is partly an outcome of policies designed
to slow inflation in many jurisdictions. While inflation is
also slowing, the IMF does not expect to reach “target” levels until 2025. This means that although inflation
may eventually get back to normal, the prices will not
go down —they just will not rise as fast. In fact, some
predictions say inflation may tick up slightly in some areas, driven for example by tightened labour markets.
This means that for Bermudians whose incomes have
not risen to match their costs, their tight budgets will
remain tight until we can get growth going again in Bermuda.
Given the prediction of flattening global growth
by the IMF, Bermuda will have to work extra hard to stimulate growth locally. It is doable. But delivery will
require creative thinking and nimble action. A contrast,
I would say, to our current Government ’s track record.
The outlook for interest rates is also perhaps mixed.
Many commentators believe rates will fall from their recent highs. But they are not likely to fall as low as they
were from 2009 to 2019. And they will likely stay at this
floor for a while. Others think that is a bit optimistic, as
that trajectory would require a series of multiple rate
cuts by the US Federal Reserve, which is not that likely.
This is especially so where the potential for inflation to
tick up in areas may cause the Federal Reserve to pause any rate decreases.
What does this mean for Bermuda and Bermudians? It means higher mortgage rates. It means i ncreased costs for commercial lending that could
dampen real economic growth on the Island. This could
include both development projects and the cost of housing. Finally, there is over $600 million in Bermuda
Government debt due to be refinanced in January
2027. This $600 million has the lowest interest rate
across all of our debt. Simply put, this is our cheapest


Bermuda House of Assembly debt. When this debt is refinanced , as it must be, the
increased interest costs will then squeeze any budget
surplus the Government might find.
Mr. Speaker , I referred earlier to small events
that cause global issues. For example, recent terrorist
attacks on shipping in the Red Sea have caused global
shipping to divert to longer and more expensive routes.
This has increased insurance and fuel costs for shippers. And this ends up increasing the bills for shipping
to Bermuda. That then increases the price of all goods
on Island. Global shipping costs will also likely be impacted by drought in Panama, which has reduced the
number of ships that can pa ss through the Panama Canal.
These events may happen beyond our shores,
but they have a very real impact on our everyday lives.
Additionally, we see the potential for other climate and geopolitical shocks. These could well disrupt commodities, global trades, and energy supply and prices —all
of which will impact the Bermudian consumer. We have
seen global conflict and embers of violence scattered throughout the Middle East, in Ukraine, Sudan and
elsewhere. We also referred to upcoming elections in
the US and U nited Kingdom.
Yet global electoral change does not end there.
The Economist describes 2024 as the “biggest election
year in history .” Around half of the world ’s population,
or about 4 billion people , will be going to the polls.
These elections can and likely will produce policy
changes. These are changes that may also impact Bermuda —think changes in taxation that impact multinational businesses based here or impacts on global
trade that will increase the cost of goods coming to Bermuda .
Given all of that , it is clear that we must have
the fiscal flexibility to adjust to evolving global situations. Instead we are currently backed into a corner by
our massive debt and interest payment burdens. We
are currently not well prepared for the next storm. And
pretending that storm will never land is not a strategy
for success.

Local Economy

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker , turning now to
our local economy, the situation is much less mixed.
Unfortunately, that is because the signs are consist-ently negative despite frequent Government statements proclaiming, All is well. This is especially true
given Bermuda’ s relatively slow recovery since COVID -
19 when compared to the positive rebound seen in the
rest of the world.

Inflation

Hon. Jarion Richardson: As a reminder to us all, it is
important that we focus on our economic statistics after
inflation has been factored out. After all, paying more
for less is not an indicator of a thriving economy. Inflation can also skew statistics in another way. For
example, government revenues will rise on top of inflated values for goods and services. Where people are
lucky enough to get pay r aises for inflation, government
revenues will rise from those payroll taxes on those
[raises]. But that is not real growth. It is not growth from
any new or expanded revenue sources: T here are not
actually more goods being consumed or services pro-duced in real terms. Even with some pay rises, for most
people in Bermuda inflation is pushing the cost of living up faster than those rises.
While the Government continues to ask for a
pat on the back from slowing inflation, prices are still
rising and the value of every dollar in Bermudians ’
pockets is shrinking. Let us look at some real -life local
economic indicators such as shipping.

Shipping
Hon. Jarion Richardson: According to reports from
Stevedoring Services, container volumes were down
6 per cent for the 12 months ending 31 March 2023 versus the same period in 2019. And break -bulk cargo,
which are the items not in containers, was down
22.0 per cent over the same period. For the six months
from March to September 2023, container volumes
were down 14.5 per cent versus the same period in
2019.
The fact is this: In today ’s Bermuda, fewer
goods are coming in. This gives you a true sense of
what is happening in our country, w hat is really happening in our economy and to Bermudians. However
you want to look at it, these drops in cargo into our Is-land are very real indicators that our [Island ] is consuming less. And with consumption down, this means less
is happening in our economy. So not only are Bermudians forced to spend more, that increased spending
gets us fewer things in return. So Bermudians have less
and are able to do less. This is a vicious cycle which
can only be broken with real economic growth.

Retail Sales
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Let us look next at retail
sales. Using the Government ’s own retail sales reports,
we see similar sobering reductions versus the preCOVID -19 period. It is important to note here that we
take care to use what is called the volume statistic ,
which is designed to separate the true sales volumes
from the impacts of inflation. The overall retail sales volume from September 2022 to August 2023 was down
3.1 per cent versus the same 12- month period from
September 2021. Looking back to the period before
COVID -19, September 2022 to August 2023 sales volume was down 4.5 per cent versus the same period
from September 2018.
So not only have retail sales decreased year
on year, they are worse than before COVID -19. The
trend is relatively consistent from month to month. Ten
408 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly out of the twelve months to August 2023 had lower
sales than the same month in the prior year. And Bermudians ’ overseas purchases were also lower year to
year in seven out of the twelve months to August 2023
on a value basis —that is, without adjusting for inflation.
It is easy to see how adjusting for recent inflation makes
those numbers look even more sobering. Bermudians
have less disposable income.
Looking across sectors, again for the 12
months up to August 2023, we see the following:
• Food sales decreased year on year in each of the past 12 months, and were down 8 per cent
in aggregate versus the 12 months up to August 2022. This means there are either fewer
people, or people are eating less or both. This
matches what we hear from Bermudians who
are having to stretch their shrinking dollars
ever further .
• Liquor sales were down year on year in seven
of the past twelve months, and down 3.4 per
cent in aggregate versus the same 12 months
to August 2022. This is literally sobering .
• Motor vehicles and service stations both ticked
up, each growing year on year in eight out of
the twelve months to August 2023. We suggest
this is driven by the modest IB growth.
• Building materials were pretty much flat .
• All Other Store Types were down year on year
in seven out of the past twelve months, and
down 3.7 per cent in aggregate versus the
same 12 months to August 2022.
Mr. Speaker , given all of the above, I am
frankly at a loss to understand how the Finance Minis-ter stated in his Budget Statement that “the retail sector also experienced an increase” and that “we are trending in the right direction . . .”. After all, we are using the
same government data. The difference is we are not
trying to tell Bermudians that their lives are getting better in spite of what they experience every day.
To further clarify our points, we refer to Global
Research’ s December 2023 poll. This data tell s us that
the economy and unemployment is the top issue for
42 per cent of voters surveyed. This is almost three
times more than those who selected the number two
and three issues, being education and housing. As unfortunate as this is, none of it is a surprise to us in the
One Bermuda Alliance. We have been hearing and
seeing this consistently on the doorsteps. And frankly,
anyone can see it for themselves daily just by walking
through Hamilton. The Premier and his Ministers need
only to get out of the se taxpayer -funded GP cars and
walk around in Hamilton, St. George’ s or Somerset to
see this .

Employment
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Employment figures provide
another lens into local economic activity. The most recent data available to us are from the November 2022 Labour Force Survey and 2023 projections from the
National Economic Report. The delay in the Labour
Force Survey statistics does raise some concerns, but since the Government has been happy to tout selected
results from that survey, we will highlight some im-portant trends from it as well.
The message this Government wants you to
hear is that the unemployment rate was down and that median incomes were up. And this is all technically
true, in aggregate, from 2019 to 2022. But if we look
only a little bit behind the headlines, the news is deeply troubling. The median income of all workers increased
5.1 per cent from 2019 to 2022. But this was driven by
non-Bermudians who got around a 19.0 per cent increase. Bermudians got only a 2.8 per cent increase,
or a less than 1.0 per cent per year on average increase. And this is significantly below our actual cost of
living increases.
We mentioned earlier how Bermudian household budgets are being squeezed— this is yet more evidence of the weight Bermudians are bearing on our
shoulders. And this is under a supposedly Labour Government. We also know from the National Economic
Report that income increases are driven by international business . We are happy for that life raft, but regrettably it is more than offset by our deep concern
about earnings for Bermudians working in the local economy.
Looking further at job numbers, there are fewer
total jobs projected for 2023 than 2019. Overall, total
jobs versus 2019 are down 4.4 per cent; non-IB jobs
are down 8.0 per cent , or a shortage of over 2,418 jobs.
IB itself is up 22 .0 per cent , masking the otherwise
shocking reality of the situation for local businesses. It
is unhelpful for the G overnment —any government —to
trumpet the IB statistics as a so- called success when
the rest of the economy has been a complete failure
under th is Government ’s watch. There is also a large
increase in the number of retirees, over 1,500. This is
further evidence of our ongoing demographic crisis,
which we will return to later.
There are some who may look back to a time
when Bermuda ’s economy was overheated and then
suggest we should be careful when adding jobs. This is
important to note. But it is also clear that right now we
must grow jobs and the economy. As that happens, we
can monitor growth. We can then use tools like immigration policy to control growth as and when it becomes
a problem.

Gross Domestic Product

Hon. Jarion Richardson: To round out our assessment of the local economy, let us look at Bermuda’ s
gross domestic product ( or GDP ). Using the latest
World Bank and National Economic Report data of real GDP, and comparing 2022 to the start of the latest PLP
Government in 2017, we see that Cayman and the US
each grew just under 11.0 per cent , inclusive of


Bermuda House of Assembly COVID -19, or about 2 .0 per cent per year. The Organisation for Economic Co- operation and Development
(OECD) countries as a whole grew 8.4 per cent , or
1.6 per cent per year. And the world as a whole grew
12.4 per cent , or 2.4 per cent per year. Yet Bermuda
grew only 4.3 per cent , or only 0.9 per cent per year.
Those are facts.
It is even worse when we break it out by sector.
Bermuda ’s 4.3 per cent growth over that time was
driven solely by IB activities, which grew just over
18.0 per cent over that time. All other sectors of our
economy —that is, local business —grew only by a tiny
0.5 per cent . Under this PLP Government, our economy has fallen into a gigantic pothole— not unlike most
of our vehicles on our roads today. We are spinning our
wheels and struggling to drive out.
It is important to acknowledge that we cannot
give too much credit or too much blame to a government for the economy, especially given global stressors
such as COVID -19. Yet when we look around and we
see the rest of the world moving forward, especially the
progress of other islands like Cayman, the inescapable
conclusion is that we must be doing something wrong.
No wonder Bermudians are emigrating.

International Business

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker , as we have
seen, international business remains the bright spot in
Bermuda ’s economy. And we will look at some of the
details. The OBA ’s key message is that the next Government must ensure we do not get in the way of IB ’s
continued success. International business in Bermuda
must continue to flourish so that Bermuda and Bermu-dians can flourish with it. IB must continue to employ as
many Bermudians as possible and to pump money into our economy. But let us also be careful never to confuse the welcomed success of this one sector —and the
many Bermudians who are able to thrive in it —with the
success of our I sland as a whole.
Insurance results have been good. They have
been driven by a year with relatively few large natural
catastrophes. We have seen increasing insurance
rates and growing sectors like cyber insurance and I nsurance Linked Securities [ILS, or cat bond] [issuances ]. Newer and growing sectors like life reinsurance
and cyber can also drive modest job growth on the I sland as well. Companies will need bigger teams in
these areas, especially around the area of data and analytics . If we are lucky, Bermuda can continue to capture some of this growth on Island —with more Bermudian jobs.
But looking ahead, we must be aware that
sometimes the IB story will not be all positive. Insurance rates can soften and additional capital will increase competition. And climate change will increase
losses and uncertainty for insurers. Finally, factors such the new corporate income tax could dampen the
success of IB in Bermuda. It would be better for the Government to approach this important issue without
deploying political spin. We know some companies will
leave. We know some will stay. We do not yet know
what this means for us, whether in dollar terms, jobs or
local economic demand. What we do know is that “ soft”
factors such as immigration processing and policy will
have significant impacts on IB decisions on hiring and
growth. We certainly do not know what the current Government is willing or able to do there. The OBA believes
that Bermuda must remain competitive to remain attractive. We and our international competitors will be watching this space very closely.

Tourism

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker , we have been
glad to see some green shoots of recovery continuing
in tourism since COVID -19. Yet we must face the reality
that this is not nearly enough. We are well below our
pre-COVID -19 tourist levels. And we are being seriously outperformed by all of our competitor jurisdictions. [The following facts are] b ased on the Bermuda
Tourism Authority ’s 2023 figures :
• Total air capacity (seats) and arriving passengers are 25 per cent down below 2019 levels .
• Leisure visitors (tourists) arriving by air are
even further behind, down 37 per cent since
2019. While we are glad to see that air travel
by locals has bounced back, we really need
those overseas visitors to come here and
spend their money and support jobs and businesses .
• Cruise visitors are down only 2 per cent below
2019, so have driven most of the year -on-year
increases in total visitors. We are happy to see that but know that we must get the air visitors
who spend more and do more in Bermuda.
• Hotel bed- nights for the first three quarters are
down 36 per cent since 2019, closely aligned
with the drop in the number of air visitors. We
know this is driven partly by the closure of the
Fairmont Southampton and Elbow Beach Hotel. It will be good to see the Fairmont Southampton open for guests.
Looking to our competitors, the Bahamas has
had one of its best years ever, partly driven by large increases in cruise visitors. For air arrivals, the Bahamas September 2023 year to date was only down 4 per
cent compared to 2019. And Cayman’ s November
2023 year to date was only down 16 per cent versus
Cayman ’s strong 2019 performances. Put another way,
they are eating our lunch.
Meanwhile, the opening date for the Fairmont
Southampton continues to move further into the future
with still no news on when work might start on the main
hotel. Against this backdrop, the current Government
has penalised local Air bnb operators, given away the
farm to the Southampton operator and failed to provide
basic amenities at well -known venues such as Elbow
410 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Beach. Bermudians could rightfully ask , How will this
Government get tourism working across the I sland?
It is difficult to see how the Government can
improve our tourism when slashing the BTA ’s [Bermuda Tourism Authority’s] f unding by millions. This is
an example which demonstrates that, for all of this
budget ’s new promises, cuts are happening elsewhere.

Population Challenges

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker , while we are
asking if the Government can deliver, let us turn to our
population challenges. The Government ’s own report
on our age ing population was released in October
2022. This report included the Government ’s stated position that “ the Government will work to develop a strategy to increase the working population in Bermuda by at least 8,418 individuals over the next five years .” That
is 1,684 people per year since 2022. So if there had
been delivery on this PLP promi se, there would have
been 2,400 more people in Bermuda by now. Where
are they?
That same report reminds us that in the November 2020 and 2021 Throne Speeches the current Government pledged to increase the population of Ber-muda to aid economic recovery. But again over the past
three and a half years, the Government has taken no material steps toward these critical goals —goals that
impact Bermudians ’ incomes and cost of living each
and every day. Meanwhile, according to the Narrative
Research survey in December, a quarter of Bermuda’ s
residents are contemplating leaving the Island due t o
finances. And fewer than one third intend to stay in Bermuda for the rest of their lives.
The One Bermuda Alliance goals include making Bermuda a destination of choice. Yes, for IB. Yes,
for investors and job creators. But most important, for
our own people. Tragically, however, it is clear that under the PLP Government more and more Bermudians are voting with their feet and leaving. We want Bermudians to stay here. We want Bermudians to return here.
We need to create the conditions so that Bermudians
want to raise their families here. For the cultural and
social energy, for the sense of communi ty, to have a
home for our hearts.
We also need more Bermudians because our
economy needs more people to flourish. For the health
care system to work. For pensions to work. For our
schools to work. For the government services to work.
For the local economy to work. For Bermudians to have
more job opportunities. For all these things, we need a
certain number of people. At least 8,000 to 10,000 more
than we have today.
Bermudians have a choice: E ither our population dwindles so that each of us must pay more in taxes,
or we increase the number of people on our Island so we can spread the tax burden across more people.
More people will help reduce the cost of living. More
people will help reduce the cost of health care. More people will spread the tax burden. More people will
spend more money in our Bermudian shops, in our Ber-mudian restaurants and in Bermudian taxis. To quote
again from the Government Minister ’s own conclusion,
“Bermuda is facing a demographic crisis that requires strong, decisive leadership and urgent action must be
taken.” Your One Bermuda Alliance Government will
take that urgent action, working together with Bermu-dian stakeholders for the benefit of everyone in Bermuda.
We need genuine immigration reform to revive
Bermuda ’s economy, to create Bermudian jobs and to
ensure Bermudian success. What will the OBA do differently from the PLP Government? Well, first stop
shooting ourselves in the foot. Delayed and complicated immigration processing makes it appear this
Government is begrudgingly attending to this crucial
matter. Ostracising people different from us and insulting them is doing no one any favours. And given that
immigration is key to sustaining Bermuda, and one of
the few genuine economic and social levers that we can
control, then we must utilise it thoughtfully, objectively
and transparently.
We are going to have to dust off the research
previously made public by successive commentators,
update what we can and then get stakeholders re- engaged in what can be done today instead of using the
issue to create fear and distrust in our very small community.

Government’s Fiscal Position

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker , now I would
like to discuss the Government ’s current fiscal position
and its fiscal performance. But first let us get something
out of the way.

[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jarion Richardson: This Government likes to
characterise—

The Budget Statement that was presented last week, the Premier had a clean run. You will respect the same this time, please.

Hon. Jarion Richardson: This Government likes to
characterise criticism of its financial management as
racism. They fail to address any of the substantive
points of criticism and claim everything is a question of
Black and White. That would be true if you mean the
black -and-white of the g overnment ’s accounts , the
black -and-white of the massive interest cheques that
get written every month, t he black -and-white of the
people’s money wasted on ineffectual vanity projects
like vertical farming, fish processing plants or the failed arbitration cent re. Or I should say the red ink spilled.
So when the Government M embers rise to
speak later, I challenge them to stick to the objective


Bermuda House of Assembly facts of the situation. I challenge them to address the
problems facing the hard- working people of Bermuda
today as they struggle to make ends meet each and
every month.

Comparison With Our Peers
Hon. Jarion Richardson: It is one thing , Mr. Speaker,
for the Opposition to point out where the PLP Govern-ment has fallen short when mismanaging Bermuda ’s
economy. It is another thing to look at Bermuda versus
her peers and see it reflected in the numbers. We are
proud to say , “Bermuda is another world ,” but unfortunately we really are. When compared to our peers, on
most metrics we stand out —in the wrong direction. We
already discussed this Government ’s bottom- tier relative performance in GDP and t ourism, reflected in a
worse economic outcome for struggling Bermudians.
Bermuda ’s current national debt, not including
our pension shortfalls, is about $51,700 for every man,
every woman and every child. That compares to
$32,700 for the Bahamas , $6,331 for the Cayman Islands, $3,300 for BVI [British Virgin Islands] a nd essentially nil for Turks and Caicos. Put another way, we
have almost 60 per cent more debt per person than the
next-highest, being the Bahamas. That national debt of
$51,700 is over 82 per cent of the median gross income
for Bermudians, almost as much as many Bermudians ’
annual pay.
Bermuda ’s debt service costs, meaning the interest payments we must pay to lenders on our borrowed money, are 10.4 per cent of revenue. This is exceeded only by t he Bahamas at 18.5 per cent . For Cayman and BVI , those numbers are 1.7 per cent and
1.8 per cent [respectively] . For Turks and Caicos, it is
essentially nil at 1 basis point, or 0.01 per cent of government revenue. These are not happy comparisons.
On the cost and size of g overnment, Bermuda
is budgeting for 5,085 employees, or 8 per cent of our
population. This is an increase from last year ’s budgeted number of 5,055 employees. It is a bit confusing
why the Finance Minister continues to budget for an
ever-increasing headcount while at the same time
bragging about government ’s inability to fill all of those
positions.
It also raises the question: W hat are those
funds (not paid to staff , as the positions are not being
filled) being used for? In the Bahamas, government
employees are 6.2 per cent of the population, 6.4 [per
cent] for BVI , 5.5 per cent for Cayman and 5.4 per cent
for Turks and Caicos. We have 25.0 per cent more government staff per population than the next -highest
country. Bermuda Government personnel consumes 47.0 per cent of government revenue, including consultants. This is versus 42 .0 per cent for the BVI ,
40.0 per cent for Cayman, 36.0 per cent for Turks and
Caicos , and 28.1 per cent for the Bahamas. So Bermuda is 13.0 per cent more costly than the next -highest
country. On total government current expenditure, we
spend $15,586 per person. This compares to $15,209
in Cayman, $8,486 in BVI , $7,515 in Turks and Caicos ,
and $6,898 in t he Bahamas. With the exception of Cayman, we come out around double the other islands.
We might expect to be proud that we spend the
most to support our people. However, most Bermudians would probably say they do not feel well served by
health care, by the roads, by education, by social services and by many of our other basic government ser-vices.

Pensions
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Looking to the future, we
have a pension crisis both for civil servants and for so-cial insurance. In the past some might have said that
this is a developing crisis, but now it is fully developed,
Mr. Speaker .
The most recent public information about the
contributory pension fund, or social insurance, is in a
2021 report reflecting the 2020 a ctuarial review, and it
makes for grim reading. The short version is that at the
current projections, the social insurance fund will have
to sell an increasing amount of investments to cover its
payments. And without material reforms, the fund ’s investments will run out in the mid 2040s —about 20
years from now. And once that happens, social insurance benefits will have to be radically cut, perhaps by
as much as half.
This imbalance is driven by the ageing of Bermuda ’s population which requires more payments out
of the fund, and our shrinking workforce which reduces
payments into the fund. All Bermudians should be very concerned about this because once social insurance
runs out of money, that is it. Bermudians in their prime
working years, who are in their mid- 40s now, should not
count on social insurance. Bermuda ’s current fiscal position is unsustainable. As our population dwindles, it
will become even worse.
Meanwhile, where is the Government ’s sense
of urgency in its actions to address this issue ? This is
why the Fiscal Responsibility Panel referred to Bermuda ’s financial position as a “ burning platform. ” Yes,
a burning platform . We are still waiting for the PLP Government to bring out the fire hoses. Let us hope they
work.

Government’s Fiscal Performance
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker , let us get some
important things out of the way. First, last year ’s socalled debt repayment of $50 million. We were glad to
see that paid off. But let us remember that Government
got that $50 million by borrowing it earlier , in summer
2022, and stashing it into the Sinking Fund. So in reality
it was like a revolving door. No debt was reduced. We
have been borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. And regarding the Sinking Fund, the Government has been
412 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly depleting that fund. This is a fund created and funded
by prior Governments to cover its deficit spending.
We will, however, acknowledge that the decision to borrow that extra $50 million under relatively low
interest rates available at the time was a decision worth
taking credit for. Perhaps this foresight has not been
highlighted because it was achieved by the immediate
past Finance Minister?
Second, the Finance Minister’s boasting of a
so-called balanced budget for the upcoming financial
year. The proof will be in what the Government actually
does, especially when faced with political pressure.
And since this budget used $40 million of borrowed
money, it is not actually balanced. As Bermudians with
a loan or mortgage know, it doesn ’t matter when the
money was borrowed— last year, the year before or this
year—it is still spending borrowed money and it is still
running up the interest [fees].
On top of this, pulling $10 million out of the
Sinking Fund last year to pay off the Gaming Commis-sion guarantee. All told, by the Government ’s own numbers, this budget will increase net debt by $38 million
versus revised projections for last year.
We have serious and deep financial issues to
face. The current Government, while touting its 30 to 6
majority, somehow seems completely incapable of taking action on these issues : our working population and
demographic crisis , immigration and p ensions. We do
not even have proposals from the Government on most
of these issues. Based on this Government ’s track record, the few promises that we do have are not worth the
paper this [ Budget ] Statement is written on.
Mr. Speaker , since 2017 the PLP Government
has implemented an 18 per cent increase in costs for
employees and consultants, including a massive 46 per
cent increase in consultant costs! The Government recently stated that it has decreased the number of
staff—but it has budgeted for a year -on-year increase
for four years in a row. If you are confused, join the club.
This is yet another instance of being unable to rely on
statements from the Government, especially when it
comes to their plans and intentions.
On the income side, the Government has
touted its changes to payroll tax, which have reduced the tax payments for low earners. The One Bermuda
Alliance supports all initiatives which support Bermudians. These tax changes are only a small part of the solution . We need to rapidly grow our economy and create more and better opportunities for the Bermudian worker. The payroll tax changes have been a double-edged sword, as they are a material negative factor in
the growth of IB and IB jobs. We know this from data
and from numerous one- on-one conversations and
comments.
For IB to put a job in Bermuda right now is a
very difficult decision. Since all of the improvements in
our economy have been driven by IB, we must be fully cognisant of these tax impacts. On the topic of protecting the Bermudian worker, as we mentioned earlier, their future social insurance benefits are at risk of disappearing. But Government has failed to lead, to grow
the economy or to reform pensions to protect the future
of Bermudians. Instead, it is fiddling around the edges,
moving money from one pot to the other pot. We must
grow the pot!
Continuing on the taxation theme, like many
others we look forward to the Tax Reform Commission
findings. As mentioned earlier, the One Bermuda Alliance has been engaging fully in that process through
our selected representative. We still maintain that this
work should have started much, much earlier, notwithstanding the corporate income tax. We also continue to
maintain that any excess CIT revenues must be carved
out to reduce our stifling debt and rebuild our crumbling
infrastructure. We can— and will —argue about the relative priority of various initiatives . But the most important thing is [for] Government [to be] committed to
use any excess to address our most pressing prob-lems. Preferably, enshrine it in law.
Finally, on taxation we are pleased to see that
Government has followed our advice to set a more material target for collecting back taxes. We congratulate
the Office of the Tax Commissioner on this initiative and look forward to further developments that will improve
tax collection. We are less impressed, however , with
the Government ’s failure to modernise or materially improve the efficiency or delivery of services to the Ber-mudian people. While there are a few bright sparks of
innovation in departments a nd a customer -focused approach, government processes and friction continue to
slow innovation, discourage investment and frustrate
Bermudians trying to access g overnment services.
Why has the current Government not supported our civil service with the tools and information it
needs to succeed? To demonstrate the Government ’s
failure to equip its staff and systems to succeed, look
no further than the cybersecurity breach in September
2023. Despite a G overnment report on cybersecurity
four years earlier which revealed a raft of shortcomings
and urgent actions required to protect the country ’s IT
infrastructure, the country was caught unprepared.
Civil servant salary payments were delayed,
departments had to resort to manual processing, while some had their systems offline for extended periods. To date there has been no report on the full investigation
of how this happened, who was behind th e attack and
any future exposure, despite the Opposition’ s call for a
Commission of Inquiry on the subject.
Regarding payroll tax changes, the proposed
adjustments to new -hire relief make sense in that it
should be limited and focused on creating new jobs and businesses. It will be important to make sure that we do
not inadvertently create a churn of new, fake companies. We must be careful to ensure that new business
formation that benefits from this tax break is truly organic and not just shifting employees from one existing
business into another existing business .



Bermuda House of Assembly Spending

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Government proposes to increase spending on its digital and IT infrastructure,
which we can all support. The challenge is this: W ill we
see outcomes to match the spending? For example,
there have been numerous technology projects includ-ing IT security projects and immigration systems. They
have failed to bear fruit. Meanwhile, the Government
fails to communicate with the people of Bermuda about
how the hack might have impacted them!
We have advocated for increased spending to
improve our crumbling infrastructure. However, our
view is that this should have been properly maintained in the first place . This spending is more rightfully considered maintenance, not capital projects. If over 20
years of PLP Governments had not eroded Bermuda’ s
finances, our infrastructure would have never reached
the pitiful state it is in today.
We also clearly support any and all initiatives
to increase Bermuda ’s affordable housing. While the
small investments made by Government to date have
been incrementally positive, we advocate for a full rethinking of the policies that affect the development of
homes. Government should encourage and allow creative and innovative ways of design and construction
that can reduce costs. This includes enabling significant development throughout Hamilton, a perfect place
to build upward.
We know that many other factors complicate
the housing picture. People are leaving the I sland,
which should free up housing. At the same time, landlords are transferring their units to Airbnb, decreasing
rental inventory , and digital nomads increase pressure
on housing stock. The OBA when in Government will
implement a comprehensive review of the housing
needs of the Island before implementing any new policy.
The $100 million money pit at Bermudiana
Beach is a continuing reminder that governments
should not be building hotels. The role of government
is to support private sector developers, not fund them. As the OBA predicted, the Government had to pay the
$10 million guarantee for the Casino Gaming Commis-sion. Since there is no gaming and seemingly no possibility of gaming in the future, Gov ernment should either shut down the commission or make the changes
required for gaming to happen.
We are disappointed that there does not seem
to be a plan for strengthening and resourcing the Auditor General. The Government and all of its associated
entities must have a set of fully audited and approved
accounts. The last report from the Auditor Gener al was
in 2020 for the 2019 financial year. According to that
report, 39 organisations were at least one year behind
in reporting. There were 139 sets of financial statements in arrears as of March 2018.
In the 2019/ 20 financial year, 48 of the audits
were qualified —that is, had issues that the Auditor General was required to point out and which prevented the Auditor General from providing a good opinion. By
comparison, in the Cayman 2022 audit , 40 out of 46
bodies had completed audits and all of them had unqualified opinions. With this budget we are looking to
the future. But how can we be confident that we know
where the money has gone, that it was well -spent and
that it was properly handled for the sake of Bermudi-ans? The short answer is that we cannot. To quote the
Auditor General: “[The Government] is not providing the House of Assembly or the public the analytical information that would help them understand Government ’s financial statements and its financial condition.”
The 2014 Public Treasury Act requires the
Government to prepare true consolidated statements,
but it has not yet been brought into effect. It is true that
this is not possible to meet if the statements are unavailable. But it is also true that this Government has
failed to take action, make plans and provide resources
to solve the problem. Of particular concern are the Public Sector Superannuation Fund ( that is, civil servant
pensions) and the Contributory Pension Fund ( or social
insurance), where audits ha ve not been available since
2012. And even at that time the social insurance fund
audit had a disclaimer. Civil servants and the Bermudian people in general should be very concerned that
we do not have a clear view of their retirement funds.
On top of that, we know that this Government
has reportedly misused and mishandled the people ’s
money. Examples include the $800,000 for Savvy, continuing through the pandemic with the millions for
resQwest [funding ]. Let us take a moment to look at the
Auditor General ’s report that Government approved a
contract with resPartner (that is, r esQwest) without following its own project and procurement rules. We know
that Government approved a second agreement with
resPartner for the travel authori sation forms w here resPartner directly received the funds from trave llers, rather than having them sent straight to Government, in
direct violation of the Bermuda Constitution.
We also know that the Premier directly signed
an agreement with a firm for a mobile portal with no
tendering, no requests for proposals and no Cabinet
approvals. To quote the Auditor General, there were
“multiple violations of the law and the Code of Pract ice
for Project Management and Procurement . . .”. Given
that this Government has repeatedly broken the law
and failed to follow its own processes to ensure value
for the Bermudians ’ money, it is essential that we have
audited financials to see where the m oney has gone
and what we have received for it.

Delivering Bermuda’s Economic Recovery—
Together and for Everyone
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Speaker , the One Bermuda Alliance has a vision for the future where there is prosperity for all of our people, with strong, safe and
healthy communities , where the Government will be
414 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly responsible with the people’ s money to ensure a just
and fair society. The One Bermuda Alliance will guide
Bermuda toward that future recovery through delivery ,
through actions and clear outcomes. And we will
achieve this by listening to our people, e ngaging with
our people and w orking together to deliver the solutions
we need. Our Island is too small not to take advantage
of every single person’ s skill, knowledge and experience. We need a g overnment with focus that gets back
to basics , that t ackles what is important. Getting the
fundamentals right and ultimately delivering on what is
needed. Our decisions will be based on what is best for
Bermuda and all Bermudians.
The One Bermuda Alliance is a team of individuals who are committed to a better Bermuda. And our
commitment means that Members of the next OBA
Government will challenge each other and collaborate,
holding one another accountable for our actions. And—
most important —holding ourselves accountable to the
Bermudian people whom we serve. Bermuda ’s next
Government must have accountability at its core.
Mr. Speaker , since this is the Budget Debate,
let us set out what Bermuda’ s financial future will look
like with OBA stewardship.

Bermuda ’s Stifling Debt
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Debt reduction will be a major priority. We should have minimum debt. There will
still be debate on what the right debt level needs to be, but it can no longer be suggested that the current levels
are acceptable—they are not. We have leveraged the
future of our children. That must end —now. Short of
betting on the CIT, how would we reduce the debt?
We would have to make some tough decisions
together with the Bermudian public. Most Bermudian
families know what this means. They know that when you lose a job and your income shrinks , but you still
have things like mortgage payments and other debts ,
changes have to be made. Bermudians are also familiar with having to hustle. An OBA Government would
hustle for Bermudians to grow the economy and increase the income side of the budget.

[Inaudible interjections]

The Financial Future as W e See It

Hon. Jarion Richardson: With a much smaller debt,
we would have over $100 million more to spend on taking care of our people. More to support our infrastructure. More to put toward reduced taxes. We would create and fund the right long- term work so infrastructure
like Bermuda ’s roads, the incinerator, the ports and
other vital national assets are properly maintained.
They should never fall into the disrepair as they have done under two decades of PLP leadership .
We would achieve this future by developing
and committing to a path to a strong financial future. Each year the people of Bermuda will see we are delivering. Each year will build confidence. And we will be
happy to be held accountable against that long- term
plan each and every year . We will not hide behind misleading statistics or by skipping the budget process
every other year. Importantly, to increase accountability
we would also ensure that all national financial statements are brought up to date, proper ly maintained and
audited. Every Bermudian has a right to know how their
money is being spent and that it is being spent to good
effect.
Our work would start off by growing our economy, increasing Bermudian jobs and creating opportunity. The only way to truly do this is by expanding our
working population. As we discussed earlier, the Government ’s own reports tell us that real immigration reform is a fundamental component of decreasing the
cost of living. It is also needed to rebalance health care
costs. Real immigration reform is needed to improve
the health of the pension funds.
There is a way to solve this, and we will keep
the interests of Bermudians and Bermudian workers first and foremost as together we navigate that challenging way forward.

Pensions

Hon. Jarion Richardson: The looming pension crisis
must be resolved. We know that most stakeholders will
understand that it is important that we protect our children and future generations. This means creating a
sustainable pension system that will continue to work
for many, many years. The reports and solutions al-ready exist. We would take immediate action on them.
But note that immediate action does not have to mean
a shock or unpleasant surprise. Changes can be implemented on a stepped or gradual basis s o that all pension-holders understand how changes will affect them
before they happen, and then we can make our plans
accordingly.

Tourism

Hon. Jarion Richardson: We would boost tourism by
aggressively searching for and courting investors
whom we can trust to deliver and who will trust us to be
good partners. Good investors with access to capital
who do not need to be propped up by the Bermuda
Government. Good investors who are willing to stay in Bermuda for a while to see their investment through rather than just flip ping a property based on overly generous Government giveaways. And we will work with
investors to ensure our mutual success , and most importantly the success of Bermudians and Bermudian
businesses who benefit from working with them.
The Bermuda Tourism Authority needs to be
freed from political influence. A successful BTA must
be free to operate independently and professionally
with accountability for outcomes. This means


Bermuda House of Assembly measuring BTA results and holding its leaders accountable to meet its goals , but politicians must not micromanage how experts deliver. Let the experts do
their thing. If the expert deliver s, as has happened in
the past, then we all win. If the experts fail, then we replace them.
The need for accountability at the BTA also
means taking a cold, hard look at how we invest in and
promote events. We will not spend the people ’s money
without a firm business case for tourism returns for Bermudians. This includes a positive impact on Bermudian
businesses and workers —no political pet projects , no
betrayals.

Cost of Living

Hon. Jarion Richardson: To address the cost of living, we would cut red tape to allow for innovative and effective building approaches and designs. We need to
make it cheaper, easier and faster to construct comfortable and high- quality homes. As mentioned earlier, we
would especially focus on this in the City of Hamilton
and other brownfield sites. We do not need to sacrifice
what precious little remains of our natural green environment to achieve our needs.
We would create a plan to reduce the cost of
energy across the Island and not just give away lightbulbs. This could include creating flexible policies and
removing red tape to enable cost -effective deployment
of technologies, like solar , to reduce the cost of energy
to all Bermudians including renters. But we would not
spend the people’s money subsidising green energy
developers. These projects must make sense on their
own financial terms. We value green energy, we know it is a growing part of our economy, and it is important
that more of it is deployed across the world. And right
now in Bermuda we must focus on what improves the bottom line for our people. Fortunately, reducing fossil
fuel usage would also reduce the amount of foreign cur-rency that we send overseas, and that in turn would
strengthen Bermuda ’s financial position.
We would support and encourage local agriculture by working with and listening to our farmers. If we
can locally produce more of the food that is consumed here, that will strengthen our resilience and keep more
of our money circulating locally, rather than sending it
overseas and spending it on increasing shipping costs.
Many of our farmers are innovators, and we support
their ideas and initiatives, as they understand what the
situation is on and in the ground. There is little point
pumping the people’s cash into overseas consultants
when we have the specialist knowledge in Bermuda already . Local produce will also help keep us healthy.
The PLP ’s sugar tax was promoted by some to
encourage healthy eating, but at this point this tax is a long-failed initiative. This tax simply burdens the grocery bill of every Bermudian. We will dump the sugar
tax to reduce grocery bills i mmediately.
Health Care
Hon. Jarion Richardson: Looking to health care, we
would first reverse the PLP ’s block grant for the hospital, allowing KEMH to return to a fee- for-service model.
This allows the hospital to generate more business (for
example, more operating room hours to provide discretionary procedures) and create additional revenue to
help cover its costs. It also encourages accountability
and reduces overuse. We know that too many seniors
and others who need daily care are stuck in the hospi-tal, one of the most ineffic ient and uncomfortable ways
to take care of them. Our seniors need their dignity
back. We would create and deliver on solutions to move
these Bermudians out of the hospital and into more
suitable and comfortable facilities.
We would grab the horns of our national health
care dilemma. We know our people are not as healthy
as they should be and that health care costs too much.
We would work with the health care professions , professionals , insurers and business es to streamline and
reduce those costs while expanding health care so that
all Bermudians continue to have the access they deserve.
Technical projects like single- digital ID health
care can be part of that solution. But we know success
in our nation ’s health care will be about more than just
where the money goes and the computer systems used
to track it. Better health care in Bermuda will be about
how we value and treat one another.

Government Must Be More Efficient and Serve the
People’s Needs
Hon. Jarion Richardson: We all know that some g overnment services can be inefficient and ineffective. We
also know that we often pay too much for certain ser-vices. This is especially true when comparing Bermuda
to similar jurisdictions. While some departments have shown creativity and innovation, PLP Government
leaders have for too long kicked the can down the road
and failed to support our civil service workers with the
tools, training and support needed to enhance service provision to the public.
We need more efficient government to serve
the people’s needs. Those who seek to play political
games translate this to mean, [The OBA] want s to lay
off government workers . This is simply not the case. Instead, we need a more efficient government with enhanced service provision. Importantly, the g overnment
must be able to pay the workers that it does have. The
OBA understands that you cannot simply reduce the
size of the civil service without there being job creation
in the private sect or. We also understan d that a more
efficient civil service can be achieved through tools and
training. We recognise that a hiring freeze may be required in certain segments of the public sector. And
consideration will be given to the early retirement packages made available to those who wish to pursue them.
416 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly We would also work together with government
workers to identify ways to streamline, connect and
centrali se how government serves the people. These
workers are the first point of contact for the public and best understand what people need. So w e would use
their experience and knowledge to create systems and
processes that work well for both the public and the
government workers.
During our town hall [meetings ], we proposed
an online payment portal for all government payments.
We would simplify establishing a business in Bermuda
by providing a one- stop shop to start a local business
and make all required filings from payroll taxes, social
insurance and company returns.
We are glad to see that the PLP Government
will work toward some of the ideas we have publicly
proposed.
Streamlining and digitising immigration processes would also have a positive impact on both local
and international businesses, removing a significant
stumbling block and assisting with the creation of meaningful Bermudian jobs. Immigration delays impose a significant cost on businesses when they need
to hire specialised staff no matter the industry. Whether
the proposed AI [artificial intelligence] approach will do the trick remains to be seen, and we will carefully monitor the Government ’s progress here, hoping that it will
be better than previous attempts.

Other Initiatives

Hon. Jarion Richardson: “ Bermuda Inc. ” currently
has a portfolio of solid initiatives —some small, some
not so small —that we would continue and grow where
possible. Examples include the development of Bermuda’s space launching slot resource and the Google
(and other) subsea cables. What has made these areas successful is that they have involved real professionals
and experts. Experts who have a clear understanding
of the value Bermuda brings such as launch slots , a
strategic global location and a nimble legi slative response. These initiatives have taken their time to develop, including doing all of the right research and consultation. Real work needs to be done, not just photoops with politicians to give the impression of govern-ment activity.
Above all, new projects need to make sound
financial sense for Bermuda. We believe FinT ech can
fall into this category. Once we step away from the hype
and political leaders stay out of the way, we welcome
innovators who can focus on the core of legitimate applications and businesses in FinT ech—where it makes
sense for Bermuda and is consistent with our reputation and brand. Other important examples include the
trust and fund sectors, and the maritime and aviation
registries. Bermuda ’s ability to craft high- quality legislation and regulatory environments for these sectors, and [our ability to] react nimbly , are an asset for us. Where these initiatives have succeeded is with home-grown specialists , again keeping politicians out of it.

We All Need Thriving Local Business

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Finally, we must understand
and keep first in our minds that it is imperative for us to
develop and encourage a vibrant local economy, driven by local businesses owned by and employing Bermudians. International business has been a huge success
for our Island, yet it cannot be a giant glass tower stand-ing alone. We must urgently restore our communities
and our local businesses, energise our enterprises and
entrepreneurs —through prudent tax relief as needed.
There must be a seat at the table for everyone. Bermuda ’s history is characterised by ingenuity, entrepreneurship, agility and an incredible ability to seize opportunity.
All of these successes are fed by the survival
instinct that comes from being on a tiny rock in the mid-dle of the ocean. Ultimately, growing our local economy
and increasing demand is the best way to support our
Bermudian businesses. But greater support is needed.
And we will strip away red tape from government processes where they can be streamlined or even removed. The OBA fundamentally believes that Government ’s job is to create the best conditions for Bermudian business success, and then to get out of t he way.
Mr. Speaker , we have covered a lot of detail in
these remarks. Even so, the focus today on the budget
means there are many important topics we were not able to cover in this specific Statement , such as education, which we will raise later . But we have sought to hit
the highlights, to give Bermudians a firm idea of how the One Bermuda Alliance would handle their money.
And our finance team would start every day by reminding ourselves that G overnment is entrusted with their
money.
To sum up our core approach, the OBA will renew Bermuda for the benefit of all Bermudians and for
future generations. W e will do that together with the
Bermudian public by getting back to basics , by focusing
on the important things and doing them well. By delivering results and encour aging you, the public, to hold
us accountable.
Our Island has reached a turning point. We
know that Bermudians —now more than ever —are
ready to come together to stop the decline. The One
Bermuda Alliance makes this commitment to those who join with us: W e will produce real results to improve
lives every day, from the cost of living to the ability to find good jobs. Responsible spending. Social fairness.
Strong communities. A prosperous future. It is what
every Bermudian needs. Mr. Speaker , it is time now.

[Desk thumping]

There you go.

DEBATE ON THE BUDGET STATEMENT
AND REPLY TO THE BUDGET

Hon. Jason Hayward: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, last week the Minister of Finance,
the Honourable David Burt, released a budget, a
budget which sets out the fiscal position for the Government over the next 12 months. Today, Mr. Speaker, we listened to a Budget Reply, a reply that was supposed to indicate to the country where the Opposition
felt the Government’s priorities should be, where they
believe there is missed opportunity, how they, if Gov-ernment, would have an alternative plan.
And then it is their responsibility to demonstrate to the people of Bermuda the way in which [they] would execute on the things they say they intended to do. But they failed to do that today, Mr. Speaker. We heard no concrete solutions as to the challenges that
the Opposition say we face. They [painted] a picture of
a one- sided economy, one where all statistics are leading in the wrong direction. But, Mr. Speaker, what they cannot refute is that the Minister of Finance demon-strated financial and economic c ompetence in the delivery of the National Economic Report and in the deliver of the budget.
You see, financial and economic competence
indicates to the country that this Government has the skills to perform fiscal and economic tasks. It signals to
the country that we are generally aware of the conditions that we are in and we have the wisdom to operate
in this economic environment.
Mr. Speaker, by all measures our economy
and the Government’s fiscal position are heading in the
right direction. Mr. Speaker, that is a point that cannot
be refuted. Our economy is heading in the right direction, and Government’s fiscal position is heading in the
right direction, Mr. Speaker. It simply cannot be, Mr. Speaker, that when things go wrong in Bermuda it is
the Government’s fault, but when they go right, it has
nothing to do with this Government or our performance
or our policies. See, you simpl y cannot have it both
ways. If we are held to account when things are not going right, then when things go right based off of our policies, based off of the strategies that we put in place,
based off of the work that we have done, based off of the execution of the initiatives set by this Government,
you must give credit where credit is due.
You see, Mr. Speaker, anybody who supports
the notion that everything that is going wrong with Bermuda is the Government’s fault and anything that is going right has nothing to do with the Government simply lacks integrity. Mr. Speaker, this is the first balanced
budget in two decades. That is something that everybody has collectively called for, for us to ensure that we
are not increasing our debt levels. We set out a plan to
achieve that. Let us simply applaud the fact that we do
not have to go to the markets and borrow more money
to pay down any new debt.
Mr. Speaker, in this budget we address the
pressure of the rising cost of living. The Government is
well aware of the cost of living and the impact that it is having on our residents and our businesses. And so the
Minister of Finance states that this Government is subsidising health care costs. One would ask, Why? It reduces the pressure on families. It reduces the pressure
on the population. That is something that should be applauded. Yet the funds used to subsidise our health care system are being critic ised. I do not know what the
Opposition’s alternative is because in their last Budget
Reply, they said that they were going to increase taxes
on health care.
Mr. Speaker, in this budget we invest in infrastructure. This Government is investing in a number of infrastructure projects. But most important, we are going to put an additional $10 million toward affordable
housing. We have recognised that housing is currently
418 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly challenging, and we are allocating funds to that challenge along with a number of other things that we are
doing in that particular space.
There is a Bill on the table of this House, Mr.
Speaker, which seeks to support increased residential development in the City of Hamilton. In the read OBA’s
Budget Reply, Mr. Speaker, it is the exact same proposal. What would they do to support housing? An d
they say increase the housing capacity in the City of Hamilton. So I look forward to support on our Bill next
week. I was looking for a new and alternative idea, but none was present.
Mr. Speaker, in this budget we support economic growth. This Government has had an unwaver-ing commitment to investing in education, investing in
job training, investing in small business development
while working to attract new businesses to our shores. In this budget we seek to make pensions more sustainable. We recognise the challenge. We have worked
with the professionals. And we have strategies as to
how we are going to progress that particular initiative. Interestingly enough, the Minister of Finance i n his submission speaks to how we will tackle this head- on. And
the OBA in their Reply says that we need to tackle it head- on, and they raised it as an area of concern.
In this budget we seek to improve government
services. Government is committed to investing in tech-nology and initiatives to improve the delivery of public service. Mr. Speaker, we get that it is our responsibility.
We know we owe efficient and effective p ublic services
to the voters and residents of Bermuda. And we are
committed, not just in this Budget Book, but when the
Throne Speech was read it also highlighted this Government’s commitment to ensuring that we improve public service delivery.
Mr. Speaker, a hallmark of any good governance framework is fiscal, financial and economic com-petence. Mr. Speaker, that is what this Government
has demonstrated. It has demonstrated fiscal competence. It has demonstrated financial competence. It has
demonstrated economic competence. And we will continue to do so.
Mr. Speaker, there was no electioneering in the
budget presented. It was a budget presented that stated that the Government will fund its priorities in a
fiscally prudent manner. It demonstrated that we will
have effective management of the public purse. Mr.
Speaker, it speaks to how we will balance our budget,
but more importantly how it creates a glide path to future surpluses and debt reduction and debt manage-ment.
We are often told we need to focus on our debt.
Well, what is the purpose of balancing a budget if a government is not focused on debt? If we were not focused on debt, we would continue to spend more than
we get. We have demonstrated that we are focused on
debt by putting forth a budget surplus which would allow us to begin to pay down debt and reduce interest
payments. Mr. Speaker, year after year we are going to
have a debate on this particular topic as it pertains to
the economy. And contrasting pictures will be painted.
The Minister of Finance, the Honourable David Burt,
will say our economy is improving. And the Opposition representative will then say, Bermudians have lost
hope, optimism. It is a gloomy picture. There is no
meaningful progress being made. But, Mr. Speaker, the
numbers do not lie. Bermuda’s economy continues to
expand, and the data support it, bottom l ine.
The official measure of economic performance
is GDP. We could talk about socio- economic conditions
later. But if we are talking about economic perfor-mance, the official measure is the gross domestic product. Mr. Speaker, during the second quarter of 2023
Bermuda’s economy grew by an estimated 2.3 per cent
after adjusting for inflation. Additionally, first quarter
GDP in 2023 was revised upward to 4.6 per cent. I must
stress, after adjusting for inflation.

Aha! Ooh!
Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance has estimated that Bermuda’s GDP in 2023 has
increased by 4.0 [per cent] to 4.5 per cent. Mr.
Speaker, we got our annual GDP numbers for 2022, and our economy grew by a whopping 6.4 per cent year
over year.

[Desk thumping]

Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, 12 out of our 19
sectors experienced growth—12 of our 19 sectors experienced growth. You would think that only IB and
tourism have positive news. You would be interested to
know, Mr. Speaker, that the largest contributor to our
growth was not from our international business sector;
it was from our domestic economy. Our financial and
insurance sectors increased by $159 million. Mr.
Speaker, the largest contributor to our growth was from
the domestic economy, with financial and insurance
sectors increasing upward by $159 million. That was
followed secondly by international business and third
by accommodation and food services.
I do not know where the story lines are drawn
from sometimes. But the facts will reflect that we have
genuine growth in our economy. In 2022, which is the
last annual numbers that were released, manufacturing
grew by 1.4 per cent. Mr. Speaker, electricity , water
supply and waste management grew by 1.2 per cent.
Mr. Speaker, construction and quarrying grew by 7.8 per cent. Mr. Speaker, wholesale and retail trade
grew by 1.4 per cent. Accommodation and food services grew by 40.5 per cent. Financial and insur ance
activities —local, domestic financial and insurance activities grew by 19.3 per cent. Real estate activities
grew by 3.0 per cent. Professional, scientific and technical activities grew by 2.3 per cent. Administrative and
support services grew by 3.2 per cent. Education grew


Bermuda House of Assembly by 8.8 per cent. Other service activities grew by 6.1 per
cent. And finally, Mr. Speaker, international business
activity grew by 7.7 per cent.
That is diversified expansion, Mr. Speaker.
That is growth throughout our entire economy. And to think we have had that strong growth in 2020, we are
already demonstrating strong growth in 2023, and it is
estimated that our economy will grow over 4 per cent in
2024.
It is important for us to touch on international
business, though, Mr. Speaker. International business
does not operate in a vacuum within our economy.
There must be an ecosystem which allows companies
to thrive. There must be an ecosystem that attracts
companies to Bermuda. There must be an environment
that is welcoming. Mr. Speaker, IB represents 28.4 per
cent of our economy. This effort continues to expand. We cannot separate it from our economy and say, Well,
IB is doing well, and not the rest of the economy. Is this
the vision that is trying to be created for some political
reasons?
The growth in the sector is a testament to our
business environment. A key component of this business environment is political stability, sound policy, a
strong regulatory environment, a safe community and strong human resources. In order for the industry to be
successful, it has to be ongoing collaboration and consultation with the Government. Mr. Speaker, Bermuda continues to be a leading financial jurisdiction. And no,
this Government will not take our foot off of the gas pedal. This Government will rema in committed to ensuring that Bermuda’s reputation as a premier financial jurisdiction remains intact.
Mr. Speaker, I often meet with persons who are
interested in domiciling in Bermuda. And we walk
through the list in terms of factors that they consider
when moving to a territory. But when I walk through Bermuda’s business ecosystem and Bermuda’s value
proposition, oftentimes they are convinced that Bermuda is the place for them to do business.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance [and I]
were in one such meeting last week. And after I finished
my spiel in terms of my role as the Minister of Economy
and Labour, representative for economic growth, devel-opment and the expansion of jobs, my role as ensuring
that we have a business ecosystem that allows businesses to thrive, the response from the company was
. . . to be honest, he gave me Jerry Maguire.
[Laughter]

Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, the gentleman
told me, You had me at ‘hello.’ He basically told me
Bermuda’s business environment speaks for itself. The companies that are here and continue to want to domicile here are a testament. There is no waning business confidence. And the businesses continue to come, Mr.
Speaker. But more importantly, Mr. Speaker, international business now employs 4,909 individuals, the
largest employment sector, of which 60 per cent are
Bermudians and spouses of Bermudians —60 per cent
are Bermudians and spouses of Bermudians. Bermudi-ans are benefiting from the business growth and expansion. We have more workers in international business now than in any other period of time in our entire
history.

No point of order there.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: There has got to be a point
of order there somewhere!

Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, our second largest sector in our economy is real estate activities. Their
output surpassed $1 billion last year, and their output
after adjusting for inflation remains over $1 billion. It
represents 15.4 per cent of total GDP.
Mr. Speaker, there is an RG [Royal Gazette]
forecast where realtors are talking about the real estate environment in Bermuda. There was no loss of confidence in our economy in that forecast. When the construction industry was asked about work being done,
they talked about not having large industrial projects,
but they did say that the majority of companies were
busy with residential projects. We have people working.
We have positive stories to tell as it pertains to our
economy.
Mr. Speaker, the financial and insurance activity sector, which is part of our domestic economy, is the
third largest contributor to our GDP. And that sector
now accounts for over $1 billion of output. And it has increased its share in percentage of our economy to
14.7 per cent.
Mr. Speaker, while tourism is not a leading sector in our economy as it pertains to economic output or
its contribution to GDP, it is significant as it pertains to
employment and its indirect and induced impact on
Bermuda’s economy at large. This sector c ontinues to
expand year over year. And no, we have not reached our all -time highs. No, we have not fully recovered from
the pandemic. But, Mr. Speaker, we are trending in the right direction. And that particular sector is moving at a
rapid pace.
Mr. Speaker, we have an increase in visitor arrivals, an increase in cruise arrivals, an increase in
420 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly visitor spending and an increase in cruise visitor spending. Mr. Speaker, when we look at tourism and its impact, we have to accept that despite a number of properties being closed, our sector is performing well.
Based off of the capacity that we have, the sector is
performing well. And we know the sector is performing
well because that sector was our largest contributor to
new job [growth] in 2023. How can a struggling, failing
sector increase jobs by that amount? We have to talk
about growth. We have to t alk about trending in the
right direction. We have to talk about progress being
made.
Mr. Speaker, in this budget we are investing in
infrastructure. We will continue to strengthen social protections. We will continue to invest in affordable
housing. We invest in our youth through scholarships.
We make the Island safer. I heard some chirpi ng, Mr.
Speaker, but what the Shadow Minister of National Security has not been in the paper talking about recently
is crime in Bermuda. I wonder why?
Mr. Speaker, we are presenting a balanced
budget, and we need to make it abundantly clear that there is a contrast between the Progressive Labour
Party and the other party. The voters of Bermuda need
to know that there are options. And choices matter. I am convinced that the Progressive Labour Party is the
best party for our youth, the best party for our workers, the best party for our seniors and the best party for business.
Mr. Speaker, when a voter asks me, Mr. Hayward, why should I vote for the Progressive Labour Party? What have you done? Mr. Speaker, I will take a
deep breath, look that voter in the eye and say, We
have increased social protections. We have increased labour protections. We are the party that implemented
a minimum wage. We are the party that increased pub-lic sector worker salaries. We are the party that reduced the majority of taxes on workers. We are the party that
extended child day care allowance and th at supports
families. We are the party that expanded scholarship
funding. We are the party that has invested in affordable housing. We are the party that expanded summer
internship and summer employment programmes.
We are the party that increased pension rates
for our seniors. We are the party that increased Finan-cial Assistance benefits for our seniors. We are the
party that protected employees from tips, gratuities and
services charges being held by employers. We are the
party that invested in sports clubs. We are the party that
continues to subsidise health care costs. We are the party that continues to subsidise fuel costs. We are the
party that is executing on a youth employment strategy.
We are the party that is investing and executing on a
workforce development strategy. We supported thousands of workers during the pandemic. We are making
home ownership a reality. We are growing the econ-omy.
That is what I will let the voter know we are doing. And if the voter wants me to elaborate on any one of those items, I will be happy to do so. And I would
have done so [here], but time does not permit. But as a
reminder, our economy is improving and the facts support it. Tourism is improving, manufacturing is improving, electricity, construction, wholesal e/retail trade, financial services, education and international business.
This is not a one- trick pony. Expansion is taking place
throughout our entire economy.
Mr. Speaker, we are growing jobs. The data
from the 2023 employment survey let us know that jobs
increased in Bermuda by 935 posts, from 31,914 to
32,849— 935 job increases year over year. That is on
top of job increases last year, Mr. Speaker. Mr.
Speaker, how can a contracting economy expand job
growth? But that is a part of our strategy. You see, we
want to ensure that we have the proper environment so
that businesses can expand and create more jobs so that we can fill those jobs.
Mr. Speaker, here is an important statistic: 17
of our 19 industrial sections experienced increases in the number of jobs filled. Mr. Speaker, 17 out of 19 industrial sectors within our economy experienced job
growth. That does not happen by a fluke. That does not
happen if persons cannot get their immigration docu-ments processed. That does not happen if the Government does not invest in training and development of individuals to fill those posts. The majority of those jobs were in the accommodation and food services, then followed by international business. And then professional,
scientific and technical jobs increased by 92.
Mr. Speaker, and then when you break down
the occupational categories, for example, from management to individuals who work on your shop floor maybe as clerks. There was job growth across the
board. These are not just jobs for senior executives. It
is job growth across the board.
And let me state another important fact: 70 per
cent of the jobs in Bermuda are held by Bermudians.
This whole myth in terms of foreigners are taking all of
our jobs —let us stop with it. The statistics do not support it. Seventy per cent of the jobs filled are filled by Bermudians.
Mr. Speaker, just so the public is clear, we
have job growth in wholesale and retail trade. We have
job growth in public administration, job growth in ac-commodation and food service activities; job growth in
human health and social work; job growth in prof essional, scientific and technical activities; job growth in
financial and insurance activities; job growth in trans-portation and storage; job growth in education; job
growth in information and communication; job growth in
art, entertainment and recreation; growth in our electricity and waste management; and growth in manufacturing.
Mr. Speaker, here are the facts: Our economy
is up, jobs are up, Bermudian employment is up. Overall, unemployment is down. Bermuda unemployment is
down. Those are the facts.


Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Speaker, I stated that elections matter. So
it is important for me to highlight contrasts. The OBA,
the party who told our seniors, Money doesn’t grow on
trees, the party of increased taxes on workers, the party
of decreased public sector salaries, the party who proposed increased taxes on health care while complaining about health care costs being too high, the party
who cost taxpayers $200 million for a Morgan’s Point
guarantee —

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Jason Hayward: I will never forget that is the
party that presided over the pepper -spraying of our
seniors. That is the party that reduced scholarship
funding.
Why I do this job, Mr. Speaker, is because I
care. And the people of this country know that I care
because they tell me such when I interact with them.
But I have also demonstrated it. So while that party was
cutting the pay of public sector workers, I was sleeping
outside the Cabinet Building trying to get the salaries
back.

[Desk thumping]

Hon. Jason Hayward: I was sleeping outside in the
cold to get the salaries of 4,000 public servants back.
Because we had agreed to take a two- year furlough.
And this Government reneged on the deal and wanted to continue, the OBA Government.
Mr. Speaker, that is a severe contrast. One
Government who has demonstrated that it stands with workers, another who talks a good game. But when the rubber meets the road, their actions demonstrate
[something] different. And then the Opposition Leader today says that they are looking for greater allowance of government efficiency, and he then says, We’ll look
at offering early retirements. Mr. Speaker, that is how
furloughs started off in the first place! We worked with
the then Government to create an ear ly retirement plan.
I know because I drafted it, as the President of the
Trade Union Congress. We worked with them.
When they could not achieve the level of savings they required from the early retirement plan, they moved on to furloughs. And it was a deal and a partnership between the unions and the Government because the unions wanted to assist. But the Michael
Dunkl ey Administration . . . sorry, Honourable Member
Dunkley’s Administration determined, Thank you, but
no thank you. Thank you for your efforts; however, we
still need more. So that two -year furlough, we want to
continue it. And the workers said no. And I was on the
front line of ensuring that this country’s workers’ salaries were restored.
Mr. Speaker, I was also on the hill of the House
of Assembly during Pathways to Status, where the OBA Government was trying to create a pathway for
individuals to obtain status. We are clear that we need more persons working and residing in Bermuda. We
are prepared to move forward with permanent residency. But how can you continue to talk about status
after you watch persons fight on a hill for five days
against the very same proposal? And they tell us we do
not listen. To whom are they listening, Mr. Speaker?
Mr. Speaker, it is contrast. And the Minister at
the time, the Minister of Home Affairs at the time, the Honourable Michael Fahy, whom the OBA by all accounts felt as though he was doing a good job —they
fired him as the Minister of Home Affairs. I wonder why?
Mr. Speaker, elections matter. Voters will have a
choice. The Progressive Labour Party’s track record
has been clear. We are on a good and sound trajectory
right now from an economic standpoint. We are on a
good and solid trajectory as it pertains to a fiscal standpoint.
Mr. Speaker, we are not resting on our laurels.
As it pertains to our economy, we have developed a
plan. It is called an Economic Development Strategy. It
already contains most of these suggestions that the
One Bermuda Alliance made today. I challenge a Member of the OBA to stand up and say, Which of the ideas
in this booklet are new ideas? I challenge you to speak
and say w hich of these ideas are new ideas . Which?
Mr. Speaker, when we talk about our Economic
Recovery Plan, we have to talk about the progress made to that Economic Recovery Plan, with 80 per cent
of the initiatives being executed on. They like harping
on the one or two initiatives that have not been successful. But, Mr. Speaker, we have to talk about the
legislative framework for the subsea cable, which is under Google. That is an initiative that we have executed on. The Morgan’s Guarantee Programme—another initiative that we have successfully executed on.
The economic investment residential certificate, an initiative that has yielded over $460 million of associated investment. We implemented a minimum
wage. We created an Uptown Development Authority.
We have increased the public stock of affordable housing. We have created an online marketplace. We are
executing on our youth employment strategy. We have
created a regulatory sandbox. And we have extended
the economic empowerment zone to South East Hamilton.
It is unfair to say that we have not executed on
our initiatives. Our track record is clear. So we had a
recovery plan, and our economy has recovered from
the pandemic. That is a fact! Our economy has not just recovered from the pandemic, our economy is larger
today than in any year that the One Bermuda Alliance
Government presided. Fact! Mr. Speaker, the last time
in real terms our economy was larger was 2011. We
have had a global recession, then we had a pandemic
which caused a recession. And this country has remained resilient. This Government has remained steadfast on executing for the people of Bermuda.
Mr. Speaker, in my role as the Minister responsible for Economy and Labour I am responsible for
422 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly economic growth, economic development and the expansion of jobs. I can tick all three of those boxes. Mr.
Speaker, the way in which I view my role as the Minister
responsible for Economy and Labour is through transformational leadership. Mr. Speaker, I am looking at the future. I am looking at change. And I am looking at how
we can invest in our people so that they can also share
in the prosperity of this great Island called Bermuda.
And Bermuda remains a great Island.
The only people who want to create an alternative reality of Bermuda are ones who will benefit from that murky picture. See, success does not fit into their
narrative. Having a competent Government does not fit
into their narrative.
Mr. Speaker, this Government has a plan and
it contains ensuring that we are expanding growth, international and local business in Bermuda, supporting those sectors which drive growth in Bermuda, supporting those sectors which drive employment and then
supporting those sectors which create levels of opportunity such as the spending on our blue economy or our green economy. Ensuring that we are a tax -savvy nation, improving our technology ecosystem, ensuring we
have a tax -savvy population.
The plan contains ensuring that we have an entrepreneur ecosystem that allows for small and medium -sized business development, that allows for ensuring our youth have a pathway to entrepreneurship.
And the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation
has been doing an awesome job in their remit to ensure
we expend our entrepreneurial ecosystem. It speaks about investing in and promoting Bermuda, ensuring to
the world our value proposition.
Mr. Speaker, there is this big thing about certain ministers travelling. Mr. Speaker, as the Minister
responsible for economic development, economic
growth and the expansion of jobs, I am required to get out there and share Bermuda’s value proposition! Mr.
Speaker, I will continue to travel unapologetically be-cause I am still going to places where persons do not
understand what Bermuda has to offer! And I will ensure when I am in those rooms that they are clear. For
the Americans who consider themselves an eagle, I
want them clear that Bermuda is a place for the eagle
to lay its golden eggs!

Oh! Oh! Oh!

Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, in the UAE [United
Arab Emirates], they said they have the falcon economy. Well, I want to be clear that the falcon can come
to Bermuda and lay its golden eggs. And we have already seen that work take place with the Emirate Family Office Association currently setting up a branch in
Bermuda to expand how we work together to attract
more family offices from that region to our shores. And I do not discriminate. When they say, Can you give us
a list of service providers that can assist, Scott, we continue to put Conyers on the list. Some Hon. Members: Ooh! Ooh!

[Inaudible interjections and laughter ]
[Desk thumping]

Hon. Jason Hayward: But, Mr. Speaker, none of this
means anything if we are not investing in our people.
And so the priority in terms of investing in our people is
ensuring that we have a skilled workforce that is able to
take advantage of opportunities that exist, ensuring that we have a population that is able to progress within the
workplace, a population that is able to enjoy the standard of life that they desire in Bermuda. So this is where
our focus will be, continue to ensure that we build the
human resource capacity, that we carry out the tenets
of our social contract that we have with the people of
Bermuda.
This is a complex world, Mr. Speaker. It is no
time to go back to basics. We must move forward, and we must bring our people with us. Mr. Speaker, we
have done a good job in providing Bermudians with increased opportunities through the expansion of jobs.
Yes, we have to ensure that their purchasing power remains competitive, remains whole. So we have to reduce the cost of living. But the Minister of Finance has
indicated that he has some initiatives that he is happy
to execute on as it pertains to things w e can do to
amend the tax structure, to reduce the cost of living in
Bermuda and to reduce the cost of doing business.
That plan is already in motion.
We know what to do. And we know what our
people expect. They complain about the potholes, and we have a Minister who is not just focusing on ensuring
that this problem is solved but continues to apologise
to the people of Bermuda. Why? Because he cares,
and he takes it personally, and he has to drive on those
same roads. And so this is why, when we start to talk
about the options as they pertain to the Progressive Labour Party versus moving backwards to basics, we
want people to know that as it pertains to our youth,
who want opportunities, we are providing that. As it pertains to our seniors, who want to be valued, we have
continued to demonstrate that. As it pertains to our
workers, we have expanded workplace protections, and we will continue to do so.
As it pertains to our people who want safe
streets, we are guaranteeing that. Our people want economic stability, and we are guaranteeing that. Our people want increased social services and support, and
we are guaranteeing that. Our people want a Minister
of Finance who is fiscally competent. And we guarantee that.
Mr. Speaker, our economy is improving, jobs
are up, opportunity is increasing, unemployment is
down. Bermudian unemployment is down. Bermudian
employment is up. Overall employment is up. Our
economy is expanding. Mr. Speaker, I ask you, What is
left to debate?


Bermuda House of Assembly Thank you.

[Desk thumping]

And I would like to begin by
thanking the Honourable Member who just took his seat. I think that laying out the facts is important as we
debate in this House. I think that laying out the facts is important for our people to hear because if you only get
your information by WhatsApp forwards and from the
Royal Gazette and from the Reply to the Budget, you
might find yourself a little confused.
Mr. Speaker, the legacy and the history of the
Progressive Labour Party being branded as fiscally in-competent did not start in 2016. It did not start in 1998.
It started way back before then. Mr. Speaker, I remem-ber as a young man listening to the Budget Debates at
about 11– 12 years old. And we heard the then Government say, The PLP can’t manage money. The PLP
can’t run anything. PLP MPs can’t hold down a job.
Sound familiar?

Now nothing has changed
. . . No, no. I am sorry. Something has changed because now they say we steal and we travel too much.
But, Mr. Speaker, what was interesting about
what they said at that time was just who our Shadow
Finance Minister was. And I am not going to say his
name yet because I want to speak of how they speak
about him now that he is no longer with us. Prudent fiscal leadership, one of the best Finance Ministers we
ever had. The Shadow Minister in the 1980s when they
were disparaging us as being incompetent, cannot run
anything, do not know what we are doing, was Mr. C.
Eugene Cox. And now we hear him praised in retrospect in an effort to flog us.
So, Mr. Speaker, I am glad that the Honourable
Member, Mr. Cox, who formerly served in this House
had the opportunity to live to prove them wrong! Not just for the PLP, but for every little Black boy and girl in
this country who knew that —you can’t run nothing , you
can’t do nothing, you don’t know what you’re doing—
you were not just talking . . . If you could say that about
Mr. Cox, you are talking about me too. So I am glad he lived to see them be proven wrong.
So, Mr. Speaker, love the Premier or hate him,
support the Premier or not, bringing a balanced budget
to this Parliament is something that has proven them wrong. It has refuted the claims that we cannot run the
economy, we cannot manage anything and we cannot
do anything. So I think it is important for us, because I
am old enough to remember when having a Black Finance Minister was a novelty. This was new. T his was
something rare. And I remember a period when having
a PLP Finance Minister was a fantasy and a dream that
they said could never happen. So any accomplishment,
and particularly the long laundry list of accomplishments laid out by the Minister who preceded me, is
something that proves wrong those who say, It cannot be done.
Now, Mr. Speaker, as I go into my remarks, I
would like to begin by saying that I would like to thank the people of constituency 33, Sandys South, for sending me here, the voters, the team, my family for the sup-port and love that you give me. Because I could not do this without you.
Mr. Speaker, I had the opportunity to listen and
read several times the Opposition’s Reply. And one of the things that I took above the many things I took away
from it is they do a very good job of pointing out what is
wrong. They do a very good job of te lling us that this
doesn ’t work, this doesn ’t work, this doesn’ t work . Let
us look at the list. Miles of potholes —check. Exorbitant
grocery bills —check. Increased homelessness —
check. Very good at identifying issues.
So, Mr. Speaker, I said, Okay, you’ve identified
the problems. Let me see the solutions. What is their
solution to fix our roads? Mr. Speaker, I do not know and you do not know because they did not tell us. Mr.
Speaker, what is their solution for our exorbitant grocery bills? I do not know and you do not know because they did not tell us. Mr. Speaker, this really leaped out
at me. The OBA says, and I quote, “ We would have to
make some tough decisions, together with the Bermu-dian public. ” Mr. Speaker, what do they have planned?
What do they have planned? And why can you not tell us what those tough choices are?
Mr. Speaker, it is very easy to say these things
when you are in Opposition. Opposition is fun. You
know, I remember an older Member, who is no longer
with us, say years ago, Hey, man. You can get up and
just say it. Just say it! Hey, man. They say it was $7
million; No, it was $10 million. That’s how much was wasted.

So, Mr. Speaker, they talk
about increased homelessness. And what was their solution? Well, they did have one, and let me quote it for
424 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly you. They said they would “ implement comprehensive
research of the housing needs of the I sland before implementing any new policy. ” Mr. Speaker, the Progressive Labour Party is building houses now. The OBA intends to fiddle while the housing issue burns? We are building houses now. Make no mistake: This is a comprehensive problem that requires solutions. But what
we hear on the doors tep and what we see is that our
people need housing now. So that is what we are doing.
Mr. Speaker, when we go back to their talk
about tough decisions that they will not tell us, I think
that you can get a very clear idea of some of the tough
decisions they have in their mind based on their past
performance, but also by their biggest cheerleaders
online, anonymous and non- anonymous. They have
this weird, perverse, strange obsession with slashing
the bloated civil service—their words, not mine. It is a weird obsession, Mr. Speaker, of putting people out of
work. And you hear the word they us e to describe them:
lazy. Okay?
You know, if you really, really want to know
what they are about, see what their supporters say. See
the words they use to describe us. It gives you a very
clear idea of what tough decisions look like. And then
go back to 2012– 2017 and you see what tough decisions look like. Get your marching shoes on, boys and
girls, because they have got a plan they will not tell us
about.
Now, Mr. Speaker, during the Throne Speech
Reply, I had mentioned that I expected a little bit more from the Opposition. I figured a new broom would sweep clean. And while I did not see what I was looking
for in the Throne Speech Reply with the Budget Repl y,
I said, Well, second chance at bat! Let us have it.
Right? But I have been let down, disappointed, dismayed at seeing that the new broom does not sweep
clean. Because how can it? It is the same hands hold-ing the broom.
Mr. Speaker, since 2017 when the people
chased the One Bermuda Alliance out of town, they
have never acknowledged the role they played in their
political demise. They have never acknowledged, accepted or addressed why they are the only one- term
Government in history. Our people are very forgiving.
You must have done something pretty bad for them to chase you out after one term, and then flog you worse
in a bye- election after that and then flog you again several years later. But we never heard an acknowledgement. We have never heard an apology.
What we have heard is doubling down on the
ideas, like Pathways to Status, that the people rejected. We have seen them doubling down on accomplishments they found were great, but that the people rejected. Tone- deaf, out of touch and not learning. The
peopl e have told you that your approach, your ideas
and your direction are not in line with what they want. And you refuse to listen. Your promise of 2,000 jobs —
broken. Your promise to reform, not scrap, term limits —
broken. A 49- year low in air arrivals you del ivered. Trying to reduce access to mammograms? Well, we
stopped you on that by marching.
Slashing those scholarships. During the middle
of a period in our economy when Bermudian jobs were
being lost and non- Bermudian jobs were growing, they
slashed scholarships. At -risk programmes? Slashed.
So the airport deal, no apology. Morgan’s Point, no
apology —$200 million that messed up our chance to
have a balanced budget a couple of years ago. And $100 million advance they continue to brag about when
their own economic analysis says 60 per cent of the
economic beneficiaries did not look like me. No apology. Pepper -spraying our seniors? No apology. No
apology, no apology, no apology, no acknowledgement
that you need to change.
So we have seen a doubling down on the approach. We have seen a doubling down on their failed and rejected ideas, a doubling down on their failed and
rejected approach, a doubling down on their failure to
keep their promises. But now we hear more vague notions and waffle. So when we apologise in our Budget
Statement and when Colonel Burch, the Honourable Member, apologised and continues to apologise for the
state of our roads, that demonstrated a clear difference
between the One Bermuda Alliance and the Progressive Labour Party. Because if you do not acknowledge
your mistakes, if you do not own up to your mistakes, you cannot grow and evolve. And that is why we are
seeing the stagnancy and the lack of growth in this Opposition.
We own our mistakes . . . we have to own our
mistakes because our mistakes impact people we went
to school with, impact people we grew up with, impact our mentors, impact our neighbours. So we have a
higher obligation to get it right.
Mr. Speaker, there is not one single Progressive Labour Party MP or person who sits in another place who is proud of the state of our roads. We do not
like it, just like you do not. We are not used to it, just
like you are not used to it. And we will fix i t. We have to
fix it. This is just a priority that must be addressed. And I am grateful that the Colonel has taken ownership,
continues to acknowledge what needs to be done and
how we are getting there, and managing the expectations of the people. Because we are doing the work. I
heard no solutions from the Opposition as to how they
could do it better. That is just real.
So, Mr. Speaker, a few weeks ago the Premier
hit me up, you know, as he was talking to all of the different Backbenchers and said, Look. What do you want
to see in the budget? And my colleagues will laugh because this was actually one of our meetings. And I said,
Look. Just tell me you’re going to pave the roads, build
some houses and drive down the cost of living. Drop
mic. Get out of town. And everybody chuckled because
they thought that was funny. But [the Honourable
Premier] took part of my advice and the advice of others. But he went a little further, because I did not know
about the balanced budget that was coming.


Bermuda House of Assembly So, I am glad he did not listen to the full advice
and we were able to wrap in some of those successes.
Because when you have a budget that is about trying
to get us back roads where they belong, it is about putting more housing out for our people. It is about putting more scholarships into the hands of our Bermudian students. And balancing the budget? That is something
that proves those who say we cannot do it wrong.
Mr. Speaker, I want to spend a little time on
housing. Mr. Speaker, the housing issue, like many of
the issues that we are trying to tackle, is a personal is-sue for us. In constituency 33, if a person cannot pay
their rent, if the person cannot meet their mortgage, if
the person cannot find a place and is having to shack up and share with their relatives in cramped spaces . . .
these are people we know. So their struggle, when we are not in the position to be able to help them and be able to intervene, it i s more than just a number and a
statistic in a book. It is more than an issue to be used
as a political football. It is more than something to be
exploited for support. It is about helping our people.
Putting this money toward affordable housing
is not just about housing people, although that is the
priority. The impact of high rent has a knock -on effect
on family stress, individual stress, family stability and
by extension community stability. So by investing in our
housing, we are not just housing people. We are investing in our family structure. We are investing in our com-munity. And we are giving our people a little bit more
money in their pockets, because if all of your rent drives
all of the money out of your pocket, you do not have
that disposable income to make it easier for you to meet
your needs. You do not have the capacity to be able to
buy a little something for somebody you love, do little things. You do not necessarily have the ability to move
from needs to wants.
It is my hope that as we build more affordable
housing, we have more of our people with more money
in their pockets, more families with security, more individuals having hope that they can have a place to rest
their head and more money in their pocket to s pend on
their needs and hopefully their wants. And that is why
this is important. And that is why we recognise that the
only study we need is to know the impact that afforda-ble housing has on our good people and the benefit it
brings.
So, Mr. Speaker, we all know how high rents
are hurting our economy. It is hurting our economy, and it is a contributing factor for our people leaving our
shores. We have to tackle this, and this is one prong of tackling that, getting to the root of that housing issue.
Now, Mr. Speaker, another thing that jumped
out at me in our Budget Statement was the commitment toward providing scholarships for our people. Now,
when our opponents were in charge, as mentioned by
me and by my predecessor, they slashed us. And today in the Budget Reply —my words, not theirs —they did
not have space for education.
[Inaudible interjections and laughter ]

So, Mr. Speaker, the thinking behind cutting scholarships in the middle of an
economy when you promised 2,000 jobs and did not
deliver . . . but when you saw non- Bermudian jobs grow
while Bermudian jobs dropped, what were you thinking? And how could you not apologise for that? How
can you not apologise for kicking the ladder of opportunity out from under the feet of Bermudian students?
How can you feel good about that? And that is the difference between us and them. That is the differ ence.
We rolled back their cuts and put more in, expanding scholarships, gave more to our young people,
because we know we need Bermudians here. We need
Bermudians to have the skills and the ability to participate in a 21
st century economy. We need to give them
a reason to stay and make them be able to compete in
our economy. And that is why scholarships are important, and that is why we will fight and continue to fight to keep scholarships as a priority.
Now, Mr. Speaker, the Honourable Minister
just . . . he has taken the wind out of my sails because
he just did so much. And I encourage everybody, be-cause I would be very surprised if he gets good, prominent coverage in certain media outlets. But I would encourage everyone to listen to the specific details he laid
out. Listen to the specific details because things like
that matter. The success and the achievements in the
economy, a lot of you still have not felt it. But we have
to be able to not just feel good about these successes but bring our people along with us and help them to
benefit from those successes. That is the key.
So I want those of us who are into the numbers,
who are into that, who may have been confused, to
have a listen and pay attention to what has been laid
out. Because there is good news in there. And look, I have been unemployed, so GDP does not matter to me.
You know, the economy is not booming until I get a job.
So for people who are unemployed or underemployed,
getting a job will make you see the benefit in the economy. For those of you who cannot find a place to stay,
getting a house, an affordable house will help you see the improvement in the economy. These are the things
that we are working toward. And it takes time.
426 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly And, Mr. Speaker, I think as well, I would like
to touch on . . . I understand the Premier and Finance
Minister told the country that we are going to be coming
into some money in a couple of years. And I would like
to put my bid in early for the people of constituency 33.
And I would like us to consider, once we tackle issues
around debt, issues around housing, issues around the
cost of living, issues around the roads, that we can fix
the wound in that community by restoring the club at
White Hill. That wo uld be something. And I can retire
then. I can go do something else with my time.
But, Mr. Speaker, we look forward also, because I think this is an example of, even though we may fight and get on each other’s nerves, I am looking forward to the legacy and history of West End Primary
now included in the criteria process to be able to h opefully get a shift that reflects the wants of the community.
And I appreciate the Minister and the Premier for listening and incorporating that as a wish of the people. So,
I look forward to that outcome.
To the people of Bermuda, Mr. Speaker, I
would just like to say that we want to improve your lives. We want to improve our community. But we also want
you to feel the success that is on paper in your lives.
We want you to feel a sense of pride when your Minis-ters and when your MPs who represent you stand on
their feet and speak on your behalf and when they go
out and represent us in the community and across the world. We know that that is what you want to feel. And
every day we are working to make you proud of us as
we solve your issues.
And because your issues are our issues, it is
not something a poll has to tell us about. So we want you to feel heard. We want you to feel valued. We want you to feel the full fruits of opportunity and success in
Bermuda. It is my hope that as we move about the com-munity, we show through our actions that while our heads can be hard sometimes, our hearts are in the
right place.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

[Desk thumping]

Mr. Speaker, it is interesting when you
get to the Budget Debate that two different teams can look at the same numbers and come up with completely different outlooks of what is happening in the country.
The truth is the real answer is a bit in the middle, because the Opposition does not disagree with the strength and the growth that has happened in interna-tional business in Bermuda.
[Inaudible interjections]

The problem is that it is not the only
thing that is happening. So during COVID -19, international business was able to continue to operate. They were able to quickly pivot to working from home. They
were able to continue to figure out ways to grow. A lot
of that creativity and initiative happened within that industry.
The changes that we are seeing in our economy, yes, I give credit to the Government for continuing to give framework to allow that creativity to continue.
But this is the difference: Coming out of COVID -19, the
rest of the community did not feel that same growth.
International business, as has been stated by the Finance Minister, has continued to grow, and it has continued to grow even in this last year. They have also
continued to be able to pay high wages, increased
wages. That same pace has not been for the rest of the
community.
We are not saying there have [not] been incremental increases in the rest of the economy. But the
difference is that the major impact that is happening
from international business is not being felt the same way for the rest of the population. So for those who
want to know what I am trying to say, it is simple. The
Minister who took to his feet earlier said that there
seems to be an alternative Bermuda. The Opposition is
giving an alternative Bermuda. What I find interesting
with that is, the alternative Be rmuda is actually the Bermuda that many of our citizens are living in. The ones
who today, while we are having this debate, are making
plans of, Should I go to the Azores? Should I go down
South? Should I go to North America? Or should I go to
the UK?
You can call it doom and gloom, but the reality
is that they are having to make that decision because
they do not see the growth that is being presented in
the budget. Not what we as the Opposition are making
up in a back room, as most of you would like to say, but
last time I checked, i t is the actual population who has
continued to tell you —the Progressive Labour Party
Government —that this is what they are feeling.
It would be interesting if we could have the statistics of the actual number of people who are leaving,
because, Mr. Speaker, in 2017 in the Reply to the Budget, the Honourable Premier at the time was the
Honourable Opposition Leader, spoke about emigration, spoke about the high cost of living. He spoke about
all of the same things that we are seeing today. Six years after they had been the Government.
So we have heard that they have strategies.
We have heard that they have had plans. The problem
is only a segment of the population is feeling it. The
strange thing is that this is the part of the population
who the Progressive Labour Party Government would


Bermuda House of Assembly tell you is the only part that the Opposition supports.
That is the group who seem to be feeling the growth.
Mr. Speaker, you have portions of our population who are making actual decisions that they cannot
pay for health insurance because they have to make
the choice between rent, health insurance, food, basic
necessities. That is the reason that the Opposition is
saying, We have to get back to basics.
The basics are that we have to take care of our
people! We have to make sure that the roads are getting paved. Because when you put $5 million in the
budget for the roads and the population are telling you
that across the Island all of the roads are in disarray . .
. and we have heard apologies. And we have heard that
that is the state that everybody is driving on. We were
also told by the Minister of Works & Engineering that the actual budget for repairing the roads is about $100 million. It would be interesting to find out how long it will
take for us to get our roads back on track if this is the
huge increase we have been given in this year.
You see, Mr. Speaker, it is okay. We in the Opposition agree. A balanced budget is something that we should have been working toward 100 per cent. And we
give the Government support for it. The problem is that
if you are balancing the budget and you are not actually covering all of the things that the population needs, the
issue is more people will continue to leave, because
they are already opting out. They do not believe either set. They believe that politicians have been giving them
ideas and plans and strategies forever and ever. But
the implementation that actually impacts their lives is not happening.
[Inaudible interjection]

And I literally said that. That means all
Governments. I am not disagreeing.
But we have to change the way we are doing
things. That is the problem. We get here, and instead of paying attention to what those families are dealing
with on an ongoing basis, they are not feeling this
growth that we are talking about.
So, Mr. Speaker, I will go into some of the industries.
Retail has been an industry that has supported
Bermudian employment forever. But we heard that retail is dead because major international corporations
outside of our shores have the resources to be able to
quickly give the products to the people in Bermuda . So
rather than the Government coming up with a plan that
would allow for that industry to be able to protect itself
and grow, they decided to compete with the industry —
retail, multiple jobs, Bermudians. So if you look at what
that means, more money is leaving the country instead
of staying in the country. Remember brick and mortar
retail, Mr. Speaker, pays local fees, the fees that go to the government, the taxes that go to the government.
That is the money that circulates in our economy. And when I say protecting retail, [I mean] the
same way that we protect the construction industry. We
come up with ways to figure out how to get more construction to happen. But we are not giving that same
kind of protection and insight into retail [which] would allow the growth of that industry because they would
feel that their investment would be protected because
they are taking the risk to pay local workers, to pay local
taxes and to be part of our local economy.
So, Mr. Speaker, moving on to hospitality, another area that sees the same kind of issues happen. We have talked about immigration reform, but the first
thing that the Government talks about is pathways to
citizenship. That actually has not been the conver sation
of the Opposition. What we are talking about is full re-form of immigration.

What I am referring to is overall immigration reform. So my friend MP Famous behind me sat
on that Immigration Reform Committee with me for
three years while we worked really hard to try to get
some things to get across the line.
What I am referring to is this: When you spend
the amount of time and energy that we did to say what
we have to have is reform that is going to mean that the
processes happen faster, that they happen more effi-ciently so that we know the jobs that are avai lable and
the jobs that people are applying for, we can match those two pieces together. We spent a bunch of money
on it, and that process still has not been implemented.

Hon. Walter H. Roban: Point of order, Mr. Speaker.

Point of order.

POINT OF ORDER
428 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly [Misleading]

Hon. Walter H. Roban: It is important to remind the
public the Member is misleading the House, maybe not intentionally, that it is the Opposition that walked away from that process. When the Minister Hayward sought
to put it back in place, the Opposition refused to put
persons in on the actual body to contribute to the socalled joint effort on immigration reform. They walked away.

Mr. Speaker, he made his point. But
the difference was this: When you sit on a committee
and you meet multiple times, every week for multiple
years and we only get one piece of legislation over the
line that cost that Minister so much turmoil that he had
to cry in the House because it was so difficult for him to get it done, that is why we no longer wanted to sit on a
committee that was going to allow the Government to
hide behind the Opposition.
You are the Government! It is 30 to 6! Get the
job done!

[Inaudible interjections]

Point of order.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. E. David Burt: The Honourable Member is clearly
exercised, but he is clearly misrepresenting the facts.
Because when he speaks about one thing, there were
multiple things that were done to advance, things that
they could not achieve, where we kept our promise and
did it in a bipartisan fashion. So for him to say that only
one thing one was done is not correct.

Continuing on, Mr. Speaker. So once
again I will say they have been in power since 2017. So
the record will show that all of the reform that the Honourable Premier is referring to, it is very little that got
over the line when they had the opportunity to do the
full reform. That is all I am saying.
Hon. E. David Burt: Point of order, Mr. Speaker.

Point of order. POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. E. David Burt: The Honourable Member is misleading the House again! And if he is going to make that
claim, he needs to state what portion of the reform did
not go over the line. We all know the answer. It is what
they want, which is status, which we have said no to,
and as the Honourable Member who spoke previously
said no to. So if he is going to say that nothing went over the line, we have PRC reform, we have mixed- status families. The third thing was status. And so if he is
going to say that, then he needs to be clear.

The issue that we have, moving forward, Mr. Speaker, is that in hospitality most people in this House would have at some point in their life been involved with hospitality in some way with a job that
they probably had when they were younger. We also
know that a lot of what was built in this country came
from hospitality earnings.
What has transpired over the last couple of
generations is that a lot of our young people have
moved away from that industry. Some of it was on purpose because people who grew up in that industry felt
that it was a difficult industry, and they told their children, We’re going to educate you so you would not be
part of it. But what has to happen now is that we have
to do our best to encourage them to return to the indus-try.
So for me, I am just looking at it from the standpoint of, we try to build a second pillar, which would be tourism because it has moved back to the point where it has made us over -reliant on international business.
We applaud that international business has been able to kind of hold us up when we have been in the situation
that we are in. But what has to happen now is that we
are going to have to have a concerted effort to work
with our young people and encourage them to be part
of that industry and tell them the different opportunities
that will be available to them in that industry.
What happens is a lot of times people probably
do not remember that Bermuda was built off of


Bermuda House of Assembly hospitality, and it is difficult to go back and remind them.
But it is part of what I think is going to be important for
us, as a House of Assembly, to start to push that out to
our young people, out to our public, that hospitality is
important. It is not just serving people. It is being part of your community. It used to be something that everyone
was proud of.
Some of the problems that we have in our Island are because our population has stopped paying
attention to some of the details. We used to be a very
clean country. That was on purpose. We knew that guests were coming. That was hospitality. Because of
it, we made sure that our streets were clean. We made
sure that there was not litter around the Island. A lot of
those things have changed over the last 20- something
years. We have changed our behaviour. We have changed the way that we have been thinking about our country.
The reason I bring it up is because what we
have is the international business guest is also a guest, a visitor who comes here. And we need to understand that and continue to show both our tourist visitors and
our international business visitors that we care about
our country and that image and what it means, because
that is one of the ways that we will continue to grow and allow us to have the opportunity to support our people
in jobs.

[Inaudible interjections]
[Gavel]

Mr. Speaker, in our Reply there was a
specific comment that said that we had not had the opportunity to talk about education. And I do not want it to
be left out, that we were not going to talk about educa-tion. And I am not going to take this in a directi on that
people probably think. This is not going to be about the
specific education reform because that is a process.
The education reform is not done. We do not know what
that result will look like. It is a lot of people working toward a goa l in order to get the education system to
where it needs to be.
But what I will do is bring up some of the economic factors that are connected to education. One of
the things that was brought up in the statistics that
came from Minister Hayward was that there was an increase of 8 per cent in education. It would be int eresting
if that was private education costs going up, or more people being in that private education that was causing that increase. I will find that out later on in the education
debate.
But where we are is this: We have parents who
are making the decision to put their children into private education. Yes, it is a choice. But when we have a declining population, people are looking at their children and saying, I cannot take a risk. They understand that
there is reform happening. But at the same time, this is their child. So they are making a decision to pay for
them to go to private school.
It used to be that that was a real choice because we had world- class education in Bermuda. We
had an education system that had multiple levels where
everybody had a place to be in education and get to
that end result. You had Warwick Academy and Berkeley c ompeting for the most GCSEs [General Certificates of Secondary Education] each year. But we for-get that we also had Warwick Sec that was doing well.
A lot of our successful people in our country come from there. A lot of the people who were in Robert Crawf ord,
as an example, are electricians and plumbers and carpenters, and they came out of that school. Bermuda
Technical Institute.
But the difference is this: As it is being interpreted technical institute—

[Inaudible interjections]

But understand something. I was
never, ever part of the UBP. So that comment is fine. You have Members over there, one of them who just
spoke, who was part of the UBP.
The issue that I am saying to you is . . . and this
is the reason that I did not want this to go into the direction . . . I am not speaking out against the reform. I am
not speaking out against the hard work that the Minister
is doing. I am pointing out t he impact financially that this
is having on our people.
One of the reasons that we have a low birth
rate is because sometimes parents are thinking to
themselves, I can’t afford to put out $25,000 a year for
a three- year-old! One of the decisions —

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Point of order, point of order.

Point of order.

POINT OF CLARIFICATION
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Speaker . . . well, point
of clarification if the Member would.
If he could point to the data that actually specify
that people are not having children because of schooling, I would really love to see those data. If he could
clarify that those are anecdotal comments? Or is that
actually something that has been recorde d?

So I am going to say you can be anecdotal. I am going to tell you that the people in Bermuda who are sending their kids to school will tell you that
that was a factor in the decision- making they had. If
they had one child and they are paying $25,000, they
are thinking strongly, Can I afford to have a second
child? because of that education factor. That is what it
is.
Now, if the Minister has data or we can find out
what those data are, I think it would be important for us
430 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly to know. Because the truth is we have to have an education system that will support all of those levels again.
And I do not want it to be a situation where as soon as
I make a comparison between public education and private education, the immediate respons e is that private
education gets to select. Private education gets to decide who is going to be in and who is going to be out. I
got it! But guess what? The choice is still happening
with our people. They are sacrificing their hard- earned
money to do it.
And now to move to the next point, Mr.
Speaker, is that now we have overseas schools coming
to Bermuda and selling a dream to our young people.
But the numbers have increased significantly. Remember, we are now at (the Minister will probably correct
me, but it is) close to 50/50 now, private and public education. But a lot of that private is actually happening overseas.
I am going to point this out to you. Mr. Speaker,
we have people who are coming to Bermuda and telling our young people, You can be a football star. Some of them can. Some of them, the local coaches in Bermuda
will tell you, That guy wasn’t even on our bench. And
they are preying on them because they come to Bermuda and they know that there is money here. So they are getting on a plane and going overseas, paying
these high fees. And at the end of the day, are they
getting the education level that they actually would have been able to receive in Bermuda? We are not
sure.
And the problem is the impact that it will have
for the next generation, because if you socialise a 13year-old overseas, at some point that socialisation has
taken hold. They are less likely to come home because
they already know the big city life. The problem is it
used to happen at a small rate, and now it is happening at a larger rate. And that is actually creating a problem that at least we need to look at. That is all I am saying.
Just start to look at what that means. Because when
they come to Bermuda families and tell them, We can
offer you this, and, Your child is going to be a professional, and all of the different things that they tell them,
when they get to the point and it does not happen, they are not getting that money back.

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

Point of order.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: I think the Honourable Member may be unintentionally misleading the House,
right? To say that there are many more people, children, leaving this country, and he mentioned one age, 13, to go away and get an education, he has got to give
us proof. You cannot make that blanket statement. Because I could tell you, Mr. Speaker, he just talked about people making decisions on $25,000 for one child. It
costs a hell of a lot more than that, Mr. Speaker, to send
a 13- year-old away to school . Trust me. And I do not
think . . . I disagree with the Honourable Member unless he has proof that there are hordes and hordes of children leaving this country to go away to school at 13.

Mr. Speaker, if the Honourable Member had listened to what I said, I said I think it is some-thing that we should look at the details on. I did not say
I have the exact figures. What I am saying is —

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

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: The Honourable Member is
misleading the House. I did not tell him that he gave an
exact figure. I asked him to give a figure. If you are going to say that there are many of our young people at
13 years of age leaving this country to go away to
school, then you have to give proof.

Well, he never said that. He was asking
that it be something that we look into.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: But he did say, Mr. Speaker,
there are a lot more children . . . there are a lot more
children leaving, because I said to him that is nothing new. People have been sending their children . . . I sent
my daughter away at 12 years old. I know! But what I am saying, Mr. Speaker, if you make that statement,
you have got to have some proof.

Point of order.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]



Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: I do believe the Honourable
Member is misleading the House. And I can quote from
data that I will send to that Honourable Member again,
because I already have. The numbers that are within
our private schools have remained relatively stagnant for the last 20 years. The numbers in our public schools
have decreased in coordination with the decrease in
the birth rate. That is what the data s how. So when he
says that there are many more [students] in private school, it is simply not true.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: But, Mr. Member (I heard an
interpolation), he is talking about overseas, and I have asked him to support it, send those data. He does not
have those data, so he is making assumptions.

So, Mr. Speaker, if you look at it, if the
public system is going down with their numbers and the
private sector is staying the same with their numbers, potentially that is because some of the students are going overseas. And then some of the students who were
in public are now in private. That is how that balance
happens.
I am asking, if that is factual, if we could collect
the data.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Again, Mr. Speaker, point of
order, Mr. Speaker.

Point of order, point of order.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Again the Member is misleading the public. If he is going to make statements like that, he needs to be able to produce the proof. I get
his point that he can say, This is what I think. And he
can continue to say that. But do not state that these are
factual without producing the data to support it.

Mr. Speaker, with the last couple of
minutes that I have left, I just want to touch on the housing crisis because that is something that is significantly
important to our population. But I think that is a question here when it comes to what is causing thi s. Because it
is interesting that you have . . . and, once again, we do
not have the data because it is anecdotal presently that the population is emigrating, that the population is going down. We do not have a census to tell us whether
those numbers are correct. So I am not telling you that
I have the numbers.
What I am telling you is this: If that is the case,
then, as the numbers are going down, why is it that we do not have more available housing? There have to be
other factors. So one of the things that has come up
over and over again is because people are moving to
Airbnbs. But there is more to that. The issue is that
some of the structures that have happened ov er successive Governments have been that we have unintentionally, when balancing the lever between the tenant
and the landlord, created a situation where some landlords have stopped renting, which has left us in this
hole.
So the question becomes, Will part of the strategy be, how do we get that group to be re- engaged?
What is it that has chased them out of the market to have multiple houses, apartments left closed? [Is it]
mainly because people are afraid if they do not get the
rent they are going to spend money in the court to get
that person out of the house? Some of it is just a narra-tive, but the truth is it has to be something that we tackle
if it is going to help to resolve the housing crisis for our
people.
All we are saying to you is, there are some
questions that we think if we spend a little extra time
focusing on, analysing, it might give us some huge
gains to help us to solve some of these major problems
in our country.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

You have your 30 minutes.

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak a little bit
about the correlation between universal health care
and the economic growth in the economy in Bermuda.
Mr. Speaker, you will recall that we have spoken about the Bermuda Health Strategy and the eight
principles that stem from that, which are all designed
collectively to strengthen our health care system. And
item number 4 speaks specifically to universal he alth
care. And I just want to quote, Universal health care is
ensuring that health care services are available, accessible and affordable and of high quality for all residents
without facing financial hardship. And, Mr. Speaker,
that is the North Star, and the Government remains
committed to accomplishing that.
But some may ask, Well, what does this have
to do with the general economic debate? And, Mr.
Speaker, it is important because we recognise that
health care spending and the impact that it has on the
economic performance are important considerations to
our economy. Mr. Speaker, some studies have shown
that when you have improvement in heal th outcomes of
a population, it improves your GDP, and vice- versa. So
432 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly therefore I submit, Mr. Speaker, that equal access to
health care services, which UHC [universal health care]
seeks to provide, will certainly provide not only an improvement to human productivity, but it will also be a
correlation between the positive con tributions to our
economy.
Mr. Speaker, so what is this Government doing
to provide equal access to health care, and what are the benefits? Well, first of all, of course it is evident that
UHC has the potential, Mr. Speaker, to yield numerous
benefits across various fronts of our population no mat-ter what stage of life you are at. And we know that there
are growing bodies of evidence that the benefits will
hold significant to individuals as well as the broader
population, Mr. Speaker, as well as our economy.
Some of the advantages, Mr. Speaker, to establishing UHC will be that we will see significant health benefits for our individuals. That will mean that individuals will have access to essential health care services
without suffering financial ramifications, Mr. Speaker.
They will be able to have access to preventative care,
Mr. Speaker, so that they can have timely medical attention to their illnesses and injuries. This will certainly
lead to improved health outcomes, and again improved
health outcomes do have a correlation benefit for our economy.
We will also be able to, through the introduction
of UHC, Mr. Speaker, address the financial implications that some individuals do have by paying for their health
insurance and their health costs. Some of the other
benefits to the establishment and UHC and how it correlates directly with economic growth, Mr. Speaker,
are, again, in addition to preventative care it will allow
for early intervention and early access. We know the saying, An ounce of prevention is cheaper than a pound
of cure. And that is incredibly important. And I know that you would appreciate that, Mr. Speaker, that when it comes to access and preventative care, it is critically
important. And we know that by providing that, we will
have better health outcomes for our whole population,
not just a segment of the population.
It will also help economic growth, Mr. Speaker.
Again, I cannot emphasise enough the fact that
strengthening our health system will yield positive re-sults. We will have fewer persons calling in sick, so we
will have more persons who are actually at the job. We
will have persons who will have an improved quality of
life. We will have children who will benefit as well, so
there will be less illness in the schools and the likes. So
there are direct correlations between population health and improved health out comes and the economic
growth. And we are certain, Mr. Speaker, when we introduce and are able to apply all of the eight strategic
principles for the Bermuda Health Strategy 2022– 2027,
including item number 4, which is the provision to uni-versal access to health care, that we will see a correla-tion with economic growth.
Mr. Speaker, it is also important to note that
health financing and sustainability are critically important when we look at what we are doing as it relates to the introduction of UHC. And I failed to make
mention of one comment as it relates to our population.
Certain demographics and geographical circumstances within our health system also impact the quality of health. And we want to make sure that when we introduce UHC, we will be cognisant of the fact that in
2026, 25 per cent of our population will be over 65. I am
not one of them, but there —

Go ahead.
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: But there will be. So we have to
recognise that our changing demographic also impacts
how much we are spending on health care. And the reality is that when we are able to introduce UHC, we will
be able to get benefits of scale and economies of scale,
and it will benefit all of our people.
Mr. Speaker, you will note as it relates to financing in health care services the different types of
models throughout the world. And we know that there
is a general taxation model where the government collects taxes and allocates a portion to health care services. And that is similar to what you see in the United
Kingdom and the NHS [National Health Service]. However, countries like Germany and Japan use a social
insurance model so that your premium is based on your
income or your employment status.
However, in Bermuda private health insurance
plays a significant role for individuals or their employers with respect to paying the minimum, the premium. But
of course one of the barriers to health care in Bermuda
is out -of-pocket expenses. And we are certain that
those matters will be able to be addressed satisfactorily
when we are able to introduce universal health care.
And we are anticipating that we w ill be able to at least
advance information to the public by April of this year as to what will be inc luded in the core benefits package.
Mr. Speaker, you hear me speak a lot about
preventative care. And I am sure people get tired of
hearing me talking about [how] preventative care also refers to taking personal responsibility. But I do not
think in good conscience as the Health Minister I c annot speak about this at any opportunity that a microphone is put in front of me. Because taking care of our bodies, both physically and mentally, is critically important. There are a lot of pearls of wisdom that you
hear about as it relates to personal r esponsibility and
taking care of your body, such as Y our body is your
temple. Health is wealth. Use it or lose it. And these are
things that are critically important, but they are just like little sayings that we should probably try to familiarise
ourselves with so that we can get used to recognising
that personal responsibility is key.


Bermuda House of Assembly In fact, one of the drivers of health care and the
cost of health care is the fact that individuals are not
necessarily taking personal responsibility because we
are using the system. The more you use it, the more it
costs. So again, I just need to highli ght that. And I am
encouraging everyone to commit to change. This is
Oral Health Month, and we have been through our
health promotion efforts trying to encourage people to
at least on every Tuesday go without sugar. However,
Mr. Speaker, in speaking about health and well -being,
we need to encourage people to move more. Physical
activity is critically important, Mr. Speaker. It does not
mean that you have to get up at five o’clock in the morning and go to cross -fit. However, you can walk. You can
walk on the beach. You can do any type of exercise.
Use the stairs, Mr. Speaker. So we certainly want to
encourage people to move more.
We want to encourage people to eat properly.
Eating a diet that is more plant -based of course has
more vitamins and minerals and helps to combat cer-tain heart conditions and diseases and the like. Drink more water. And of equal importance is to be mindful of
your mental health, Mr. Speaker. Personal responsibility for healthy behaviours can prevent the onset of a
number of chronic diseases, Mr. Speaker. And encour-age every Member within hearing as well as members
of the public to take care of their body. I t is the only one
they have. They want to have longevity; they want to
ward off chronic conditions and the like. And they can
have a huge responsibility of doing that by taking personal responsibility.
Mr. Speaker, another cost -containment strategy that we are exploring is with respect to the univer-sal health care, and the strategies that we have in the Bermuda Health Strategy speak specifically to utilising
health information and technology. We know that in many other jurisdictions, implementing electronic health records and using health technology are critical.
And we are seeing cost savings in other jurisdictions.
You may recall that the national digital health strategy,
which was announced in December (and I brought it to
Honourable Members’ attention) speaks about a strategy for utilising technology to help improve health outcomes, as well as reduce costs. And from that strategy came 15 recommendations, which we will commence
working on with a working group in due course.
Mr. Speaker, other cost -containment strategies
that have been introduced by this Government deal specifically with the negotiating of drug prices. And the
Government through the Bermuda Health Council is monitoring and working effectively to ensure lower
costs. We know, Mr. Speaker, that one of the largest
out-of-pocket costs that persons tell us about on their
doorsteps is the cost of medication. And this Government, through the introduction of the Pharmacy and
Therapeutics Committee, has mandated that certain drugs, based on population health needs, such as heart
disease, blood pressure and the like, are regulated. So therefore, no pharmacist can charge higher than those regulated costs.
And that Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee meets regularly. So as our health needs change,
more drugs will be added to that list. So that is certainly another avenue that the Government has committed to
and implemented through legislation so that we can
regulate certain critically used drugs so that a cost savings is obviously passed on to the consumer.
Mr. Speaker, in addition to that, you will recall
that as it relates to drug benefits, formerly the persons who were under the health insurance premium (HIP)
did not have any drug benefits. But this Government
introduced a drug benefit so that they have $1,000 prescription drugs every year. Likewise, we have heard on
the doorsteps that persons who are on FutureCare
want to increase drug benefits. Previously, it was $2,000, and we increased it to $3,000 per year. These
are examples, solid examples where thi s Government
is committed to assisting individuals not only financially
but also so that they can have better health.
Mr. Speaker, this Government has done a
number of other steps to reduce health care costs for
individuals. We introduced maternity benefits for all insured women so that women who are uninsured have
the rights and the benefits that they need to make sure
that their babies and they are safe pre/post natal. Mr.
Speaker, again we regulated the pricing of dialysis and
diagnostic imaging so that it could be more rational. Mr.
Speaker, we have introduced kidney transplant coordinators so that we can increase the number of persons
who are receiving kidney transplants.
Mr. Speaker, we are also introducing multiple
health technology assessments so that we can ensure
that we are reducing the number of new entries into the
market that are helping to drive up costs, things that are
not necessarily needed in our market. So t here are a
number of steps that we have done as the Government to try to reduce health care costs for our people.
Mr. Speaker, just quickly I want to speak about
health sustainability. And one way that we need to look
at sustainability, obviously, is through our workforce development. And the Health Council is embarking on a
national health care workforce strategy because we
know it is important to invest in training and retraining health care professionals. I was at a conference last
week, Mr. Speaker, and the Director -General of the
WHO [World Health Organization], Dr. Tedros [Adhanom Ghebreyesus], indicated by (I believe it is) two years’ time there is going to be an estimate: Worldwide
there will be a shortage of 10 million health care professionals throughout the world. And that is alarming.
So we are looking at what our needs are here
in Bermuda, how we can continue to recruit and retrain.
And in furtherance of that, you will know, Mr. Speaker,
that we do have a Dr. Barbara Ball [Public Health]
Scholarship, where we are offering scholarships and
awarding scholarships to individuals to encourage
them to continue studying public health in Bermuda.
434 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Speaker, we also know, and there is a lot
of talk about the social determinants of health. You cannot speak about health without speaking about the social determinants of health, such as the economy, education, income, housing and so forth. Those are things that this Government is committed to addressing because they recognise that they are tied directly to health
outcomes.
Mr. Speaker, successful implementation of the
universal health care in Bermuda will lead to advantages of ensuring healthy people in healthy commu-nities, equal access to health care for the whole population, reducing the financial barriers that persons may
face, restricting them from being able to access the services that they need, as well as simplifying the health
care system. Mr. Speaker, again there is a direct correlation between the introduction of universal health care and the Bermuda Health Strategy and improving the
health outcomes of our population and improvements
to the economy. And, Mr. Speaker, I can tell you that
as the Minister I know it is a critical role that this Gov-ernment plays in making policies, funding and regulation to make sure that health care access is available
to all through the introduction of universal health care.
But we cannot do it alone, Mr. Speaker. Health
care providers deliver care and advocate for their patients’ needs, and health insurance providers can contribute by offering affordable and comprehensive health care coverage.
Mr. Speaker, this leads me to my final point. All
too many times we hear of persons struggling to pay their health insurance premiums. And the Government
is offering relief to residents by not increasing the premium as it relates to the standard premium. That is the government -mandated portion that is required under
the Health Insurance Act for individuals with insurance policies. Mr. Speaker, let me just explain a little bit about how that works because a number of people
have questions about how the insurance premiums
work. So, Mr. Speaker, in order for health insurance to
work, a large number of individuals must make monthly
payments. Those are called premiums. And these premiums are combined to create a large pool.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Yes, you would know about this,
wouldn’t you?
When someone is injured or is ill, money is
taken from that pool to pay for the health care services.
So like all insurance, health insurance assumes that
only a small portion of the insured individuals will have
large medical expenses. And by spreading t he cost
across that pool (the large group of people), an insurer
can afford to pay for the claims.
So under the Health Insurance Act 1970, Mr.
Speaker, it dictated how health insurance is governed in Bermuda. And the law requires that all employed individuals and their non- employed spouses have to have health insurance and it is covered through their
place of employment, or if you are self -employed, you
do it on your own.
So, Mr. Speaker, the Health Insurance Act
1970 requires all employers to have a contract of health
insurance for their employees and, again, for their unemployed spouses. And this requirement to have this
health insurance applies to the self -employed pers ons
too. So your employer or you (if you are self -employed)
pick and pay for health insurance policies supplied by
any of the private insurance companies on Island or the government’s public health insurance plan (or HIP).
And the government also, of cours e, has public insurance plans called FutureCare for our persons over the
age of 65. Once you have your insurance policy, you
become a member of the health plan and part of that
group insurance company, and you are part of a risk pool.
So, Mr. Speaker, in that risk pool some people
will be considered high risk perhaps due to ongoing ill-nesses or other health factors and are likely to need
more medical services. But there are other people,
hopefully the majority, who will be considered l ow risk
and will use fewer medical services. So your health in-surer will look at everyone in their risk pool and determine how much money is needed to pay for the medical
expenses for the persons in that pool. And all members of the health plan will pay a monthly premium based on
the insurer’s assessment of the risk in that pool.
So, Mr. Speaker, the health insurers track the
health and the medical expenses of the risk pool, and
then they make adjustments of the premium rates depending on a number of factors including whether the medical costs have exponentially increased for an extended period or whether charges that are made for reimbursements for the health providers. So there are a
number of factors. But in Bermuda, Mr. Speaker, the
Government requires that each and every insured person has to pay something called the standard premium.
And that is pursuant to the Health Insurance Act 1970.
And the standard premium, Mr. Speaker, is made up of
two parts. One part is the Mutual Reinsurance Fund
[MRF], and one part is the Standard Health Benefit. Mr.
Speaker, the Mutual Reinsurance Fund is used to fund
the block grant for BHB [Bermuda Hospitals Board] for their operations.
They are also there to subsidise the public
plans, which are the ones that are for the more vulner-able members of our society, as well as our seniors, as well as to pay for high- dollar claims. Often medical expenses incurred result in individuals having to go overseas for treatment. And then the Standard Health Benefit (or the SHB) is used to pay eligible claims for hospital services and certain services outside of the community such as mammograms and diagnostic imaging.
So let me just pause a minute, Mr. Speaker,
because I did note with interest from the Reply to this
[Budget Statement], there were comments made about
the fee- for-service model and re- introducing that as


Bermuda House of Assembly opposed to the block grant at BHB. And no doubt we
will speak about this more on Monday because [Health
is] actually the first Head to be debated under the Committee of Supply.
But, Mr. Speaker, fee- for-service is an excellent way to increase health care activity and to increase
costs. It is used by health systems globally to incentivise activities that would otherwise be low -take- up activities. However, because under the fee- for-service, Mr.
Speaker, under that model it pays for more activity. And
it results in higher costs. And higher costs for people, higher costs for payers and the higher cost for government. And the fee- for-service is the golden ticket to
make money. It is w hat was in place when our hospital
costs were increasing exponentially year over year,
pushing up premiums, making them unaffordable to
many people. And this Government stepped in to ad-dress that.
It is well understood and documented by health
economists, Mr. Speaker, and health professional sys-tems all around, and the literature will speak that fee-for-service is not the correct payment mechanism for
every situation. And this is something that the Government understands all too well.
Mr. Speaker, a well -created global budget, or a
block grant, which was introduced to the hospital, is
better at slowing the cost and right -sizing the level of
activity and the level of need that is needed in this community. And rather than incentivising ex cess hospital
activity, we need to focus on ensuring that it is funded to provide the right care at the right time in the right setting, and we need to focus on quality of care, not
incentivise quantity. Mr. Speaker, this Government is
committed, and we wi ll speak more about it next week
Monday, to ensuring that our only hospital has the resources that they need to provide the services that are needed to the community.
I do not know if Honourable Members will remember that it was around 2017/18 when then Minister Bob Richards spoke about the issue that the hospital
had. And they were on a fee- for-service. And they had
an excess of $100 million in reserves. And at the time
the Honourable Bob Richards took $25 million of that
subsidy because of the reserves due to fee- for-service
and took $25 million of the subsidy . . . that subsidy is
money that is used to help the vulnerable, the youth
subsidy, the indigent and the seniors. And [he] took $25
million to pay for a boat race.
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: But, Mr. Speaker, a fee- for-service model does not work. It drives up costs. And if we
want to drive up costs, and the Honourable Member
who took his seat before me said that one of the facets
that they were concerned about was the cost of health care. Do you want to raise health care? Introduce feefor-service. The Opposition promises that a fee- for-service at the hospital, and that promise will be a promise to increase premiums. It will be a promise to increase
expenditure. It will be a promise to increase the cost of
doing business to Bermuda. It will be a promise to increase poverty. And it will result in more people going
uninsured.
Mr. Speaker, based on the Standard Premium
Rate [SPR], which I said is the mandatory portion that
is required under the Health Insurance Act that the
Government can control . . . so the MRF and the SHB
(Standard [Health] Benefit) collectively are called t he
SPR. That premium, which Government can control un-der the 1970 Health Insurance Act, will remain as is.
Because that premium, like I said, that is a premium
that is required to be paid in every policy of insurance.
And it is the only portion of the insurance that the Government can control.
And the Government has decided, because we
recognise that health insurance cost is a complaint and
a concern raised by many, many people in this community, the Government’s actuaries assessed how much
money would be needed for us to continue providing
the subsidies and the FutureCare and the HIP premiums, which are social nets. Those policies in fact, Mr.
Speaker, are Bermuda’s social safety net as it relates
to health insurance. And they are particularly critically
necessary for people in our vulnerable population.
So, Mr. Speaker, in order to try to manage that
cost and not increase that cost so that these vulnerable individuals and these seniors do not see an increase,
the actuaries have said, in order to manage those
funds —and again those are funds that are princi pally
for the vulnerable—they said that to manage the funds based on the ongoing expenses, et cetera, it would cost each individual $45 extra a month. That is $540 a year
for an individual, or for a family of four it is some $2,160.
The Government is saving those individuals that
amount of money by not increasing the SPR. That,
again I have to say, Mr. Speaker, is required in every
policy of insurance. And that is the only part of the insurance that the Government has control of. And we
have decided we are going to keep the rate the same
as it was in November 2021, which is $400.31. So this
decision was made by the Government, despite like I
said, the actuaries’ determining that an increase of $45
per person would be necessary to sustain the health insurance fund and manage the Health Insurance Department, et cetera.
However, instead of increasing the standard
premium, the Government decided that they intend to transfer the sum of $30 million from the excess borrowing fund (and you would have heard the Honourable
Premier speak about that) . . . transfer $30 million from
that fund as opposed to raising each person’s premium as it relates to the Standard Premium Rate by $45 a
month. What that means in essence, Mr. Speaker, is
that the portions required by law, by the Government,
to be paid as mentioned will not increase. And they will
remain at the same rate that they were as of November
436 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly 2021. Again, Mr. Speaker, it will save each individual
$540 per year, and a family of four it will save $2,160.
So, Mr. Speaker, as I noted earlier, all health
insurers, including HID [Health Insurance Department]
do track the health and medical expenses of the risk pools that they insure to make adjustments accordingly. However, as the Standard Premium Rate (again
under the Health Insurance Act it is the one that is set
by Government) is not increasing for insured persons
this year and has not increased since November 2021.
Any increase in health insurance premiums that any in-dividual experiences, I would invite them to discuss that
directly with their health insurance provider.
Mr. Speaker, in closing I think it is critically important that we recognise that there is a direct correlation between having a healthy community —and the
provision of UHC will assist us greatly with that so that
we will be able to minimise the barriers th at people
have to accessing health care—and the correlation between having a healthy community and a healthy population to economic growth is extreme.
And I appreciate your time and thank you, Mr.
Speaker.
[Desk thumping]

Yes, Mr. Speaker. Good
evening, Mr. Speaker.
I just want to take this opportunity to thank the
Premier and Finance Minister for doing what has not been done in decades. And I would have thought that
the delivery of a balanced budget would have been heralded in much the same way as I remember, as a young man, Mr. Speaker, seeing Sir David Gibbons (he was
not Sir David then. David Gibbons, as he was then), the
Finance Minister, come to the House of Assembly and
herald, My record will speak for itself. I delivered another balanced budget. Successive year s of balanced
budgets time and time and time again. And I remember a speech by a former Culture Minister, Mr. Dale Butler,
speaking about the three i’s —income tax, independence and incompetence. I remember that speech. Tag
lines that were often given, dog whistle tag lines that
were always attributed to a PLP Government.
My colleague, the Honourable Member from
Sandys, Jamahl Simmons, spoke of the emergence of Mr. Cox as the Finance Minister and all of the negativity
that comes along with that. I remember the emergence of a Finance Minister back in 1983, Dr. Clarence
James, I might add, who came in in 1983, and some of
the connotations that took place when he became the
Finance Minister and the revolt that he received internally, being the first person of colour, the fir st Black
man to be a Finance Minister, I do believe. I could stand
corrected. Maybe Sir John might have stepped in a little
bit as Acting. I don’t think he was Finance Minister. I
think it was always Sir David Gibbons and Sir John
Sharpe back in the 1970s.
And we all know that even when Stuart Hayward came into the picture, the only Independent in the
constitutional history of Bermuda to be elected to Parliament, the second- most votes of an Independent I received. He got there with the help internally of persons to remove him, remove him —deliberately remove him.
Deliberately remove him. I am not reading from any history book; I was there! I was there.

[Inaudible interjection]

I was there. And so when
you have that type of narrative and mind- set that exists
in the culture of Bermuda, it becomes very difficult.
And you know, when you set about to change
the narrative about how a government governs, just like
the reality of the potholes . . . and we all see all the
memes that go on and the hot tub scenarios that get
put out there. And I give credit to the Minister responsible for Public Works who takes his job very seriously.
And I knew if there was a solution that could happen
immediately, I am sure he would do it immediately. It is
going to take some time. And he said that. But in the midst of that, in addition t o the works that BELCO are
doing up and down this country to improve the infrastructure, so is the infrastructure of the sewage system
to convert that and provide greater sources of potable
water, particularly to the beautiful and great and historic
Parish of St. George’s, are significant. And some of
these works are going to be done in tandem to be able
to move and make Bermuda more sustainable going
forward.
But in order to balance a budget when you
have had situations where a debt has been accrued
and you want to start attacking that debt, it is almost like a supertanker. You cannot turn a supertanker
around immediately. You have got to slow it down. But
you have got to have the will to slow it down. You have
got to have the will. You have got to want to do it. And
you have got to set about a course where you are going
to turn that supertanker around and do some of the
things, taking a page . . . I would have thought that the
Royal Gazette out of all people would have doggone heralded the fact. Listen! There is a balanced budget.
And it has been moving in that direction so that this country could be more fiscally prudent. But also, the difference is, the difference is —

[Inaudible interjections]


Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Hubert (Kim) E. Swan: —the difference is that in
our case we never lose sight of looking after the people
of this country first and foremost.
And I believe the opening bat today . . . I always make cricket analogies. I talked about my Uncle Sheridan very fondly and lovingly. But Uncle Sheridan
came to the wicket today with Colin Blades as opening
bat. And Colin was down that end and he would not
give him a hit! Sheridan was leaning on his bat, and Colin was cutting it to the boundary, hitting the ball and
. . . you know.
And Minister Hayward was dispatching the virtues that this Government has provided for the people
of Bermuda, drawing a contrast, a distinct contrast, between the mind- set of a Government that would come
with a Reply with a few soundbite- type sentences, bu t
no plan for how it would actually execute where he was able to point out the actions based on what they have
delivered and how people can anticipate they would deliver it again, whether or not it would be cutting scholarships in lieu of the Minister of E ducation, who makes
sure that scholarships are provided for the people of
Bermuda.
I was just looking, Mr. Speaker, as we slow this
supertanker down to be able to start looking at how you
provide the balancing act between providing for the
people of this country the way in which we are committed to doing and start chipping away at the de bt that a
lot of people focus on. And you have got to do both, and
you have got to do them in a responsible way. And for
the Premier/Finance Minister to come here today with a balanced budget is huge! It is absolutely huge. And I
think that I would hope th at those persons coming behind me speaking, who might not be of the same party
that I speak for today, would at least acknowledge the
significance of that. And what comes with it? It comes with all of us having to trim ourselves a little bit, not put-ting it all on the backs of privatisation, which was something that was a big thing on the OBA’s platform when
they were doing, outsourcing things, the preservation
of jobs.
And yes, we have, through our Minister of Labour who indicated that we have to grow the workforce,
we have spoken to it. There is not a climate out there where no one is in favour of that type of thing today. It
is accepted that it will happen, that it is going to happen
and we are working on that.
And, you know, I found it rich at best, disingenuous really when persons know that the only way this
country got international business in the first place, it happened because persons leveraged their international connections overseas. You know? Love him or
hate him.

[Inaudible interjection]

Love him or hate him.
Right? Sir Henry Tucker leveraged international relationships overseas! It is no different than the Minister of Labour would have to do, or the Premier would have to
do, or the Minister responsible for Tourism may have to
do, to go overseas to be able to represent this country
who punches above its weight.
I find it disingenuous when this Government is
looking at the Caribbean for persons who have businesses in the Caribbean, in the Bahamas, in Turks and
Caicos, in the Cayman Islands to say, Why should Bermudians be down there? And why would the Govern-ment even look in that direction? For the same reason
we look to England! For the same reason we look to
England.
And we need to stop the disingenuous dialogue in that regard. And the OBA in its Reply, when it would cast its eye toward tourism, for instance, and it
would indicate that leisure visitors arriving spend far
more than cruise visitors . . . and that is a tr ue statement. But I tell you what. Where would we be without
the cruise pier? Where would we be, Mr. Speaker? And
to come here without a plan in a Reply to a budget and
just throw out blanket statements in a budget, shows to
me that it is more about trying to convince the people
[with] a narrative that someone else has laid out, [to]
find ways to poke holes in the Progressive Labour
Party. But you know what? The financial indicators and
the performances of this country are due, in a most outstanding way, to persons looking to come to this country to do business.
And I would encourage the Opposition and any
speaker who comes to look at ways in which we can
work together to speak more positively about what this
Government is doing in different spaces so that we can
find solutions. Come with solutions. I have not heard anyone on the Opposition talk about how we are going
to find someone to buy Lantana. Lantana is not owned
or was ever owned by anyone who is Progressive Labour Party. I have not heard anybody talking about how
we are going to find a solution for Elbow B each or Morgan’s Point. It is our job.

[Inaudible interjection]

Let me tell you something.
When I sat on the Opposition benches, I tried to do
things for the betterment of this country. And I am telling
you what. I have seen some of what I tried 15 years ago
bear fruit just in the last two weeks under this Progressive Labour Party Government. And I am thankful to
have a university come here and sign an agreement to be able to help people. I am thankful to have people
coming in great abundance to this country from the
United Kingdom through relationships leveraged. It
does not matter what side of the fence that you sit on.
438 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly If you care about Bermuda, you need your language—
that you pay high dollars to get people to write—to be
reflective that we are in this together. And I do not see
it. I do not read it in the innuendos that I see out there.

[Inaudible interjections ]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Can you explain that? You
mean the consultant?

You know, Mr. Speaker,
we have in this country the Southampton Princess on the cusp of generating some great economic activity in this country. And that certainly is something that I believe we should all be working to catapult off of. It is
important for us to get Bermuda with some foreign currency circulating in greater numbers in Bermuda. It is
important that of recent we have seen developmental
orders for Ariel Sands and Bermudiana Beach. It is significant that we are now heari ng reports that the Azura
is coming forward with further development that is taking shape, that we are going to get more beds in that
space.
As we look, Mr. Speaker, to develop this Island
and its tourism product . . . and persons said it is our
job. Okay. Let us go there. Where do we really need to
zoom in on? November to March, a year -round destination. You know, Mr. Speaker, Bermuda has an acronym, AGILITY . Awareness is the A in agility. And I want
to tell you this much. When it comes to what we are
trying to do, Bermuda has an awareness deficit that we
must address. And respectfully, the way in which you address an awareness deficit is by making yourself more aware in the market where you get the best bang
for your buck. And it does not take a rocket scientist to
know that the Eastern Seaboard in the United States,
Canada and the UK and the Caribbean are markets
ripe for us to focus on.
But we have got to get in front of those people.
And we have got to get in their communities to make things more aware of us. And that is not going to happen overnight. And I respectfully submit that it is going
to take a collaborative between organisations and people in this country who all collectively love Bermuda.
There is one thing that I know, and I put hand
over heart. I almost said 40 Members —36 Members of
this House, Mr. Speaker, 36 Members of this House,
each and every one of the Members of this House love
Bermuda. Everybody in this House loves Bermuda.
Everyo ne who has served this House has loved Bermuda. I would be hard- pressed to find someone who
did not love this country, serving. We have a different way of going about how to serve it. And we spend a lot
of time, unfortunately, trying to negate sometimes untruths about people. Which is unfortunate. But I am here to say that when the Members
say to me, It’s your job to solve the tourism problem, I
say to them, It’s our job. Because if you are business
owners and you more collectively are going to align yourself with a political party before the day has even started, you are more than likely going to be the Chamber of Commerce before the day has started. If a certain demographic of people of this country is going to
be predetermined to be of a certain support base before
the day has started, but then c ome here and say, We
need diversity and inclusion. We need fairness. I say,
Where is the fairness when the deck is already
stacked? If this country has people in it who do not own
the economic resources of this country for centuries,
but hold fairness in their heart, who would do whatever
it takes for their country with their last dime that they
have, it would say, you know, who in this country cares more?
I am not here today to say that one cares more
than the other. I am here to say that we all love this country. But I know, Mr. Speaker, that when I speak of
we are all in it together, persons are saying, I’m only in
it if I’m in charge! I’m only in it if I’m in charge! And that
is wrong! I know a gentleman who was the pre- eminent
Tourism Minister. And I have a good Tourism Minister
today, rolling up his sleeves, running around Bermuda,
meeting with all of the hoteliers, meeting with all of the stakeholders. But I remember a Tourism Minister, Mr.
Speaker, and he would stand up on his feet, and his
favourite gesture was like that. Remember when he
went like that? I remember when he went like that.
The Honourable Member Mr. Dunkley knows
who I am talking about. He would go like that and push
his hair back, his straight hair back. And he would lean
to the side. And he wrote a book. And he said, You’re
only interested in me when you’re in charge. That was
the Honourable Jim Woolridge who would say that! I do not have it in front of me, but they know the gist of him.
The fact is that we have some systemic problems in this
country that get manifested in how they look at the financial stewardship of t his country. And it is a problem
still! And that is what we have to . . . that is what the
One Bermuda Alliance have to come to terms with
when they come forward.
And I am here to say I know they care about
Bermuda! We do have Two Bermudas. And that is a
discovery, that is a discussion for a different day. And
we have multiple facets of that. Nobody understands
that [better] than those who have benefited from the d ivisions. Nobody understands that but the purveyors or
the owners of the oligarchy who presided over the divisions that existed within the Black community. Yes, I
understand that comment all too well! Nobody understands that better.
[Crosstalk ]

You know, I make no excuse or apologies for being passionate. Because you


Bermuda House of Assembly know what, Mr. Speaker? Passion is all some people
ever had in life. Belief, knowledge. Persons who toiled
hard and knew that it would take incremental consistency to quell a systemic system that benefits one
group over another economically. Institutional racism is a systemic structure that speaks to the heart of the finances of this country. And I am here to say that when
persons are really prepared to have an honest discourse of how it affects this debate today and the finances of this country, we who are in this all House
want what is best for this country would have an honest
discussion about some of the beneficiaries of this type
of system and how a benign eye to it exists.
I talked about what it takes to slow a tanker
down. It took the will of the Premier and Finance Minister, who probably would have achieved that a lot sooner
had it not been, for what? A pandemic. And if it was possible, the PLP would have been blamed for the
world pandemic the same way the PLP was blamed for
the world recession in 2008 and 2009. And they have
got people who still believe that all those persons who left Bermuda in 2010 and 2011 and 2012 left Bermuda
because of the unfriendly business climat e that the PLP
produced.
And I have to tell people, I say, How could it?
Did the PLP cause AIG to change its name? Did the PLP cause XL to go to two dollars? Did the PLP cause
Stanfor d to come here and rip the heart out of the Caribbean? Did the PLP cause Madoff to come and run
amuck of finances? Did the PLP cause British American to fold? And parents like mine who put their hard -
earned money out in the gas tubes for honest insurance
persons like Mr. Powell, my good cousin from Southampton? That is right. I am a whole Burrows from
Southampton. The Powells and a lot of others are related to us.

[Laughter]

Okay? You know, the
mind -set that existed . . . I will never forget Dame Lois
Browne -Evans saying, You know, I helped that widow
get more for her money. She went down there. Those fellows were coming to take all of it for cheap. But I said to them —and I am talking about my great -grandmother. She was married to a Hall, Isaac McKinley. She
was a Burrows from Southampton. She had property up there where the cycle shop is for the Southampton
Princess, property that was built for the economic ben-efit of Bermuda. She was a “compulsory acquired,” the
same way down in Tucker’s Town it was done.
That is why when I stand up and say it is for the
good of this country we need that economic develop-ment right now, up there in Southampton to her house
for that. And [Dame Lois] says, You know, and I went
over to those boys down there. They were in the house,
and I had to persuade them that they had to give her
more. And I got her more for her property. I don’t know
why ya’ll are with those boys in the first place. [Laughter]

You know, you’re one of
my favourites, you know. You come see me over my house when you got problems. I don’t know why you’re over there with those boys. I like you and Cole and Barritt. And I said, what about —Oh, and of course Maxwell .
But you know, I am just making light of a situation.

[Inaudible interjection and laughter ]

No, no, no. Because I have
only got four more minutes. No, I do not want to take
advantage of an ailing man.
But I just want to wrap up this way. I just want
to wrap up this way, Mr. Speaker. When you talk about the budget of this country and you go back and you look
at the number of times in this country those presenting
the budget have heralded the fact that t hey balanced
the budget —have heralded the fact that [they] balanced the budget . . . and I speak now of none other
than Sir David Gibbons who came to the House with that black briefcase and said, Delivered it —another balanced budget. And in 2024 a Progress ive Labour Party
Government, who having heard persons say, Listen.
What are you going to do about this debt? would have
expected us to balance the budget during the pandemic! But because it was global they could not blame
it on us.
But what did we do during that pandemic, Mr.
Speaker? We helped people survive. And that is im-portant. And two and a half to three years later, Mr.
Speaker, we are in a position to come to this House and
look at the future of this country in a more positi ve way,
in a way in which fiscal prudence is viewed from outside. And I can say this: When the persons are going to
throw it on my shoulders, on our collective shoulders to
come up with solutions, we are closer today because of
this financial climate to fi nd a potential buyer for Lantana, to find a potential buyer for Elbow Beach, to find
a potential person who might be able to get excited
about and put a Sonesta Beach back down there again.
Because the dearth of beds has been one of the main
reasons why we have not been able to get the number
of visitor arrivals.
440 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly But the opportunity lies between November
and April. And that is something that we will focus on,
laser -focus on, Mr. Speaker. And I would encourage
persons on the other side, I really would, to cast their mind around how we can do that. How are we going t o
collectively roll up our sleeves and achieve that? Because if they have not noticed, we are getting that type
of support from businesses internationally and locally.
And I would encourage all persons who sit in
the Legislature, no matter where they sit, whether or
not they are an Independent or whether or not they are in Opposition, because I do know that persons have the
best interests of Bermuda [at heart], to work with the
Government sometimes! Do not take the pothole mentality just to keep pointing out that there is one there.
Do what I do. Taxi drivers. I do not drive that much at
night anymore.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to close by saying
thank you to the Finance Minister for delivering a balanced budget. But I know the balanced budget will not
be at the disadvantage to our mandate to help the peo-ple of this country. They have been first and foremost
in our efforts, and it will remain so.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to begin by thanking the international business. They have been an amazing support in our community. I appreciate the fact that they have shown and demonstrated their commitment to the Island. And the financial and the skill set
and the talent that they have contributed as well. I thank
international business for having faith in our young Bermudians, and Bermudians of all ages, many who have
now been long- serving in the international business
sector. I thank them for having faith and giving our talented people a chance. And so, I just want to establish
that from the very beginning.
I also want to reflect on the absolute enthusiasm of the Premier/Finance Minister’s Statement on the budget and how . . . I do not know whether he was
trying to take credit for all of the financial contribution
that the international business has made tow ard the
Bermuda economy, or whether he was writing this
Statement in order to impress the international business or to show that he was flattered by the support
that they have given. But for me, I just absolutely feel
that without the international busines s contribution . . .
I just shudder to think where we would be without them.
We have been through an awful lot. We have had a really hard, hard struggle to get back up on our feet. And it is international business. We should not
be taking any of the credit, Mr. Speaker. We really
should not. They are the ones who have grown the job
growth in Bermuda. The Minister of Finance gave us
the statistic of 215 new jobs, 4,909 jobs in the int ernational business sector right now, Mr. Speaker. And
without that we would really be struggling. So this
Budget Statement which I almost . . . after I finished
reading I thought, That was like a serenade to interna-tional business. And for that we are grateful.
But on the other side of it, when we look beyond our shores, Mr. Speaker, the competition that we
have out there, especially our competitors to the south,
they are eating our lunch. They are eating our lunch!
And it is not all our fault. There are countri es and islands to the south of us that have the natural resources. They have the land mass that they can open their arms to any foreign investment to come into their jurisdiction.
They are in a position where they can give concessions
beyond anything that Bermuda can really tolerate at
this stage. And so we have to work really, really hard to get those foreign investors and those tourists back to
our Island. And it is almost not enough to just think that
if we woo the international investor, that they are j ust
going to come. We are going to have to demonstrate
something. We are going to have to do something in
order to get that.
And I spent a little bit of time down in the Turks
and Caicos Islands. They literally are sitting on . . . their
land mass is literally like oil. They have the natural re-sources to just invite anybody. And the beautiful
homes, the amazing hotels. I mean, t here is just no way
we would be able to compete with that right now except
for one thing, and I will bring that up a little later, Mr.
Speaker. But before I get there—

[Inaudible interjection]

Before I get there, I just want
to speak a little bit about our national debt and the fact
that we are saying that we are going to be able to balance this budget.
There are a number of people out there with
their eyes wide open, and they are asking, and they are
making comments like, It’s unscrupulous that we are
taking borrowed money and putting it into our current
account and saying we are balancing the budget.
We are going to still have to pay that money
back, Mr. Speaker. And we are going to have to pay
interest on it until then. That is not balancing a budget.
So then it reminded me, you know, because I am reading the Statement . . . and it was a good education, both
the Statement and the Reply. And I am just thinking
about it in people terms. Right? Because it is all, as I
said, a trickle -down effect. If the global powers that be
say, We’re going to raise interest rates. And the global
powers that be say, Prices are too high, we can’t let
them go higher.


Bermuda House of Assembly If the global conversation is around higher interest rates in order to slow down increased prices,
then we have to think about what the people in Bermuda in their homes, going to their jobs, are having to
also suffer through. People are starting to realise and
they are coming to me on a daily basis, and they are
saying— and this may be a little out of our control —My
mortgage payment has skyrocketed—skyrocketed. My
car loan is affected. My credit cards, the interest rates
are up in the 20 per cent and above.
And so what we have to do, Mr. Speaker, is we
have to have that reality check. And for all the wonderful things that the PLP Government lists, you know, the
tax breaks, the benefits, yes, it is worthwhile. But are
we actually looking at the numbers? Honest ly speaking, Mr. Speaker, if all of the things that the PLP Gov-ernment is providing in the form of financial benefit is affecting . . . I don’t know, because Government does
not really . . . either if they are collecting the data, they
are not sharing it. But I have a feeling some of these
data are not getting collected. But they are probably only really affecting, I don’t know, 10 per cent of the
population.
There are another 45,000– 50,000 people who
have absolutely nothing to do with scholarships. They have nothing to do with Financial Assistance benefits.
They are hard- working hand- to-mouth, and they are
suffering. They are suffering. And at some point, this
Government is going to have to get off of either the fact
that they are boasting about what it is they have done,
which is fine. But we have to consider the fact that the majority of people in Bermuda, the hard- working people
in Bermuda are suffering, and they are suffering in silence. And they are starting to lose trust. So we have to do something to help.
Mr. Speaker, this budget feels like all effort was
in balancing that budget and matching pledges to PLP promises in the Throne Speech. And at some point we
are going to have to have that honest conversation that
we actually are going to have to roll up our sleeves and
do the work. Now, when I say that, Mr. Speaker, a lot of this does not have to do with the necessary financial
piece. It is not about the dollars and cents. It is about
the fact that we are legislators, Mr. Speaker. And we need to start to rev iew some of these old- fashioned,
written -back -in-the-days when, I agree, as a Black
woman, a Bermudian, was not a part —

[Inaudible interjection]

And I am going to play the
gender card! Because you know what, Mr. Speaker?
Those laws that were created in the past were not designed to help me. And they are still sitting here in the
same place, and we have got a Labour Government, and they have not even raised the question about, Let’s
review these old, archaic laws and review them and
make them more equal. And that costs no money, Mr.
Speaker. But you know what the advantage is? The advantage of that, Mr. Speaker, is that we give the people of Bermuda an opportunity to make their own money. It
gives them an opportunity to develop their own businesses and get this economy going so that they are the
owners and the controllers of their economic future.
We, as a Government, should be s pending our time fixing roads. That is all we should think about —fixing
roads, maintaining infrastructure, replacing broken
equipment —that is what governments do. There is
nothing glamorous about this. I still do not get the point
of all the trips, and thi s and that, and all that and the
other, spending money. What for?
[Inaudible interjections]

What for?
We should be basic maintenance. A service to
the people. We are public servants. And what I am really afraid of, Mr. Speaker, is that if we do not get a hold
of this soon and enable our people in Bermuda to make
their own way through reviewed and amended l egislation, we are going to end up with a population of people
who are dependent on this Government. And we will end up paying out and paying out and paying out because we have not enabled them to get the independence to be able to find their own way. And so, Mr.
Speaker, until we do that there will constantly be strife
in this House of Assembly. Constantly!
Mr. Speaker, prices are skyrocketing. Foreign
currency tax, a foreign currency tax —that means every
Bermudian who wants to exchange one Bermuda dollar
to one American dollar has got to pay more than the
one Bermuda dollar to get one American dollar. That is
called devaluing our currency. If we can afford it, we
need to keep pedalling it back.
Now, I give the Minister of Finance credit. He
pushed it back a little. That’s all right. We have to keep getting back to one- to-one. There is nowhere to find affordable housing. It is ridiculous. And the worst part about it . . . and I love to canvass, Mr. Speaker. I love
to canvass Island wide. There are vacant apartments
everywhere. And when I speak to the constituent, I am
like, Oh, yes, you know. How’s it going? And you know,
are you . . .
[And the constituent says,] No. You know
what? I would prefer to sit here and suffer in silence
then to rent the place out and get caught up in a tenant/landlord dispute. And why do we have tenant and
landlord—

[Inaudible interjections]

You know, the PLP Government wants to spend more money on . . . more money
to build more affordable housing and there is nothing
442 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly affordable in Bermuda, so either the Government will
never get their return on investment, or by the time they
finish it the rent really is going to be too high for that
affordable . . . the, you know, slate that they are trying
to get to . . . range. And so I say, Mr. Speaker, why
aren’t we looking at how we can amend legislation to
make it fairer, to make it clearer to settle it up so that
landlords and tenants can have that relationship. Because people want the housing and landlords want to
rent. And we are stymied. You know why? Because the
courts are overcrowded with disputes between landlords and tenants. And that is our law! We are the ones
responsible for that. Want to fix it? Don’t spend more
money on it. Fix the laws!
[Inaudible interjections]

—we have a few really good
initiatives. I certainly know that the ears of my recently married young people were perked hearing about the mortgage and . . . I have forgotten the full title of it. But
the mortgage guarantee programme. And upfront it
looks great. And it is interesting because I just love it.
We have got bright, alert, talented young Bermudians
coming up. They are going to be our future leaders, Mr.
Speaker. We have got to invest in them. We have got
to support them.
But you know what? When they read between
the lines of the mortgage guarantee programme, they came up with some questions. At what point are you
going to review my interest rate? At what point are my
interest rates going to rise? It might be fine to start off with an attractive 5 per cent, but what is going to happen five years down the road? And I am going to have
probably a 30- year relationship with this bank. At what point, Mr. Speaker, are they going to have to face the
bank fees? And at what point does it just all boil down
into everything it has always been?
And the idea that people will be able to switch
their mortgages from one bank to the other, that sounds
great. And you know stamp duty might be relieved, and
we might get a lower interest rate, but are we thinking
about the legal fees involved in transferr ing and switching a mortgage? Are we thinking about the administra-tive fees around switching a mortgage from one bank
to the other? And I just don’t know that the Government is really looking at the reality of some of this. It sounds
great on paper, but when we get into the reality of it, it
is very different.
I have had people come up to me, Mr. Speaker,
and talk about the minimum wage. And they said, Well,
what happened to me? They said, I work in a hotel. I
was so excited, yes, you know, and the $16.40 an hour
kicked in and then after a couple of months, still in the
high season, and all of a sudden my boss tells me I am
going to part time. [It is] $6.40 or something.

It’s real. And it will continue.
And it is not for any particular reason other than the fact
that everything is so expensive that everybody is desperate, desperate, to hold on to what few pennies are
circulating throughout this Island.
So when people ask me, Well, what are you
going to do? Aside from the fact that I would really like us to take a really active stance in reviewing legislation
free of charge, I would like to see that happen. I would
also like us to see if we can distinguish ourselves from
our competitors. So, we have got Cayma n. We have
got Turks and Caicos. We have got the Bahamas. Do
you know the one thing that we have got that they do
not have? We have got sophistication. We have got a
fully developed infrastructure. An d we all know now that
it does not take . . . the clock is ticking before our roads
will get to the point where we cannot drive on them.
That they start to turn to dust. That the trees overgrow.

[Inaudible interjections]



Bermuda House of Assembly Ms. Susan E. Jackson: And it does not take that long!

[Inaudible interjections]

Yes, I am basically just restating what has been said many times before. But if we
can take care of our country, all we have to do is look
inward for just a little bit. Not only will we maybe attract
tourists here because we do have a precious, precious
piece of geography that people want to come here. We
are good people. We have got a lovely land. People
want to just come here just to be around us. This is
amazing. It is integrated. It is diverse. People want to
come and just feel that for a couple of weeks. But we
have got to keep our stuff tight. We have got to keep
the backyard clean. And that is all we have to do. And
that is all any government really has to do. The basics! The basics!

[Inaudible interjections]

And these guys think its funny!
They think it is funny!
And do you know what, Mr. Speaker? International business is only here for that too. Oh, yes, yes, yes. You know, we have got the regulatory environment
and the great geography and all that good stuff, but
they are here because of the lifestyle and the standard of living is good. They can drive their cars on a decent
road and that they can get to the beach and it is clean.
If we cannot do those basic things . . . I’m sorry, it is not
glamourous. It’s not. But if we can do those things —just
those things right —it will attract . . . we do not even
have to look up. If we put our heads down and get to work, just housekeeping, people will look. People will
get interested. People will want to see, want to experi-ence.
And this country is small enough for us to do it.
And I do not understand why this Government has spent so much time looking for the magic silver bullet
out there, wherever —

[Inaudible interjections]

Any other Member wish to make a contribution?
MP Campbell. MP Campbell, you have your 30
minutes.

Hon. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, if I start at the top of our Budget
Statement, on page 2, we talk about where we have presented a balanced budget and we invest . . . whilst
we invest in infrastructure, we invest in education, we preserve access to health care while reforming the sys-tem, we strengthen the social safety net, we make affordable housing a priority, we make home ownership
available to more Bermudians, we make our Island
safer, we invest in the young people of this country
through scholarships and educational awar ds whilst
delivering on our promise to reduce the tax burden on
working families, whilst preserving and growing investor confidence.
Those statements are all correct, but at the
same time they should read, We continue to invest to a
much greater degree in infrastructure. We continue to
invest in education. We continue to preserve access to
health care. We continue to strengthen the social safety
nets. We continue to make affordable housing a priority. I am going to go down the whole list.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Vance Campbell: I am going down the whole list.
We continue to make home ownership available to
more Bermudians. We continue to make our Island
safer. We continue to invest in our young people of this
country through scholarships and education [awards].
The point is made.

Because you are the Government.
[Laughter]

Hon. Vance Campbell: We able to do these things
while presenting a balanced budget because of the fiscal prudence, sound debt management of the Bermuda
Progressive Labour Party. I know you do not like that, but that is what it is.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Vance Campbell: Fiscal prudence, sound debt
management of the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party. The rate of inflation we have heard in Bermuda
continues on a steady decline. Why? Government policies such as the elimination of duty on staple foods . . .
staple goods, the freezing of fuel prices, the reduction
444 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly of payroll taxes for all local businesses and 86 per cent
of Bermuda workers, two- year freeze on Government
health insurance premiums, reduction in vehicle licensing fees. All of these played a part in slowing the cost
of living and reducing the impact of global inflation here
at home. Mr. Speaker, this is what fiscal responsibility
looks like. This is what constitutes fiscal prudence. This
is financial competence.
Increase social protections. We heard Minister
Hayward talk about that. Stronger labour laws. Again,
Minister Hayward touched on that. So, we are protect-ing our most vulnerable and we are looking after the
workers of this country.
Does any of this, Mr. Speaker, sound like mismanagement of the economy? What an irresponsible
statement for the One Bermuda Alliance to make,
whilst claiming to want to lead this country as a Gov-ernment. No! It is not mismanagement. This PLP Government is a responsible Government. Do not take my
word for it, Mr. Speaker. Let’s hear what some of the
rating agencies, the experts, independents, have to say about that.

Yes.

Hon. Vance Campbell: May 8, 2023, Mr. Speaker,
Standard and Poor’s [S&P] reaffirmed Bermuda’s A+ long-term sovereign credit and senior unsecured debt
ratings, as well as its A -1 short -term rating and its AA+
transfer and convertibility assessment as “stable.” And with your in dulgence, Mr. Speaker, I would like to go
back to our budget presentation and read what they
have to say. “Within their report, S&P highlighted that
they ‘expect the local economy to remain healthy, sup-porting government finances, limit ing the need to increase gross debt, and supporting the territory’s exter-nal position, including current account surpluses.’”
They gave us A’s! When I was in school, A’s
were a good grade.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Vance Campbell: Yes, I got all A’s.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Vance Campbell: I believe that.

[Inaudible interjections and laughter ]

Hon. Vance Campbell: I believe that.

[Inaudible interjections and laughter ]

Hon. Vance Campbell: That’s all right. I went to school
and I finished higher than a lot of your mates that you
praise.

[Laughter] Hon. Vance Campbell: Mr. Speaker, if I move on to
KBRA’s October 6, 2023 report.

Yes.

Hon. Vance Campbell: They “solidified the S&P assessment as they affirmed Bermuda’s long- term rating
at A+ with a stable outlook, while the short -term rating
was affirmed at K1+.” I would imagine that is equivalent
to an A as well.
And again, with your indulgence, Mr. Speaker,
I would like to read what they have to say about Bermuda. “KBRA stated within their report that Bermuda’s
ratings reflect its commitment to fiscal restraint and
consolidation, even if slightly delayed, the ongoing recovery of tourism,” (ongoing recovery of tourism) “and
KBRA’s expectations for durability in its status as a fi-nancial hub.”
Again, positive, positive—A’s. In their December 22, 2023 ratings report, Moody’s “affirmed Bermuda’s A2 issuer and senior unsecured bond ratings,
along with a stable outlook,” (they said) “Bermuda’s
bonds are seen to be of good quality with a low credit
or default risk.”
And again, with your indulgence, maybe one
more time after this, Mr. Speaker, Moody’s said, “The
stable outlook reflects Moody’s expectations that fiscal consolidation efforts will stabilise debt around current
levels due to the rebound in tourism activity and strong
growth in the international business sector.” That’s
Moody’s, independent.
Mr. Speaker, if I move on to what the Fiscal
Responsibility Panel had to say, and again, for the last time, Mr. Speaker, I ask for your indulgence as I read
from our Budget Statement. “We must also
acknowledge the independent assessment of the Fiscal Responsibility Panel, tasked with assessing Bermuda’s fiscal strategy with a focus on public spending,
taxation, borrowing, and debt reduction. In their December 2023 report, the Panel stated ‘Bermuda now
has a significant primary surplus. It has done well over
the past few years to maintain a creditable path towards
a balanced budget,’” (and we are here today debating
that balanced budget) “‘despite a number of adverse
shocks, most obviously the pandemic.’” (Let’s not for-get that.) “‘Spending has generally been kept under
control, and steady revenue growth has therefore
largely fed through into deficit reduction.’”
Not good news for the other side.
[Laughter]

Hon. Vance Campbell: Not at all.
Mr. Speaker, I have gone through the reports
of the recent assessments of four reputable assessment agencies (or groups), experts, and they have all
given Bermuda high passing marks.

Yes.


Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Vance Campbell: When you contrast this assessment by these independent experts, with that of
the assessment of the One Bermuda Alliance, I ask the
people of Bermuda, which assessments will you trust,
the experts or the amateurs of the One Bermuda Alli-ance?

[Laughter and inaudible interjections ]
Hon. Vance Campbell: Mr. Speaker, we have delivered—

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Vance Campbell: Yes, just like your mismanagement comment.
[Laughter]

Hon. Vance Campbell: Oh, it is in your Budget Reply,
mismanagement comment. Ask your Leader.
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Vance Campbell: Mr. Speaker, we have delivered a balanced budget with a small surplus. We have
done so . . . and I think it is important that I make this
point. We have done so without rolling back any of the
positive things we have done—

Yes.

Hon. Vance Campbell: —without rolling back any of
the positive things that we have put in place for the benefit of our people.
[Mr. Christopher Famous, Acting Speaker, in the Chair]

Hon. Vance Campbell: Mr. [Acting Speaker] . . . I am
giving you an advance promotion when I call you, Mr.
Speaker. Mr. [Acting Speaker], we have taken care of
our people. There is business growth. The GDP is up.
Ratings have been maintained. Minister Hayward did
an excellent job earlier today. We should have gone home after that.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Vance Campbell: But, nonetheless, we are still
here. No matter how the Opposition slices it, no matter
how the Opposition dices it, if they look at it from above,
they can look at it from below, they can roll it around
and look at it on its side, this is a demonstration of financial competence, fiscal responsibility and fiscal prudence by the Progressive Labour Party Government.

Hon. E. David Burt: Yes.

[Desk thumping] Hon. Vance Campbell: Mr. [Acting Speaker], in their
Reply to the Budget, the Opposition refers to the success of Cayman multiple times.
[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Vance Campbell: I want to focus on the Cayman
Islands because you used the Cayman Islands more
than anyone.

Minister, speak to the Chair.

Hon. Vance Campbell: Yes, Mr. [Acting Speaker]. I am
speaking to you; I am just looking at them.

[Laughter]

Hon. Vance Campbell: I am speaking to you but just
looking at them.
With your indulgence, Mr. [Acting Speaker], I
would like to talk a little bit about the Cayman Islands
and use the comments of the then Premier, Wayne
Panton, as he speaks about his country. So, Mr. [Acting
Speaker], he was speaking at an economic conference,
early last year, and he said that the cost of living was
staggering, “staggeringly high and thousands of people
here subsist on low wages.” This is the Cayman Islands
that was touted by the Opposition in their response.
“Cayman Islands was ‘very prosperous’ by any measure. But while salaries in some sectors, especially financial services, were very high, the poor wages of others in the face of the high cost of living and rising interest rates were making it harder for them to make ends
meet.” He spoke of a growing income gap. He spoke of
a growing income gap between the guest workers and
the local Caymanians. And that is the country that the
Opposition touted as the example we should be following.
Now, Mr. [Acting Speaker], with your indulgence, I will continue on the comments by the then
Premier of the Cayman Islands. He said, “The reason it
is so difficult is because a balance must be struck,” . . .
“On the one hand, we know that growing our population
is one way of growing our economy. It creates jobs; it
creates demand and customers for local businesses
and revenue for government coffers. Fundamentally, it
creates economic opportunity for Caymanians. But on
the other hand, it also has the potent ial to price Caymanians out of our own country and make it more difficult to live here. And it has had the effect of fundamentally changing our country culturally.”
He said, “‘many, many . . . stories of Caymanians denied opportunities because the employer would
rather bring in a guest worker’, “which he said was unfair to the local qualified workforce.” So, that country is
what was touted as an example. They are eating our
lunch. It does not s ound like eating our lunch to me.

446 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Scott Pearman: Point of order, Mr. Acting
Speaker.
The references to Cayman in the Reply —

Minister, you may resume.

Hon. Vance Campbell: Mr. [Acting Speaker], if I accept that, I cannot deny and I cannot omit the portion that I just read. It ties in. It ties in.
Mr. [Acting Speaker], I will finish where I began
to speak a little earlier. We have delivered a balanced
budget with a small surplus. We have done so without rolling back any of the benefits that we put in place, any
of the positive things that we have done for the benefit
of our people. This is a demonstration of financial competence, fiscal responsibility, fiscal prudence by the
PLP.
Thank you, Mr. [Acting Speaker].

[Desk thumping]

Thank you, Minister.
The Chair recognises MP, Deputy Speaker,
Derrick Burgess.

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Thank you, Mr. [Acting]
Speaker. Thank you very much, Mr. [Acting] Speaker.
First, I would like to commend the Leader, the
Premier and the Finance Minister David Burt for the balanced budget, the first in many years. I think he should
be commended despite the comments that have been enunciated by the Opposition. I just want to tak e a few
excerpts from the Reply as it said, and they talked
about the CIT, that is the income tax, the . . . An Hon. Member: Corporate.

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: —corporate income tax.
Thank you, Michael.
You know, they said we do not have a plan to
deal with this here. Mr. [Acting] Speaker, I think people
forget that there is a committee who is working on this
corporate income tax, and they will report to Government. And then, because it would be a bit pre mature to
even do a plan when you have a committee in place who will come back with their recommendations, I find this comment in their book superfluous because of that.
We got our committee in place which is made up of the
Opposition, the Government, and other people. And so,
we need to wait on them. If we did not have it in place, maybe their statement would be right.
Now, then . . . on their page 4, they said, “to our
people who need the most help.” Well, the people who
would need the most help would be those who are the
most vulnerable, the seniors. May I remind the Opposition [that] it was they who did not give seniors an increase and made that derogatory statement, which I
will not repeat —I think we are all tired of hearing that
statement —to our seniors, the most vulnerable people.
And what could our seniors do or say? They were help-less based on the statement from the Government of
the day at that time, Mr. [Acting] Speaker. But I am happy to say that since we have been [here], the seniors have got an increase in their pensions, I think
seven years straight, maybe eight or nine, but I am
pretty sure it was seven. So, we are taking care of the
most vulnerable.
And even our children, Mr. [Acting] Speaker,
the day care allowance to our mothers, in particular. And this came in under the PLP Government maybe 15
years ago when Premier Dr. Brown was the Leader.
And this present Government of the PLP have increased it as of October 1, last year, 2023, amongst
other benefits they have increased, Mr. [Acting]
Speaker.
And then in their book, on page 5, the OBA
says, the One Bermuda Alliance says, “Are you better
off now than you were six years ago?” Obviously, we
are better off than we were six years ago. Now, as Minister Hayward has announced in this House, we have a
minimum wage of $16.40. We did not have that before.
Workers were subjected to any wage, almost. And with this minimum wage of $16.40, that can only do some
positive things as far as closing the disparity. That is
the only way you can close the disparity. W e know what
it is and over the years, even despite the recession that
was said that the PLP caused—which they did not, it
was a world recession—the disparity continued to get
larger amongst this segment of this country. So, this will
help in a sense.
Yes, we are better off today than we were then
because the PLP Government has in place about the mortgages, where you can get a reduced rate of interest. And then if you have a mortgage at a bank, I think


Bermuda House of Assembly it is up to a million dollars, you do not have to pay all
those government fees in order to move that. And then,
you know, the facility that they have there for first -time
homeowners. Yes, we are better off, Mr. [Acting] Speaker.
And then we are better off for many years, in
the last six years, because of government -owned housing [that] Colonel Burch has in place where he charges on behalf of the Government, 25 per cent of their income for rent. And then he takes 10 per cent . . . and I
say “he,” on behalf of the Government, is that they have
to save 10 per cent. So that is positive things that this
Government is doing for our people.
Financial assistance, Minister Hayward. We
have extended the period for financial assistance, increased that, making it possible for more people to get
financial assistance because, Mr. [Acting] Speaker, at one time if you had $5,000 in the bank you could not
get it. But now, you can have $5,000. In fact, it was less
than that during that time. But this Government has
made it so that if you have $5,000, you can still get fi-nancial assistance. So, we are better off today than we
were before.
And number three . . . not number three, but in
the list of better off facilities that this Government has
done, payroll tax. The lowest rate that we have had in
many, many years, probably in the last 20, 25 years,
the payroll tax. And some people have saved as much as $7,000 per annum on this here. Are you better off?
Yes, you are better off because we never got that under
the OBA Government.
Now, the go on to say on page 6, that Bermudians incomes have not risen to match their costs. No, it has not, Mr. [Acting] Speaker, because under the OBA Government, you remember they froze the wages
of the workers, of the civil servants and blue- collar
workers for about four or five years?

I remember that.

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: So . . . what was it
Dunkley, six or seven?
But it was, you know, they froze those wages
and they wanted to furlough, and they did all of that.
The workers had to demonstrate in order not to get the
furlough days. But they presently, government workers,
are really four or five years behind [the] rate. Because
that was never made up. Even though the unions are
doing their best to try to bring it in line, but it has never
been made up. So, yes, they are getting less income. Not because of the PLP Government. It is something
that the OBA Government did when they froze the
wages of blue- collar and white- collar workers.
Now, we talk about the interest rates. The PLP
nor the OBA have any control over the interest rates,
Mr. [Acting] Speaker. And this is a pet peeve of mine.
Because every time the Reserve (What is it?) . . . the
Federal Reserve increases their rates, they increase
their rates down here, even though at that time I don’t think they were borrowing US dollars. But they increased the rate. And what happens when you increase the rate because of inflation? Somebody is go-ing to benefit. The only people who benefited out of that
was the banks. Because you increase the rate, Ms. Smith now cannot afford her mortgage because the
rate has gone up. So, she loses her house. And the
banks make the money. In fact, one bank reported here
recently they made $225 million net profit, in one year.
Yet these same banks are calling in people’s mortgages.
You know, the other thing is that they do not
have any special mortgage rates for charities, the people who come under that category. You know, if a
church goes to borrow money for improvements, they
pay the same rate as commercial businesses. That
shouldn’t be. The churches are charitable and other charitable organisations should not be charged the
same rate, particularly when these banks are making
so much money. They do not lose, Mr. [Acting]
Speaker. In fact, if they made $225 million this year,
next year they expect to make more. And if they do not
make more, if next year they make $200 million, they
say they lost. You know, and this is the foolishness that
we are dealing with, Mr. [Acting] Speaker.
And so, this Government has done much to
help out our people, Mr. [Acting] Speaker. So, let’s put the blame where it is. The Government, regardless of
the Government, we do not control the bank rates. We
do not control it. They control it themselves. Right ? And
they are private institutions. And this Government has
done enough and is still looking to do more to reduce
rates for the average Bermudian.
And then we talk about the cost of living, food.
I think a lot of people really do not understand the shipping costs to retailers, wholesalers in Bermuda, because when you bring in a container of goods to Bermuda, that container leaves empty. So, all that cost has
to be figured in the cost of getting food to Bermuda.
Unlike if a ship left Miami to go to probably California,
they go full and they come back full. So, our shipping is
more expensive because they come across the Atlantic
full and they leave empt y. And somebody pays for that
and unfortunately [it] is the Bermuda consumer.
And then the unemployment rate. Minister
Hayward has enunciated the unemployment has gone
down. And the most amazing part about that figure is
the employment of young people. It was at one time, I
think, almost 30 per cent. Now I think it is down to about 11 [per cent]. So, there is some headway. Are there
some things we can do better or do more? Yes, for any government. But it takes time. And these Ministers are
busy doing the work, trying to run the country, and they
are doing some great things and even, I mean, the Government has bent over backwards to keep the cost of
health insurance where it is.
As you know, and I know my good friend, Mr.
Dunkley, would know that the actuarial people have
told us that we should increase the rate. But this
448 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Government has refused to do that because who it will
affect the most is Ms. Smith. Ms. Smith cannot afford
that. And we cannot expect from Ms. Smith to have
HIP, which is the minimum standard you can get. We
have to have some facilities there for our peop le to be
treated with some dignity if they need to go overseas,
Mr. [Acting] Speaker.
And then I want to commend the Government,
my Government, on international business, the number
of Bermudians who are in international business. There
was one time [when] you looked in the papers, a couple of years ago, when they were giving scholarships during the summertime. You would see, let’s say they give
10. You may see two or three Blacks and the rest [were]
Caucasian. But in the last year or two I have seen,
sometimes they have 12 people, but 11 of them are
people who are darker than me, and then o ne would
look like my cousin Michael. So, there has been a
change there. It shows how people can do the work.
Right? They can do the work; they just got to be given
the opportunity.
I like what Bacardi is doing. They are training
our people, because somebody has got to work in our
hotel industry. So, they are making it exciting for them.
I mean, that is good stuff. But I attribute all that to the work the Minister of Labour is doing. And so, we see
the fruits. That more and more of our young people,
particularly the majority of our people, are getting scholarships. They are going to international business. This
is a positive. This is something we should be happy
about, glad about. We s hould be. Both parties, should
be raising flags that, Hey, we are starting to look at all
people. Not just one segment of the people.
And that is another area where the disparity of
income can close up, because those folks are getting
in and getting these types of jobs. It is proven they can
do the work you know. It has been proven. Despite the history, the history of denying education t o Blacks, Portuguese and poor Whites. Despite that history. We started it late, but we are coming. We are coming. And
the results are there through the hard work of this Government trying to make an even playing field for everybody. And I praise the international business for what
they are doing. They are helping this country out. They are looking at our folks and they are hiring them. Because you know at one time there were only certain
jobs we could get in those areas. But that has changed
and thank God f or that, that we are heading in the right
direction.
So, Mr. [Acting Speaker], this Government has
done quite a bit to improve the living standards of our
folks in this country, regardless of what colour they may
be. We govern for all despite that some might look at
us different. That is why they . . . the income, the corporate income tax . . . some of them have a problem
with it. They say, Oh, all this money is going to gener-ate, these folks can’t handle that money. Like we do not
have the acumen to manage money. And I tell you . . .
afterwards . Right? [Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Okay, cousin. I know
you would. But it is proven we can do that. We got a balanced budget.

Yes.

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: It is proven that we can
do that. I do not know why every time something comes up, we have to prove ourselves. And we have to stop looking at people of colour because if they look successful, they are looked upon with suspicion. We
should never do that. B ut that is the history of this country. Right? It is improving; I must say that.

There is a long way to go.

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: There is a long way to
go because you will see that the history of some of
these guys comes out when they want it to. It shows its
ugly head. But I would say the majority of my cousins,
White cousins, have improved quite a bit and I am so
happy about that . I wish this could be something that
can improve overnight, but unfortunately it is not.
Thank you, Mr. [Acting] Speaker.

Acting Speaker will do.

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Acting Speaker.

[Laughter]

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Thank you, Mr. Acting Speaker,
for helping me out there.
I want to take this time, Mr. Acting Speaker, to
share my comments in regard to the Budget. Is my microphone on?

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Okay. Thank you.
I remember the Premier coming to us as Ministers and he came to us with a question. How im-portant to us is it to balance the budget? And we all
went around the room to declare how important that
was to us as Ministers, but as a Government as well.
And als o, it is very important to our people as well, that
we demonstrate that we as a Government are exercis-ing prudence in making sure that we balance a budget.
And so, our Budget Statement is evidence that we were
able to do that for the people of our country, because it


Bermuda House of Assembly was important for us to do that for the people of our
country and for our country.
But I also found it interesting that even after the
Budget Statement was read, which was very encourag-ing, there was a press conference done by the Opposi-tion. And I received a phone call from one of my constituents, a voter, who said to me, Wow, Minister. If the
only thing that they can say after the Budget Statement
is concerning potholes and groceries, but not even
share a solution to the potholes and groceries, what is
their vision? What do they want for their country? Be-cause if you are going to state a problem, you should
also state what your solution is. And so, people were
not impressed that the only sort of statement after our budget was about potholes and the increase in cost in
groceries.
You see, Mr. Acting Speaker, many want to
talk, a few want to lead and give action. You see, our
vision for our people, Mr. Acting Speaker, we want all
of our people to do well and to succeed, to have a sustainable income that does not exceed their expenses. But you see, we have variability as well in our expenses. What we do know is that Bermudians like to
travel. We travel for many reasons. We travel for leisure. Sometimes we have to travel for medical assess-ment and intervention. We travel for employment opportunities. We travel for school, for furthering our edu-cation. We travel to create options for variability in our expenses.
We must not bring our people down, Mr. Acting
Speaker, for their travel or for their migration. Bermudi-ans will travel and they deserve opportunity. They will
relocate. We know that this world is also global, and
people can work in China for Bermuda. We al l know
when you call the bank you can get somebody in China.
Right? But do not be surprised on the end sometimes, you might get a Bermudian because the world is global.

[Inaudible interjectio ns and laughter]

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Recently we had delegates from
the United Nations Development Programme here and
they visited us, and they said, We must not chastise our
people for migration. But we must ensure that there are
ways of ease for them to return. And we must welcome
them back. And we have a plan, Mr. Acting Speaker, to
do that, and you will be hearing more about that soon.
Our people, even offshore, can create economic activity and transactions both globally and locally. This world is wide, it is wide, and we must not chastise our people for wanting opportunity. But we
must also . . . People of Bermuda, we want you to know
that we welcome you back home.
We provide financial assistance to those in
low-income thresholds, Mr. Acting Speaker. It is not the
whole country because many do well. But we do it to
those who are in need and who are in [need of] most
help. I want to take the time to read some stats. A nd
these stats are from . . . it is a public document, which is the Department of Financial Assistance Annual Report for 2022/23. You have to make it clear, Mr. Acting
Speaker, that financial assistance gives an approxima-tion of $48.1 million. And that is the accumulation of
funds that it has given to financial assistance clients and the Child Day Care Allowance Programme. We
have 1,023 pensioners who are benefitting from financial assistance. Pensioners. We have 758 persons with
disabilities benefiting from financial assistance. And
this stat, Mr. Acting Speaker, as far as 162 persons living with insufficient income. And 151 able- bodied persons who are unemployed out of a population of approximately 64,000.
And so, while we would want all of our people
to be economically stable, those numbers, Mr. Acting Speaker, are low. When we look at persons with low,
insufficient income and able- bodied persons who are
unemployed, I am sure we all can have an appreciatio n
for the numbers as it relates to persons, our seniors,
our pensioners who have fixed income and persons
who have disabilities who have limited options to employment as to why those numbers are higher. But we
will stand in the gap to be able to support as sistance to
our most vulnerable, which we do.
Our Government is committed to helping those
in low threshold incomes. We spend $13.77 million toward person’s rents. We spend $6.94 million to nursing homes and $2.7 million to our rest homes. Again, benefitting our seniors. And $6.41 million toward food
costs. So, we are filling some gaps for those people,
Mr. Acting Speaker, who need. The financial assistance payouts for the pensioners are at approximately
$15 million per year. And for the disabled, about $15 million per year. And for those persons who have low
earnings, approximately $3 million per year. And those
persons who are able- bodied unemployed, approximately $3 million per year.
Since the most recent changes to the Child
Day Care Allowance Act . . . and if anyone is unfamiliar
with the Child Day Care Allowance Act, we have increased the threshold amount in which someone’s annual gross household income is up to $130,000. And
since that amendment has been made to the Child Day
Care Allowance Act, to date . . . the number prior to the
amendment was at 120 children. So, we now have approximately an additional 120 children and families
benefitting since we changed the child day care al lowance. And so, we have more families and more children
who we are assisting through the child day care allow-ance.
Additionally, Mr. Acting Speaker, the Ministry
of Youth, Social Development and Seniors gives $3
million to the third sector. I want to take this time to personally thank the third sector who does fill in the gaps
for many, many families and people who particularly
find themselves going through challenging times. We
want to thank them for their outreach and resources
that they provide.
450 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly We have made a commitment as well to children who age out of the Department of Child and Family Services. Last year we were able to open the first
ever independent living centre for those children who
age out of the Department of Child and Family Ser-vices. While people may not understand this, there
were many children who, when they turned 18, were
displaced and did not have a place to live.
And I get calls plentiful, Mr. Acting Speaker.
People who are in crisis in regard to their housing situation. And it is a scary thing to know that you will not have a place to lay your head to sleep and be comfortable. But we have made a promise, Mr. Acting Speaker,
to make sure that those children who did not have a
reunification plan and who did not have accommodation when they turned 18 now have an option, whether
they want to use it or not, because it is a choice, there is now an option for accommodatin g and programming
for them.
You will [see] recently in the paper in regard to
Bermuda’s homelessness and how we have acted upon, in collaboration with the third sector, a plan to end
homelessness. We have also demonstrated in our
Budget Statement our commitment to housing by allocating approximately $10 million toward housing. And
that is our commitment to our people. That is a public
commitment. We want to see our private sector making
commitments as well to be able to help persons who are homeless.
In the most recent National Senior Strategy Forum we had where we had our seniors come together to speak to us [about] what they wanted for a senior
strategy for Bermuda, what they spoke of was, they are
concerned about their health care costs. And we hav e
heard other colleagues today speak about how we as
a Government have made a commitment to freeze the Standard Premium Rates to make sure that the Fu-tureCare costs do not increase.
We do not have control over what the private
sector does, the private insurance, but we hope that
they will remain steadfast in making sure that health
care premiums do not increase for the rest of our people. But we have made a commitment to freeze the
Standard Premium Rates to make sure that health care
costs people are paying out, particularly our seniors in
FutureCare, are not having to pay out. We know that
people have to make decisions when it comes to how
they are spending their income. And we do not want
that to be a reason why they have to choose their health insurance over being able to eat or being able to afford prescriptions or being able to just get their hair done.
Also in the National Senior Strategy Forum we
asked our seniors, What would they tell their younger
self? And many of the seniors came back and said that
they would tell their younger self to invest more. To in-vest more. And whatever that investment looked like, whether that is in stocks and bonds, whether that is in
property, whether that is in entrepreneurship, that is
what they would tell their younger self, to take advantage of opportunities to invest. So we want our
people of Bermuda to know that this Government is
making an investment in [them]. With the corporate in-come tax and the modelling associated with that, we
are making preparations for that. And that is an invest-ment to our people. And trust me, our seniors have
plans for the corporate income tax funds. They have
plans of how they feel we should use those funds.
But that is our investment in our people. You
can go all throughout our Budget Statement to see the
many other ways we are making investment in our peo-ple, particularly in the education system. We are serious and we are committed about investing in our pe ople. So, those persons who find themselves falling on
challenging times, please know that this Government
remains steadfast and committed [to] improving our
economic conditions and making sure that you are at the forefront of any investment, and the inves tments
and the budget and the finances that are set out for our
people.
Thank you, Mr. Acting Speaker.

You have the floor, MP Dunkley
from Devonshire.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Mr. Acting
Speaker.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Well, I am from Devonshire;
I represent the great people of Smith’s North and the people of Bermuda.

[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: I do.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: A lot of piece of Devonshire.
Don’t take my time; this time is valuable.
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Acting Speaker, I am
pleased to be able to participate in this economic debate today. And as I get started, I have been reflecting
all afternoon as I listened intently to all the speakers
before me. And there have been some good speeches
on both sides of the House. And one of the speakers
before me, it was a person who calls me his “cousin”


Bermuda House of Assembly from Hamilton Parish [was] reflecting on the fact that he
believes that people don’t give Black people credit for
doing things or doing things right. And I think we certainly have an element of that in Bermuda. It was much
greater before. But in reflecting on it, because he did
give credit that we have made some changes, and we
continue to need to make changes, but in reflecting on
it what struck me, Mr. Acting Speaker, was that especially when you are public service people forget about
what you did yesterd ay very quickly because they want
more today.

Yes.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: And it makes it very difficult,
Mr. Acting Speaker, especially when some of those
people find themselves in an uncomfortable or precarious position. And I think that is some of what we are
facing here today. And so, I am not going to get here today and throw bricks at the other side and be interpolated on all night long. What I am going to get here tonight, Mr. Acting Speaker, is give you what I believe is taking place in Bermuda today and what I read out of
this budget. My opinion, with years of experience,
somewhat dulled with my age that I am not as combative as I used to be.
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: You are not that old.

[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Because Mr. Acting
Speaker, I hear the Honourable Member from constitu-ency 2 talk about [how] we need to work together. And
Members of the House will all work together. But what we need to do is we need to have the courage to reach
across the aisle to wor k together. It goes both ways. I
am not pointing a finger at Government and I am not
pointing a finger at the Opposition. But we need to
reach across the aisle together. Because, yes, we all
have ideas to help Bermuda. We all have c ontacts to
help Bermuda and. Whether the Government wants to
admit it or not, we are in a precarious position because
many of our people who we serve are telling us that, Mr. Acting Speaker.
Now, my honourable colleague, a couple of
colleagues, talked about our friends to the south a num-ber of times. To me that comparison is not so much to
be critical of where we stand but to bring knowledge to
the fact that Bermuda has always been the respec ted
big brother or big sister in the Caribbean. But I believe
that we are losing some of our leadership. Because we
have challenges within our own Island and economy and other people are catching up. Now they still cannot
throw a stone at us, in my view, and I have been
blessed to visit the Caribbean a number of times, not
as much as you, Mr. Acting Speaker.

So I have heard, so I’ve heard.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: —and I enjoyed my time
down there. The islands are beautiful. But when I was picked up at the airport by a taxi and drove home at
eleven o’clock at night, it did not take me long to get past Crystal Caves and I realised that Bermuda was still
the most beautiful place in the world.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hello! Hello!
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: But that means, Mr. Acting
Speaker, we are the most beautiful place in the world
and that is why we are so fervent in the way we try to solve our problems. Whether we sit on the Government
side or the Opposition benches. We are the most beautiful place in the world, but that means that we have
people who want to take our food. They will learn from
us; they will take it.

Yes. Yes.

Another Hon. Member: They could eat our lunch.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: They could eat our lunch.
It could be the UK. It could be the US. It could
be those in the Caribbean. They will learn from us, they
will be our friends and they will take our lunch. That is
the way the world goes. What we need to do is make
sure that we do not allow that.

Correct.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: So we can debate things up
here but you will never, ever hear any stories of Michael
Dunkley not supporting Bermuda every opportunity I get. Because while I have differences in politics, my colleagues are the same. We will fight for Bermuda. I do
not talk politics outside of Bermuda. It is not the right
thing to do.

Yes.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: It is not the right thing to do.
Because all they want to do is learn from us and get
452 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly titbits that you might drop. That doesn’t help us. We
need to learn from them and continue to get better.
[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: So that is why the comparison to the islands with ourselves because they are
making progress. And it is up to us to make sure that
we continue to make progress here.
Now, I am certainly somewhat pleased to see
that this budget will show a small surplus at the end of the next financial year because that —

They did not say it like you
did.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Well, you know, Honourable Member Swan—
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Mike is more polished.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: No, I am not more polished.

[Laughter]
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: I am a little bit older and I
got to get right to the point.

[Laughter]
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: But let’s look at how we
have earned that revenue and look how we are going
to earn the revenue in years coming up.
So, if you take a look at 2023/24 numbers, Mr.
Acting Speaker, you will see that passenger taxes were up $6 million more than we expected. That plays out in
the tourism figures with cruise ships and things like that.
Cruise ship business is booming down i n the Caribbean, I can tell you that right now.

Yes.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: And that is why I asked the
Honourable Member for Tourism if we are making sure
we understand the taxes they pay because I think Bermuda can earn a premium in taxes here. Because we
are a premium jurisdiction.
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: And if you don’t ask for the
money, you are not going to get it.

That’s right. That’s right.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Secondly, land tax is $5 million over.

[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Land tax is over $5 million
than what we expected.
Companies, international taxes were over $10
million more than were budgeted for and payroll tax was $36 million more than budgeted for. So, you see clearly four strengths in the economy. That allowed $57
million more dollars to flow in through government coffers on revenue which allowed an increase in revenue
of $31 million from the year 2022/23. That’s positive.
And that is why you will see the deficit was smaller for
the current financial year which ends in a couple of
weeks.
And going forward, if you look, Government is
budgeted to earn another $6.6 million in customs duty.
Passenger taxes, which was one of the ones before, is


Bermuda House of Assembly going to remain pretty flat, but at the high level. They
expected to earn another$68 million in payroll tax. And
that is a big one. There was a $36 million increase in
the current year. And then they are expected to earn
another $4 million in land tax. Whi ch means that revenue is expected to be another $78 million higher. And
that is how we are getting toward that balanced budget.
And that is all good. It is important in an economy always when you budget, and in business as well, to
have some revenue areas that exceed your expectations because as sure as night follows day, you are go-ing to have revenue areas that are not going to exceed
your expectations. You are going to have some problems. So in those three areas Government has certainly done well.
What those areas also illustrate, Mr. Acting
Speaker, is the fact that, as my colleagues have spo-ken about, and I am not reinventing the wheel, international business and financial services are the mainstay
of our economy. And so I will give Government credit
again. They have made sure that international business feels relatively comfortable in Bermuda. But I would
caution the Government at this point, the next couple of
years are probably the most critical years for international business in our Island. Now, there have been crit-ical years for international business in our Island in the
past, but I say with the advent of the corporate income
tax, [CIT] it is important that we make sure international business stays comfortable here, stays here, and pays
the C IT here on the Island.
Now, there are some headwinds —the cost of
living, the cost of doing business, and things like that.
But those can be ameliorated if Government stays in
touch with international business to make sure that they stay here.
And, you know, I am not as bullish as the Honourable Premier on the taxes that will be raised over the next couple of years. I am more of a conservative
person. I understand some of the headwinds we face. I
also understand, Mr. Acting Speaker, that international
business . . . most of the companies here have footprints in other jurisdictions. And so when a major
change like this happens, in spite of the fact that the tax
will be paid in every jurisdiction —

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: —other than a couple of
people who have said, No, they are going to do it another way. Those businesses will take a look at every
one of their footprints of business, wherever they are
around the world, and look at it critically under the microscope to decide, Are we in the best position having
these footprints? Can we do better in other places? And
how should we do it?
Now, Bermuda still has some very strong qualities that help us out, but we do have some check marks that we need to be careful with —the cost of living, the
cost of doing business —and we need to make sure that we continue to break down the bureaucracy and the red tape as we have seen some positive examples of it over
the past couple of years.
Now, Mr. Acting Speaker, the phrase Two Bermudas has been raised a number of times throughout the day. And it is true, this phrase was first coined by
the PLP a couple of years ago, and there are Two Bermudas. There is the Bermuda of the international bus iness and then there is the Bermuda of the rest of the economy —retail, taxi drivers, fishermen, small business owners. I cannot say anything other than in the
last couple of years, certainly after COVID -19, these
types of operations have struggled to get back on their
feet. And we need to do all we can to help them get
back on their feet because they help drive the engine
that makes Bermuda successful. And if we do not help
them get back on their feet, then we are going to have a real challenge, Mr. Acting Speaker. The Two Bermudas are real.
Now, the PLP can say all they want about, We
are going in the right direction. We have made all these
great improvements. We have done all this. That might
be true in many circumstances, but what is true is, you
wake up on another day and you still have a lot of work
to be done. You cannot tell me that my former constituent, Mr. Furbert, from Mr. Chicken, does not have a
point when he speaks public ly about the challenges he
has faced.

Distant?
[Laughter]
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: —rose up twice in this
House to talk about a young lady and her business
454 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly challenges. And she is talking about moving to another
jurisdiction. Now, we could all say, Well, you know, that
might be one- off and people do that all the time. But
those people have spoken out. Black people have spoken out with a Black Government. I have to say it.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: I have to say it because typically that would not happen. But they are frustrated. Now, I am not saying we can resolve all those chal-lenges, Mr. Acting Speaker. (Changes with the
Speaker coming back in the Chair.)

[Hon. Dennis P. Lister, Jr., Speaker, in the Chair]
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: But those show that we
have deep issues in certain sectors of our community
that we must face up to. And they have a lot to do with
the cost of doing business, the cost of living and health
challenges. So there are Two Bermudas out there.
And underneath the tone of the budget and the
tone of the debate today, I hear Government Members
acknowledging this fact. And you know one thing. The
Honourable Member who sits right across from me, Colonel Burch, he and I do not play cards or shoot marbles, but I respect the man because he knows he has
a problem, and he is going to face up to it and he will
apologise for it. That takes a lot. Now, I am going to get
into that in a little bit more detail, but it is hard to give
an apology. It is hard for people to believe that that apology is sincere. And it is even harder to get the job
done after that because they are measuring you every
day.
Now, you know, Mr. Speaker, I believe a lot in
little things. You know, I am walking along the street and I see a bag of trash, I pick it up, I put it in a trash can. I come home and something is out of place in my
garage, I pick it up and put it away. I believe in little
things make a difference. They all add up. But just take
a look at where we are in Bermuda now. I am 66 in
June; the Lord spare me.
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: You will be here.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you. I appreciate
that.
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: You are all right.

You will be here.

[Inaudible interjections] Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: But Mr. Speaker, there are
things that I have never seen in Bermuda before. And
the Honourable Minister Colonel Burch has given explanations on why the roads are as they are. Yes, we
have had torrential rain, it has continued this year, and it has never given you a chance to get out there. But
we let ourselves get into this position. And now we are
playing catchup.

Now you are going off track.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: But it is the little things that
matter. Look at the park system in Bermuda.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Look at the park system in
Bermuda, Mr. Speaker. The number of people who
complain about the unkempt nature of the parks. Drive
into Front Street tomorrow and look at the X -ray scanner. I am embarrassed to see the rust in that building. I was having dinner at a Christmas party on Front Street
and the first thing the restaurant manager did when he
saw me, he pulled me over, he wanted to talk about
vagrants in town. And he said it is impacting their business. And then it got worse, because a friend of mine
who came on a cruise ship was speaking to me about their experience in Bermuda and he pulled me aside
and he said, Michael, what is going on with your country?
And I said, What do you mean?
And he said, Hamilton is not as clean as it used
to be.
These are the little things where . . . you know,
my colleague, the Honourable Member Susan Jack-son, talked about fix these basic things. And the Opposition Leader had it in the Reply, the basic things. If we
do not fix the basic things, the little things, then how do
people expect us to address the bigger things? Can’t
do it. You can’t do it. So I am embarrassed as a Bermudian to see how we have let things go. We want to
control drugs coming into our country, but we got a
building that could fall down the next blow we get. If
people don’t believe me, just take a look left when you drive into town or right when you drive out of town. How many hundreds of people have seen that building every
day? It is not acceptable. So, let’s deal with the little
things and you will see people’s spirits pick up because
every time they turn around, people are struggling to pay their rent, don’t have a job, people are struggling to
do stuff. Every time they turn around something else is
hitting them. And they do not like what they see in their
country.
Now, the Honourable Member who speaks for
Social [Development] and Seniors mentioned let’s attract Bermudians back. I agree 100 per cent. But we
need to understand why so many people have left in recent years. And I am not saying that . . . I have not
heard hardly any conversation about [it] here. Right?


Bermuda House of Assembly We talk about numbers in Bermuda. I think those numbers are all wrong because so many people have emigrated away. And just today I had to go to a retirement
party and the lady who was retiring, I said, So what are
you going to do? You are used to working. You are so, you know, passionate about what you do.
She said, Well, you know, my four grandchildren live in the UK now. So, I am going to go visit them.
And I said, Well, why are they in the UK?
[She said], Well, it was better over there. The
parents wanted them over there. They can play foot-ball, they can compete in football, they can do this, they
can do that.
And you know, it is great that Bermudians can
travel the world. And it is good that we have an opportunity to live in other places. But we need to get Bermudians here to drive our economy. And you know the reason why immigration is in such a critical posi tion
now is because so many Bermudians have left. So we
need to make sure we keep Bermudians here. Young
people are leaving here because they do not see hope in the future. And that is for us to install in them. And
we need to teach them that, yes political politics can be
divisive but that is how we try to [flush] out issues on
the hill. We want you to stay here. We want to hear your opinion. We value what you do. But if we continue to
not address some of the challenges that are right in front of our eyes, they are going to leave because the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
But they can come back.

[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Yes, I hear Honourable
Member say, It’s astroturf. But it doesn’t matter. Numbers do not lie. Numbers do not lie. They are leaving.
Now before I get off the balanced budget aspect in this situation, let me say a couple of things here,
Mr. Speaker. First off, it was done with . . . and I am
trying to be correct and polite in what I say. It was done
with some accounting that typically you do not see often. Yes, all Bermudians would support no increase in
health insurance premiums. But with the challenges
that we face in health care and the lack of progress to date for the PLP Government in dealing with the rising
cost of health care, bec ause health costs are still going
up 10 per cent per annum, and that has been a longstanding issue. So, the longer we don’t address it, the higher they are going to continue to go and the more
we are going to struggle to make the payments.
So, it is laudable. And I think all Members support not passing on any premiums increases to residents this year, but we are doing it with borrowed
money that we still have to pay back. So, you know,
that is kicking the can down the road. Or, we have used
a lot of cricket terms today: That is just playing a straight bat hoping you can get a ball you can hit in the
future. But you got to make that ball you are going to hit
in the future, Mr. [Speaker]. I heard the Honourable Minister’s speech today and we will debate more on Monday during the
Health debate, [about] some of the challenges in health
care. But we have got two big issues that I will just identify tonight so we can have a longer conversation on
Monday. The first is the lack of progress in the last number of years. And yes, COVID -19 I will accept can be
an excuse for a few years, but we have not made the
progress that we need to make and now we see that
because the Government understands that people are
struggling. They used borrowed money to cover the premiums.
Now, secondly, for the life of me, Mr. Speaker,
I do not understand the thinking behind the budget for the hospital because . . . and I am not going to debate
the block grant and fee- for-service tonight. We will have
a good conversation about that Monday. But if you look at the past three years, the budget for the hospital has
been in the range of $147 [million] to $155 million. And
every year, Mr. Speaker, that budget has been shot. It
has been overspent.
Two years ago it was overspent. The budget
was $147.2 million. It was overspent by $11.1 million.
The next year it was $147.2 million again. It was overspent by $15.1 million. Mr. Speaker, we see the revised
numbers for 2023/24 in the budget. To start 2023/24
was $147.25 million and this year it ended at $171 [million]. An increase of $24 million. But yet this year we
budget $155 million for the hospital, 15 per cent of Government budget. We budget $155 million for the hospital and with health care and cost s increasing 10 per
cent a year, we have not been close to $155 million for four or five years. So, how is it going to be? Already a balanced budget is going to be put in question, Mr.
Speaker.
And so we need to address the challenge at
our only hospital. It needs to be financially sustainable and at the present time it is just Government giving
more money. And for the life of me, Mr. Speaker, I still
do not know how we could have forgotten to p ay the full
block grant to the hospital and the Government has not explained what happened, how it fell through the
cracks.
The last thing I will say about health care, Mr.
Speaker, is the Honourable Minister mentioned the fact that the OBA cut the hospital reserve from $100 million
to $75 million when we were facing a significant budget
deficit. And that is true. The Minister of Finance thought
at the time that $100 million was too much in the way
of reserves. Well, while the Minister did say that this
was the case, the Minister did not go on to remind us
that last year during the Budget Debate there was only
$6 million left i n that reserve account and $4 million was
untouchable. So what has happened since then? Further example: As I have said for four years in a row now
that the funding for the hospital is not right and we need
to pay attention to it. I warned them last year a nd the
year before during the debate and nothing has been
done. It is unacceptable. We cannot put that facility in
456 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly that type of position. And we will talk more about that in
the next couple of days.
Now, Mr. Speaker, in the time that I have remaining, I found it very interesting that the star of the
PLP budget was the OBA.

No!

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: It was mentioned on page
1, page 10, page 11, page 14, page 25, page 27, page
31— it goes on and on and on and on and on.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: And I do not have enough
time, Mr. Speaker —

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: I do not have enough time
to go through all the mentions and poo- poo those, Mr.
Speaker.
But you know what is interesting about it is, at
one page the Honourable Premier talks about the OBA Government wanting to privatise everything. Well, that is not true because we did mention that certain services
could be privatised. And it was up in the SAGE Report
which this Government just put on the shelf. But you
know what is interesting about it, Mr . Speaker —

Hon. Walter H. Roban: What SAGE?

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: The Honourable Deputy
Premier says, What SAGE? He would do well to read
it. What is interesting about that, Mr. Speaker, is the fact that the Honourable Premier, in another place
when he sat there, called for privatisation.

Of what?

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: My oh my oh my. How he
has forgotten or how he just believes other people will
forget. But I remember very clearly. He called for privatisation. I do not have enough time to go back and reflect on everything the PLP said about the OBA because it
was quite interesting. But you know what it reminded me of? I was in
the United States, and it must have been about 2010,
2011, 2012. President Obama was the President of the
United States, running for re- election. And he said at
the time, “ If you do not have a record to run on, then
you paint your opponent as someone people should
run from. ” Now, Mr. Speaker, a word of advice to the
Premier, concentrate on the people and their record
and do not worry about the OBA. We are the Opposition.

Thank you.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: We are the Opposition. And
the Minister of Labour and Economy said that the 30 do
not worry about the 6. The 30 would be wise to worry
about the people of Bermuda because we have challenging situations facing us. It is a fact. You can have
parts of your economy that are looking pretty good, but
parts of the economy are really, really struggling and
we need to do better about that.
Mr. Speaker, I note in the Budget Statement
that there was a payment of $9.7 million out of the Sinking Fund to repay the Bermuda Casino Gaming Commission’s outstanding credit facility, which was owed to
a local bank as a guarantee. So, I hope . . . I hope, Mr.
Speaker, that in the days to come we will hear just
where we stand on gaming. Because it has been, in my
view, inaction and a lack of progress on this that potentially has killed gaming.
We have heard promises from the Premier that
a corresponding bank would soon come. That was
months ago. We have not heard anything since. But now we know $9.7 million has been paid off. We spent
a lot of money on the Gaming Commission, and I would
look for some good news to come forward out of this
because we are still paying money. We had to pay
money out of the Sinking Fund which should be used,
Mr. Speaker, to pay debt which we will have maturing
very quickly.
Now, Mr. Speaker, also I was interested to see
that there was a significant cut in the BTA grant. Somebody approached me over the weekend about that. And
I look forward to hearing more from the Honourable
Minister when we get into the Tourism debate. I see also in regard to National Security the pledge to fill vacant posts within the BPS [Bermuda Police Service],
Customs, the Department of Corrections and the Bermuda Fire Rescue Service. I remind the Honourable Minister that this was in the budget last year. So, I look
for a progress report on that.
Now, Mr. Speaker, the last thing I will deal with
is [that] the Premier and some of his colleagues are
very touchy when we start taking about handling of
money and they jump right to corruption. The Premier
mentioned on page 29, along the lines of the OBA peddles corruption. Those questions only come from the community through us when people cannot get answers. It is critically important with government money


Bermuda House of Assembly [that] you get answers. So, we look forward to answers
on what has happened with the cyberattack.

Give it time.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: The committee has not
been formed yet. What has happened with cyberattack?
And the last thing that I will say, Mr. Speaker,
is what is happening with the $800,000 for Savvy?
Where is the man and where is the money?

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Where is the man and
where is the money, Mr. Speaker? If you answer those questions, the people will start to have a good under-standing of what we are doing.
So, Mr. Speaker, I look forward to the next two
weeks of debate. There are some positive things within the budget, but there are still a lot of challenges that we face and this Government needs to acknowledge that
and they need to accept that. And when pe ople of the
community speak out publicly, who traditionally would
not speak out against the PLP, then you know you bet-ter pay attention and you know it is time to take off
those rose- coloured glasses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am going to say a few
things about some of the things in the budget that have
been mentioned already. And I will start with roadworks
and potholes, Mr. Speaker. And I am not going to re-peat what I said in the Statement this morning. But I am
going to say something that has been missed in this
whole conversation about the state of our roads.
Everybody is complaining about the state of
the roads, and they should. What they are not doing is
acknowledging in their complaint that the roads are dreadful. And so there is one thing that you should do
in that exercise too. Slow down and drive with caution.

Mr. Speaker, I am not
even going to go there.
The fact of the matter is, Mr. Speaker, is that
the reality of the situation that the country is facing in
relation to potholes has been put into the public domain
over and over and over again. We do not have working
equipment and we do not have a working plant. And for
a while we had no working equipment and no working
plant in the country. And so what I can say, as I said
this morning, is that every effort will be made to solve
this problem as soon as we possibly can.
I get that people are upset. I get that people are
irritated by the state of the roads. I drive them too. We drive them too. And if I had a magic wand, I would have
waved it a long time ago and fixed all the problems. And so I have not heard today one word about what we
could do differently in order to address this problem.
That is all I will say on that subject, Mr. Speaker.
I want to now switch to housing because I say
to my colleagues all the time that it is amazing to me
that you report in the House, you do press conferences,
you do radio interviews and people still come and say,
I have never heard that before. I get very worried,
though, Mr. Speaker, when Members of this House on
the other side, are in the same boat.
The Deputy Opposition Leader talked about
housing in Bermuda, and rental housing, and how peo-ple do not want to rent and we should reach out to
them. Mr. Speaker, that is what the $10 million extra in
the budget is for. It is called Private Sector Rental P rogramme, to encourage people to turn those units over
to the Housing Corporation where they will rent them to
their clients, act as their landlord, deal with any issues,
clean up any mess, get rid of the tenant and replace
them. And the landowner does not have to take on any
of that responsibility. That is what the $10 million is for.
And it is not a new exercise. It existed before 2012 and
it exists after 2012.
Mr. Speaker, I can tell you that the work that
has been done in housing in the last two and half, three
years has been encouraging. And we have reported it.
458 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Where we are on a continuous cycle of bringing new
units online to address the problem that we face. Are
we going to fix it over night? No, we are not. Are we
going to stop making efforts to fix it? No, we are not
either! Mr. Speaker, the board at the Hous ing Corporation, the staff at the Housing Corporation are doing all
that they can in order to try and address this situation.
What I would suggest to Members of the Opposition is
to speak to some of those people who have apartments
that are not rented and inform them of this programme
and let them seek out the information so that they can
make an informed decision about whether they still
want to keep those units vacant.
Mr. Speaker, I want to touch on two other issues. One is the $100 million that was spent on the
Grand Atlantic because that is a criticism of this Government because of the various iterations of the Grand Atlantic. So I am going to start at the very beginn ing.
The property was built in 2010, 2011, I think. And purchased by the Housing Corporation for affordable
housing for Bermudians. And what do you think hap-pened, Mr. Speaker? Immediately that was case. There
was criticism from virtually every environment al group
in the country, including the OBA, that those buildings
were going to fall into south shore. Mr. Speaker, Ber-mudians are a strange lot, so they believed it. They ignored the fact that The Reefs, Azura, Elbow Beach and
various other private propert ies all along the south
shore are built on the cliff. And so only two people purchased units at Grand Atlantic. And the decision was
made in 2016, Mr. Speaker.

[Inaudible interjections]

An RFP [Request for
Proposal] was put out on May 2, 2016, Mr. Speaker,
setting out all the criteria for what would happen to what
is happening now.
The Minister is the . . . was the Shadow . . .
was the Opposition Whip at the time, Mr. Speaker. And
it set out the whole programme. And I am not one of those people who really highlights what the Opposition
has done when they were in Government. That is the
nature of the beast. I am doing it today, however, because they have painted this picture of the PLP making
this mistake and it should be fixed because we should
not have spent $100 million on building a hotel. Now, Mr. Speaker, let me say, I agree with them! I agree with
them! Nobody in their right mind would, under normal
circumstances, spend $100 million on a hotel. But you could not sell it to Bermudians. And now we are in the position of having to convert it to a hotel.
What does that mean, Mr. Speaker? Because
whoever the Government was, the same process
would have had to occur. You had residential units that had been wired for residential units that you are converting to a hotel. You need to change that structure.
You h ave plumbing that was designed for residential
units that needed to change for a hotel. We engaged Hilton, who have standards and have opened hundreds
of hotels around the world and have a protocol and a standard for what the facility must look like, how i t must
operate. They have a protocol that includes two months
of commissioning by them after the hotel is handed
over. And so the hotel is occupied by every room, and
every facility in the hotel is put to the test.
So, Mr. Speaker, I put into the public domain
that this started under the OBA. But let me also put into
the public domain that when we came to Government I
(and I only use that term because I was the Minister at
the time) met with the same co- developers that the
OBA had, and listened to their proposal and talked to the people at the Housing Corporation and agreed that
that was the route that we would take in order to be able
to have some semblance of getting our money back for
the original investment.
And so the property . . . the exercise has
evolved down so that there is no co- developer. They
were separated from the exercise in 2021, I believe,
2020, 2021. So the Housing Corporation owned the
property 100 per cent. That means the people of Bermuda own the property 100 per cent. And there is a full
scale programme and plan in place to have the hotel finished. If anybody drives along south shore, you cannot go into Hamilton and see the same activity going on
when you drive out of Hamilton at the end of t he day.
There is a beehive of activity. And we are getting close
to the end of that exercise now and ultimately the country will have a three- star hotel, part of the Hilton brand,
and all of the attendant resources and support that
comes with that that they will own. And we will then start
getting our money back.
Is it going to take a long time? Oh, yes, it will.
But in that exercise, if there is a hotelier who wishes to
present themselves to purchase the hotel, we will hap-pily sell it for the right price, because we have no desire
. . . and we are a lot more experienced now than we
[were] at the beginning of this exercise, in terms of running and creating a hotel. But the options were limited. No Bermudian is going to go stay there, no matter how
much they say, Oh, it should have been left to housing.
You poisoned the well. They still believe that the buildings are going to fall into south shore, in spite of all of
the work that has gone on and the effort that is being
put into this exercise.
And so let me just say this: Bermudians are not
the only ones who think this is a good idea. The largest,
or the second- largest, depending on whose results you
want to take, hotel in the world, also thinks so. And also


Bermuda House of Assembly thinks that there is the potential for it to make a profit
and for them to make a profit in this exercise.
Mr. Speaker, I will leave that right where it is.
We are on that path. Continue to criticise if you will that
we spent $100 million. That is the reality of this situa-tion. And just like in this Westminster style of government, one Government starts somethi ng and the next
Government will have a look at it and decide whether
they are going to end it or continue it. In this case we
decided to continue it. So we own it and we accept that
we should be criticised for $100 million, but we do not accept all of the blame. And we also believe that the
alternatives and options in this were so limited that this
is the only choice that we had.
Mr. Speaker, but the final point I want to talk
about, because it has been very fascinating to listen to
the speeches thus far in this debate, and in particular, about the balanced budget. Mr. Speaker, I think the one
thing you could accuse the successive Progressive Labour Party Government of is an adherence to the book
of promises that they made in every election since 199[8] . . . well, prior to that. But since 1998, every
promise that we have made we have monitored and followed a path to carry them out. Something that was a
unique experience for the people of this country in
1998. And again, in 2012, for the people who won made
a whole host of promises and started on day -one saying, Oh, we are not going to do that. We are not going
to do that. We are not going to do that. We make promises that we keep. And we promised a balanced
budget. We would have had it earlier were it not for the over $200 million that was invested and guaranteed to
Morgan’s Point that we had to come up with to pay.
And so, Mr. Speaker, I commend the Minister
of Finance for this budget. I suggested to him and the
Cabinet that since we said last year we are going to
have the same amount of money this year, that the Budget Debates on budgets should be very brief. If we
only focus on the increase in funding that we got, it
would be in operational, it would be salaries and the
only discussion would be about in capital, where there
has been significant increases.
So, I am very proud to be a member of this
Cabinet, to be a member of this party, to be a member of this Government to bring a balanced budget to the
people of Bermuda. And I look forward to the debate
next week when we do Public Works. And it will be a
different type of a debate than we have had in the past
in the sense that I shall not be repeating a whole lot of what I said last year.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I have particular family members who order steak whenever we go out to
dinner. And they always ask for it to be prepared well
done. In fact, one would even go as far as to ask for it
to be a bit burnt. And the reason they do this is because the very thought of putting a piece of meat with blood
in their mouth is disgusting to them. The very idea of
putting another animal’s blood in their mouth is repulsive to them. But Mr. Speaker, you and I both know that
the red you see in the steak is not blood at all. You and
I both know the red you see in a steak is nothing but
water mixed with a protein called myoglobin which
turns it red. You and I both know that the blood is removed long before it reaches the restaurant, let alone
someon e’s plate.
But what I find interesting is that even when I
give my family the facts, even when I provide them with
the information, even when I show them precisely why
it is not blood at all, they continue to order burnt steaks.
And that is because they have reached a point where
they are so resolute in how they feel, they are so fixated
on how they think that not even the facts will sway
them.
And so, Mr. Speaker, now to bring this home.
[Laughter]

I have come to accept the reality
that there are some naysayers amongst us on this Is-land that are so resolute on how they feel about a specific individual, they are so fixated on what they think
about the Progressive Labour Party that not even the
facts will sway them.
I am talking about those determined to find fault
in any and everything we do. I am talking about those
who would rather be entertained by the latest gossip
rather than seek to be informed of the truth. So, Mr. Speaker, this Government will not be deterred because
the change we seek, the decisions we make, the steps
we take must be rooted in the facts. So let’s now go a
bit deeper.
Mr. Speaker, again, let me remind the public
we have gone over 20 consecutive years of deficits. In
fact, the last time the Government had a surplus,
George Bush, Jr. was president. There was no such
thing as YouTube or Facebook. Triminghams was open
on Fr ont Street. And as a result of these consecutive
460 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly deficits, our gross debt now sits at $3.3 billion, which is
costing the taxpayer approximately $130 million annually in interest. For context, what we are paying in interest is about the same as the entire budget for the Police, the Department of Corrections, our Fire Service, our Regiment and Customs all combined.
Mr. Speaker, so that we understand how this
all connects, let me be clear. Funds that should be used to repave our roads, further reduce the cost of living,
provide more assistance for our seniors and disabled,
invest more in education, further develop our tourism product, curb antisocial behaviour, funds that could be
used for those things and more, are instead used to pay
the interest on our debt.
Mr. Speaker, successive Finance Ministers
have all raised the flag of concern regarding our debt levels. And I for one can also acknowledge that both parties have contributed toward our debt being where
it is today. But when we returned to office in 2017, we
understood that complaining about it, pretending it isn’t
there, or pointing fingers will not fix the issue. Which is why, Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be a part of a Government that is not afraid to forego political expedience.

A Government that is not afraid to
make the difficult and at times unpopular decisions. I
am proud to be a part of a Government that stayed disciplined through these unprecedented times and have
now positioned ourselves to finally say to the people of this country that the days of deficits are over! And our
debt is coming down.
[Inaudible interjections]

Mr. Speaker, this balanced budget
is about first acknowledging that we were on an unsustainable path. It is about our commitment to reversing
that trend and charting a new course. It is about preparing a foundation for a prosperous Bermuda for generations to come.
Mr. Speaker, the Opposition then want to question our ability to stick to a balanced budget. And to that I would encourage them and the listening public to look
at our record. In 2020/21, we outperformed our original
expectations by $61 million. In 2021/22, we outperformed our expectations by $59 million. The last fiscal
year we outperformed expectations by $42 million. So,
yes, anything is possible. And we must be diligent on how we manage the public purse. But our record clearly
reflets a Government that routinely outperforms its expectations. And so we are confident in our ability to
meet the balanced budget target set for the upcoming
fiscal year.
And so, Mr. Speaker, when I think about where
we were just three years ago, our airport shut down, our hotels left empty, our GDP declining, our people unemployed, our hospital at its highest disaster level ever, when you think about where we were just three years
ago, I hold fast to three things I sincerely believe to be
true. Number one, the Progressive Labour Party has a
lot to be proud of —the progress we have made, the
seeds we have sown, the opportunities we have created. Number two, notwithstanding t his progress, the
Progressive Labour Party still has a lot more to do—the
cost of living, increasing our working population, the
housing shortage.
Number three, is that even on our worst day I
promise you the Progressive Labour Party is 10 times better than what is left of this OBA. So, let’s first touch
base on some things that we should be proud of.
Mr. Speaker, let there be no doubt that our
economy is growing. Not only is our GDP growing, but
it is doing so at rapid pace. The One Bermuda Alliance
wants you to believe that this is solely a result of IB [In-ternational Business]. But what they do not w ant you to
know is that 12 of the 19 industry sectors are contributing to this positive growth, and IB is not even the largest increase.
Mr. Speaker, in today’s Reply, the OBA compared our GDP with the Cayman Islands over the last
six years. That is because what they do not want you
to do is compare it over the last three— and the most
recent three—because then you will see that the Gov-ernme nt’s GDP, Bermuda’s GDP, has grown by 12 per
cent, while the Cayman Islands grew by less than 8 [per
cent]. So, for anyone to spew a narrative that our economy is not growing is either deliberately misleading the
people or is simply misinformed.
Mr. Speaker, I am also encouraged to see our
unemployment figures continue to decline. Nine hundred and thirty -five new jobs filled. Not only are we seeing more Bermudians employed, but we are seeing our
working population continue to grow. It is no surprise to
me at all that as a result of our Government doubling
our scholarship funding, expanding local training programmes, introducing personal employment plans as part of financial assistance, continuing with our College
Promise Programme, it is no surpris e to me at all that
these results are producing more Bermudians working.
Mr. Speaker, I represent a labour party to the fullest.
The core values we had 60 years ago still hold true today. So, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing our policies helpin g Bermudians to get a job and helping them to reach their full potential.
Mr. Speaker, how can we now speak of things
that we are proud of and not speak about the continued improvement of our tourism industry? Air arrivals,
cruise arrivals, visitor spending, hotel occupancy are all
increasing. I can vividly remember this summer seeing
minibuses and taxi drivers buzzing from Dockyard to
Horseshoe, from Gibbs Hill to Crystal Caves. Such an
improvement not only saw Bermuda reaching an all -
time high in cruise ship revenues, but also saw the in-dustry increase the number of jobs by 10 per cent.
Mr. Speaker, the construction industry is expected to see a significant boom as well. Not only are


Bermuda House of Assembly the Fairmont Southampton and Brookfield projects
alone expected to produce 900 jobs, there is also the
Morgan’s Point project, the work that we are doing in
affordable housing. There are a number of large- scale
residential development projects in the pipeline. Overall
construction serves as a cornerstone to any economic
progress, and we are elated to see the growth potential
in this sector over the next coming months.
Mr. Speaker, it would be remiss of me if I did
not mention our Mortgage Guarantee Programme
which, because of the lower down payment requirement and the lower interest rates , is now seeing that
dozens of young Bermudians can now call themselves
homeowners, many of which would not have been able
to do so had it not been for this programme. I am
pleased to see that this programme is now expanding
so that even more Bermudians can participate. So,
starting April 1, any employee of a government quango,
such as the BEDC [Bermuda Economic Development
Corporation] or the BAC and the like, as well as any
Regiment soldier, whether they be full time or part time, can participate as well. So I would encourage anyone
who is listening to, at the very least, pick up the phone
and give BCB [Bermuda Commercial Bank] a call and
see how this programme can better serve you.
Mr. Speaker, I agree with the Premier wholeheartedly when he says that one of the crowning achievements of this Government in 2023 was the es-tablishment of a minimum wage and seeing it at a rate
that is one of the highest minimum wages of the world.
It is almost as if he took the words right out of my mouth.
Our Government is ensuring that no worker in this
country will be denied the opportunity to earn a fair
day’s pay. I could go on, Mr. Speaker. There is the in-crease in child day care, the continued commitment to
increase the pensions for our seniors. We are in the fi-nal stages of ensuring that one of our pension funds will be fully sustainable. There is a lot to be proud of. Notice
that I deliberately left out the significant growth in the IB
sector to s imply highlight that there are plenty of positive things happening outside of IB. Again, there is so much that we, as a Government, can be proud of.
Mr. Speaker, this then leads me to my second
overall point, and that is to acknowledge that, notwith-standing this level of progress, more can be and must
be done. Let me say this as sincerely as I possibly can.
We are not in any way trying to convince the public that
everything is great, because it is not. The cost of living
in Bermuda is an issue that needs to be addressed. It
is affecting the quality of life of the very people that we were elected to serve. From groceries, to electricity, to
interest rates, to rents, the cost of living in Bermuda
needs to be addressed further. I feel for those among
us who are struggling to make ends meet for themselves and their families, and for their businesses. I
hope those listening can hear me say that your cries

1 Official Hansard Report 20 February 2015, page 802 have not gone unheard, and it is something that we will
address.
Mr. Speaker, despite what the vocal minority
might want you to believe, I want you to know that every
week I sit amongst the caucus that cares deeply about the people in this country. Though we are not perfect, I
promise you that our hearts are in the right place. Mr.
Speaker, my final point really goes without saying, but
I will say it anyway. Again, it is that even on our worst
day we are still 10 times better than this OBA.
Mr. Speaker, we have mentioned on numerous
occasions about how they doubled the debt. We have
mentioned how they produced two of the largest deficits in Bermuda’s history. And we have mentioned several times how they were downgraded by both S&P and Moody’s. We have mentioned countless times how
their Morgan’s Point deal cost the Government and the
taxpayer over $250 million. Their poor airport deal . . .
Mr. Speaker, I will not belabour the fact that they prom-ised 2,000 jobs and actually ended up losing 2,0 00
jobs. I am not in the mood to remind the public how they were determined to usher in the Pathway s to Status, or
constantly pushing for privatisation. I am not going to
mention how they told our seniors that money does not
grow on trees. Mr. Speaker, one of the things that the
Premier likes to bring up is the fact that the OBA increased payroll taxes t o its highest levels in Bermuda’s
history. I am not in the mood to even talk about that
today. Nor am I in the mood to talk about furlough days.
Instead, Mr . Speaker, I will keep it brief.
Given the topic of today, I would like to quote
from the 2015/16 Budget Statement if I may, when former Minister Bob Richards said, and I quote,
1“I look
forward to the day when I can stand here and declare
that the government has balanced its budget . . .”. Well,
Mr. Speaker, I want Bob Richards and all of his OBA
associates to know that the day he has been looking
forward to is finally here. And all that I ask is that he not
forget which Government actually made it happen.
Mr. Speaker, before I close, I would like to emphasise that it has not gone unnoticed. All of us have
sacrificed in one way or another. It was not easy. I know
many of my colleagues have had to have spirited conversations on the doorsteps. This balanced budget rep-resents that better days are ahead. A changing of the
tides is happening. The dawning of a new era is here.
Mr. Speaker, as a result of the foundation that
we have set, and the projected increase in revenue we feel safe enough to say publicly that universal health
care is on its way. We will soon see significant reduc-tion in the cost of living, including the cos t of groceries,
electricity and the cost of construction. We will soon see
significant investment in our infrastructure, such as
more efficient waste management, modern ferries and
buses, repaved roads Island- wide, better kept beaches
and parks. We will soon see greater investment in our
education system, in our athletes, in our entrepreneurs,
462 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly in our artists. But, Mr. Speaker, don’t just take my word
for it. You can see it for yourself.
You see the Corporate Income Tax legislation
that was passed. You see the construction work that is
happening at Fairmont Southampton, on Front Street, at the Bermudiana Resort. You can see the increase in
airlift. You see our tourism season getting better year
over year. You see that the number of Bermudians
working is increasing. You heard what the rating agencies had to say. So, Mr. Speaker, with these fact s, with
our future looking as promising as it does, I say to the
naysayers that there is no need to order any more b urnt
steaks .
So, Mr. Speaker, I will close with this. I saved
this for the end because it might be hard to say.
[Pause]

I reminded him that I would speak
in this Parliament Friday, which is today. And he smiled
and he specifically asked for me to bring him a radio so
he could listen. He would never do that. He asked me
to bring him a radio so he could listen. You see, if y ou
knew anything about him you would know that he could
care less about politics. Absolutely had no interest in
politics. But there would be nothing to stop him from hearing his son speak.
Unfortunately my dad is not here to hear me
today in this forum, but I know that he is listening. And
as I do every day, I hope that I made him proud.
Thank you.

[Desk thumping]

Mr. Speaker, I was not in the
Chamber during the obituary period today, and I would
just like to offer my condolences to the Member who
just took his seat for the loss of his father. I lost my mother last year, and it is never easy no matter what
time in life you may be.
Mr. Speaker, I listened very closely to the debate today and actually the thing that has resonated
with me the most is something said by the Honourable Kim Swan, MP, in the back, and that is this: There are
36 people in this Chamber who love Bermuda. And I
believe that to be true. And it is unfortunate that when
we come up here and try to debate and discuss what is
best for the future of our Island that we sometimes get
overtly political and partisan. I think we do that because we have different ideas abou t how best to achieve that
which we all want for our beloved Island.
Mr. Speaker, earlier today you very kindly gave
us an extra 15 minutes for the short adjournment at
lunch. And I am grateful you did so because the Opposition Leader, MP Jarion Richardson, and I used that
opportunity to also go (as many on the other side of the
aisle did yesterday, I understand) to the Black History
Month exhibit, the Black History Museum, at Paget Primary. Whilst there, the room that really resonated with
me the most was the room dedicated to your predecessor in that Chair, Mr. Speaker, R andy [Randolph] Horton. It was not hard for the room to resonate with Randy Horton because Randy Horton was in the room surrounded by a number of young Bermudian students,
each of them dressed in one way or the other to pay homage to certain aspects of his life, whether that be in
his sporting prowess or in his Speaker’s robe. I had an
opportunity to chat with Mr. Horton, having just come
from this Chamber, and knowing that I would return to
this Chamber , with that conversation in the middle.
The reason I mention this, and it is not off -topic,
Mr. Speaker (I know this is the Budget D ebate, or Reply), is I think he is a testament to someone who has
served in politics but appreciated that life in Bermuda
was bigger than politics. What I did not know (I mean I
knew, but I was not aware) was that of the many, many
firsts in his career he was the first Opposition Member
to assume the Speaker’s Chair. I was aware that he
was in the Opposition, and I was aware that he assumed the Speaker’s Chair during an OBA Government . But I had not realised that this was a first. And he
indicated that it was. And if I may respectfully say, sir, Bermuda is better off for his having done so. And that was a gesture of what I would like to think of as true
bipartisanship in that nature.
Mr. Speaker, every year that I have spoken in
this debate on the Budget and the Reply to the Budget,
I have sought to observe things that I think are positive
in the Government’s budget, and then sought to offer
constructive criticism, and I do not inten d to depart from
that approach today. There are things in the budget that this Opposition party is very much supportive of, and I
will give you four quick examples.
One is the new hire relief. And the proposed
adjustments to new hire relief make sense. It is very
sensible to try to incentivise the hiring of Bermudians
through tax policy. And that is something that was done


Bermuda House of Assembly when the OBA was in power, and it is something that
has been proposed again. And no doubt it might have
been proposed before the OBA was in power. I do not
[know]. But it is something that we are supportive of.
Another matter is also the pledge by the Government to reform the IT systems in the civil service and
in government. And I know that this is a promise that
has been made many times by many governments of
different colours through the years. But it is something that we are supportive of, and we would like to see a
singular government portal. We would like to see the ability for everybody to pay by credit card, not just on
the tax commissioner’ s site, but generally. You know,
we are in 2024, and it would be wonderful to see those
systems updated to provide services that are appropriate to the modernity that we now live in.
Likewise, the Opposition party is very supportive of any and all initiatives that are going to try to increase affordable housing for Bermudians. I know one
of the speakers on the other side (I have forgotten who)
today was speaking about . . . I think it was MP Simmons who said they delivered on that. And that is wonderful. We are not afraid to stand back and offer congratulations on that issue where it is appropriate. And it
is appropriate.
Again, taking another point where in a spirit of
bipartisanship we would commend, and that is the ef-forts which have come to fruition by the Deputy Premier in relation both to the space launching slot resource
and, more importantly perhaps, or more signif icantly,
the Google and other entity sea substation. These are
wonderful opportunities for our Island. And harkening
back to the comment where I started, all 36 of us want
what is best for Bermuda.
Turning now to some elements of constructive
criticism, and, again, I will try not to be overly partisan given where we are tonight in the spirit of the debate thus far. One of the things that the Opposition Leader
touched on in his speech, and I would li ke to reiterate,
was the point about the resourcing and strengthening
of the Auditor General and her (it’s currently her) function. It is very, very unwise, if not impossible, to try to
take good decisions if you do not have good data. And,
unfortunately, we are getting to a stage where we do
not have good data, where too many unaudited accounts are there, or they have not been finished, or they
are too long in delay. And again, I am not being partisan
about that observation. I am sure this Government
would welcome better data upon which to make its decisions.
A further point in this same vein is this: You
cannot solve a problem if you do not admit that the
problem exists. And it is unfortunate, in my opinion, that
when we on this side of the aisle point out what we believe to be legitimate problems, and we do so in good
faith, not to point -score as is often suggested, or because we are do om-mongers. But when we say that
Bermudians are suffering out there and that there are
problems out there, if you don’t admit that . . . if we don’t all in this room say, Okay, yes, there are problems
there, how do we fix them? . . . and I know that my honourable colleague, Michael Dunkley , earlier commended the Colonel, the Honourable Member for constituency 27, the Minister for Works and Engineering
among other things no doubt, because he was willing
to acknowledge that our roads are a disaster and he
apologised for it. And I believe that apology to be sincere and authentically meant.
But you do have to admit that there is a problem before you can try to solve it. And if you at least admit there is a problem then you can put out solutions.
And those solutions may differ. Our solutions may well
be different from the solutions on the other side of the
aisle. It may well be that the other side of the aisle has
multiple suggested solutions that might differ as well.
But you cannot tackle the problem without recognising that it exists.
So, one of my constructive criticisms, indeed
probably the thing that vexes me the most about this budget is the unnecessary spin to try to portray this as
a “balanced budget.” Not only did the Premier not stop
there, it had to be the first balanced budget in 20 years.
Why?
Why?
It is, firstly, not a balanced budget. A budget is
a projection. And you don’t know if it is balanced or not until after the fact. It is —

And I am not going to fault that
Government in that year for not achieving a balanced budget. But looking at the Hansard it is quite clear. In
fact, I stood up and I said the same thing then, that a
balanced budget is just a promise to try to achieve something. It is not actually delivery on that promise.
So, not only —

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

Point of order.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. E. David Burt: What I do not want the Honourable Member on that side to do is to mislead the House because the Budget Statement did not say that this was
the first projected budget in 20 years . We had spoken
464 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly about that. It was very clear what it said, that, if
achieved, it would be the first balanced budget in 20
years. That is what we have put forward. The Honourable Member should tread very carefully in 2019 because he knows exactly the reason why that was not achieved. Two words —Morgan’s Point.

I find it ironic, Mr. Speaker, that
the Honourable Premier accuses me of misleading the
House and then agrees with exactly what I have said,
which is that it is not a balanced budget until 12 to 14
months afterwards when you look back and you see if
the targets were hit. Moreover, there was a promise in
2019 by the previous Minister of Finance which seems to have not been highlighted, perhaps for reasons
known only to the person who just spoke.

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

Point of order.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading and imputing improper motive]

Hon. E. David Burt: The Honourable Member is continuing to mislead the House. And he knows that he is
now imputing improper motive. The facts are very simple. On the issue of a balanced budget being achieved
it will be the first since 2003. What is interesting to note is tha t year one was not projected. But it was achieved
on the back of stronger -than- expected performance in
international business, something that we have seen over this time.

So, an additional reason, Mr.
Speaker, in addition to the two I have just mentioned as
to why this is not a balanced budget, is that a balanced
budget is a balancing of revenue and expenditure without recourse to borrowing. If you do not trust me, look
it up. We have the UK budget, an independent budget
agency. There it is. So, if you have recourse to borrow-ing it is simply not a balanced budget.
And I say this not to criticise what happened in
2019, because I think (if I remember correctly), as MP
Tyrrell once said to this House, no one could predict
COVID -19. And indeed, no one did. Or maybe someone did, but not somebody in this House, certainly not
from us.
I say that because it is unnecessary. It is gratuitous. It is spin. And spin is not a solution. In that same
vein I am concerned that we are not being honest with
the people of Bermuda about the borrowing. There has
been a phrase introduced into the polit ical discourse of
late in relation to this budget which is “excess borrowing.” Let’s be careful. There is nothing special about excess borrowing versus borrowing. It is borrowing. And
the fact that you may have borrowed more than you thought you needed does not mean it is not borrowed
money. And it does not mean that when you are spending it you are not spending borrowed money.
And in case you do not trust my word on it, go
online. Go to Hong Kong Shanghai Bank, HSBC, and they will tell you what excess borrowing means. It is any
amount of debt that you cannot comfortably manage.
So, let’s just be honest about it. Let’s recognise the
problem that we are trying to solve, because otherwise spin is dangerous.

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

Point of order.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. E. David Burt: The Honourable Member is misleading the House in using a reference in regard to excess borrowing from HSBC that he knows does not apply in this case. The Government Loans Act is very
clear and specific in regard to the amounts that are borrowed for future deficits which was an amendment that
was made in 2013 by the former OBA Minister of Finance. The reference which he is clearly making in that
case is that if you borrow more than you can pay back,
but that is clearly not the case with t his Progressive Labour Party Government which has managed to reduce
gross borrowing while also reducing interest payments
while at the same point in time returning our budget to
balanced so that we do not have to use excess borrowing funds to repay deficit s because there are none projected.

Mr. Speaker, there was a Texas
politician, Ann Richards . She was Governor of Texas.
One of her most famous quotes was , You can put lipstick on a pig, and you can call it Priscilla, but it is still a
pig. Excess borrowing is still borrowing. Using borrowed money to meet expenses is not a balanced budget.
Spin, Mr. Speaker, is dangerous —

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

Point of order.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. E. David Burt: The Honourable Member is misleading the House again because he would know that
when it comes to expenditure, all expenditure is reported inside of the particular budget book. When we
are talking about a transfer between funds, what he is
stating is a . . . order of expenditure, but that is not how
it is treated.


Bermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: Mr. Pearman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Priscilla is not going to help us solve our problems. Spin is dangerous. We would be far better off be-ing honest about what the problem is, seeing if we can
agree what the problem is, and then seeing if we can
find solutions that we all agree upon to deploy to solve
the problem.
I take this point further, but on to a different
topic. And that is the corporate income tax. Please, please, let us not use the corporate income tax [CIT] as
a matter for spin. Let us not over sell what it may be.
Let us not under sell what it may be. Let’s be honest
about it. Let’s recognise that we actually do not know.
Let’s recognise that the terrain is uncertain and may
shift. It is not going to help Bermudians to promise them that there is a large cash reward coming from the CIT
and all we need to do is wait. That may happen; it may
provide what we need in terms of excess revenue. But
it also may not. And, really, Bermudians are done with false promises.
Mr. Speaker, if I may now, I would just like to
pick a few points from the Opposition Leader’s [Reply] earlier today, four in fact. I think they are important. At least I think they are important if you look at it in systemic terms, or from a high level.
First of all is this idea of Bermuda’s new normal. And at page 1, with your leave, Mr. Speaker, he
said this “Most people in Bermuda agree that the PLP
Government has been ineffective. Its pronouncements and proclamations have been unreliable. The public
has lost confidence in this Government.
“And the public are right. Despite the Government patting itself on the back with this budget, outside
of International Business (IB), the economic situation
for most people in Bermuda has stalled or gone back-wards. Under this Government, the island has deteriorated. Just look around. Miles of potholes. Exorbitant
grocery bills. Vacant buildings. Increased homelessness. No local job growth. The list goes on and on.
Sadly, all this has become Bermuda’s new normal.”
Hon. E. David Burt: Point of order, Mr. Speaker.

Point of order.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Hon. E. David Burt: The Honourable Member is misleading the House. He cannot state no local job growth
when the facts which are stated in the National Economic Report that was presented and given shows that
there was not only growth in international business but
there is growth in multiple other sectors as well. It is false for him to say there is no local job growth.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am obviously reading a direct quote. And if the Honourable Premier wishes to disagree with the content of the [Reply] that I was reading he is welcome to say so in his
closing remarks.
Mr. Speaker, that is Bermuda’s new normal.
That is the problem that I would invite everyone in this
Chamber to try to agree upon so that we can look to
see what solutions can be deployed. Again, if we continue to deny the very real and evident problems th at
everyone can see and that everyone is feeling we are
not going to get anywhere.
The second point in the [Reply] by the Honourable Opposition Leader today that I would love to take you to, Mr. Speaker, with your leave, is about the
choice that is presented to Bermudians. And he said
this “We also need more Bermudians because our economy needs more people to flourish. For the
healthcare system to work. For the pensions to work.
For our schools to work. For the Government services
to work. For the local economy to work. For Bermudians to have more job opportunities. For all these things,
we need a certain number of people. At least 8,000 to
10,000 more than we have today.
“Bermudians have a choice:” (and I will repeat
that, Mr. Speaker) “Bermudians have a choice: either
our population dwindles so that each of us must pay
more in taxes, or we increase the number of people on
our Island so we can spread the tax burden across
more people. More people will help reduce the cost of
living. More people will help reduce the cost of
healthcare. More people will spread the tax burden.
More people will spend more money in our Bermudian shops, in our Bermudian restaurants, and in Bermud ian
taxis.”
So that is the choice that is presented. And it is
a non- partisan choice. It is a non- partisan choice because we have heard from the other side, from the Min-ister of Economy and Labour, that he would like to see
8,000 more people. We have said 10,000, the [Reply]
from the Opposition Leader today is now 8,000 to 10,000. But that, again, has to recognise the problem.
We say, and it appears that they say, the problem is we
need more people. If we can agree on that problem the
question is, What is the best solution?
I suggest the question that needs to be asked
and answered together is, If we agree we need (and
let’s just take 9,000; it’s between 8,000 and 10,000) 9,000 more people spending money in our businesses, in our taxis, putting money into our health care system
(which is vital, this is an ageing population), if we agree
with that, how can we persuade those people to come
here? That is the question that, with the greatest respect, I do not feel the Minister of Economy and Labour
is addressing properly, because they are not just going
to arrive on our shores unless they know that they too
at some future point have a vested interest in our Island
where their children can flourish, where they family can
put down roots.
466 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Speaker, turning now to the third point, and
no doubt this will be the most controversial because the
two passages that I want to read are about the OBA’s
proposals, the OBA plan.
Firstly, with your leave, —

—the Opposition Leader said this:
“And we will achieve this by listening to our people. En-gaging with our people. Working together to deliver the solutions we need. Our island is too small not to take
advantage of every single person’s skill, knowledge,
and experience. We need a government with focus –
that gets back to basics. Tackles what is important. Getti ng the fundamentals right. And, ultimately, delivering what is needed. Our decisions will be based on
what is best for the future of Bermuda, and all Bermudians.”
And just to continue right to the back of this
[Reply] he adds this point, again, with your leave: “[W]e
will strip red tape from Government processes, where
they can be streamlined or even removed. The OBA
fundamentally believes that Government’s job is t o create the best conditions for Bermudian business success, and then get out of the way.
“To sum up our core approach, the OBA will
renew Bermuda, for the benefit of all Bermudians, and for future generations. And we will do that together with
the Bermudian public, by getting back to basics. By focusing on the important things and doing them w ell. By
delivering results and encouraging you, the public, to
hold us accountable.”
So, Mr. Speaker, I started with the new normal.
I identified Bermuda’s choice, and I landed then on
what the OBA says. And I appreciate that the solution
that is being proposed by the OBA is not necessarily a solution with which all Members on the other si de may
agree. Some may, some may not.

[Inaudible interjection]

And I now hear the chirping has
begun. I thought the third quote might inspire a little bit
of a come- back here.
So, we have listened today to the [Reply], and
the Minister of Economy and Labour who led off . . . and
I actually missed some of his speech. I apologise, I had
to step out. But when I returned, I heard his closing.
And his closing said that the PLP has been a successful
and competent Government. A successful and competent Government, Mr. Speaker. Hold that thought and
contrast it with what was said by my colleague, MP Ben
Smith , earlier when he said that the emigration—emigration, the departure of people from our Island—is a
very real issue.
Mr. Speaker, how do you reconcile those two
statements? How do you reconcile the success and competence of an economy and a Government with a mass departure of Bermudians? Now the Bermudian
public will need to decide as to whether either of them
are right. I know my answer. But I will again take the
words of the Leader of the Opposition “paying more for
less is not an indicator of a thriving eco nomy.”
Mr. Speaker, before I sit (and I will sit in a minute), I just want to touch on the theme that ran
throughout my colleague Jarion Richardson’s speech
today and that was this idea of getting back to basics. I
know that the Premier has criticised that state ment as
being something a consultant has thought up or a buzz
word, et cetera. But actually, I think it is more important
than that because that is really what the Government of
Bermuda, no matter which Government that might be,
no matter which political party occupies the seat of
power, the Government of Bermuda does need to get
back to basics. We need to do the foundation well. No more pie- in-the-sky thinking about wouldn’t it be nice? ,
we have got to get the basic things right.
And, Mr. Speaker, you have been in politics for
a long while. You may well remember the broken windows theory by Police Commissioner Bratton in New
York. If you cannot get the windows fixed, it just permeates through everything. You have just got to start, you
have got to fill the potholes, you have got to cut the
trees back, you have got to try to take the boards off of
the windows and get the businesses open. Right? Just get back to the basics and try to do them well. All right?
With that thought I will leave you there, Mr.
Speaker. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Thank you, MP Pearman.
Does any other Member wish to make a contribution?

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, it is interesting because the Honourable Member who just took his seat has not been
here that long. And he, I guess, spoke about a few
budgets. But he always opens up with the same old
line. I want to be complementary when I can, and give
constructive criticism when I can. Same old story.
Same old tune.
Mr. Speaker, I will get to some of the Honourable Member’s comments. But I would like to start off by
saying that, quite frankly, after the opening speech by
Minister Jason Hayward, quite frankly, I don’t think anybody had to say anything else.

Good.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: And I will sit down. I certainly
will not regurgitate, even though it is worth saying, quite


Bermuda House of Assembly frankly, all 30 of us on this side could beat the drum
because we have had so many accomplishments, so
many things that we have done for our people in the
last five or six years, it is really . . . you could sit here
for hours and talk about it. They don’t like to hear that,
but it’s true.
But I think that Minister Hayward’s speech is
certainly worth recording and playing— and I am sure it
will be, especially on a certain radio station, I am sure, over the next week or two— because I think he hit every
point right on the head. And if I have t o I will regurgitate
some of that. But, Mr. Speaker, one of the things I think
that we have to emphasise is two words: confidence
and stability. Confidence and stability. And we will talk
more about that later on in my presentation.
Now, one thing you can rest assured, Mr.
Speaker, that the predicted balanced budget that we have presented has not, in my view, been given the —
and I do not expect it to . . . the Royal Gazette, our daily
paper, I can assure you that if COVID was to strike, or something drastic was to happen and we do not hit that budget, they will crucify our Premier. Right? They will
crucify him. Why do they not have a little bit, just a little
bit at times, and give kudos where kudos are due in this
budget that has been presented to the people of this
country?
I am just going to revert back to the Honourable
Member who just took his seat and two things he said, three things he said that got my attention. It was spin,
and he said let’s be honest with the people of this coun-try, and he talked about people being denied. I do not
think I have to tell anyone in this House who is the master of spin in this country. And that is the “combined opposition.” We hear it time and time again. You hear it on social media, you [see] it in the newspapers, you
hear it in the blogs. They are the masters of spin. To say that our budget is spinning is just incredible. When you have the amount of factual evidence that has been
talked about and discussed and presented in this
House today it is unbelievable!

Burnt steak.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Yes, burnt steak. It is unbelievable that Honourable Members on the other side
could get up and say that this budget is dishonest and
a bunch of spin. That is just incredible.
And then to talk about our people had been denied. Do I have to go through the litany of things that
every Minister in this Government has done over the last five years? Whether it be day care . . . I mean, the
list is . . . I am not going to use up my time repeating it.
I am really not. But that is as disingenuous as you can get, when you say that the people of this country have
been denied.
And we have heard many . . . well, I say many;
it’s only six of them over there. So far five have spoken. And they all seem to . . . maybe it’s the consultant’s directions, right? When they say that we have got to get back to basics, can somebody tell me what that means? When you look at the record of this Government over the last six years and you’re saying get back
to basics, and how can we persuade people to come
back to Bermuda . . . that is the other thing. They keep
talking about the number of people who have left Bermuda. And I will give you some stats, Mr. Speaker, if I
can.
In 2010, we had 64,237 people. Six years later,
in 2016, we had 63,779. In 2022 we had 63,542. That
is between 2010 and 2022 there were 237 people less—not thousands. And if the Opposition want to continue to say that thousands of people left this country,
prove it! And then let’s bring them all back. Are we sure
we want everybody to come back in this country?
[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Yes. If we had thousands of
people who had left this country, why is Minister Burch pushing the envelope so hard to increase housing in
the country? Are they going to build another 50, 60
homes to stay empty, if we have had such a plethora of
people leave this country?
And then they say the solutions. You’ve got to
get back to basics and present solutions to this country.
Another buzz word by the consultants I guess. And the
Honourable Member who just took his seat quoted
something that Minister Hayward said, successful and
competent Government. If we were not a competent
Government , do you think we would have Brookfield
down on Front Street at the moment? If they did not have faith in this Government, if they did not have faith in how we handle the purse strings of this country do
you think Fairmont Southampton would be underway
like it is now? Ask John Bush up at Azura what he plans
are and why. He has built a hotel. He is building units.
And now he is looking to buy more property to build
more units and sell them.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: John Bush. That’s the main
principal at Azura.
So, Mr. Speaker, almost everyone has talked
about the roads. My take on the roads is different than
most. I think the Colonel touched on it earlier, the Honourable Minister, touched on it earlier. I drive from
Whale Bay Southampton every day, sometimes twi ce
a day, as you do, Mr. Speaker. But do you know what I
find myself doing? Slowing down.
Look, we have had record amounts of rainfall
in the last 12, 14 months. Sometimes if we get an inch,
two inches of rain in a normal year, we get potholes.
We had a record amount of rain. We have had walls
collapsing all over the country. California. Did anyone
hear what happened in California last week? They had
all that rain. They don’t have any roads. Ask them if
they would like to come here and drive from one end to
468 23 February 2024 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly the other while they have no road at all. How about
those folks over there in Ukraine or over in the Gaza
Strip, right? So when you . . . and the thing is, the Opposition gets on it and then you talk about spin? They have been spinning potholes, they have been riding it
like a wild horse. Colonel Burch came to this House in
the very beginning and he said this is what the plan
was, and this is how long it’s going to take.
Now, the other thing that I think we all lose sight
of when we talk about a couple of holes in the road is
that what have we been doing? There’s trenching. BELCO has been replacing all of their infrastructure.
Maybe what we should have done is left the roads
alone and every time we get wind blowing 20, 30 miles
per hour let everybody’s lights go out for a couple of
hours. Maybe that’s what we should have done, huh?

[Laughter]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: No, but you know what? We
want to . . . look, you know the saying, Mr. Speaker,
short -term pain long- term gain? So that’s where we
are. The roads have to be done. Ask the people in St.
George’s how they are going to feel when they get their
water online. Okay? So, you might have a few issues
here. But you know what? That’s life. When life throws
you a lemon you make some lemonade. Take some
water and sugar and make some lemonade.
Now, Mr. Speaker, earlier on today, the Honourable Member Ben Smith spoke. He criticised Ber-muda for lagging behind in terms of recovery. He talked about international business, when COVID -19 came
they worked from home and they continued and busi-ness flourished. Well, think about it for a minute. How can you make such an asinine statement, in my view?
Right?

We have had a nice level thus far.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Okay.
How could someone make such a . . . foolish,
silly statement?
What does the international business do? They
do insurance. They do reinsurance. They do finance.
Do they do it here in Bermuda? No, they do not. All of
their business is done overseas so they can go home
and work. It’s easy for them to go home and work. Our
hotels were shut down. Tourists were not coming to the
Island. What are we going to tell all of our people in the hospitality industry? Oh, just go home; you can clean
the houses from home? Same thing. Same concept.
But we will get to the money don’t grow on
trees in a minute.
See, again, the Honourable Member Ben
Smith was another one who said . . . and see this is
where you know, he spoke several hours ago. This is
why you know their consultant is at work. Even he said
we have to get back to basics . Right? So, to get they
are getting these spin words from their consultant get
back to basics. But I want somebody to tell me what
basics is. They have one more speaker over there to
come. Maybe he can tell us what getting back to basics
means.
Now, there was a lot of talk today about a balanced budget before 1998. And we had a lot of talk, MP
Swan, about former (What was his name?) Sir David Gibbons. Oh, he produced a balanced budget every
year. Every year he produced a balanced budget. Now,
Mr. Speaker —

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: No, no, let me . . . I didn’t
hear the Honourable Member Pearman’s grandfather
get up and tell Sir David Gibbons , when they were in
the House together, Look, that’s not a balanced budget;
that’s just an estimate. Anything could happen next
month. Right?
So, Mr. Speaker, in September 2013 I sent an
email. That was a long time ago, 2013. Okay? One of the things that was going on at the time when the Opposition were the Government for that short time was we heard a lot . . . let me go back to, because I hav e to
get back to, don’t forget, Sir David Gibbons and the
budget. Right? The thing is, the reason that he was able
to balance the budget . . . and I will give you a few reasons why. The reason why is because this is what we
inherited. He did not take care of schools. He did not
take care of the roads. Social programmes were seriously underfunded. They were inadequate or non- existent. Seniors were struggling so badly, so badly, they
were constantly making decisions whether to buy groceries or drugs. Mothers could not afford to send their
children to day care. Senior homes (and you will remember, Cousin Derrick) were in such a state of disrepair we had to close two.

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Yes.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Right. St. George’s was one
of them, and Pembroke was the other one.
And not only were the homes in such bad state,
but you had staff in those facilities whose morale was at an all -time low, and probably suffered mentally because of that. Right?
Now, you take those things, Mr. Speaker, and
you add them up. And I said this a long time ago in this
House when I first got in the House. I said, listen, we


Bermuda House of Assembly could produce a balanced budget every year, you
know. And we can . . . as the Honourable Member over
there says, it’s not balanced until the end of March comes around, March, April of the following year. He
said 12 to 14 [months]. But the fact of the matter is this: We could do that every year without fail. But we won’t
have day care, we won’t have FutureCare. We won’t
have the litany of other things that were outlined by colleagues today. A litany of them. But do you know what?
And maybe (Where is the Premier?) the Premier will not get the praise that he deserves until years down the road, and I will tell you why. Let me tell you
why. So we have heard about Sir David Gibbons and
the former UBP, OBA ministers and how they balance
budgets and how they were able to do this and that. We
are predicting a balanced budget. But guess what. We
are still doing all the social things for our people.
Ask the Minister of Education how much
money he gave for scholarships this year. I think it was
$350,000.

More than that.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Say that again, Minister. I
didn’t hear you.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Just over two million.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Just over two million.
We increased day care didn’t we? We increased paternity for men. The list goes on and on and on. But guess what. We are doing all these things and we are still balancing the budget.
Now, I can understand it, if we all of a sudden—
like they did —cancelled this programme, they cancelled this, they don’t look after the schools, they don’t
look after the old folks’ homes, they don’t look after the
children, they don’t look after our peopl e. But we are
doing that and we are going to balance the budget —
something that they do not want to hear.
And, in spite of that, on top of that, Mr.
Speaker, we have Morgan’s Point which is now ap-proaching $250 million. And remember, they talked
about in their [Reply] . . . look, I will read it from page
19 of their Reply. “Your One Bermuda Alliance Government will take that urgent action, working together with
Bermuda’s stakeholders, for the benefit of everyone in
Bermuda.” And I say, Oh, urgent action, like you did
Morgan’s Point . Like you did the airport. And you know
what else has been very quiet? Forty -nine per cent of
that airport has been sold!