November 10, 2023

And he passed in September as
well, and he will be missed as a fixture around St.
14 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly George’s, on the square, at his regular seat at Richard
Allen AME Church as well.
And I would also like to let the family of Nina
Smith [Cordeiro] . . . Nina was St. George’s hairdresser. [There was] nobody in St. George’s that did
not get their hair done via Nina at some point in time.
She was young, and she suffered from cancer. And it
is unfortunate, but she has left a legacy. She has three
wonderful children, and St. George’s will remember the
life that Nina brought to St. George’s. She is actually
from Somerset. She hailed from Somerset, but she came to St. George’s when she got married.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Deputy
Speaker.
I would like to also add my condolences to the
passing of Sandra Moniz, Aunt Sandra. I spent a lot of weekends in her home, Pathfinders with her sons, and
her daughter who actually went to high school with me abroad when we went. So, what a loss. Unfortun ately,
I was away at the time. But our condolences do go out
to the family. They were a staple in St. George’s. Everyone knows the Moniz family. So, the passing of her
does not go by easily.
Also on condolences, I would also like to send
out condolences to [the family of] David Pugh. Many probably remember from Argus, BAS [Bermuda Aviation Services] and the likes.

Yes. I would love to sit down
and have a wine with you and chat.
He was a major part of establishing my branch
in constituency 12. So, to his wife and family we send
condolences. His funeral was yesterday, and I know
that one of our Members at least attended.
On a higher note, I just want to say that hopefully we can get out early this evening because the under-13s Dandy Town and North Village are duking it out
in the finals.

He was a very close family
friend of my parents. As I was remembering with his
two daughters, Karen and Lisa, we kind of grew up run-ning around the kitchen table while all of the family
adults sat at the kitchen table solving all of the problems
of the world, and Bermuda in particular. So, I did spend
many, many years enjoying living and running free
around his guest house property as the little kids in the
punt boats. But then many years later I found that the
family had moved their h omestead to the constituency
of Pembroke South West. So, I have had them in my constituency as my constituents for a few years now.
And so, it was very nice to be able to have those visits


Bermuda House of Assembly and be able to join in and reconnect with the family at
our later stage in life. So, it was very sad. But at the
same time, Walter Roberts was so prepared that everything was handled, which did take away some of the
mourning.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy
Speaker.
I rise today to pay tribute to the person whom I
. . . one of the people whom I succeeded in the Sandys
South constituency 33 area, Mr. Walter Roberts, a giant
in Sandys politics, a man of the people, a man of humility. We have all covered the r ésumé and the like, and
the biography. But I think the most important point that
I would like to touch on today is the work he used and
the knowledge he attained and the thought that went
into converting all of Sandys into Progressive Labour Party seats. To sit down there and talk [and] see how
other countries did it, established the first database and established canvassing practices and things that still benefit and work today.
So, it was interesting because . . . and there is
one short story that I would like to share. When it comes to campaigning and canvassing, I steal a little bit from
everybody. And there were things that Mr. Roberts taught me; there are things that my father taught me; good things that a former Member of this Chamber, the
Honourable Dale Butler, taught me. So, one day I said
to Dale Butler, I was sitting next to him, I said, Hey. He
said, Oh, you did something, you know, that was cool.
I like that.
I said, No, I got that from you!
And he said to me, You know where I got that
from, right?
I said, Who?
He said, I got that from your father.
So, I told my dad. I was all excited, Oh, look!
Look where this thing is from.
He said, No, no. I got that from Walter Roberts.
So that is the legacy. There are things that we
still do to this day based on the work that he was doing
in the 1960s, in the 1970s and into the 1980s, converting what at the time were UBP strongholds into PLP
strongholds. So, I am very thankful for the ti me that he
spent from his business and his family. I am thankful for
the strategic mind and the development of ideas to
move things forward.
Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. The Deputy Speaker: Thank you.
The Chair recognises the Honourable Member
Scott Simmons.
Mr. Simmons, you have the floor.

Thank you. Good morning, Mr.
Deputy Speaker, and good morning to Honourable
Members.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I rise in this Honourable
House joining my colleagues certainly in giving condo-lences to [the family of] a friend of the family, someone whom I knew for a very, very, very long time. Those in
the Seventh- day Adventist community certainly would
know, certainly from the East End would know Sandra
Moniz. And her son was a classmate of mine. Her
daughter was in my sister’s class. I recognise that the
entire Seventh- day Adventist community appreciate
the work that she did. She was in the com munity of
Seventh- day Adventists, a quiet individual who took
care of our children, took care of the church and be-lieved that the only reason for living was to serve God.
So, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I rise in this Honourable
House in honour of her, a quiet giant in her community,
a person of absolute substance.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I also rise in this Honourable House, it would certainly be wrong if we in this
Honourable House did not, all of us, get up and speak
about Walter Roberts. For the few moments that I do
have, for the time that I spent and have spent in the
Progressive Labour Party, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Mr.
Roberts has been present, and he has influenced us.
As a young person back then coming into the Progressive Labour Party, [I believed] he epitomised along with so many others the very meaning, the very substance
of what the Progressive Labour Party was. To honour
him today, to honour him at his funeral, to give a sufficient and an adequate eulogy for him speaks to the
man, the mission, and the substance of just who he
was. So, we give praise to him today. We send condolences to his family.
And, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I appreciate your
time.

Yes.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: I associate the Premier and
also Diallo —

16 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly An Hon. Member: The whole House.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: The whole House, the whole
House. Thank you very much.
Shinah was a good friend of mine. And because we have so many to catch up on, I am not going
to go into too many details.

Yes. You have only got three
minutes.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: But he, myself and a few
others from Somerset formed the West End Runners
Club many years ago. And he will be sadly missed. His
son, Leonard “Shinah” Simons, Jr., gave a very good
tribute, one that you do not see often in church, one that
will be remember ed.

Mm-hmm.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Whilst I am on my feet, I
would also, Mr. Deputy Speaker, like the House to send
condolences to the family of Sheila Burrows. Sheila, as
everyone knows, was the stalwart behind former Member Reggie Burrows. And I associate the Premier and the whole House.
[Inaudible interjections ]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Oh, she has already been
done. Okay. Well, that was when I was off Island. So, I
associate with that. And of course, Mr. Deputy
Speaker, you know that Sheila and I had a special relationship. So, I will miss her dearly.
The other thing I would like to do is the House
to give condolences to [the family of] Ms. Jill Moniz, who was not a great fan of her MP down there in Devon Heights, but certainly she will be missed. She is the
mother of my partner, Stephen Moniz.

Yes.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: And as you will know, she
lost her husband, the former Assistant Commissioner
Moniz, earlier this year. So, I suspect they are up in
heaven now wishing that they had voted for PLP when
they were here.

[Laughter]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: But anyway, Mr. Deputy
Speaker, also I would like to give a quick mention to my
aunt, Lettice Wells from Loyal Hill. She passed recently, and she was funeralised last week.
Now, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I cannot take my
seat without giving associated remarks for Mr. Walter Roberts. Of course, I will tell you all a quick story. I
dated his daughter once. He said, Okay. I knocked on the door. [I] went in, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and he said, Okay, what are you doing, Zane?
I said, Well, I’ve come to (I will not call her
name) one of your daughters.
He said, Oh, yeah, I was expecting you. You sit
in that chair. I’ll sit in this chair, and she’s going to sit in
that chair over there.

[Inaudible interjections and laughter ]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: But certainly I will miss him.
He was a mentor of many in this House, many around
the Island, and I was one of them.

[Timer chimes]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Mr. Deputy Speaker, with
your indulgence —

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
Mr. [Deputy Speaker], I would like to be associated with the condolences to [the family of] cousin
Walter Roberts, an icon of the Somerset Bridge community, who was the first Southampton Gleber to get
elected to Parliament amongst some 10 or 11 of us who
can claim that, including the Speaker of the House. Mr.
Roberts was an iconic community figure. And as a
young boy growing up, you could not help but admire
his stature, the way he carried himself. Karen was in
my class at one particular time. I think she skipped ahead of [us] all . And it was always an honour to be in
his presence. He raced me out of Somerset in 1983,
and that is why I moved to St. George’s.

Ms. Moniz, whose husband
is a very dear friend of mine, whose brothers and sis-ters are close friends of mine and constituents, and
whose aunt married my uncle, Stanley Hall.

B ermuda House of Assembly Ms. Nina Smith, who is also from that Roberts
family, so that Roberts family in that week lost two family members. And I ran into her mother at the bank in Somerset after I finished cousin Walter’s funeral. Her mother was in the bank. And I offered her [my] condo-lences. And she was dealing with a double whammy.
That Anderson connection with a lot of girls have a lot
of relatives by different names. But the Roberts tend to like to marry Anderson girls.
Icen Robinson was one of those youngsters
who used to ride across the golf course on their bikes, young Poochy, the late Travis Smith. Poochy Anderson
and all of that crowd, cousin Doc Hall grandson and the like would cause me to make sure that I was on my P’s
and Q’s making sure they did not ride on the green.
And also, the passing of [Gordon] Ricky Woolridge, and iconic sportsman Mr. Arnold Woollard, the first Bermudian to play professional football in the
United Kingdom, whom I met when he was working at
the Bank of Butterfield alongside of my mum.
And finally, the Bermuda foursome playing in
the Bermuda Championship, Eric West, Michael Sims and Scott Roy, but let me not forget my young protégé,
Oliver Betschart, whom I had the honour of teaching
between the ages of five and ten and orchestrating his
current coach, David Ogrin, who has shepherded him for the last five years, former PGA tour winner. And at last count, Oliver and Michael Sims were neck and neck going up the ninth hole. And if they could make
three birdies on the back nine, they could pr obably
make the cut, which is outstanding for a 15- year-old.
But I will say this. He is the second 15- year-old to play
from Bermuda. The first one he was with when he was
nine was Kenny Leseur. And both of them were taught simultaneously by a little fellow speaking to you today.
So, I am very proud to have shepherded that there. Thank you.

Uh-huh.
Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Mr. Deputy Speaker, I would
like to start off with being associated with the remarks
for Mr. Walter Roberts. Mr. Deputy Speaker, before I
got into politics, I did not know Mr. Roberts. But once I
decided to enter the fray and became a member of the
illustrious green- and-white, Mr. Roberts offered a lot of
different advice. And every time I saw him, he would give words of e ncouragement. So, his encouraging
words will be sorely missed. Mr. Deputy Speaker, I would also like to be associated with the remarks for Mr. David Pugh. Mr. Deputy Speaker, when I first came back from university
many years ago, I worked at Argus for a few years. And
Mr. Pugh was the accounting boss, as you may. So, I
got a lot of guidance and support from him. And as a
former Member was up on his feet and he talked about
how he was always willing to have a glass of wine with
you, he certainly did, Mr. Deputy Speaker. He certainly
did, especially if he tried to tell you more than once
about something that you were doing wrong. He knew
that if he cannot get it through to you from nine to five,
he will take you after five to one of his favourite haunts.
And lo and behold, by next Monday I got it right.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, on another note, I would
also like to be associated with the remarks of prior
Members [regarding] Troika and the excellent play,
Sarafina! I remember sitting there with my wife. And
when they came out and somebody shouted, Ah- mella!
I tried to roll my tongue.
[Laughter]
Hon. Michael A. Weeks: For the life of me I could not
do it. But like Members before me, I really appreciated
that.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I do n ot know how much
time I h ave left, but —
The Deput y Speaker: Not muc h.
Hon. Mi chael A . Weeks: Not muc h? Okay.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I would like to also give
congratulations to Mr. Reginald Raynor and the entire
staff up at RUBiS Raynors’ Service Station for 65 years
of service to the Island. And I would like to associate —
The Deput y Speaker: Th e whole House.
Hon. Mi chael A . Weeks: —t he MP of t he area, Mr .
Zane De Silva, an d the MP’s nei ghbour an d all—
[Inaudible i nterjections]
The Deput y Speaker: T he whole House. D o the whole
House. H e was in servic e to Bermuda.
Hon. Michael A. Weeks: All other Members who service t he gas s tation.
The Deput y Speaker: Yes.
Hon. Mi chael A . Weeks: But, Mr. Deputy Speaker, as
I take my s eat I a lso want t o congratulat e Mr. Betschart.
I remember a few years ago when Mr. Swan was teaching Mr. Betschart, I was also one of his students.
[Inaudible interjection]
18 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Yes. And we both did a foursome one time, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

[Timer chimes]

Hon. Michael A. Weeks: But I just wanted to take my
hat off to him.
[Inaudible interjections ]

Mm-hmm.
Hon. Walter H. Roban: I certainly had extensive years
to work with Mr. Roberts prior to his retirement from Parliament and had the benefit of certainly his leadership in the party, but also his clear instructions in the
development of canvassing and other foresights that he had for how engagement with the voter could be improved and could be mastered. And he certainly is . . .
if there is one singular figure who has helped to shape
the effectiveness of the Progressive Labour Party on
the doorstep, Mr. Roberts can certainly be attributed to
that.
He was a visionary in the use of technology, in
the methods and in the execution of community engagement and voter engagement. And certainly, the
history of the PLP will recognise that without a doubt.
But certainly, his work helped to transform politics i n
Bermuda, and that is certainly . . . he must be recognised. And I am honoured to have had the opportunity to work intimately with him and know him for quite certainly my time in the party. And even those who may not have had the benefit of Mr. Roberts’s influence directly, this party is where it is because of the work of
people like Mr. Roberts and particularly Mr. Roberts.
So, thank you very much for the opportunity to
give that tribute, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

There you go, there you go.
I know that my honourable colleague Mr. Craig
Cannonier and indeed Minister Weeks have already
spoken in memory of David Pugh, who died untimely
very recently. And I just want to add a few personal ob-servations. I had the distinct honour and pleasure of
serving with David for 15 years on a board here in Bermuda. I think for about 10 of those he was the chairman. And I did attend his funeral yesterday. And I share
with you something said by his family at the funeral, so
it does not seem that I am being disr espectful. But they
described him as Shrek , who is of course the Disney
ogre. He was in fact a stern man. He could be very firm,
but always fair with a heart of gold. So, I think it is okay
that if his family have called him a lovable ogre, that I
may do so as well.
[Laughter]

He did not truck any [misbehaviour] in his meetings when he chaired them. And there was an occasion. I will not name the Honourable Member, but a former Honourable Member of this House was frequently late to these meetings (he also sat on
the board). And David at one point, growing weary of
this, got up and just locked the door so he could not get
into the meeting late again. He was an accountant by training and had a robust and fierce intellect. And the
way he did his math was not as I w ould do it, with taking
out my calculator and carefully counting. He would do
these immeasurable sums in his head like that.
[Snapped finger] I mean, it really was tremendously impressive.
It has already been said publicly and by my
learned colleagues, Minister Weeks and Honourable
Member Cannonier, but he worked at Argus and BAS,
et cetera, et cetera. But as the media recognised, he


Bermuda House of Assembly also was [on] the Bermuda Hospitals Board. He gave a
considerable amount of his life. And I can also speak
personally that as an accountant he would often go and
offer his accounting services to assist charities to prepare their accounts, which charities are obliged to do.

Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and good morning, all.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, let me first associate myself with two persons who have already been named
this morning, the first one Walter Roberts, whom I always thought of as a giant of a man. And when I was president of football, he always would pull me aside and
give me t he lecture of Silver City, reminding me who
were the powerhouses of the day at that time. And he
also gave me some tips on canvassing as well, so I certainly will miss him as well. (He was not right all of the
time.)
The other person is young Icen Robinson. I had
the pleasure of playing football with his father a very, very long time ago. And Icen used to run around with us, so I do remember him. And I think he will be missed
as well.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, one of the . . . in fact there
are many benefits of living in your own constituency because you get to see them more often and talk with
them. And you sort of like build relationships. And three
persons in my constituency whom I often talked with
passed recently. And I certainly would like condolences
to go out to the families. The first one was Mr. Walter
Franks. Certainly, condolences to his wife Mary and family, and certainly daughter Karen, whom I have
come to know well.
Another one, a namesake of mine, Mr. Neville
Smith, of Whale View Lane. He was another one, al-ways had a joke. He used to work in the gas station,
RUBiS gas station on South Shore. So, on my way home I would stop by and talk with him as well. So, he
is an other one I certainly will miss. And I would hope
that condolences can be sent to his family.
And the more recent one, Ms. Dolores Glasford, who was actually my neighbour in Rocklands, who
suddenly took sick over the last few months. I will as-sociate MP Lawrence Scott. I became very friendly with
her daughter and son, Dionne and William. So, I certainly would like condolences to go out to them. And finally, let me end on a better note, Mr.
Deputy Speaker. It is not normal that I do this in terms
of bringing birthday greetings, but I have two constituents who turned 93 and 94, respectively. And I certainly
think those sorts of people need to be acknowledged. And the first one is Ms . Betty Simons Bean, who went
93; and Mrs. Rose Riley, both in my constituency, who
went 94. So, I certainly wish them all the best as well.
Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

Thank you.

Hon. Jarion Richardson: As a young Sea Cadet, I
grew up on the water. And when I tried to get back into
sailing later on in life, he was always very encouraging.
He was an avid sailor, but he was also obviously well
known as being an award -winning architect. So, our
condolences go out to the Benevides family.
I would also like to associate myself with the
comments relating to David Pugh. Mr. Deputy Speaker,
when I started my company, a little small regulatory
consulting shop, I was going up against the likes of the
Big Four, like the KPMGs and other advisory shops.
And a lot of people just would not give you the time of
day, would not give you a chance. David Pugh gave me
not just one chance, but multiple chances. And I really
built up my practice from people like David giving a
young man a chance to prove his skill at the craft. So
definitely he will be missed.
And lastly, Mr. Deputy Speaker, condolences
to the Cook family, Patsy, Ian and Melony, on the pass-ing of David Cook, a retired police inspector, a member
of the Ex -Police Officers Association, or ExPo. Inspector Cook served in the Western and Central Divisions
in CID [Criminal Investigation Department]. He was a
sergeant in 1973, an inspector in 1988 and retired as
Second- in-Command of Operations. He was active in
police boxing, not only boxing himself, but putting on a
number of those functions. He will be missed.
Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy
Speaker.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I would like to be associated with the remarks for Mrs. Moniz, a matriarch of St. George’s, a lady who did take care of many of the
young ones who are now adults themselves. But one of
her granddaughters has continued her craft of nurturing
young people and indeed is the care provider for my
youngest grandchild. So, her family needs to know that
all St. Georgians are there mourning along with them
and are grateful for the service that she provided to our
community.
[Inaudible interjections]

And Icen will be missed. Icen
was able to survive into his 40s, because if anyone
knew the ailment, and the Member, Mr. Caines, did
share the ailment that he suffered from . . . Icen enjoyed life, but he lived longer than anyone ever anticipated that he would. And he had a full and wholesome
life in spite of his illness. So, our hearts go out to the
family, the Robinson family and Outerbridge family in
St. George’s.

Good morning, Mr. Deputy
Speaker and to the listening audience and my fellow colleagues. I will do my three minutes.
First of all, to add to the comments for the Honourable Walter Roberts. My recollection of Mr. Roberts
when I first came to the PLP many, many years ago
actually was he always had a smile on his face and was
very welcoming to young people. And he always had a


Bermuda House of Assembly word of encouragement and advice. So, I take that as
part of his legacy.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, from my constituency 7,
Hamilton South, I want to acknowledge the passing of Ms. June Beek recently, her family. She was funeral-ised a couple of weeks ago now, and I see the Minister
Diallo Rabain wants to be associated with that also, Mr.
Deputy Speaker.
I will mention briefly, there are so many people
in the constituency, Mr. Deputy Speaker, as we know,
that Bermuda is blessed to have many people with good genes, very strong genes. So, in my constituency,
when there is mention of the names, I will not tie the
numbers with the names. But I will say that the range is from as high as age 90 down to age 60 that I will men-tion today. And those persons include Ms. Alisse Outer-bridge, Mr. Pernell Grant, Ms. Ann Smith, Ms. Mary Tol-bert and Mr. Leon Neron, and also Ms. Lucille Lambert .
To those out in the listening audience, of course there are many others. And it is always a challenge when you try to mention as many as possible, because you miss people out. But that is obviously not the intention.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, what I really want to do at
this stage also is take this last [bit of] time to fully rec-ognise that Ms. Ronita Reed—I know Ronita from way
back when. Her formal name now is Ronita TeyeBotchway . And I am mentioning her because both she
and Chef Sudesh are the new owners and operators of Café Ol é. That Café Ol é is represented or is physically
at Crystal Caves. And I mention this because Ronita, or the Reed family, were certainly well known by any-body who lived in Bermuda going way, way back. Re-member the pink store on the corner down on Mullet
Bay where you could always go and get truly what was
one of the best meat pies in Bermuda?

My personal one was always the beef pies, but you could also get on the sweet
side a lemon pie. And I know that there was an attempt
for the tradition to be passed on.
And so Ronita may not be listening right now,
but I truly pray that she is able to bring that back and that we can all taste once again that tremendous Reed’s beef pie and others and maybe people will be
tempted to . . . She is joined by Chef Sudesh as she
continues on that tradition. And again, I trust that we
will all be patrons. Go by and taste and taste and taste again as they go from strength to strength.
Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

Thank you. Thank you.
The Chair recognises the Honourable Diallo
Rabain.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you. Thank you, Mr.
Deputy Speaker. Mr. Deputy Speaker, as the Honourable Member Anthony Richardson did, I would like to be associ-ated with the condolences for June Beek and her fam-ily. Recently Kingsley, her husband, passed. And con-dolences go out to their daughters Lillian and Kinneeka.
I would also like to send condolences to the
family of Jason Bailey. He was a young man I actually grew up with. He was not originally from Frog Alley, Mr.
Deputy Speaker, but he moved there from Somerset,
and he was part of the Devil’s Hole family. And unfor-tunately, he did pass at the age of 53 earlier this year. He leaves behind to mourn two sons, Jason Jr. and
J’hia, who are cousins of mine as well.
Also, Mr. Deputy Speaker, joining, I would like
to be associated with the condolences for [the family of]
Shinah Simons. Although we did speak of that, it was a double day of tragedy in the Department of Education where Dr. Radell Tankard’s mother passed in the morning and Shinah’s dad passed in the afternoon of the
same day. So, our condolences go out to both of those particular families, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, also in my own constituency I have Lettice Wells of Vesey Street and Marie
Thompson of Tribe Road 1. And condolences to their
families.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, on a much lighter note, I
would like to congratulate the Berkeley Girls Senior Six -
A-Side team who won the Six -A-Side tournament early
this week, and also the BHS Middle School Girls Team
who won the Six -A-Side tournament earlier this week
as wel l.
Joining in on the congratulations to LeiLanni,
who does play for FSU [Florida State University] in the
ACC Conference and they did once again for the sec-ond time, second year in a row, win their conference. I
will be following her. Last year they went on to win the
US College National Championship. So hopefully they will go further this time. I remember my days of going to school in Tallahassee, Florida, where Florida State is. And there was no such thing as women’s sports, especially in soccer back in the late 1980s when I was
there. So, it is a good advancement to see and to see
them doing as well as they are.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, also congratulations going out to the Youth Climate Summit, which begins to-day, which we conducted down at BUEI [Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute], both in- person and
online for our high schoolers and middle schoolers. So,
I wish them much success as they move forward with that critical area that affects all of us, although we may not notice it or take time to recognise it. But the Youth Climate Summit is a valuable, an invaluable exercise
that happens on an annual basis.
Lastly but not least, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and I
am sure you will join me in this, in congratulations to
the Cleveland County boys who will be celebrating prize -giving for the Junior Cricket Team this evening.

Yes, yes. They are the best.
Any further speakers?
Minister Campbell.

Hon. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Mr. Deputy
Speaker.
First of all, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I would like to
associate myself with the comments in regard to Mr. David Benevides and Mr. Arnold Woollard. Mr. Benevides, as was stated, was an award- winning architect.
But in about 2002, standing on the property at the end of Perimeter Lane, members of the [Bermuda] Housing Corporation said, What can we do with this property?
And we decided to find out how many units we could
put on this property. I think the number was 64. And we
said, No, that is too dense for the are a, but we will go
with a number around 38. So, we said, Let’s make a
competition of this. So, we reached out to about 12 architects. The number who actually would participate
ended up being about four. And the design that was selected by the [Bermuda] Housing Corporation was
that of Mr. Benevides. So, many people may not know
that, but we have the Perimeter Lane development that was his design.
Mr. Woollard struck fear in opponents on the
football field, local pitchers, so much so that he was the first Bermudian to play professionally in England. Some
people will argue the UK, but I was specific to say the
first Bermudian to play professionally in England. And
as good as he was on the football field, those who knew
him off the pitch would also say that he was an even greater person off the pitch.
I would like to send out birthday wishes to Millicent Brown, who went 97 on Tuesday. And this young
lady . . . and I say “young” because if you looked at her,
she looks like she is about in her 60s. And she is 97 and still active and looks very good.

Ah. Great!

Hon. Vance Campbell: And I would like to associate
the entire House with these congratulatory remarks. I
would also like, on the same vein, to send out birthday
wishes to a young lady who is slightly younger than
Mrs. Brown, Viviana Durango Marzan, who happens to live a littl e bit closer to me than Mrs. Brown. Now, Mrs.
Brown is my constituent, and that is my wife whose
birthday is today.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I would like to give congratulatory remarks to Bermuda’s Pan American Games team that just competed in San Diego, Chile.
Overall, great results throughout our team, multiple personal bests, also records that I think it is important to
point out t hat this time of year is not always the peak
performance for a lot of our athletes. For them to go there and compete at that level is extremely important. But we have to give special thoughts to Conor White,
who was able to come back with the br onze medal in
cycling. So, congratulations to our entire team, and
specifically to Conor White for his performance at the
Pan American Games. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Honourable Member.
There appear to be . . . oh, Cousin Jason, Minister Jason Hayward.
You have the floor, Minister.
Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Deputy Speaker, I rise today to give special congratulatory remarks to my constituents who reside at 26 Euclid Avenue, Mr. and Mrs.
Merle and Edward Burt, who will be celebrating their
50
th anniversary, yes, wedding anniversary.

[Desk thumping]

Hon. Jason Hayward: So that is an extremely special
occasion.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, I
would like to start off with condolences to the family of
Mrs. Betty -Anne Darrell, sister of Honourable Michael
Weeks. She was a resident of Devonshire.
I would also like to associate with the passing
of Mr. David Cook.
Also, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Mrs. Bernice Morton, the wife of George Morton, Sr.
Mrs. Jill Moniz, my constituent.


Bermuda House of Assembly [Inaudible interjection]

Just to say my constituent.
As the Honourable Member says, she lost her husband earlier this year, so my condolences to Stephen and his
sister, and all Devon Heights because they are very
close up there.
Mrs. Lesseline Young of Spring Road, my constituent. I know she voted for me.
Also Mrs. Pearl Hodgson of Deepdale, C14,
which is MP Wayne Caines’s constituency.
But, Mr. Deputy Speaker, we spoke of Mr. Roberts. And Mr. Roberts’s work was evident 25 years ago.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I would like to give congratulations to the “Class of 1998,” of which I believe some-body in here is one. That would be you.

[Laughter]

I came out Cross Street,
and there were thousands of people lining the street
because the Progressive Labour Party had finally
crossed the River Jordan. I do not say that lightly be-cause we know that there were the MPs. But we also
know that there were the branches and we also know
that there were the volunteers. There was a whole army
of people that helped us to cross the River Jordan. So,
I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who took part in that 25 years ago.
This year we have lost many of the stalwarts,
at least five, who were part of that including Mrs. Burrows, who mortgaged her house for us to have Alaska
Hall. I just want to tell my colleagues in here, Don’t take
for granted what happened 25 years ago because the
people still need us and they still want us. So, thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for being part of that Class of
1998. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.
Let me say before we do a minute of silence for
the former Honourable Member Walter Roberts that I
would like to send condolences out to the family for Ms. Bernice Morton, a constituent of number 5 in Hamilton
Parish. A wonderful woman, the wife of George Morton,
and she left also three children and a couple of grandchildren.
Also, June Beek, who was from Frog Alley.
That is where I am from. I knew her. She saw me grow up.
And Delores Glasford, my cousin, who was eulogised on Sunday. And let me say that the Honourable Speaker
Dennis Lister more than eulogised Walter Roberts ad-equately. He did a very good job on that, and I think the
whole House would have been proud of the Speaker’s
eulogy of Walter Roberts and others’ eulogising. But [the Honourable Speaker] Lister was the main one.
Thank you.
Can we stand for a minute of silence?

MOMENT OF SILENCE
[In memory of Mr. Walter Roberts , former MP]

[Members rose and observed a moment of silence.]

There is notice of a Motion on
the Floor.
Mr. Weeks.

MOTION

24 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly AUTHORISE THE PURCHASE OF ALL THAT
SOUTHERNMOST STRIP OF LAND TO BE SUBDIVIDED FROM LAND SITUATED AT 18 SECRETARY
LANE, ST. GEORGE’S GE05 IN THE ISLAND OF
BERMUDA AS OUTLINED IN THE AGREEMENT
FOR SALE MADE BETWEEN GARDINE IZETTA
GIBBONS AND THE GOVERNMENT OF BERMUDA

Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Thank you, Mr. Deputy
Speaker.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I hereby give notice that
at the next day of meeting, the Minister will move that
the following resolution be approved:
BE IT RESOLVED that this Honourable House,
in accordance with section 2(1)(a) of the Acquisition of
Land Act 1970, authorise the purchase of all that southernmost strip of land to be subdivided from land situ-ated at 18 Secretary Lane, St. George’s GE05 in the
Island of Bermuda as outlined in the Agreement for
Sale made between Gardine Izetta Gibbons and the
Government of Bermuda.

Consideration of the Speech.
Mr. Premier.

MOTION

THAT CONSIDERATION BE GIVEN
TO THE THRONE SPEECH WITH WHICH
HER EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR WAS
PLEASED TO OPEN THE PRESENT
SESSION OF PARLIAMENT

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I move that consideration
be given to the Throne Speech [by] which Her Excellency the Governor was pleased to open this present
session of Parliament.

Thank you for waiting, [Honourable Member] Richardson.
Does everybody have one? Certainly, the
Speaker would like to follow.
Thank you, sir.
Mr. Richardson, you may proceed. Hon. Jarion Richardson: Thank you, Mr. Deputy
Speaker.

REPLY TO THE 2023 THRONE SPEECH

LET’S GET IT DONE TOGETHER

Hon. Jarion Richardson: Mr. Deputy Speaker, it is my
distinct honour to start this debate today on the Gov-ernment’s Throne Speech, and I look forward to the contributions to be made by all.
This year’s Throne Speech comes at a crucial
time for us in Bermuda. In 2023, we fully expected to be “back to normal ” following the global pandemic. Instead, we find ourselves navigating new and potentially
even more fundamental challenges to our way of life.
Climate change, the global corporate tax, artificial intelligence, global conflicts are all going to fundamental ly
change the way we live. We can be sure that Bermuda
will be forever changed in this generation. However, it
falls on us to determine whe ther these changes will create a thriving Bermuda and a life of prosperity for our children or not.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, Bermuda today is at a
crossroads. Let us imagine what could be if we take the
right path: Imagine a Bermuda where a new generation
of small businesses are thriving, our shops are bustling and our economy is growing every year, creating new
jobs and new opportunities. Imagine a Bermuda where
Bermudians do not have to work two or three jobs to
make ends meet, where our public schools provide students with a world- class education creating a pipeline
of talented individuals with the skills to get any job they
want. Imagine a Bermuda where young people look forward to accessible home ownership, a decent standard
of living and affordable health care throughout their lives. Our communities will be cohesive, where people
feel safe in their neigh bourhoods.
Imagine a Bermuda where you can have confidence in the Government to run the country as it should
be—with effective government services, well -maintained roads and infrastructure, public transportation
that runs on time and carefully managed budgets with transparent and regularly audited accounts.
Imagine waking up to hear that the Government has implemented a plan to pay off our national
debt. Imagine what a relief that would be to know that
future generations will not be saddled with interest payments that cost more than most government ministries .
Why should that be so much to ask? That surely is the
very basis of what a Government is elected to do.
But the challenges of the future will demand
even more than that. We will need a Government that can provide a compelling vision of the future to stop
current and next generations from fleeing the Island. We will need a Government that can manage the complexities of foreign direct investments, global corporate
tax and the myriad of international threats, while saving
money in the good years to provide for the bad. We will


Bermuda House of Assembly need a Government that can not only pay down our
debt but is preparing for the future, for example with
infrastructure funds to protect us from the impact of climate change.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, this Throne Speech
shows that our present Government is not up to this
task. Let me paint the picture of where we are today.
Today’s Bermuda is characterised by dangerous potholes and overgrown roads; sagging bridges;
boarded- up businesses; trees growing out of buildings;
broken sidewalks choked in weeds; students fighting in
town; antisocial behaviour; uninsured families; joblessness; homelessness; trash piling up; cancelled buses;
hostile service providers; gang violence; brokenhearted mothers; missing fathers; log- jammed courts;
closed hotels; skill -less workers; self -medication; unsustainable workloads; unaffordable food and electricity; families devastated by alcohol and drugs; college
graduates never able to give back into their community;
companies pushing and twisting Government into
stooges and yes -men; politicians of questionable character; soot drowning our white rooft ops; road traffic fatalities; reckless driving; abandoned seniors; a
swamped hospital; homes that take two lifetimes to pay
off; banks that do not bank; regulators that do not reg-ulate; gambling with casinos instead of opening them;
media silenced by lawsu its; virtues like transparency,
professionalism and competence are becoming endangered qualities; unpaid taxes; unfunded pensions; the
rich getting richer while the poor flee the Island; our
families scattered like refugees; retirees who cannot re-tire, wor king until the day they die; an undermanned
police service and regiment; hollow platitudes; unend-ing victory laps; mediocre projects; self -promotion;
more bureaucracy with [fewer] solutions; governors not
housed in Government House; Parliament not meeting in Parliament [Sessions] Building; crowned by leaders who do not lead and a Government that does not govern for all.
Our Island and community are decaying
around us, our social virtues diminished with every act
of violence, our financial security and future sacrificed
with every budget deficient or outstanding audit, our infrastructure with every pothole and fallen wall, and on
and on and on it goes.
We have come face to face with the destruction
of the fundamental right which has underpinned our society—that Bermudians can be born, raised, educated,
live a full and meaningful life, retire and pass away, resting in peace, all in Bermuda. Mr. Deputy Speaker, we must take this seriously. Our distinctiveness, economic success, political
stability and social values are being degraded every
year. As hurricanes strengthen, our economy gets
more and more dependent on fewer and fewer industries. Long gone are the days when tourists vacationed close to home, bringing crowds from the northeast US
to our islands. Equally, the nature of international business,
our sole remaining economic pillar, has changed dramatically. Even if the Island’s immigration policy was
conducive to welcoming business partners, the simple
fact is that companies need people on Island less and less. The pandemic has shown that a great deal of the
work which gets done in an office can just as easily be
done from home. And thanks to technology, that home
can now be anywhere in the world.
But just as concerning is the disintegration of
our social values. Some of our communities are being inundated with crime and drugs. Some of our families
are related by blood but do not share accommodation,
resources or hope for the future. We have heard i n this
Honourable House how schools are recruiting grounds for gangs. And as we place more and more children in
private education, the gap between Bermudians grows day by day. We no longer have the social balancing
brought about by a well -staffed charities sector, service
organisations, sports clubs or optimal choices for childhood recreation. Insofar as political stability, we only
need to look around these Chambers.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, [Bermuda has] an $8 billion economy with $1 billion in public spending and more than 4,000 government workers, and it is all overseen from a room smaller than a primary school auditorium. The staff of the Legislature should be commended daily, operating with just enough resources to
keep the people’s business going, but certainly not
enough to stand up against the Government. Lest we
forget, it is the Government that answers to these Honourable Chambers, and not the other way around.
But equally, our affairs in this Honourable
House are challenged constantly. Debates are sud-denly thrust upon us or mysteriously withdrawn. The
dates of sittings held close to the chest of those in the
know. Even the public benches cannot see our faces
anymore, and the regular business of the House is not
televised. Laws are being introduced and passed that slowly chew away the rights and privileges of this Honourable House. Hence this Government does not need
our permission for the Special Development Order
which will reshape Southampton Parish forever.
This decay in social values includes silencing
the media with lawsuits and stonewalling efforts to ob-tain answers to simple questions. It seems like every
day, more and more of Bermuda is just one big rubber
stamp for this Government. We in the One Bermuda
Alliance constantly speak with people who are afraid to
express their opinions about the Government for fear of
retribution. How ironic that in 2023 the fear of political
retribution of the 20
th century is still going strong. Entire
companies, stakeholder groups, industry groups and
others must whisper their opinions out of fear they will
lose permits and other documents needed to remain
active and successful. Bermuda is on the ropes, and we cannot ignore that anymore.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, it is possible to turn back
this tide, but the mixed bag of previously announced
26 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly initiatives in this year’s Throne Speech is not going to
do it. This Throne Speech does not inspire or aspire to
anything or offer any vision for Bermuda.
Now, there are some key issues raised which
the One Bermuda Alliance supports. More attention on uniformed services cadets is a strong way to not only
streamline the entrance of young people into those careers but provide needed early life lessons. Effecti vely
implemented, this could go a long way to generating social values and understanding, forging friendships instead of [gang] rivalries. Equally, a single payment por-tal for all government services to pay online or via mobile device is a no- brainer. In 2023, paying for government services should be convenient and straightforward. And we are looking forward to seeing how onestop shops for registrations, permits and licensing will
work.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, the silver lining is short -
lived, however, as there are far too many tired old ideas
which have already proven themselves problematic if
not entirely useless. Education reform delays may be blamed on heavy rain, but how devastating it must have
felt for some of those parents of primary school children
arriving back at school in September to find they had
nowhere to go. With the Bermuda Union of Teachers having called for the Minister’s resignation, it is even
harder to see how reform, c ollaboration and consultation will work going forward.
The Government’s Economic Development
Strategy and the Economic Recovery Plan are case
studies in poor execution. And the Government has al-ready said, for years and years and years, that it will
streamline planning, digitise immigration and modernise public service. We even heard in 2021 about a Cy-bersecurity Bill, which clearly has not come to pass.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, there are statements in
this Throne Speech which are hard to understand. The Government said, “Divisions cut deeper in small communities and so it becomes even more important for us
to centre ourselves on those things that will improve the
lives of all the people.” Have we not just spent the last
25 years in a concerted effort to blame, divide, isolate
and stigmatise each other? I submit that the leaders
and beneficiaries of those efforts simply do not know how to unify our communities. Or how about, “Forty
year high global inflation has compounded the inequalities prevalent in our system . . . .”? We have been told
that robust Government action has contained this inflation and yet it is being raised as a cause of our problems. It cannot be both.
And compliments become platitudes. “Public
Officers have done an exceptional service to Bermuda
. . . .” The public officers in Bermuda have been working in deteriorating conditions with anaemic computers,
challenging leadership and a Government that ignores
them when it is politically convenient. Maybe the thank -
yous should be replaced by something more substantive. Finally, “road users can start to see relief from less
than ideal road conditions.” I will repeat that: “less than ideal road conditions.” That comment would be laughable if it were not so serious. Between road conditions
and road behaviour, road fatalities are inevitable. And
we see road collisions play out every single day now.
There are ideas in this Throne Speech which
run against the public interest. This Government wants
to amend the legislation governing Parliament. Admittedly, they have not said what they seek to change. But
any government notorious for divisiveness, a lac k of
transparency, low levels of trust, known to have a slip-pery tongue, with unfulfilled promises for good govern-ance legislation seems very ill -suited to make changes
to Parliament. Again, it is supposed to be that this Government answers to this Honourable House, not the
other way around.
And the formation of a joint select committee to
investigate and make recommendations from Septem-ber’s cyberattack is entirely inappropriate. How can the
subject of an investigation, the Government, form part
of the investigating team? It would surprise no one if
the committee spent its days bending over backward to cover up blame and diminish the litany of broken promises and failed initiatives for cybersecurity safety.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, in the Throne Speech, it
reads that “the Government will advance amendments
to the Regulatory Act 2022, the Electricity Act 2016 and
the Electronic Communications Act 2011 to provide for greater public protections in pricing determination and
implementation.” We have yet to solve the crisis arising
last month from increases to electricity prices despite
assurances from the Government that some relief will
take place.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, it is not that these ideas
are entirely without merit. The problem is that this Gov-ernment has proven time and again that its own power
and interests supersede those of the community.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, there are actions a government can take to address our national challenges.
And to be fair, some are hard. But no harder than Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, dream of a community where
the content of character matters more than the colour
of skin. No more than Nelson Mandela’s desire for an
Africa “which is in peace with itself.” Our first step in saving our community is to dare boldly with fresh ideas.
And leave it to the cynics, bitter and resentful, to find new reasons to cower from c hange.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, the cynical approach differs significantly from a well -functioning Legislature.
When done fairly with mutual respect and humility, an adversarial system of governance works well. And
those who work within that context are colleagues even
when they disagree. But there is a kind of behaviour
which seems to have replaced that. It is the land of political cynicism. Instead of working toward the best outcome, they believe that all political outcomes are onesided, that there is an enemy, and that enemy is anyone who is not on my side. We must let go of that mas-querade. As US President John F. Kennedy said, “Let
us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic


Bermuda House of Assembly answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the
blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility
for the future.”
We in the OBA are constantly told by people
how they do not want to participate in parliamentary de-mocracy for fear of being publicly maligned and attacked. In Bermuda we need a culture where cynics are
recognised for what they are, critics in the very wor st
sense of the word. Mr. Deputy Speaker, US President Theodore Roosevelt said, “ It is not the critic who
counts: not the man who points out how the strong man
stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done
better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in
the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and
blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up
short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great en-thusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in
a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the
triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if
he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls
who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
Mr. Deputy Speaker, to get out of this mess, it
will take all of us working together with a clear vision of
the potential of Bermuda. We can no longer afford to
focus on settling old scores, pouring scorn and contempt on those different from us or trying to bring about ideological fantasies. To get out of this extraordinary
and once- in-a-lifetime challenge lands on the shoulder
of every living Bermudian on this Island.
Earlier I shared with you a vision of a prosperous Bermuda. Let me now share with you the path to
get there. First, we have to get back to the basics of good governance. The census, the Household Expenditure Survey, government audits are all examples of the unexciting, yet vital work done by professionals
behind the scenes. How many government reports are
tabled in this Honourable House that have caveats that
accurate and up- to-date data are not available? Updating government guides such as Public Access t o Information statements will enable the public to navigate
government services and other aspects of society. Elder care is an example. It is a continuing challenge, and in an ageing population, sandwiching working adults
between child care and senior care, the Government
must document and publish guidance and support.
We should be listening to the experts, balancing budgets, reallocating funds for unused positions,
making early retirement easy and prioritising collecting taxes. This means funding and empowering the Legislature so that committees can be regularly held, h earings conducted, testimony recorded, written submissions analysed. This means a public schedule of meetings of the Houses of Parliament, oversight committees
and other organs which keep the Government honest, effective, and accountable. Let us get the politics out of administration. Let
us avoid stocking the boards of every quango with pol-iticians and their political peers. Not just those, but our
regulators as well, and introduce accountability so that
if an audit is missed or qualified, then board members
get replaced. If the people of Bermuda are expected to
be accountable for their actions according to our laws
and values, then so must their leaders.
Simultaneously, leave the community alone
and stop interfering with them and their interests. The job of Government should be boring, and intrusion is permitted into a person’s affairs only so much as it is
necessary. This means slashing red tape. We do not
have to handcuff the community to rules and regulations that serve no purpose other than this is the way
it’s always been done. No one thinks that the Govern-ment should be involved in every aspect of Bermuda, especially business. Some things governments are just
bad at. As Nobel Prize- winning economist Milton Friedman observed, “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a
shortage of sand.”
We have to make sure that we modernise our
political institutions and ensure that good governance
laws hold us as politicians accountable. Those of us
who shirk our responsibilities, behave unethically, or
abuse our positions will have to go. If we as poli ticians
do not lead from the front, then we are not leaders at all. This will ensure that politics is more accessible and
acceptable, discouraging doubt, suspicion, and cynicism. That means higher participation rates in politics.
This is key when holding r eferendums on socially progressive and culturally challenging issues. Let us get
out of the community’s way and sort ourselves out by
getting back to basics.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, second, making living in
Bermuda easy. We need to create safe, healthy, sustainable communities. This starts with regular uniformed police, fire, and ambulance services. The volunteers and auxiliaries have been decimated with only
a handful left. It was not that long ago that the Bermuda
Police Reserves would relieve the full -time officers and
take over patrolling the whole Island. It is not enough to add more people to those roles, though. We need to
make their jobs easier as well. It does no good having police officers spending hours filling out paperwork for
outdated criminal offences for which there are little to
no punishment. The same goes for everyone from our
firefighters to our teachers, from boat captains to our traffic wardens . Less paperwork means more doing.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, we can and should put an
end to the Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome- style of
road management. If someone wants to pop a wheelie along a main road, they will not be riding a bike again
for a while. Speeding should not be tolerated. We have
to make the punishment for road traffic offences hurt to
deter the conduct that is getting our people killed on our
roads. And there should be a zero tolerance of gangs.
Let us give those inadvertently swept up in gangs, or
28 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly those who are willing to walk away from that lifestyle a
clear pathway out with the very clear understanding
that continuing on this particular highway ends with severe consequences.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, Bermuda did not invent
the laws of economics, but we do have to follow them.
The cost of living in Bermuda is lowered by having more
people in Bermuda —period. Our economists have
made it abundantly clear for years that more people equa l less cost. We have been breaking ourselves up
against this economic principle for some 25 years. We
can call the experiment a failure and get back to populating the Island. Yes, we will have to attend to the myriad of risks that come with this, but better that than our
people fleeing the Island. With clear eyes, a rational approach, public accountability, and a respect for all, we
can manage a population increase that is to the benefit of Bermudians.
For example, housing. How terribly ironic is it
that somehow, in the absence of people, we still do not have sufficient housing stock? It is clear that guest workers alone are not the sole cause of a lack of housing. We have to change where and how people live in
Bermuda. We have to change how we interact with
housing owners. We have to change what role the Gov-ernment plays in housing. So yes, there is some complexity, and yes, it is a big problem. But again, the other
option is to make Bermuda so expensive that no Bermudians can live here. Our self -induced isolation has
resulted in self -inflicted wounds to our community. And
by expanding programmes for first -time homeowners,
we can ensure Bermudians get on the property ladder
and do not get caught up in thi s problem.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, third, we need to ensure
these problems do not arise again, by implementing a
world -class education for our children. Let us remove
politics from education. I think the community has had
enough of our political theories and motivations pushing and pulling at our students. An independent educa-tion authority means just that —no friends and family on
the board, no favoured contractors and no politicians giving thinly veiled threats under the premise of legitimate direction. It should not take reading shark oil to
figure out the basics in the education system.
And let us let the school supervisors, principals
and others get on with managing their schools. When
did the judgment of an academic embedded in bureaucracy supersede that of the principal who knows every
student’s name, every parent’s job and the timing of
every bus that comes to that school?
And the students do not all need to be accountants and lawyers. Mr. Deputy Speaker, our country
needs more skilled trades professionals. For a country
built by the trades, which include vendors, shop owners
and the like, we seem to totally forget it was sw eat that
built our homes and communities.
Because of the first step, getting back to basics, we will have the statistical information to ascertain what skills are needed in the market, and the profes-sionals in the education authority properly legislated to
produce results, in a position to develop curriculum that
equips Bermudians to work, live, raise families, and retire in Bermuda. And we can furth er support these professionals, especially small business owners, through
easy -to-access business directories and other easily
understood support servi ces.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, Bermuda has to be a
thriving community again. Our appetite for the arts also
has to be addressed. It does us little good to live in a community with clean roads if our minds are overgrown
with constant nonsense. We need our artists and athletes to inspire and uplift us by bringing their visions into
our communities and by encouraging international connections and partnerships.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, it always seems impossible until it is done. Let us get back to basics. Let us
make the systems of government work again. Let us
make living in Bermuda easy again. Let us make sure
these problems do not arise again. But in order to
achieve this, we cannot keep going down the road this
Throne Speech is taking us. We need to be willing to
change, work toward the Bermuda imagined led by
leaders who lead by example, who listen to all voices
in Bermuda, are willing to work with experts and diverse
thinkers with whom accountability matters, who act with integrity and always put the voters first. Imagine that
Bermuda. And now let us get to it, together!

[Desk thumping]
[Ms. Lovitta F. Foggo, Acting Speaker, in the Chair]

Thank you, Member.
And before I recognise the next speaker, I
would like to put to the House that the hour is now 12:25. And before the next speaker I would like to suggest that perhaps we carry over after lunch and continue at that time.
All agree?
Yes. The House will now adjourn until 2:00 pm.
Thank you, Members.

Proceedings suspended at 12:25 pm

House resumed at 2:00 pm

[Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr., Deputy Speaker, in the Chair]

We are resuming our Reply to
the Throne Speech. And the first speaker of the after-noon would be the Honourable Member Jason Hayward, who will be the first speaker for the Government.


Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Hayward, you have the floor.

DEBATE ON THE 2023 THRONE SPEECH
AND REPLY

Hon. Jason Hayward: Good afternoon, Mr. Deputy
Speaker.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, today we are here to have
a general debate surrounding the Throne Speech. The
Throne Speech is simply the framework which the Government will follow that sets out its legislative agenda
for the upcoming parliamentary session. The Throne
Speech builds on a body of work that has previously
been done in other sessions to ultimately ensure that
the Government carries out its mandate, completes the task which is set out in the Government’s election manifesto, and ensure that we execute on a vision that has
been set for the people of this country.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, before I get into my substantive remarks, it would be remiss of me not to state how disappointed I was at the Reply that the country
had to collectively witness. There is a term, Mr. Deputy
Speaker, called “ negative affectivity .” It is a personality
variable which involves the experience of negative
emotions. You see, people who express high negative affectivity view themselves and a variety of aspects of
the world around them in generally negative terms. If
you look at the traits which these individuals exhibit,
there is a higher level of dissatisfaction about the world
in which they live and the future, and they seek to evoke more negative life events.
So, it is clear that the aim of the Throne Speech
Reply was solely to paint a negative view of Bermuda. And if the individual who spoke those words truly believes that how he described Bermuda is an accurate
reflection, that is extremely sad and alarming for somebody who espouses or aspires to be a future leader
within this country. So, there is a term called “ dramaturgy. ” And it is the study of dramatic composition. And
what we have just witnessed was a political perfor-mance solely aimed to invoke negativ e emotions about
this Government and about the country in which we live.
But oddly enough, the negativity that was
spewed out of the Opposition Leader’s mouth somehow brought great pleasure to his supporters. To me, I
cannot reconcile the two. I cannot reconcile how an Op-position Leader can speak about doom and gloom and
leave the room with his colleagues smiling about how
he described the state of Bermuda. Mr. Deputy
Speaker, was it simply all just a performance?
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I found the theme of this
year’s Throne Speech to be most fitting. As Members of Parliament, it is our primary responsibility to serve
the people of Bermuda. We as Members of Parliament
cannot take the social contract with the electorat e for
granted. We simply cannot.
And because we understand how important it
is to maintain that social contract, this Government has governed with a human- centred approach when the
policies, the legislation we put in place, are all done to ensure that we get the best outcomes for the people of
Bermuda. We have been doing it since being re- elected
in 2017, and we will continue to operate in that fashion.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, this Government, notwithstanding all of what was just spewed, has a long list of accomplishments. We have passed a lot of legislation
that has positive benefits for the people of Bermuda
that even the Opposition applauded and supported
when that legislation came to the House of Assembly.
Now, all of a sudden, we have done nothing good to
advance the interests of the people of Bermuda.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, nobody said governance
is easy. But this Government has remained resilient
and focused on the task that we have in front of us. We
have had to withstand many obstacles and challenges. Yet, Mr. Deputy Speaker, we have a strong record of
delivering, a record of delivery that a stalwart like yourself from the “Class of 1998” would be extremely proud
about. It was this notion that was an undercurrent in the
Reply to the Throne Speech which talks about accountability, governance, and integri ty. You cannot be a resilient government which has withstood many of the external pressures that have impacted this country without possessing tenets of good governance.
We have acted with integrity. We are extremely
transparent with our communications to the public. Un-like the OBA, we remain optimistic about the future of
Bermuda. We have taken accountability for our actions,
and instead of criticising the public service, we have
harnessed the collective strings of our team and the
public service to deliver the objectives which we have.
Now, Mr. Deputy Speaker, one thing rings true.
And that is bad news always travels farther than good
news. And good news struggles to remain relevant.
Therefore, Mr. Deputy Speaker, it is incumbent upon me to highlight the significant progress that this Government has made to improve the quality of life for the
residents of Bermuda. But before I take a deep dive into
the depths of the work that we have d one, I think it is
important for us to establish a core set of undebatable
facts. Mr. Deputy Speaker, our economy has expanded
beyond pre- pandemic levels.
The positive economic performance of Bermuda’s economy is simply not up for debate. In October 2023, KBRA [Kroll Bond Rating Agency] released a
report. KBRA is a rating agency which has re- affirmed
Bermuda’s strong position. And they have indicated that Bermuda’s economy fully rebounded from the pan-demic in 2022, and GDP growth of 3.6 per cent was
recorded in the first quarter of 2023.
Bermuda’s innovativeness positions it as a hub
in emerging financial industries. Bermuda’s relative
wealth, strong reputation and large pension funds are
also positive credit considerations. Bermuda’s econ-omy is characterised by very high per capital GDP, stable institutions, and a flexible and innovative invest30 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly ment environment. The report goes on to say, Mr. Deputy Speaker, that Bermuda is the most important jurisdiction for property and cash catastrophe insurance. And when it speaks to ILS, we are a world market
leader. It goes on to say that the BMA [Bermuda Mon-etary Authority] continues to welcome new companies
into Bermuda, es pecially into international business. In
2022, the most recent data available, 812 new companies entered Bermuda in the international business
space and created 230 new jobs, increasing employment in the sector by 5.2 per cent .
Mr. Deputy Speaker, the most recent labour
force survey data indicate that overall, employment is up. Bermudian employment is up. Unemployment is
down. Bermudian unemployment is down. Youth unemployment is down, and employee compensation is
up. Mr. Deputy Speaker, the statistical data on which
we rely state that overall, employment is up, Bermudian
employment is up. Unemployment is down, Bermudian
unemployment is down. Youth unemployment is down,
and employee compensation is up. The statistics state or high light or evidence that we are trending in the right
direction.
These are facts which are positive for the people of Bermuda. These are facts that simply cannot be debated no matter how much doom and gloom one
wants to paint. That is not a reality of our overall economy and what the average household is experiencing.
We have to accept that in any society there are
going to be challenges. And that is why there are gov-ernments, to ensure that we put policies and legislation in place to mitigate the risk of those challenges, but also
provide a framework to empower persons and ensure
that they can obtain a better quality of life. So it is one
[thing] when the Opposition wants to be critical because criticalness is accepted in the democracy in which we operate. But that Reply was not critical. That Reply highlighted all of t he bad attributes that they see
in this country, lumped them all together and then failed to provide adequate solutions.
So, every country in the world has had to experience high inflation. Ours was simply exacerbated
because Bermuda already had a high cost of living.
What one has to ask oneself is, Did the Government just sit back and allow household purchasing power to
be eroded and business costs just simply to spiral out
of control? Or has this Government provided critical interventions in times where it is needed? The point of
lowering payroll tax for both businesses and workers
was to support employment growth, but then also to ensure that workers in this country have greater levels of
disposable income. [It was a] timely intervention which
was required, that both sides of this aisle could actually
support because we all have constituents. And now
constituents are the on es who benefit from that change.
We froze fuel prices, and the Government absorbed the financial burden for that decision. But it was a decision that was in the best interests of our country.
We have done things in Bermuda that the majority of other governments around the world have not done. It
seems as though we do not get any credit for that work.
When we look at our seniors, five increases in pensions
since 2017. Compare that track record to the five previous years, and you see the differenc e a change in
Government makes. But why is it important to give our
seniors increases to their pensions? Because, number
one, they worked hard and they actually deserve it. But
number two, we want to ensure that they maintain a
decent quality of life as well. You see, Mr. Deputy
Speaker, we cannot turn a blind eye to the work that our seniors have contributed to making Bermuda the
gem of the Atlantic, what is appropriately described as
a first -class sophisticated jurisdiction.
I speak of people who have been down for golf.
They cannot see the poverty. They do not see the depressed economic conditions which were described by the Opposition. It is not evident that Bermuda is trending in a negative direction. You see, if Bermuda’s biggest problems are potholes and overgrown trees, then
I will certainly take those. Let me repeat that. Mr. Deputy Speaker, when we look at some of the challenges
that economies are facing worldwide, the real challenges that households and people are experiencing
worldwide, when bombs are being dropped on people’s
families, when persons do not know where their next
meal is coming from, I will take overgrown trees and potholes as being Bermuda’s greatest challenges and
challenges we are well -suited to eradi cate.
We have invested in affordable housing. And I
made a Statement about housing this morning, the im-portance about maintaining the balance between the
private and public housing stock. And I have a reliance on the private sector to provide a sustainable level of
housing over the decades, which was supported by the
Government. But as the private sector begins to withdraw their housing stock from the housing inventory, it
is incumbent upon the Government to react, and that is
what we have done.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, we have done a lot for our
seniors. Our seniors continue to gain benefit from lower
tax rates. We have made financial assistance more accessible for our seniors. We have increased their allotments. We have also ensured that residential care
homes and nursing homes have better regulations for the sole benefit of ensuring that our seniors are in dignified and decent conditions. We will continue that work
to support our seniors.
We have supported our workers. I have
brought a ton of legislative changes that place our workers in better conditions in the workplace; increased
their workplace benefits; ensured they get minimum
wages; and ensured that employers do not retain their
tips, gratuities and service charges that are due to
those employees. We have put the youth employment strategy together specifically designed to reduce youth
unemployment, a very focused strategy for a very precious group of individuals. And we have seen yout h unemployment fall dramatically. We cannot talk about


Bermuda House of Assembly worsening conditions if the data reflect that youth unemployment was upwards of 30 per cent, and now it is
down to 11 per cent. It indicates for us that there is still
a way to go.
But let us acknowledge the progress that is being made. Let us acknowledge that there are more opportunities for our young people now in Bermuda than
ever before, whether it be scholarships, whether it be
internships. We have personally increased funding f or
summer employment programmes. We have person-ally increased funding for scholarships while the Oppo-sition reduced funding in those areas. We have implemented the College Promise programme so that if you
get a 3.0 [GPA] you can go to Bermuda College on
Government’s tab. And even if you do not get a 3.0, if
you cannot afford it, Government has put financial ben-efits in place at the Bermuda College so that no child is left behind.
You see, the Government you choose matters.
Look at the policies, look at the work that we have done and judge us accordingly. There are more Bermudians working in international business than ever before,
more young Bermudians entering the career pipeline,
more companies offering opportunity, more companies
getting involved in education whether it be investment into Bermuda College or investment in other areas.
Corporate social responsibility is not declining; it is increasing. So, we have a healthy relationship with indus-try that is working for the betterment of our people.
Yes, there are asks from industry in terms of
things that they would like to see, but that is natural. But what they are pleased with is the high degree of human
capital that they are able to utilise in Bermuda. Just like
somebody gave Jarion a chance— he said he went up
against the Big Four and he still had opportunity. Just
like someone gave him a chance, many are the Bermu-dians who are getting chances and opportunities and are succeeding and excelling. And it is positive. Maybe
we should compile all of th e congratulations for a year
that we give in this House so that people can see how
well people are doing, the success that people are having in this economy. It is not all doom and gloom! Because we simply cannot have it both ways. We simply
cannot talk about opportunities that he has received and think that opportunities for everybody else in Bermuda, the doors have simply shut on those individuals.
That is not the reality.
You see, when it comes to education, we have
a vision for how we would like our system to look. But
dismantling a failed system is challenging. The model that was put in place was not one that was in the best
interest of our people, and so we are aiming and working toward reforming it. Elements of the same group
who implemented middle schools are now providing
recommendations on the way forward for education,
which were the recommendations that the Minister of Education has already stated. We are already working
toward an independent Education Authority. Are they simply not paying attention to what is going on, and commenting for the sake of commenting?
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I heard we should have a
zero tolerance for gangs. Since when has the Government’s tolerance level for gangs been any greater than zero? You see, I do not want Bermuda to be swayed by
the performance, the political theatre which took place
earlier, the 13 pages of doom and gloom with no
roadmap for how we can move forward. How do you
attack the leadership on one page of this report and
then cry for us to work together in the best interest of Bermuda on another page? You can offer solutio ns
without being insulting, you know, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
And actually I thought that this was beneath that. But he actually stated it.
[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Jason Hayward: Let the Deputy Speaker provide
me with the correction that is necessary.
But the insult is in here to me. It does not come
across as if [the Honourable Member] Jarion [Richardson] wants to truly work together with this Government.
When we came, or were re -elected, in 2017 it
was to ensure that we progressed the social interests
of the people of Bermuda and was to ensure that we
progressed the economic interests of the people of Bermuda. Mr. Deputy Speaker, we were on a trajectory up
until 2019 trending in a very positive direction with record growth. The pandemic struck. It forced us to abate
a bit. We have reset, and now we are making meaningful progress in the right direction.
But we are not satisfied with the pace of the
progress that is being made. So, the Ministry of Econ-omy and Labour was charged to put together an Economic Development Strategy to ensure that we have
sustainable economic growth and development. And
that str ategy focuses on five strategic priorities: ensuring that we have business extension and retention of our current local businesses, maintaining a business
environment that allows them to thrive and succeed.
We also wanted to ensure that we focused on forei gn
direct investment and marketing Bermuda as the first -
class business jurisdiction that it is. And we will accelerate that work to transitioning the BDA [Bermuda Busi-ness Development Agency] into an IPA [investment
promotion agency] which will be focused on investment
promotion. So, I am stunned when I see that we need
professionals to focus on foreign direct investment when the Government produced a report with foreign
direct investment being one of the strategic priorities
and has action items as to how we are going to achieve
those items.
And the truth is people are investing in Bermuda. One has to look no further than Google. Subsea
cables were part of our economic recovery plan. It is
taking some time, but that initiative is bearing fruit.
Google would then have to set up the appropriate infrastructure, but it creates other opportunities for other
32 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly large- scale tech companies to utilise the assets which
we will put in place. [The subsea cables initiative] also
provides greater levels of opportunity for local service
providers to increase their technology offerings as data
will be more robust and quick er.
The third item was entrepreneurship and small
business development. So, we will ensure that we support our people through the small business development continuum ensuring that we have an entrepreneur
ecosystem that allows our people’s ideas to actually
flourish into business, ensuring that we have incubators
in place, ensuring that we have accelerators in place,
ensuring that we provide grants where necessary, ensuring that we assist those individuals with development business plans and getting loans. Tha t is the work
which we will be focused on doing.
The fourth strategic priority is ensuring that we
have execution of the economic recovery plan. We do
have some items within that plan that are off -track. But
the majority are not. And I will bring a full report to this
House in terms of the progress that is being made in
those particular areas. I can speak about one item,
which is economic investment certificates, which now
has over $440 million of associated investment. I remember when I brought that policy to this particular House and tabled it. I remember the chirping that was
taking place on the other side of the room in terms of
what isn’t going to work. But the reality is that it has
worked out in the best interests of Bermuda. And that
particular policy, which is extremely deliberate, is
achieving its aims.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, before I delve into the
Government’s specific Throne Speech items, the last point I want to make is surrounding child day care al-lowance. You see, that new benefit came into place October 1. That benefit ensures that more families can
take advant age of child care benefits. That benefit ensures that children have a greater opportunity to succeed at an early age of life. That is a benefit which was
reduced —reduced—by the previous Government,
which we have increased.
You see, the Government that you elect actually matters. We have a different view as to how we provide social support to our people. And notwithstand-ing increasing benefits for people on financial assistance and extending eligibility, the number of recipie nts
has declined year over year. I remember when I came
and we had to increase the budget for Financial Assistance. And it was expanding. And I remember what the
Honourable Member Jarion [Richardson] had to say at that time. He said, This is a reflection of where our society is heading in a negative way because if we have
to increase the number of people on financial assistance, it means more people are struggling. I wonder
why his report today did not reflect that there is a de-crease of people, able- bodied individuals on financial
assistance, which the office has determined that the
majority of the decline is due to people finding employment opportunity. Employment opportunity! I wonder why it is not
highlighted in his speech that this is actually trending in
a positive direction. Or it simply does not fit the doomand-gloom narrative which was put out there.
We have invested in our sports clubs. And we
continue to invest in our sports clubs. We saw our local
cricketers very close to almost making it to the World
Cup, very close. That does not look like our sports are
declining. We stand in this House, and we s peak about
all of the positive achievements of our athletes on a monthly basis. And we will continue to invest in our ath-letes. And we have put awards in place for when these
athletes reach or attain their goals, that they are compensated and supported for that. This Government put
those awards in place. You see, the Government that you elect actually matters.
So I wonder if the people who benefit from all
of the work that this Government actually does on their
behalf would agree that all is lost and we are in a state
of perpetual doom and gloom until we re- elect the One
Bermuda Alliance and they miraculously ri de in on their
shining horses and turn things all around with the policies that they failed to share with the people of Bermuda.
We had a Budget Reply. The Budget Reply had
maybe 13 points to turn around the economy. But then
we put out an entire Economic Development Strategy, and they say we do not have a plan. Some of those
points did not last, I do not believe, 72 hours before th e
then Opposition Leader and Shadow Finance Minister
had to retract, a fourth retraction which I believe could
have been a factor with his ultimate demise as the
Leader of the One Bermuda Alliance.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, it is incumbent upon us to
ensure that we create career pathways and pipelines
for our persons, our young people to get prepared for
the current and future jobs that will exist within our
economy. And that is what our education reform is actually about, ensuring that there is a pipeline from our
education system into rewarding careers in our economy, primarily. But if our young persons want to go
overseas and compete in this global world, then that is
encouraged as well. Notwithstanding that we would like
for as many of them to come home as possible, I will never shy away from encouraging our young persons to get international experience and get a worldly view
of the work that they are doing and then bring that home
so that they can add v alue- added to this Island.
When I speak to companies and they speak to
me about the opportunities they possibly can offer, most of the time it is an opportunity to work in one of
their sister offices or branches in another territory. And
we talk about the benefits of their being exposed to that
work at a different level outside of Bermuda, operating
outside of their comfort zones. And I think that actually
builds more resilient and informed young persons so
that when they do come back, they can thrive in their
careers.


Bermuda House of Assembly That is also what we were trying to do when we
tore apart the National Training Board. You see, the
Opposition Leader stated that we need more persons
in skills trades. But that is exactly what we are aiming
to do with the National Certification and Apprenticeship
Board. It will be primarily focused on skills trades, but it
is also what we are trying to do with our signature
schools in terms of ensuring that persons are exposed
to technical education at an earlier stage so that they
can filter into Bermuda’ s trades.
We have to work to change the paradigm of our
students around the trades. We have to work to change
the paradigm of our parents around the trades. We
have to work to change the paradigm of career counsellors around skills trades so that they are properly
promoted, and that is what that board would actually
do. So, it is nice to say, We need, we need, we need.
But this is why we have put processes in place. This is
why we are putting boards in place. This is why we are
putting strategies in place so that we can implement on
those particular items. Now, the change might not come as rapidly as some would desire. But if you fail to
plan, you plan to fail. So, they can criticise the number
of strategies and plans that we have. But they are going
to be providing t he foundation for us to effectively implement in a coordinated way where resources are not
squandered and where we can see the greater level of
return on the back end.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I want to take some time
to touch on the topic of immigration. The Economic De-velopment Strategy allows us to achieve robust eco-nomic activity throughout the entire economy. That
economic activity is specifically designed to increase
the number of jobs in Bermuda, first creating oppor-tunity for locals, and then secondly to bring in workers
to increase our working population. There will always be more jobs in Bermuda than able- bodied Bermudians
to fill those jobs. Bermudians represent ov er 70 per
cent of the workforce. There is no mass displacement of Bermudians in our workforce. Mr. Deputy Speaker,
70 per cent of our workforce is Bermudian. And then
you have spouses of Bermudians, PRCs [Permanent
Resident Certificate holders] to a small extent, and then
we have guest expatriate workers who represent less
than a quarter of our workforce.
But based off of our ageing population and the
baby boomer generation, our workforce, a larger work-force will be required to support our ageing population.
And countries that have failed to put policies in place to
address that have unsustainable economies. Now, Ja-pan is a prime example of a rapidly ageing population
in a developed country. And Japan was extremely
averse to immigration. And they are finding out the impact of not using those immigration levers. Contrary to
popular belief, the PLP has been utilising those levers,
whether it be mixed- status families, whether it be increasing the eligibility for PRCs. The step that we have
not determined that we are going to take is to open up
the door to status. So it boggles me when people keep talking about, We need immigration reform, we need
immigration reform, and they never specify what exactly are the legislative changes or the policy items that
they are looking for. Never state it! Because the only
thing that is left is status. And that is not on the ta ble at
this time. This Government does not have a political
mandate to go out and give people status on solely an
economic basis.
So, we are progressing immigration reform.
We are strengthening compliance. We will ensure that
we become more efficient in processing. I guess no-body is impacted by any delays in processing more
than the Minister whom everybody calls to get their
challenges addressed. So, I have heard the business
community loud and clear. I have heard citizens loud
and clear, citizens who want to get applications progressed in an efficient manner. And we will work to achieve that.
But these constant calls of immigration reform
when individuals are asking for immigration reform, I specifically want to know: What are you looking for in
terms of outcomes? And I encourage the speakers who
speak after me from the Opposition benches to clarify
what some of their expectations are around that. And
let us have a reasonable conversation. But when I became the Minister, I did reach out to the Opposition on
two occasions to assist with the work surrounding immigration, and they denied both offers. But in this document, they want us to work together for the collective
interest of Bermudians. Their actions and their words
are simply not in alignment.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, it gave me great pleasure
to hear the Governor read that this Government intends to make banking more accessible. It is a shame that
individuals have to go unbanked, that persons are incarcerated, they rehabilitate themselves and then are
unable to engage in gainful employment because the
banks would not allow them to engage in transactions with their institutions. And so, I know the credit union
has been helping as much as possible to assist these
individuals who go unbanked in what I consider to be
our mainstream banking system. But it is certainly unacceptable.
And all this KYC [know your customer] and
compliance, maybe the Honourable Member Jarion [Richardson] can explain to me what the risk is of having . . . the Honourable Member Opposition Leader Jarion [Richardson] can explain to me what is the risk associated with a rehabilitated person trying to get a bank
account where $40,000 or 50,000 on an annual basis
may go in and out.
Well, these corporations who engage in all
sorts of activities have their accounts untouched. So,
we have to strike a balance in our society in terms of,
you just cannot move out of retail banking and just be
solely focused on commercial banking. Because w hen
you post your profits, and the justification for your profits is that you were able to capitalise off of the increase
in interest rates, the individual’s mother has to pay
34 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly more in mortgage rates to house her son who cannot
work because you choose not to bank him, and you get
the profits while the Bermudian population has to suffer. And then to add insult to injury, you then lay off the
same staff who assisted you with making those profits.
Something is not adding up in that equation, Mr. Deputy
Speaker.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I think there is bipartisan
support in terms of uniformed service cadet training
programmes. It is an area where there is certainly opportunity for us to get better, to achieve more as it per-tains to preparing our young persons to enter the services so that we have less of a shortage in that area.
But the human resource challenge is a challenge that
any government would face at this point in time, as it
pertains to the specifics around that. But we will assist
persons with positioning t hemselves to take advantage
of opportunity in our uniformed services because we do
want to see Bermudianisation of those services. And
those services that were almost fully Bermudianised,
we want them to maintain that way.
No, it did not give us any pleasure to bring in
foreign firefighters. But it was a catalyst to our implementing training for locals who are now taking advantage of those opportunities and are in lifelong ca-reers. Opportunities that this Government created for a
group of young men and women. You see? The Government that you elect actually matters. And there is a fundamental difference between the things we do and
how we use the budget to get the outcomes we need
and support individuals within our community.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I sit in a room of 30 individuals, and we discuss initiatives. We discuss policies. We debate amongst ourselves so that we can get poli-cies which are in the best interests of the population.
We all have family in Bermuda. We all have grandpar-ents in our families. We all have children within our fam-ilies. We all have grandchildren within our families. We
are not removed and absent from some of the challenges that are being experienced. But when my family
gets together, it is simply not al l doom and gloom. We
talk about the challenges. I justify the Government’s position or the plans that we have to address those challenges, and we move on.
I think that is the truer way to approach things.
Let us identify, like this report has done, some core
challenges in terms of service delivery, and then let us
be laser -focused on executing. Let us be laser -focused
on improving efficiencies within Planni ng. Let us be laser-focused on improving efficiencies with Immigration.
Let us be laser -focused on ensuring that we have better
payment systems in government. Let us be laser -focused on improving the service and customer service delivery within the public service. That is something we
expect as a Government, and that is something the
population expects from the people who are there to serve them. So that is fair. So, when individuals are
grumbling about some of the challenges that they face
when interacting with the Government, it is good when those are brought to our attention. Because what you
can see in the Throne Speech is a commitment for us
to address those.
The last matter which I will touch on in my one
minute and 30 seconds, Mr. Deputy Speaker, is the
matter that was brought up against street harassment
and catcalling. I simply want to tell the men of this country we simply need to do better. These were high school
and middle school girls who complained about the way
which catcalling makes them feel as they walk the
streets of Bermuda, by grown men. We should collec-tively be ashamed of that behaviour. And so my last
and final words today on the floor of thi s House as it
pertains to this speech is, we have heard from our
young females in our high schools and our middle
schools. And we have pledged to put measures in place
to help address that situation. Because our daughters, our mothers, our sisters, our grandparents should not
be subjected to ongoing catcalling and sexual harassment on the streets of Bermuda!
Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

[Desk thumping]

Because Mr. Deputy Speaker, I found
it interesting that the Honourable Minister who just took
his seat pointed out that the people at the PGA did not
see the issues that were pointed out in our Reply to the
Throne Speech. But Mr. Deputy Speaker, maybe they
did not see the buildings that are boarded up through-out our city. Maybe they did not see that we have lines to get food every day. Maybe they did not see the issues that are being expressed to us continuously by our
population. It is not about doom and gloom. It is the Opposition’s job to point out what the population is saying
about how they feel, because the way they feel is different than what was pointed out by the Honourable
Minister.
The issue that you have is that continuously we
realise that they are not listening.
[Inaudible interjection]

So, I am going to start with a story of a
mother who had to make the decision to pack up from


Bermuda House of Assembly Bermuda and take her young son, leave and move to
England because the neighbourhood that she lived in
was going to prey on her young son and bring him into
a gang lifestyle whether he wanted to be there or not.
Not because that young mother did not want to be in
Bermuda, but she could not accept that that was going
to be the future for her son. So, when we point out these
issues, we are talking about the stories that are actually
being told on a daily basis by our people. Our people,
meaning the entire comm unity of Bermuda, because
you need to listen to all of them.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, what about the young
families who are having to make the decision to send
their children to private school and pay $25,000–
$26,000 out of their pocket because they are not willing
to roll their dice on the public education system? Regardless of w hether there is a reform happening, children are being educated today. And those parents are
having to make that tough decision to put themselves
in financial debt because they are not willing to gamble
with their children’s future. That is the reality of the peo-ple in Bermuda.

[Inaudible interjections]

So, Mr. Deputy Speaker, the senior
who has lost her husband, who was the breadwinner in the house, the person who paid the bills, the person who was making sure that everything was done for her,
who now cannot get around and is having her neigh-bour get her around, and w hen she gets to the store
she cannot afford aspirin . . . because I am actually
speaking on specific stories that have been told. These are not made up; this is what actually is happening in
our country.

[Inaudible interjections ]

So, what we are pointing out to you,
the negativity that they are referring to is the reality of
our people. So, Mr. Deputy Speaker, when we talk
about that we would like to get together to work together, what we are actually referring to is real collaboration, not the pretend one where you send the WhatsApp to tell you the story that you are already having a meeting with other people, and maybe you guys
can tune in. Because I will tell you, the former Minister
who sits to my right, when he c ollaborated, he actually
gave a real seat at the table and a conversation about what it is that we needed to do and brought everybody along. That is the collaboration that we are referring to,
not lip service. So that same former Minister and I spent a day
up at the shelter that happened during COVID -19. That
shelter was sheltering our homeless, just a portion of our homeless. So, understand something: You can put
more things in your Throne Speech, but the acti on is
what the people are looking for. So where is that facility? Because the number of homeless has grown to
over 600, and that is the real number that the Minister
did not want to talk about.
So, our Leader talked about accountability, integrity, transparency.

[Inaudible interjections and laughter ]

The issue that this Government has is
that they are laughing when we mention accountability, integrity and transparency, because the country has not seen that from them.
So, Mr. Deputy Speaker, we will talk to education. In the Throne Speech it refers to an Education Au-thority. The One Bermuda Alliance has an important
word that is in that sentence, and it is “independent”
Education Authority, because this Government likes to
get involv ed with it so that they can make the changes
that they are looking for. But that is not going to take
the politics out of education. Mr. Deputy Speaker, before we get to the independent Education Authority, I
will tell you this: The One Bermu da Alliance will make
sure that West End Primary stays open. The One Bermuda Alliance will make sure that St. George’s Prep
stays open.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, we will also look
to make sure that we are scoring our schools, the facil-ity, because our students are held accountable by their
grades. That means that we should also be holding everyone accountable for how they get to that result.
Because we sh ould not have to have parents saying, I
have to put my child in private education because I do
not have a choice.

[Inaudible interjections and laughter ]

Mr. Deputy Speaker, the Minister
wants to say that public school enrolment increased,
and that is probably because there are so many people
in Bermuda who no longer can afford anything. Because right now —

[Inaudible interjections]
36 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Ben Smith: —Because right now, Mr. Deputy
Speaker, we have our people in this country who are
stating that they are unhappy with the way things are
going and with what is happening in their country. They
are saying that the Government is not listening. And if what we are going to hear today is more of that Government not listening, the population will understand
that this is the case and it will not change.
The Minister talked about —

[Inaudible interjections and laughter ]

You are really funny, huh?
I am glad he keeps laughing because I am
pretty sure the people in this country who are having to
make the decision to get on a plane and leave their
home forever are not laughing the way the Minister of Labour is laughing right now. Because that is the r eality
in this country. Maybe he thinks that is funny. Because
right now, I will tell you what the nerve is. Maybe they
are going to end up with a Ministry of Emigration be-cause that seems to be the situation we have in this
country right now. People are having to make a decision to leave their home because they cannot afford to
be here!

Mr. Deputy Speaker, one thing the
Minister who took his seat liked to say —Well, no one is
giving us any credit! Well, you pat yourselves on the back so much, why should anybody else have to give
you credit? Put on a hard hat, stand in front of an empty
lot and say, This is what we’re going to do. And then
years go by and nothing has changed.

[Inaudible interjections]

Yes, I remember something clearly the
last time that I was in this House of Assembly. And I
heard the arrogance. I heard the arrogance, getting up
talking about that we are the past and they are the future. I am going to ask whether that future involved
what we are seeing in this country now. Because he
talked about the potholes. And he talked about what the
country looks like. But were they talking about the fact that our country was going to have to emigrate, that our
people were going to l eave because they could not afford to be here? Because I am going to tell you what. When you put in a Throne Speech that what you want
to do is continue to increase the age of people who are working, that is fine for the people who want to continue
to work . But what you are actually talking about is the
symptom that our people can never retire because they
cannot afford to be in this country! That has happened
under the rule of a Government for the last 25 years!
That is the actual situation. And they want to continue
to talk about it, but they do not want to talk about those
details.

[Inaudible interjections]

Mr. Speaker, the Member
is bringing . . . the Member is misleading this House. I
categorically said to the Member in front of me, the
Honourable Member in front of me. I said, Honourable Member, did you write any of this? He said, No, no, no,
no, no, no. I said, I replied to the Honourable Member,
I’m voting for you as the OBA Leader next time.

I said, I didn’t do it. I didn’t write it. Correct? That is what he just repeated. And I am going to
repeat now, The people of this country wrote that. Because when you read that list, whether the Members of
this House would like to or not, I want them to refute the things that are seen in this country. I want them to get
up and embrace everything that was seen and listed by
our Honourable Leader. I want them to get up and tell
us each of those things is untrue, because I am going to hear a l ot of silence when it comes to that. There
were a couple of things that they were upset about, but
I will tell you what. Six years this Government has been
in power. They will continue to look through the rear -
view mirror. They need to look forward at what they are
actually going to achieve.
And what they are doing right now is trying to
live off of . . . I am not even sure what they are living off
of at this point, because the population of Bermuda has had enough of whatever it is that they have been selling. So, I will tell you what.

Once again, Mr. Deputy Speaker, they
want to continue not to listen. The population are the
ones who are feeling. Doom and gloom is the reality of
many in our country. If you are waiting in that food line,
do you think that the economic recovery that the Minister and this Gover nment have referred to is helping
you? If you are that person who had to get on a plane
and leave your country forever, do you feel that this
economic recovery is working for you ? See, they do not
want to answer that part. I do not hear anything when it
comes to that. The issue is that they are no longer listening to the people.
So, Mr. Deputy Speaker, once again it is going
to be interesting to see whether every Member of that side is going to get up and defend that Throne Speech,
defend that Throne Speech, because I hear them saying that we do not have our suggestions. I laid out what
mine were for education. That is the starting point. Because presently they are the Government. Presently
they are the Government that has the teachers saying
they do not have any faith. Presently they are the Government that had the taxis marching on them. Presently
they are the Government that had the fishermen
marching on them. Presently they are the Government
that had the farmers out.
So, the issue is, maybe they think they quieted
the taxi drivers because they put a line in there that said they would give them a raise. The truth of the matter is
there were multiple things that the taxi drivers wanted,
that they needed, because they have been driving on
these terrible roads as well. And the damage that is
happening to their vehicles is going to come home to
roost to them much earlier than the rest of us because
they drive all day.
38 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Silence. Because I do not know what it is that
they are going to do other than you put that little message in there in hopes that the taxi drivers are no longer
going to feel the way they felt prior to that line in that
Throne Speech.
So, the issue now is, have the teachers
changed the way they feel? Do the parents feel that
they are being listened to? Earlier today we got to hear
in a Statement that we have to build all the housing and
we have to change things in Bermuda. We agree
100 per cent, because in order for the Minister to get to
his 8,000 people he is going to have to find a place to
house them. My question is, Can you tell us how many
houses are going to be built in North East Hamilton?
Because I do not remember those data bei ng in the
Statement. When are we —

[Inaudible interjections ]

—the issue that we have in this country
is . . . I am not looking for that division. Trust me. That
is not what it is.
But there are some parts of the Progressive Labour Party who have lost their way. There are some
parts of the Progressive Labour Party who have
stopped listening to the population. There are some of
them who are walking around and do not see the holes
in the road. They do not see the boarded- up buildings.
They are not listening when the population tells them
they do not want something. They are not listening
when their technical officers tell them they do not want that, should not do it, cannot do it. They are turning away at all points.
So, the question becomes, Will they start to listen? Because so far today it seems that listening is not
something that they are going to do. And it is not me they need to listen to; it is the people they have to listen
to. We are here to represent the people. This message
is coming directly from the people. They are the ones
who are saying that they are unhappy with the way
things are going.
The list that we gave tells you the state of the
country. Not everything is bad, as the Minister pointed
out. But you have to point out all of the things that are
not going well so that we actually can have a plan to fix
them! And an honest, balanced opini on means you
have to not walk around with your rosy -coloured
glasses on. You have to also talk about the things that are not going well. If your population is suffering, if people are having to leave this country because they cannot be here, that to me is a state of emergency. A state
of emergency.
[Inaudible interjections]

The Reply pointed out, Mr. Deputy
Speaker, that we have to get back to basics. We have to start to look at the integrity, the accountability. And actually doing the rules that are supposed to happen in
this Honourable House. Because Mr. Deputy Speaker,
we have strayed from that. And because we have
strayed from that, not because of the speakers, but be-cause of the actors in that small group that have continued to drive the country in the wrong direction.
I will tell you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, when the
rest of their team gets up, we are waiting to hear them
defend all of those things in that list that they say are
not happening, or whether they actually have been talking to family members and friends who have opted out
of Bermuda, whet her they are actually realising that
there are family members who are thinking about leaving Bermuda, having to pack their bags because they
cannot be here.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I will leave you with this:
When you land in this country, you come out of that brand- new airport and you start to drive through our
community and you see the state of our roads, remember—remember —that image is the image that our visitors see, including the business people we are trying to
attract to our shores. So, the issue that we have right
now is this Government has not only been ignoring it
for our people, they do not realise that that is the conversation that is happening around that business table.
Is Bermuda actually able to continue forward in this


Bermuda House of Assembly prosperous way? Because we are starting to see
cracks. We are starting to see symptoms.
So now the Government needs to take heed of
what is happening around them. Listen. And start to
make changes that are going to help our people to flourish into the future. Because most of them did not
pay attention to the first part of our Leader’s Reply t o
the Throne [Speech] where he pointed out the Bermuda that all of us want to see, including the Progressive Labour Party members! But you have to put actual
action in place, because if you have been sitting there for that amount of time and you have plans for cybersecurity, but you did not implement cybersecurity, that
is like waiting until after the hurricane for you to decide
that you are going to put up storm shutters.
They must do better.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, thank you for your time.
Good afternoon.

The next speaker is the Honourable Member Kim Wilson.
You have the floor, Minister Wilson.
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I would like to join in the
chorus that was the commencement of the debate this afternoon by the Honourable Member Jason Hayward,
who outlined the steps that this Government has taken
in our commitment of serving the people, which is in-credibly important. He has outlined a number of initiatives that we are doing that are confirming our commit-ment of serving the people. And if you do not mind, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I would like to just spend a few moments speaking about it from the perspec tive of the
Ministry of Health and the things that we are doing in
the Ministry of Health on behalf of the Government to
show our commitment toward serving the people.

Mm-hmm. Yes. Continue.

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Deputy Speaker, it is no secret that our Bermuda health system needs strengthening overall. We need to ensure that our residents have
access to affordable and essential health care services
when they need them, at the right location, at costs that are not creati ng financial burdens to them. Mr. Deputy
Speaker, in order to do this, I want to just take a step
back really quickly to speak specifically about how we
are strengthening our health system through the implementation of the Ber muda Health Strategy 2022– 2027,
which lays out eight core principles that are incredibly
important to all collectively to ensure that we strengthen
our health care system. The eight principles are all interconnected. It is
just like making a cake. If you have flour and you have
all the eight ingredients . . . if you do not have flour, then
you are not going to be able to have a proper cake. And
likewise . . . I hate using f ood analogies, but I am hungry, so my stomach is growling. But likewise, the eight
principles, Mr. Deputy Speaker, are all connected insofar as helping to ensure that we have a sustainable
health system that serves the people, who are our number-one priori ty.
And, Mr. Deputy Speaker, really quickly, these
eight principles are as follows:
1. Promoting healthy living and preventative care;
2. Focusing on person- centred care;
3. Understanding our population’s health needs;
4. Providing access to [universal] health care coverage (which, of course, is UHC);
5. Strengthening our health care workforce;
6. Harnessing health care technology;
7. Partnership and collaborative working; and
8. Preventing wasteful care and promoting efficiencies.
Again, Mr. Deputy Speaker, collectively these
eight principles outline the strategy for harnessing and
promoting healthy people in healthy communities
based on the Bermuda Health Strategy 2022– 2027. If
you would allow me a few moments to address you on
all of these eight principles so that I can show to the
people of Bermuda the progress that we are making as
it relates to strengthening our health care system?

Mm-hmm.

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: So, the first one, Mr. Deputy
Speaker . . . well, let me just back up for a minute because I know that health care costs are unsustainable.
And we know that a lot of individuals are suffering and
having difficulties with respect to accessing health care
services. And regrettably, a lot of people do not recognise . . . and I am hoping that I can spend a moment to
just articulate this. And you and I have personally had these conversations, but one of the drivers of our high
health care cos ts is utilisation. And the more we use
something, the more we have to pay for it. And what I do not think that people fully appreciate is the analogy that if you use it more, you are going to have to pay for
it more. So that goes directly to the issue about personal responsibility.
Unfortunately, for the $770 million a year that
we are spending on our health care system, which rep-resents over $11,000 per person, we are not getting
value for money based on what we are spending. And
you know the statistics because you and I have had
these conversations privately over and over again.
[Bermuda has] the third- highest instance of diabetes in
the OECD. Seventy -five per cent of our adult population are either overweight or obese. Fifty per cent of our population of our adults, Mr. Deputy Speaker, have at
least one chronic condition, which is either diabetes,
40 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly heart disease or kidney disease. One out of three persons has high blood pressure or high cholesterol. A full
82.5 per cent of our Bermudians do not eat the recommended five vegetables and fruits as per the WHO, and 27.0 per cent of our population do not even get enough
daily activity.
So, we have some horrible health outcomes,
and it is not equated to how much money we are spend-ing. But what people have to recognise is that one of
the highest drivers of our health care costs is a sick
population that is not only sick, but they are livi ng
longer. So, we have to do something to reverse that.
And notwithstanding the eight principles that I want to
speak about in a few moments, we need to recognise
that we all have personal responsibility. And we need
to adhere to that, because you and I ar e helping to pay
for the people who are sick who are not doing what they
are supposed to be doing. And that is one of the big
drivers of our health care costs.
The first principle, Mr. Deputy Speaker, is promoting healthy living and preventative care. Again, we
know that prevention is cheaper than a cure. And if we
can take steps to live a healthier lifestyle, and what we
are doing as a Government is to help health promotion
and to encourage healthy living. You see on the back of buses or outside of the Ministry, Drink more water,
Eat your vegetables, et cetera, et cetera. So, we are
continuing to do health promotion. And one of the eight strategic principles say s we need to do more with
health promotion so that people can understand what is important as it relates to living a healthy lifestyle.
And coming from that, we know that good
physical and mental health are also part of this. So, when I speak about improving one’s physical health, I am also speaking about mental health as well, because
they are both tied together. And we need to do things
to ensure that we speak properly about mental health so that we can help minimise the stigma associated
with that.
But, Mr. Deputy Speaker, this Government has
committed to ensuring that we adhere to that principle
number 01, which is promoting health promotion and
promoting healthy living. We have the Hearts programme, which is a programme that was introduced last year to help to re gulate and control hypertension
and through the checkups and through the process itself to help to minimise the impact of hypertension,
which regrettably like I said, . . . half of the adults either
have hypertension or high blood pressure. So that is a
challenge.
But we have also, which is really critical, Mr.
Deputy Speaker, what I would like to just raise really
quickly with you is the introduction of the mental health first aid training. And that is a critical programme, again
part of prevention, so that adolescents can understand
the importance of ensuring that they too take proper steps in securing and protecting their mental health.
And part of this first aid training, Mr. Deputy Speaker, involved training programme educators, as well as per-sons who are runni ng sports facilities, et cetera, just so
that they can understand what the signs are to look at, how to address adolescents about taking good, proper
[care of their] mental health, et cetera. And that we refer to as the mental health first aid training, which is a preventative model for dealing with adolescents and mental health. And we will continue to roll that out. That is
simply the first principle.
The second principle, Mr. Deputy Speaker,
which is tied to the seventh strategic principle, which is focusing on person- centred care and partnership and
collaboration, has been encapsulated by the work that
was commenced starting with our integrated pathw ays.
And you have heard me speak about the pathways, which is in essence where we look at particular viewpoints of the patient and their family and the providers, and we map the trajectory of a particular ailment. So let
us say, for example, that we did the first 1,000 days,
which was actually a Throne Speech [initiative] last
year. And we mapped what is required in the first 1,000
days of a child’s life. Where are the gaps in the system?
The hospital did one on breast cancer. So, you can see
where the gaps are.
What we are finding is that we can do the trajectory of what the services are, what the needs are of
the patient and their family. And if there are any gaps in that we will then look to address that. And that is the
integrated portion, and that is critical . We are seeing
best practice worldwide is adopting this particular
mechanism. And what we have also done to confirm
our desire to ensure that we are looking at what is best
practice is, for various ailments that are particularly high in Bermuda, we have done the chronic kidney disease. Unfortunately, we know that there are high incidences of chronic kidney disease. And we have done
that [through] pathways. So, we have mapped it. And
we have also done the acute adult mental health pathways to ensure that whatever gaps exist in the system,
we can measure them and be better prepared to address those.
What we are also finding is that when we do
these pathways, we can see that if a patient is more
involved in their care they are probably going to be
more likely to listen to the doctor’s advice and the med-ical practitioner’s advice.

Mm-hmm.
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: In order to get to those pathways,
Mr. Deputy Speaker, we interviewed approximately
1,135 stakeholders. They were directly engaged in
these three care pathways. And it included 751 residents who responded to surveys and patients and
health service providers. So, we have done a lot of work
behind this insofar as those particular two strategies.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, the purpose also is, like I said, to
identify any of the gaps in the services.


Bermuda House of Assembly I would like to now move to principle number
03, which is understanding our population’s health
needs, which is addressed actually in this year’s
Throne Speech. Last year I reported to this House the
assessment that we were going to be doing as it relates to what our population health needs are. You cannot
manage what you cannot measure. And we need to collect data to understand what our population health
needs Are. And through the United Kingdom’s Health
Security Agency and the OT (Overseas Territories)
team, along with the Department of Health, Social Care
in London, the Department of Statistics had a very valuable role to play in this, as well as the Public Health
Registrar from the United Kingdom. We were able to
put together the first -of-its-kind Joint Strategic Needs
Assessment [JSNA].
And in that, it considered a number of points.
And you will recall that when we used it, when we cited
it in the Throne Speech, the former CMO [Chief Medical
Officer], Dr. Oyinloye, spoke about the need for us to
collect data, as well as the importance of the Joint Stra-tegic Needs Assessment because it spoke about the
social determinants of health and the other things that
have an impact directly on one’s health. And when we
analysed the data of the JSNA, and I am just reading from the JSNA (with your leave), it speaks about the
fact that Bermuda . . . when we want to understand our
health needs, Mr. Deputy Speaker, we need to consider the following:
• our population profile and the social determinants of health;
• our health behaviours and the risk factors;
• the causes of ill health and death here in Bermuda;
• the specialised needs of vulnerable groups, including children, the elderly and people with
disabilities;
• as well as the current state of our health care
services.
And this piece of work is foundational. It will
also involve the involvement of other ministries, the
third sector, et cetera. It is very detailed. It is like a 203page report, very, very detailed. It is anticipated that we
will review it and renew it in five years time. But a lot of work went into it. And the point that I am raising is that
it is specifically speaking to not only the need for us to
collect data, but also ensuring that we look at what the
social determinants are of health.
And in that regard, the social determinants and
the things that influence our health are social, economic conditions including work, housing, education
and our local community networks. And those are all
important factors for determining the social determ inants of health. And I will not elaborate on those because my honourable colleague, who took his seat,
Minister Jason [Hayward], spoke in detail about what
this Government is doing as we address those social determinants of health to ensure that we provide an avenue so that individuals do not slip through the cracks. So, from a social perspective, he spoke about all of the
things that the Government is doing with respect to the
amendments to the Financial Aid and encompassing
those particular processes.
One of the social determinants of health is
work. And the Honourable Minister Hayward spoke
about all of the work that is being done by the Government, led by his Ministry, to ensure that we are reducing
youth unemployment, encouraging through workforce
development programmes to encourage work, and
what we are doing to intensify on the work procedures and processes in Bermuda. And the Honourable Minister Hayward also did a Ministerial Statement about
what we are doing to address housing. So, four of the
social determinants of health that were part of this
JSNA, speaking about social, economic, work and housing, are all being addressed by the Government. So, notwithstanding the fact that again— I need to emphasise this because it is important —one’s health is n ot
just what happens on the inside of their body. But the social determinants of health also have an impact on
their overall health, and the Government is committed
to addressing those.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, the social determinants of
health had 24 recommendations in that 203- page report. And a number of those are, as I said, beyond the
remit of the Ministry of Health. But collectively, the Gov-ernment as well as other agencies have already started
working on addressing those.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, strategic principle number 06, which refers to harnessing health care technol-ogy. And on that particular point, you would have heard
me speak about the national digital strategy, which is in its final stages. And, of course, whenever yo u look at
digitising things and systems it will certainly create synergies within the system. It will reduce duplication. And
there are a number of factors that will be beneficial to
the whole health care system through digitalisation.
And that was certain ly one of the strategic principles
that came up. Ultimately, the national digital strategy
will seek to integrate efficiency and cost -effectiveness
within our overall health system.
So, Mr. Deputy Speaker (and I am quoting from
the Throne Speech), aligned with the central theme of
this year’s Throne Speech, serving the people, we have
outlined some vital initiatives . And our primary focus,
Mr. Deputy Speaker, is on the collection of data and
system data. We have indicated in the Throne Speech,
particularly as it relates to health, and I am referring to pages 1 and 2, Mr. Deputy Speaker, about the need for
us to collect data. Like I said previously, you cannot manage what you cannot measure. So, we certainly
need to be more data driven.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Pardon?

42 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE
DEPUTY SPEAKER

HOUSE VISITOR

Continue. Thank you, Kim.

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Okay, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
So, our current data collection efforts are insufficient. And we recognise that we need to do better as it relates to that. And as such, moving forward we are
committed to enhancing our data collection. And one of
the mechanisms that we are using so that we can know
our baseline is the STEPS. I am going to have to give
a plug here. The STEPS is a programme that is a sur-vey that is conducted in conjunction with PAHO [Pan
American Health Organization]. The last one we did
was in 2014. And a lot of the data that you always hear
me speak about are that 50 per cent of the people are
obese, et cetera— that all came from our last STEPS
survey. We have started to do the survey in 2019. And
then in January 2020, the world knows what happened
and things changed.
However, part of the data collection, as we
have spoken about, the need for data collection—because again, we cannot manage what we do not measure—will be to conduct the STEPS 2024 Population
Health Survey. And this survey will offer a solid founda-tion, M r. Deputy Speaker, of evidence concerning what
our critical public health concerns are, particularly as it relates to the realm of non- communicable diseases like
diabetes, cardiovascular disease and specific types of cancer.
So, this survey will provide a means to monitor
the trends that are happening in Bermuda as it relates
to these factors. And I would encourage anybody . . .
we are looking at 2,000 participants. And we are encouraging anyone who gets a call to do it, because it is
actually a free health screening, too. It is three parts.
There will be a verbal survey that is done. There will be an actual health screening where a blood test is taken,
measurements, blood check, everything. So, it is a free
health screening. But that information will feed into this PAHO survey. Again, it is called the STEPS survey.
And we are really encouraging members of the public,
if you get called, please participate.
The other thing, Mr. Deputy Speaker, that I
would like to speak about which was also in the Throne Speech (and part of it is tied directly to data, and that was obviously one of the key features of the JSNA) relates to the absence of data. And we will be this legislative session moving toward legislation that will allow
for further data collection so that we can look to regulate the co- pays for vulnerable pers ons within our community. We all recognise that some individuals are on
fixed incomes, especially our seniors. And it could be
very challenging for them to seek the care, or they delay their care as a result of their inability to pay the copay.
So, the purpose of this legislation, Mr. Deputy
Speaker, will be to support data collection so that we
can understand what the factors are that are influencing our health care costs so that the medical co- pays
can be more predictable and manageable, particularly for our most vulnerable individuals.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, some of the questions
that will be asked as it relates to this data collection are,
What goes into a co- pay? What services are being delivered? What is included in the fee? Are there some
services that are bundled? What is the international codin g? What are the business expenses? All of that
information is critical so that we can try to start looking
into how we manage co- pays for vulnerable individuals.
I am sure you would appreciate that sometimes
you go to the doctor, and the doctor will say . . . you pull
out your card because you are expecting a co- pay, and
they say, No, no, no. No co- pay today. But then other
times and they are like, We will take your co- pay. So,
there is no rhyme or reason. And we need to get behind
that. In order to better secure how we understand what goes into a co- pay and how it is being charged we need
to manage that through data collection. And we will be doing that, passing l egislation to allow for that this year,

Yes.

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Deputy Speaker, principle
number 08, preventing wasteful care and promoting efficiency. Again, that is tired directly to the Bermuda
Health Strategy 2022– 2027. And we are working toward that avenue as well.
With respect to strategic principle number 05,
strengthening our health care workforce, Mr. Deputy
Speaker, you would note that that speaks specifically
to ensuring that we are doing what we can to make sure
that we have a proper workforce here in Bermuda that
is in the health care field. And to that end, the Dr. Barbara Ball [Public Health] Scholarshi p, which you would
be very familiar with personally . . . we were able to provide scholarships to 10 worthy Bermudians who are
currently studying overseas in public health and healthfield related. So, in that regard with respect to principle
number 05, strengthening our health care workforce,
we are doing that through the provision of scholarship services through the Dr. Barbara Ball [Public Health]
Scholarship for worthy Bermudians who are studying in


Bermuda House of Assembly the public health field with the objective of their returning home to help to strengthen our health care workforce.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, with respect to principle
number 04 of the Bermuda Health Strategy, providing access to health care coverage, in other words universal health care, that remains a pinnacle, fundamental
principle and objective of this Government. And, Mr.
Deputy Speaker, the strategic principles . . . like I said
previously, think about the cake. All eight work in tan-dem. And I have indicated and illustrated to this Hon-ourable House the progress that we have made in each
and every one of those particular strategic principles.
As it relates to principle number 04, again providing access to affordable health care, the vision of universal
health coverage (or UHC) is pinnacle to this Government’s objective. And it is to ensure that all Bermudian residents hav e equitable access to quality care without
suffering financial hardship when paying for this care.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, right now we are formulating the UHC governance structure. I have spoken about the governance structure previously, and there
are five health forums that are working together in conjunction with the Ministry of Health, the Bermuda Health
Council, the [Bermuda] Hospitals Board and all of the
other stakeholders so that we can drive this forward.
Those health forums are the patients, there is a patients’ forum. So, we have patients’ advocate groups as part of that. We have the providers’ f orum, which is all
of the health businesses and so forth, physicians, nurses, physiotherapists and the like. We have the pay-ers’ forum, which are the employers; the regulators’ forum; and then community organisations such as the
non-profits and the unions. So, they are all collectively
critically important. These are working groups that are
working to help to drive forward the objective of UHC. And the role of these forums is to provide their own in-sights and their feedback and their recommendations
toward this UHC steering committee.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, in my seven minutes I
know people were saying, Okay. So what’s next? What
are we doing next? When will UHC be a reality? The
Ministry of Health, like I said, and the Government do
remain committed to achieving universal health cover-age to ensure that residents have this access to health
coverage. However, as I indicated in the Throne
Speech press conference a couple of days ago and I
have said it in this Honourable House, that is not a flip
of the switch. Unfortunately, it is something that will
take time for us to deliver.
However, what I can say is that in recognition
of this particular timeline there have been a number of
initiatives that the Government has done to try to minimise the impact of rising health care costs, and I will
talk to that in a moment. But insofar as providing a timeline and estimated time for UHC, I can provide the fol-lowing:
• In April 2024, it is anticipated that we will be in
a position to define what [are] the core health care services to be included in that benefit
package— again, by April 2024. And this is being worked on heavily, being driven by one of
those five working groups I [mentioned], the
one that is referred to as the Clinical Senate,
which is made up of a number of health care
professionals and stakeholders.
• Also, by April 2024, we will understand better what the costs will be to deliver those core services. And when I say “core,” because in everybody’s personal circumstances they would
think that this is a core service or that is a core
service. But we have t o look at it from a systemwide perspective. And whatever core services are being advanced —which again we are
looking for being able to articulate what they
are by next year April —we need to make sure
that we get the best bang for the buck. In other
words, it is going to impact a wide cross section
of community based on what our health needs
are and the health outcomes that we are trying
to achieve.
• By July 2024, we will undertake the financial
analysis to provide the baseline and the modelling of what this core care package will cost.
• By September 2024, we will be making recommendations to Cabinet as to what that core
benefits package will be, ensuring that the
costs associated with it from an individual and
systemwide perspective are acceptable.
• By April 2025, we will look to adopt a phased approach to implementing the core care benefits package, starting with the basic core benefits package for all.
So, the roadmap, Mr. Deputy Speaker, to
achieve universal health coverage proposed by the Government to adopt an approach is a step- by-step
process. We have a huge amount of participation from stakeholders within the community and the five forums,
again including the unions, private sector, patients,
et cetera. However, as we go down that road toward
universal health coverage, I am also pleased to be able to elaborate on the steps that this Government has
taken to better ensure and address the issues of ris ing
health care costs.
Let me start with drug costs. We know that one
of the biggest complaints that we hear from our residents is the high cost of medication and prescription
drugs. And you will recall that we passed in this House
of Assembly the introduction of a drug formular y. And
that drug formulary was there specifically designed to
help to regulate the price of certain medicines and med-ical devices. This formulary, which is the pharmaceutical and therapeutics community, and they meet and
they help to create and maintain the National Drug Formulary . . . right now on this formulary there are a number of commonly used drugs. That means that there are regulated prices, and they meet and assess again. It is entirely based on what are the community’s needs.
44 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Right now, the drugs that are listed are the COVID -19
drugs. We have diabetes drugs and heart disease
drugs that are always on the formulary. And they continue to meet regularly to see what other drugs can be
added to that formulary.
As a Government, to address the issue as it relates to medication and prescription drug costs we have
increased the drug benefit for HIP. So HIP patients
have $1,000 a year prescription drug benefit which they
never had. The other thing that we did, largel y led by
yourself through your lobbying efforts, was to increase
the [benefit] for FutureCare medications. So, we have
increased that [benefit] from $2,000 to $3,000 per year,
thanks to you and your advocacy, as well as we have
heard from members of the public the need to increase
the FutureCare prescription drug benefit.
We introduced maternity benefits, Mr. Deputy
Speaker, for uninsured and underinsured women. So
heretofore, they did not have maternity benefits. So, we
introduced that to ensure that women and their children
get the best start of life, and they should not be disad-vantaged simply by virtue of their s tatus in life by not
having insurance or being underinsured. We regulated
the pricing, Mr. Deputy Speaker, with respect to home
infusions and medications and IV treatments. That is a
regulated cost that was not done previously. We introduced a kidney transplant coordinator to help to increase the number of kidney transplants on Island. We have conducted multiple health technology assessments to inform potential providers of the market entry
risks, thus reducing th e number of new entries to the
market that would drive up health care costs.
We have expanded the SHB, the standard
health benefit, to include medical, nutrition therapy and health education. These are prevention benefits so that
patients can receive these benefits at no extra cost. That is tied to the principle number 01, the strateg ic
principle about prevention. We have expanded artificial
limbs and appliance benefits to include oxygen supplies, colostomy bags and insulin pumps. So then
again, these high- demand supplies are no longer requiring any out -of-pocket payments for persons w ho
are requiring them.
And again, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I know that
you appreciate this. We continue to enforce employers’
compliance with the Health Insurance Act to ensure
that employers who are deducting where the law requires employers to pay health insurance . . . and if they
are deducting it, th ey need to pay it. And we have improved our compliance regime to make sure that there are fewer employers who are not abiding by what the
Health Insurance Act says as it relates to taking deductions and not paying the insurance. So, we are dealing
with that as well.
Then of course, as you would know, we created the Enhanced Care Pilot Programme for vulnerable persons in our community who suffer from chronic
illnesses to ensure that they can get the treatment that
they need. This notwithstanding that we recognise that there are persons who may have challenges as it relates to paying for their health insurance. But, as Minister Jason [Hayward] said previously, we do have financial assistance that will help individuals if they need
help to pay for their . . . I cannot bel ieve 30 minutes is
over.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, we are committed to serving the people. I have given you a quick overview of what we are doing insofar as servicing the people as it
relates to the Ministry of Health and the number of initiatives that we are doing to ensure that we can mini-mise the impact of the high cost of health care that is
happening in Bermuda.
[Timer chimes]
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: And I am happy to stand here
and defend the Throne Speech of this Government.

And so, given the context that
the Minister of Health has laid out for us right now, I would like to first of all mention that within the Throne
Speech there was not much mention to or about seniors and in the Reply to the Throne Speech there was
the cont ext which I would like to get to.
But first of all, I would like to just establish the
situation. We are in the midst of the Throne Speech
which is held and we do this, have this debate, in order
to set out that legislative agenda. And that is where I would like to go with my speech at the moment. We
have, as the Minister of Health previously mentioned,
something like 8,500 seniors in Bermuda right now. By
the time we reach the next seven years, early 2030s,
we will be looking at almost a quarter of the population
over 65. It warrants a huge conversation. So, I am going to spend a few minutes speaking about what I have
been able to research and pull together for this particular speech so that we can start having a conversation
that is more inclusive of those who are over 65.


Bermuda House of Assembly The Deputy Speaker: Mm-hmm.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, the seniors in our community are really having a difficult time. The Minister of Health has clearly set out pathways to make sure that our seniors are healthy or have access
to services that are going to keep them healthy and
maintain their healt h. But there are many other components to life as a senior. In the Throne Speech the Premier, read by the Governor, had mentioned the fact
that more work may need to be done, especially in the private sector, to see if we can make it official that those
who want to work up to the age of 68 . . . that this would
be possible. And that is a great thing because there are
so many healthy seniors in our community and much of
that needs to be given to the credit of the Minister of
Health and those who have come before her. But we
also have to live.
And so there has been a concept . . . and Mr.
Deputy Speaker, you have been very much involved in
how we can create an environment for our seniors mov-ing forward. And as I was doing the research, I found
that there are a lot of strategies and plans for our seniors. But how are we actually going to get somet hing
started and how are we going to get something done?
As I was reading through many of these reports, plans,
strategies, I realised that we do have a couple of options. One of them, which seems to be very popular, is being able to age at home. And the i dea, the vision, that
those who are 65 and older can age at home, yet what I see there is, one, that the medical field has had an
opportunity to do a full assessment of where that senior
is by the time they reach retirement. That there are support services within the health community that are there
to provide services and visits in order to maintain and
keep a healthy environment for our seniors. But there are some other components to living at home and age-ing at home that from a legislative perspective, I believe, that there is a little bit more that can be done in
order to really make it a place of comfort and at least
emotional prosperity for our seniors.
We have to protect our seniors. That is probably the biggest challenge right now. The greatest risk.
And so my colleagues, going all the way back to 2012, the present administration has spoken about an Office
of the Public Guardian. These are the kinds of offices,
or this would be an office that really would provide legal
guidance and advocacy and protection so that when a
senior is ready to retire at home they can sit down with
the legal fraternity, with a lawyer, in an Office of the Public Guardian. This would be a government service.
It would be awesome if we could get pro bono lawyers
who would come in and provide that advice so seniors
can protect their affairs and make sure that their wills,
their banking, their financial inheritance and that which
they want to give to their children and their family mem-bers, et cetera, after their passing. These are all very
important. And if a senior is able to get themselves protected, that takes a great load off. We have been waiting for quite some time,
over a couple of administrations, for legislation for the
Office of the Public Guardian. So I am going to put a
pin in the wall for that. I really believe that this is something that we should work harder to achiev e. And if
there is anything that I can do to help, I certainly would
like to provide that.
The other interesting piece around protection
is abuse. And the Throne Speech did speak to domestic violence which is absolutely something that seniors
will experience just as much as a younger person who may be in a relationship with a partner. Oftentimes we
find that senior abuse either comes [from] within family
members —

—or it could be a caregiver, or
it could just be a stranger out there in this world who
wants to steal their money and commit fraud, whatever.
And we have seen instances of that in Bermuda locally
and we have also seen external foreign folk, whether
they are calling our seniors on the phone or online
through the computer and stealing our seniors’ money. We need to have legislation in place to protect them
from this kind of abuse.
And so, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I would very
much like to see on the legislative agenda two pieces: (1) I would really like to see us craft some comprehensive legislation around domestic violence. We also
have a Senior Abuse Act and I think it is time for us to
review that. And if it needs to be strengthened, let’s
strengthen it. [(2)] We have also had a number of seniors who have been victims of fraud and stealing and so I would like to see us have a fraud Act that focuses
in on protecting our seniors when str angers from
abroad or family members or anybody who just tries to
scam them out of their money. And so those are other
pieces of legislation that I would very much like to see
on the calendar.
Ageing at home. Sounds good when seniors
are young and vibrant and still mobile. But oftentimes,
whether it is illness, whether it is mental illness with deterioration or physical or just simply age and cannot be
as mobile anymore, we find that many of our seniors are included in families. But that puts a lot of stress on
the matriarch of the family, which is oftentimes the
daughter, whether it is by marriage or by birth. And
what I am hearing and what I am listening to with an open heart is that there are a number of . . . I am just
going to generalise, middle- aged women who are working full time. They have children to care for, they have
a husband to care for. They are oftentimes working
hard to keep that mortgage paid and the school fees
paid and everything else, and they still have their parents who are seniors. And yes, we are young, we are women, we are going to get this done. We get help from
our partners or our spouses. Good stuff; off we go. But
it is a lot of strain on the family and most of that s train
46 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly is one the woman who tends to be the head of the
household in many ways, shapes and forms for many
reasons.
And so, Mr. Deputy Speaker, we really have to
find ways to either relieve that pressure or we have to provide services that will complement the environment
and allow there to be a shared responsibility for the
senior who wishes to age at home. As we navigate
through that, I just visualise a community that really is
committed to servicing our seniors. And when I say a community, yes, we have already established the health services because they are definitely well advanced in their plans and strategies and ac tions to
move ahead. But we would also need to have abilities
to get our seniors active, getting churches involved and
having more entertainment and community involvement for our seniors. And I would also very much like to see, and I believe that many folk out there who are
ageing would also very much look to find out, just how
much could be done around our transportation—

And we need to have that conversation.
I have made it clear. I have sent the message.
We have got to have some sort of roundtable. We have
got to have a summit. And getting back to and sticking
to the Throne Speech, we have to look at reviewing
some of this legislation and maybe some of regulat ions
as well. The regulations and the Motor Car Act, these
are laws that date back to the 1940s. And what was
going on in the 1940s has very little to do with what is happening in 2023. And it is not about spending a lot of
money. We do not have to come up with anything new,
but we have to have a conversation about the difference or the changes that have taken place over the last
90 years.

So somehow, we have got to
have that conversation, Mr. Deputy Speaker. And it is
not enough for us to just simply throw a crumb at the
industry in hopes of . . . maybe just as a delay tactic
because we are just not ready to have that conversa-tion. But you know, say that, so that the industry understands it because right now, Mr. Deputy Speaker, we
have got public transportation all over the place.
And everybody wants to be involved. People
are out there working and trying as hard as they can to
make their business profitable. They have made a
great investment in their taxis, or their minibuses, or
their limousines, or their tuk -tuks, or whatever it is that
they have chosen as their commercial vehicle. And we as a Government have to sit down and provide some
kind of guidance. And I personally believe that if we could do that, if we could sit down and review the regulations, maybe have a look at some amendments
within the sections of public service vehicles in the Motor Car Act, that we could come up with something that
would really work.
And, you know, before I move on from transportation, I just want it to be known that I personally feel
that the taxi industry deserves to be a national icon.
They are an important part of the fabric of Bermuda.
They are an important part of our tourism product. And
so, there is a certain amount of protection that I believe
the industry itself deserves. And we do not want to see
it become extinct. And I get it. Digital . . . like I said, it is
2023. All kinds of new developments are cropping up,
are sprouting out in this industry. But we must be very
careful to also maintain the cultural and the national sig-nificance of the industry as well.
And I believe that we can get there, but it is going to take some hard work. And sometimes when, you know, I am listening to folks who are within the industry
who have their opinions and their suggestions and the
rest, and I am reading all of these documents and I am thinking, This is like a thousand piece puzzle. You
know, no one is saying it is easy at all. But I believe it
is worth the effort. I really do. And I know that we can
find a way to make it work.
Now, we have made some little steps. The announcement of the digital fare for the buses is a really
good start. And for me, Mr. Deputy Speaker, this is a
good start for two reasons. First of all, it allows us to test the environment, see what it is really like to have
digital payments, see how it works. Find out how stable
the platform is. Find out whether it is secure from any
kind of c yberattacks, et cetera, make sure it works.
Once that happens and we get more familiar with digital
payment methods (and t he bus is a safe space to try
that) then we have a little more knowledge and experience as we move into other areas, whether it becomes the minibuses, the dispatchers, the taxi drivers. I will
leave that alone. But you know, at least it would give us
some background information and some experience.
I believe that one of the really big touchpoints
is how much money the taxi industry is earning. And
right now, again, we are using these old- fashioned or
archaic kind of models. I am not saying that we need to get rid of fare meter rates and the rest of it. I am not
saying that. But maybe that is not the only answer. And
one of the thoughts that I have had, and I shared it I


Bermuda House of Assembly believe last year during the Budget Debate, is that there
may be ways in which the tourism industry, especially
the cruise ships . . . the cruise ship passengers have a
huge demand on our public service vehicles. Maybe we need to look at some seasonal rates for different desti-nations. Dockyard to Horseshoe Bay, [I] guarantee you
that is going to be a bus full of tourists off of a cruise
ship. And so maybe we have an opportunity here to introduce some seasonal fare changes for places and
destinations and routes that are typically for the tourists
and not necessarily what the local population would be doing. Which brings me to another point.
I very much would like to have the confidence
to know that even if we are going to move to a digital fare method that we are also able to maintain the efficiency of the monthly bus pass for our local riders who
oftentimes are riding the bus two, three, fo ur times a
day. I mean, when I lived up in Dockyard, I had no car
(still have no car), but I had my monthly pass. And I
used that . . . you know, it was very good value for
money for me. I don’t know whether the Government
might have been able to earn a few more dollars off of
me. But the point is that I could get on . . . I could use
that bus pass all day, every day for a month. And our
local residential community needs to have the comfort and the satisfaction to know that they are not going to
lose those kinds of beneficial features for transportation
because this new dig ital method will come into play.
And so it will be a transitional period. I have confidence
that the Ministry of Transport will be able to sort that out
so that everybody in it becomes a w in-win.
But with all of that, you know, there may be opportunities over a period of time for the taxi industry to actually have some sort of share, some sort of conces-sion or something that could come out of the additional
revenue that may be generated from increased reve-nue that is coming in through either the digital fares or increases in taxes in the cruise ship industry so that
they do not have to deal with some of the concerns that
they have that are unavoidable—tyres, shocks, you
know, there is just no way to avoid the wear and tear
that these taxis are experiencing on their vehicles. And
if we could touch and just kind of work to come up with
a mutual way that we can contribute as a Government and provide some service and relief to the industry, that
would be fantastic.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I am just going to have a
moment with COVID -19 for just a minute. I had a family
reach out to me . . . a year after their loved one had
passed away from COVID -19. And they called me because they did not understand why (it had been a year) they could not access any bank accounts. They could
not take care of any legal arrangements. They could
not deal with any real estate. They were stuck. And so
I asked the questions. I learned and understood the
process and the procedures and who does this and who does that. And I did not get a very satisfactory answer. And here we are now on the third year. January will be the third anniversary, and death certificates are
still not available.
So, we all understand why, but the point is that
it has taken this long, and families have been grieving
for this long because they are constantly reminded every time a decision is made or they want to change
something that they are doing in their lives they are
stuck because they do not have a death certificate. So
the Government (and I would suspect that the Minister
of Health probably had a great deal to do with it) is to
facilitate a short form and find a way that we might be able to get these death cer tificates published and in the
hands of the families so that at least they can take care
of some of the basic administrative and financial and
maybe real estate outstanding issues that they may
have and bring some form of settlement to their affairs
and their loved one’s affairs.
I would like to end, Mr. Deputy Speaker [speaking] about housing. I had a lot of hope for the North East
Hamilton Economic Zone. I know that we have tried.
The Government has pushed and promoted for some
time, and it does not seem as though the movement is
fast enough. I get that. I bel ieve that there may be more
that we as a Government can do in North East Hamilton to prepare for a cultural revitalisation. And even when
the Throne Speech spoke about the arts and music and
getting the youth in an environment where they can explore their creativity . . . North East Hamilton might
have some capacity for that. And to bring some colour
and some music and some stories and some history
and some poetic justice would be an ideal environment.
But I believe the Government is going to have
to do a little work to get us there. There has to be some involvement, some commitment to the revitalisation,
the culture restoration of North East Hamilton before
we are going to be able to get ourselves into an attractive platform that will bring people in and want to participate. I was really disappointed to hear that rather than
giving more thought and attention to North East Hamilton we are going to Front Street. I cannot even . . . I do
not even know where to go with that. It goes against the
grain of everything that I ever thought the PLP Government would have really invested in.

I know I was doing really well,
Mr. Deputy Speaker. I really did. But you know, all I can
think of is it’s Front Street. And that just . . . you know,
we have all been there together. And so, I am going to
leave it there, but I would very much like to see the attention remain. I believe that Government has the ability to have two fronts and that you can expand it, but I
am just putting it out there that I personally will be a little
emotionally charged if I find that all of a sudden there is movement in the newly announced area and we still
have not really made any commitment or investment
into . . . and I do not mean investment meaning money.
48 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly I mean investment meaning care and thought and hard
work, some elbow grease into North East Hamilton.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Can you be specific about
that? Because we need some help.

You get beat up with hurricanes. You get beat up from the salt, the humidity and then here comes something more catastrophic like COVID -19 and you can’t get out and you can’t maintain
anything and it gets neglected. It absolutely gets ne-glected. And so, at some point we have to put all hands
on deck and we have to absolutely say we are going to
do all of these things and we can do it together and get
everything back where it ought to be. And the Opposition Leader laid that out very wel l. We have got a list. A
lot of it is not about the money; it is about the effort. And
if we can put our minds to it and roll up our sleeves and
get it done, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I am feeling confident
and especially with the ideas and the thoughts of the
One Bermuda Alliance, we will absolutely get there.
Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

Save and except for the
end, the immediate past speaker started off on a very
good wicket, but then the talking points started to resurface. The overarching theme [of] divide and conquer is
all too prevalent in Bermuda. And when persons en-gage in the divide- and-conquer theme, they utilise finger pointing. So the divide- and-conquer theme may be
a two- way street. On page 6 of the One Bermuda Alliance Reply, they said we just have been seeing the last
25 years in a concerted effort of blame, divide and isolate and stigmatise. Well, I just happen to have come
into this Legislature, not in this House but in the Legis-lature, 25 years ago having run 40 years ago in 1983. I
kind of understand the dynamics of how divide and conquer works. And I just want to provide a little historica l
context. And pardon me, Mr. Deputy Speaker, if I remind folks that during the recession of the early 1990s, the UBP of which I was a member but not [in] Legislature with, actually sent people packing out of Berm uda.
Portuguese families in scores were sent home.
[Inaudible interjections]

That is the origins of the
One Bermuda Alliance. I never denied that I was UBP because I was the last man standing with another man
like Swan who decided to go back the other way. And I
stayed there. Because Bob Marley says, you know,
You got to know yourself. You never know yourself.
And it is no good telling people that you are going to sell them on change but the only people who
have to change is the way they see you, but you remain
the same.

And I want to tell you that
the Progressive Labour Party that they accuse of dividing actually put in place the PRC that PRC people today
would look at the PLP cockeyed, but they have an equitable system that was put in place to counteract what
the UBP had put in place . . . did not put in place. And I
know that I am telling the truth, because in 1998 in an


Bermuda House of Assembly election I ran [in] there was an exodus of some Portuguese folk of some great numbers.

Brother Famous would
probably know some of them down in Devonshire. I actually grew up around some of them up in Southamp-ton. I am actually a country boy, up there around the
Moores and Madeiros and folks like that. Yes, I grew
up chasing cows and all the like. I ran around Luke’s
Pond because we are pond dogs up there. There are
pond dogs up town that call us “pond puppies.”
But that systemic racism that exists in Bermuda today —that still exists in great measure— is the
system of which we would turn a blind eye to the fact
that 98 per cent of one demographic of this country had
not changed where they sit politically. And the p eople
who have made every effort to unite this country sit in
this House in large measure, in the largest measure.
We are the ones who have moved toward integration, and we have seen folks move away from us. Ask my
cousin Zane who I grew up with playing foot ball against
some Boaz Island with Allan and Heads ! We know what
the real deal is when it comes to segregation in this
country. It is not perpetuated by the Black community.
It is perpetuated by the community that Blacks within
the UBP did speak about.
I am going to tell you this: When it was happening in great measure, we saw an exodus of UBP people to form the BDA. We saw an exodus of UBP people to join the PLP. Some of them . . . one of them is sitting
right next to me! One of them is a Minister. They left
because they said that there is no way that model is good for Bermuda. I stayed because I won a PLP seat.
And I said, Maybe I am doing something different that
you do not want to do! Maybe I am not there calling the person a brother, or speaking on behalf of them, maybe
I am walking around them and understanding them! I
am not taking talking points from a political consultant.
You know what I am talking about. They will write
scripts. They will put stuff in there. They will trip up
cousin Cole without him even knowing it.

[Laughter and desk thumping]

That is why I challenged
cousin Cole last time because I knew he did not think
like that. He was one of Dame Lois’s favourites. [She
said,] You know, I really like Cole and you. I don’t know
why you byes over there . . . and Barritt.
And I said, How about Maxwell?
She said, Oh, yes, of course Maxwell.

[Laughter]

Yes! And that is the origin
of the divide that we in the Black community have to
endure daily, currently. I remember a year ago a journalist said very
derogatory things during the same tournament that I
have to be here today that I am involved in. Right? Saying negative things. And I took him to task. And if I had
done that, I would be persona non grata on those same
grounds. I would be persona non grata! And I have to
share with someone that there is a different level of accountability when we talk about divide. And until we can
have that honest . . . you want a real honest conversation? Sometimes we need to h ave a real honest conversation about the real reason this country still deals with racism as it relates to that. And the undertones of
it that come when persons write for you but don’t really
believe in what you may truly believe too!
[Inaudible interjections and desk thumping]

That is what annoys me!
You know, when I became a legislator 25 years
ago in that esteemed building up on the hill, we had a library. [In] my first year I lived in that library reading the
speeches of Dame Lois Browne- Evans, reading the
speeches of L. Frederick Wade, reading the finance . . .
budget . . . finance of Eugene Cox.

Budget replies. Reading
the solutions that they offered. And the UBP took! You
think Bermuda lowered the voting age because we in
the UBP wanted to lower the voting age? No! It was the
PLP recommendation. You think the Pitt Report came
about and made . . . we cherry -picked and took the
ones that were beneficial and left ones and sometimes
people had to come in later and introduce them. You
think we took one man, one vote? We didn’t get it. Took
it kicking and screaming. But it was beneficial today.
Don’t come with this divide- and-conquer narrative. Come with some solutions that I know you guys
have. I really do.

I’m here to tell you that
when it comes to this economy (right?), I want people to be reminded that we did not just have a global pan50 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly demic. And if persons are going to pin the global pandemic on the PLP, they would have done it and it would
have stuck in this country!
[Inaudible interjections]

People still today blame
the recession in 2008, 2009 when Dr. Brown, myself, Mr. Don Kramer, Mr. Phil Butterfield, and Mr. Gregory
Slayton were causing all the communities to come to-gether to look at that . . . pin the tail on the PLP. That is
politics. [ They] ignored the fact that during that same
recession that caused persons to leave (right?), the first people to take a pay cut were who? They were the workers, the hotel workers! And who was the first people to kick them to the kerb and start cutting bac k during
2012?

You know? When we talk
about . . . and cousin Ben, I love him dearly, his father
did a lot for me in my life. I tell you. And my name is Hubert as well. And he took me around like I was his son back in the Senate. He was coming here swinging
carrying that narrative here today. But I got to tell you,
that in Bermuda (right?) we are committed to doing
good economic stewardship for this country. Look up
and down in this country. How many people are pro-testing and calling us all types of names? I took some
of them on. And you know the one thing that I will say
is that because I am environmentally friendly . . . I love
the environment. And I used to take Zane to task when
Zane used to get up and say, You know . . . What was
that, Zane? Give me a tree . . . or a job over a tree any
day!

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: I’d take a tree before a job.

Zane said he’d take a tree
before a job.
But I am going to tell you this. You tell me, if
there is anybody in this House today that does not see
the economic imperative of us getting Southampton
Princess rejuvenated and functioning as a hotel. And
the argument of the SDO falls away when the same
people are saying, . . . said nothing, where the places
that they live today were hotels and are now condomin-iums. And I am telling you! And when Southampton Princess comes on stream . . . when it comes on
stream, right? And let me say this: I come from a family whose
great grandmother’s property, not dissimilar to Tucker’s Town, was compulsorily acquired to build the Fairmont
Southampton Princess in the first place, standing here
today on the shoulders of Emily Burrows from Southampton to say that if it was an economic imperative
then, it is an economic imperative today. Why? Because we have no hotel at Lantana. We have no hotel
where the Belmont is. We have Newstead, but we had
Newstead before. It has been enlarged. Right ? We
have no . . . we have residents there. We have no hotel
at Sonesta. Elbow Beach is in receivership. Right?
[Inaudible interjection]

Yes! And those properties
were around at your time too.
And the thing is this: What we must do is let the
responsibility of the Opposition . . . when this country is
on the cusp of getting an SDO, the opportunity for economic development is real! Because I am going to tell
you that just as the little old countr y boy that I am, I am
spending every bit of time I can to tell people overseas
how wonderful this country is, what a wonderful place
it is to come and invest their money. And yes, I know
billionaires. And yes, I get around them. And yes, I am
telling them [about] this country. I wouldn’t have it in print that this country isn’t a good place to come. And
let me tell you this: I would not come here today and
talk about why our country has to increase its age from
65 when other countries, the mother country, has got to
do the same thing.

[Inaudible interjections]

England is doing the same
thing. I mean, you know, sometimes we have got to get
real. And we cannot just push that narrative that will
keep us as a people divided. And yes, we are very
much concerned that we have to go somewhere else to
see our grandchildren. We are very much concerned.
And that is why the lead speaker today did such a sterling job because we are not just going to come here and
say, you know, Take it or leave it. This is what we are
going to do; take it or leave it . Like we had to take or
leave Cross Island.

And let me tell you, I come
from Southampton. I want Morgan’s Point redeveloped.
I believe it should be the second world- class golf


Bermuda House of Assembly course. Why? Because when Mid Ocean was taken
from my family down in Tucker’s Town (right?), it is now
for the specialist. But you have got people overseas
who want to come to Bermuda who cannot get access.
They tried their best to get some access and I do not
fault them for that. But courses out there don’t do that
at all. So, if we want to expand the interest in Bermuda,
maybe we do need to dust off the plan that Jack Nicklaus came to Bermuda and developed for Morgan’s
Point as a golf course to tie in to the hotel that the Government [was] left holding for the $250 million . . . what
is it? . . . a $250 million tag that took place during that
five-year tenure.
I am looking for a solution. And I am not pointing fingers because when you inherit, when you take
over a government, you know, you have to look at what
the government has and work with it. We are working with the airport. We would not have given away the revenue of the airport, but we would have built one or improved it. You know?
So, we have got to get real in why we should
be coming with solutions and not just come in here with themes, themes of potholes and try to tie everything in
to a theme. I saw that! I write, you know.

[Inaudible interjections]

I write! I have been writing.
You know my cousin, Stanley Morton, stopped
me at the post office back in the 1980s when I realised that I would never be good enough for a safe seat in the UBP. He said, You know what? You write well.
You’re articulate. He told me that right in the . . . and he
gave me . . . and I appreciated that. Because other people were commenting [and saying], Why are you writing
that? But persons are held to a different account depending on what background they come from in this country. And you know what? I am old enough to be
able to tell the young people where the pitfalls are. The
same potholes they are talking about in the roads, are
the same potholes we have to deal with and even more
from being who we are in this country, especially when
you are PLP. Even though the best economy this country ever endured . . . ever endured, great economic
growth, was when I sat as an Opposition Senate
Leader under a PLP Government . . . and you know
what caused it? And I used to always say, Mr. Cox put
in place the reserve fund for the . . . not the Sinking
Fund. Saul put in the Sinking Fund. I am talking about the Workman’s Compensation thing. Right?

[Inaudible interjections]

And that was foresight.
And the global recession . . . and when we pinned the
tail on the PLP for the global recession, people bought into the narrative. Well, the PLP did not cause XL stock
to go down the tube. The PLP did not cause AIG to
change their name, or American International to change their name to what it did. The PLP did not cause
that. The PLP did not cause Enron and Madoff and
Stanford and all those people to cause the heart of the
economy . . . the PLP did not precipitate those people
having to leave.

Madam Acting Speaker,
we do have a plan to rebuild this economy and I am
proud to be a part of it.
I just want to touch on the growing of the population base that Minister Hayward has articulated on
more than one occasion, on more than two occasions,
on almost every occasion, papers written about it,
right? And I was stopped in the Paget MarketPlace on
South Road on my way on Saturday. And someone
came up to me, having heard the Throne Speech, and
said to me (and this is from the Throne Speech), Why
are you going to CARICOM? Why? And he said it loud
enough for everybody in the fruit and vegetable sections to hear.
Do you know what I said? For the same reason, with my own money, I am in the United Kingdom telling people they need to come to Bermuda.
You heard what I said Madam [Acting
Speaker]? For the same reason I am telling folks that the place to find the 8,000 people are not only in the
Caribbean where we are going, they are also in the
United Kingdom and Ireland. They are also in the
Azores. Bec ause that is where our people . . . they are
also in North America—Montreal, Nova Scotia. And we
have to be strategical about how we do it.
And the Opposition, who wanted to grow the
economy by giving everybody status, we differ from that. We see the need for this economy to grow. And
we are going to do things in CARICOM that benefit the
people from the Caribbean. Why not? Because when I
was brought up we didn’t know, many of us, who our people were, that we had first cousins down there.
Some of us, even our fathers and so forth, would have
had brothers and sisters down there. Persons were
leaving for different jobs and different places.
The Government that introduced one of its
early Bills was to eliminate the Illegitimacy Act. I remember that. And I remember the dialogue and the way
it was put. And it was put to me as a Government Senator to an Opposition Senator by one of the greatest
52 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly understanders of all times that I have ever had the honour of sitting with and learning from, being opposite,
was Cal Smith. [He] shared the importance of that, the
importance of knowing and having some honour no
matter what your origins are, you know. And those are
the things, those are the social connectiveness of importance of legislation that [has] come from this side,
and still comes from this side that gets diminished when
a person would make a deliberate attempt —on our 25th
anniversary nonetheless! —to go back and deliver a
speech that says Haven’t we just spent 25 years . . .
blah, blah, blah. It is not lost on me, you know, because
you have to know the innuendo that is being advanced while somebody is trying to pretend like they are on your side, or on side, or they are your friends, and they
are not. That is the unfortunate circumstances that we
are confronted with, Madam Acting Speaker.
I am very pleased that the Minister of Health
went off early in the batting order because the Minister of Health on page 1 of our Throne Speech speaks of
some very important factors in Bermuda. One that in later years I have come to appreciate [is that] we need
to preach from the months that a child is on this earth.
And it leads to the proliferation of obesity in our Island.
The poor nutrition, the poor diets that we have, and tie-in to the exorbitant prices. Because you get somebody
hooked on something and they will pay whatever they
want. I remember when I was hooked on certain foods and I used to, you know, . . . a block of rats cheese
grated up made a nice little self -made taco and then all
of a sudden back in the early 2000s that price just went through the roof. I saw it from $1.35 and the next thing it went up to $4.35.
I like nuts and raisins, those ones, [and] they
went from being like $2.00 and they are around about
$5.00 or something like that now. You go some places
and you blink and you might pay $10.00 for it and not
even know it. So now you are being discerning. P eople
are making choices between those foods.
There is some private sector responsibility in
that as well. Because everybody is looking to the Government. There are people who are making a lot of
money in this country with no social conscience. And
let me go back to when I was UBP. And the PLP came to the rescue during the same financial time to who?
Butterfield Bank. I think right now you could roll the dice
and [over] which Christmas somebody is going to be
doggone laying people off, and sharing with you how
much money they are going to make. And I am saying
a Government cannot do that. A Government has got
to find ways to do things for the betterment of the people. And I make that point because the private sector
has a responsibility as well . . . as well.
Someone once told me (it was Pam Gordon, in
fact), she said to me Businesses like to support governments. They don’t support political parties. But I became an Opposition Leader and I know they support the political parties, and some might fund some political
parties and not the other. And I am not going . . . I do not have enough time to get on my hobby horse as to
some of the CPA guidelines that deal with things like
that that I have spoken to in the past at conferences on
behalf of the CPA. But there are great inequities that
exist in Bermuda. And there still remains the remnants
of institutional racism that lives and breathes and manifests itself in many ways.
And it is an irony, but I will tell you this: I love
my country. I love all people from all walks of life in my
country. And I am blessed to have been a part of all of
those segments in some form or fashion. But I will tell you this: When you walk in the s hoes of a Black man in
this country and around the world, there is a significant
difference in the way in which the world deals your
hands. And sometimes you can take the avenue of
least resistance. The party I represent did not do that.
We will not do that. We are not going to do that. I am proud standing where I am. And we are going to make
this country fair for all just like we did so in the 1990s
when families were displaced. [We] put in place
measures that made it possible for even persons today
to look for a better life in this country.
And so, with the speakers who have come before me and the ones who are coming behind me, let me tell the folks of this country that, yes, there are challenges amongst us but we are going to come with some
solutions and do some things to grow this economy. And I can tell you that in the space that I am in in tourism and in the hospitality industry where I have spent
my entire life, I am out there around the globe, on the
Internet, telling people what a wonderful place we have here in this Bermuda. You would never think so when
you read an Opposition Reply these days. But if they were ever . . . no. Keep on that tact and you will never.
Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Acting
Speaker.
Before I get into my comments, I would like to
give thanks to the people who sent me here. The people of constituency 33. I want to give thanks to the family members who knew me before I even knew . . . before my parents even knew I was coming, to the fri ends
I ever went to school with and who I grew up with and
to the friends I have made since the day you first gave
me the honour of serving you. I want to also give thanks
to my volunteers and team for all the work they have
done. I would not be here without you.
So, Madam [Acting Speaker], the OBA’s response was not what I expected. I expected with a new leader a new direction, a new approach. I expected an
elevation of debate. I expected for there to be a chalBermuda House of Assembly lenge of ideas. I expected there to be pointed, valid criticisms that we as a Government could take on, hopefully grow from and even refute if they were incorrect.
But we got the same old, same old.

You all are crooked. You all
don’t know how to run a country. You are all friends and
family. I have heard this before under a bunch of different voices, the same thing. It is the same song over and
over again. You can’t, you are, you are this. Right? I
mean, they might as well say, Your feet stink. Your
momma dresses you funny. Because it is the same
song we have been hearing.
Now, I have seen the masquerading of having
a social conscience in previous Throne Speech Replies under previous Leaders. And I have seen the pattern of
the One Bermuda Alliance of suddenly discovering a
social conscience in Opposition but earning power and
suddenly losing it. So I know them very well.

[Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr., Deputy Speaker, in the
Chair]

But what was really interesting . . . I was struck by something because I said I was
not going to spend much time on the Opposition’s [Re-ply], but there was something that struck me that I felt
needed answering, Mr. Deputy Speaker (back in the
Chair). From the Reply, and I quote, “We in One Bermuda Alliance constantly speak with people who are
afraid to express their opinions about the Government,
for fear of retribution. How ironic that in 2023, the fear of political retribution of t he 20
th century is still going
strong. Entire companies, stakeholder groups, industry groups and others must whisper their opinions, out of
fear they will lose permits or other documents needed
to remain active and successful.”
That is their quote [from their Reply].

[Inaudible interjection]

That is their quote. Now, I
would like to counter that with another quote from one
of their vocal supporters in the Royal Gazette. They
said—not a month ago—these words: To be fair, it
doesn’t matter how educated a PLP MP is. If he or she
is looking for a job I wouldn’t hire them. That is the true
face! Up here we see the smiling face, but if you vote for these guys, that is who you get. You get the people
who refer to you in the Royal Gazette comment section
as “sheeple,” “Kool -Aid d rinkers,” “uneducated.”
Now, Mr. Deputy Speaker, the Honourable
Member for constituency 2 spoke about our shared his-tory in another dead, unlamented organisation. I went
through the experience of people telling me, You will
never work in this country again. And just three days
ago marked 11 years since I have worked in my field in this country. And do you know what? I appreciate the denial of opportunities, I appreciate the non- support because, you know what? I had the opportunity to go else-where and learn things I never would have learned
working for one of their people. I had the opportunity to get skills that I could bring back to my country.
So, as your little comment -section people
mocked me for being a security guard (and I continue to be), I was sitting up nights as a security guard writing and messaging to help destroy the One Bermuda Alliance Government. I was teaching myself how to do
graphic design, because the party didn’t have any
money, so that I could put out flyers to help bring down the One Bermuda Alliance. So the joke is on you. The
security guard took you out!
But, now, I do not want the public to be misled.
Anybody can exploit pain and misery for political gain. But if you have not lived it . . . a parrot can speak words
but does not know what it is saying, does not have empathy, does not care. That is the question that people ask, and people must ask, because there are those on
this side who live it, who live it every day and it is not a
matter of something to be exploited or milked for political gain, because it is real. So, the parrots may speak
the words, but do they have the feeling in their hearts?
Our Government is not above criticism, Mr.
Deputy Speaker. Heck, I have been one of the biggest
critics both internally and externally, so I do believe that we have room to grow, and I know that we have a ways
to go to be better. The Honourable Minister who spoke
first . . . in fact, he and I have had heated discussions.
And I have been glad to praise him on the floor of this
House when I support what he has been doing, and he
has faced criticism as well. But I think one of the things that we do not get, and I partially blame it on this structure. So, a week ago we all marched down the hill. An
unelected non- Bermudian rode up in a horse and carriage and read a speech. And because of that, we come
here today and we debate that speech.
Now, this is a relic. I did a little research because somebody asked me why do we a Throne Speech. We do a Throne Speech because back in the
Middle Ages, or the 1600s, or sometime, the King used
to roll up to the Parliament and say “My Government is doing this; my Government . . .” those were the marching orders for the Government of the day. We continue
to carry forward these things that sow division, these
relics of Middle Age colonialist thinking that continue to
divide us and produce very little. So, when the public
sees us going through all of these rituals also, they are becoming more and more disconnected from the work
that we are doing. The arcane language, the way we
approach our debates is slowly disconnecting from
people because they do not see the relevance of it in
their lives. And I think we all have to look at how we can
adjust that.
But I think what it really comes down to is this:
We had an opportunity today to actually talk about the
issues. We did. And I think it is a great disappointment
54 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly that we have not got to that space yet. And I think that
regardless of all of the intellectual power and ability and
talent and ideas in this room, as long as we operate
under the colonial structure designed to capitalise on
division, designed to exacerbat e division, we cannot really talk about unity. We cannot. We have to think differently and approach things differently. So, I expected
ideas. I expected a different approach.
But do you know what I have been expecting
since 2017 from . . . how many leaders have you had
now? The Honourable Member Pat Gordon- Pamplin,
another Honourable Member, Jeanne Atherden, Honourable Member Craig Cannonier, Honourable Member Cole [Simons]. So, from all five we have heard . . .
I expected . . . one thing that I have never heard from
them . . . I have expected an apology. And here is the
thing, right? When we lost in 2012, in the first speech
by the Honourable Member Marc Bean, as Opposition
Leader, he apologised from the lessons we learned
from the defeat. That was the first thing he did in his
Throne Speech Reply. Now, we did not hear an apol-ogy and we still have not heard an apology for economic policies that saw non -Bermudian jobs grow while
Bermudian jobs fell. We have not heard an apology. We
have not heard that we have learned from that , and that
if we get an opportunity we would do better . All we have
heard is about how great a job they did, and that some-how you silly people do not underst and and won’t vote
for us, not necessarily from these Members, but from
the people, some of the people, they represent.
You could have apologised for anti -Bermudian
policies, like trying to give guest workers’ children the
right to compete against my children for job opportunities. You could have apologised. But you did not. You could have apologised for Morgan’s Point. You could
have apologised for the airport. You could have apolo-gised for pepper -spraying seniors. But you did not, and
you have not. And until you actually reflect upon what
you have done, you will still lack credibility. You will still
lack the capacity to do more than parrot the suffering of
the people you are seeking votes from. Trust and believe that I know the real face of the OBA, and it is not
sitting in this Chamber. Okay?
The cost of the lack of solutions and lack of
ideas reinforces that we have to do better. And if you cannot come to this Chamber with ideas and solutions
it is no wonder that you are struggling to find candidates
for all of your seats. It is no wonder that your candidates
complain to me about everything that is going wrong and people still say, I’d rather stay home.

Thank you. Mr. Jamahl S. Simmons: But let’s talk a little bit about
the cost of living. This is a passion of mine, because
part of why we got elected, part of what we campaigned
on is breaking down the Two Bermudas. And part of
that was the inequities that lead to some of the suffering of our people. So, we are very aware, I am very aware,
particularly for my constituents. They have told me how
the cost of living is hurting them. They have told me
how they have had to tighten their belts. They have told
me how they are having to make tough decisions to do
this. So, I was very pleased when I saw in our Throne
Speech that we are focusing our efforts to deal with
that. And I believe that this is important, and I support
us doing that.
As I go up and down my constituency people
tell me about the housing crisis. It is not the traditionally
un-housed, you know the people who cannot pay their
rent because they don’t make enough money. There
are good families now looking for places to stay. And
because the people in constituency 33, and all the
other [constituencies] of this Island told us about that,
our Minister is producing a homelessness plan. This is
what this is about, being responsive and addressing
these issues because these issues are important.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, one of the things that I
find a great source of frustration since COVID -19 is
workers who are being exploited in all sorts of ways but who are afraid—not because of their work permits or
their documentation. They are afraid for their livelihoods and are forced to accept injustice. They are
forced to accept that they cannot get an employee contract it says under law. They have to accept that they
cannot get a paystub to justify what they are doing to cover their expenses. They have to ac cept not being on
time and accruing extra charges on their BELCO bill
and late fees and having services cut off. And they are
scared because they know that with so many people
out of work there are employers who will kick them to
the kerb rather than actua lly treat them justly. That is
something that is real out there. I appreciate Minister
Hayward for what he has been doing to modernise our
laws and get us to a place with some of these things
and give people security that they are not going to be
exploited , because I can tell you first hand that speaking up and getting punished is real. Getting blackballed
is real. And people know it. And people do not always
have the options that many of us in this Chamber do.
So, we look at how we strengthen the social safety net.
We need to because this is a product of a previous age, and modernising it to reflect today is important.
We talked about housing. We talked about the
cost of living. We need to also talk about how the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation [BEDC] is
breaking down barriers. Our banks, God bless them,
have not always been helpful to all of our entrepreneurs, especially the ones who look like me. Our banks
have not always been generous when it comes to help-ing people to fill their dreams. And the BEDC, thank
goodness, is in a position to be able to circumvent the


Bermuda House of Assembly institutional impediments and help more of our people
become entrepreneurs. This is part of us being able to
build our people up. Workforce Development, taking
our people and giving them skills to get new jobs, or to
give them skills to move up from the job they have and make more money. These are the things that we are
doing. And these are the things that we must do more
of.
So, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I am not going to
speak all day. I want to say, though, once again, if you
do not live it, it is easy to say it. If you do not see a path . . . I will give you a good example, Mr. Deputy Speaker:
West End [Primary] School. Now, everybody knows
where I stand on this issue, right? I support keeping the
school open because of the history and the legacy. I
would hazard a bet that until it became a politically popular thing in Somerset that there were people on the other side that never heard of West End [Primary]
School. And it speaks to, you know, Let’s jump on an
issue and see how far we can ride it. Right?

Opportunism. That’s a little
Berkeley education there, see?
But when we . . . I just have to say, I am flipping
through my notes and saying I don’t want to be rude
today. I want to be nice, because I do have a lot of time
for some of the Members. I think they are capable of better . I think that the conversations that we have had
in the room . . . I would like to see more of that on the
floor of the House. I would like to see a genuine debate
on ideas. And I would also like to see a movement from
. . . you know, we really do not have ideologies in Bermuda too much a nymore, especially on the other side.
It is pro -business, pro- business, pro- business, and
then some other stuff thrown in, you know? And these
processes that we participate in, this process is just . . .
it’s not working. We need to actually put our heads
around how we can make this work better.
Now, let me wrap it up with this: We are facing
a cost of living crisis and we are facing a housing crisis. If your greed is contributing to our cost of living crisis
you need to stop it for the good of the country. If your
selfishness is contributing to our cost of living crisis and our housing crisis you need to stop it for the good of our
country. If your racism and your anti -Bermudian mindset are contributing to our cost of living crisis, our housing crisis, you need to stop it for the good of the country.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, we are out in our communities and
we are talking to our people. And because my [people
in] constituency 33 have told me , You need to deal with
the cost of living, I and my colleagues on the backbench are going to push the Government and continue to support the Government in addressing the cost of living because we have to deliver on that because it is our supporters who are affected.
Because my constituents told me that there is
a housing crisis, we will continue as backbenchers to
push the Government to produce on the homelessness
plan and address the housing crisis because we have
to. Because my constituents, like many others, have
said, You all need to fill those potholes and cut those
trees, we will push the Government to do it and we will
do it because we have to. We will.
You have told me that you want to see West
End [Primary] School saved by the Progressive Labour
Party Government. I will continue to push for that result.
You have told me that you want our longstanding promise to restore the club at White Hill for Somers et Bridge
Recreation Club to be fulfilled. I will continue to push for
that to be accomplished.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, we all have different constituencies. We all have different people we represent.
But I would like to believe that if we are serious we actually will come here, beyond playing political games,
beyond trying to score points, beyond trying to do the
same thing that has been going on with these processes since they started in the 1600s or whenever, to
really trying to do something a little better. My honourable colleague, indeed, a former member of the education profession, tells me 1620. B ut, I thank you for the
time. I thank you for the opportunity. And I thank the
good people of constituency 33 for your love and support.
Thank you.

Okay. I am not sure if the Opposition wants to speak, certainly they have the opportunity, and if they don’t want to speak just let us know
and then we can govern ourselves accordingly.
The Chair recognises the Honourable Minister
Furbert.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Thank you, Mr. Deputy
Speaker.
The Speech from the Throne is entitled “Serving the People.” As the Premier said, and I quote, It is
more than a slogan, but a promise. It is more than a
slogan; but it is a promise.
I proudly stand here today, Mr. Deputy
Speaker, representing the governing party, the Progressive Labour Party. And I want to say a few words
on why we have substance and direction when it comes
to governing our Island home which is called Bermuda.
56 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly But first I want to express my frustration with the Opposition party which seems to do nothing but complain.
While a robust democracy thrives on the diversity of opinions and checks and balances, I believe that
the Opposition’s role should go further than that. It must evolve from a mere complainer into a proactive force
for change. Mr. Deputy Speaker, I yearn (as I heard the
Honourable Member Mr. Simmons) for a more proactive and productive Opposition that actively participates
in the legislative process.
I was very much disappointed in the Throne
Speech Reply by the Honourable Member [Jarion]
Richardson. I have been around here for many years. I
have never heard a Reply that was so lacking in
thought or intelligence. Mr. Deputy Speaker, identifying
a problem and coming up with a right solution is not just good enough. So, we can sit around here and recognise a problem and get a solution. Action is the key to
making a tangible difference. And this party over the
years has taken action. The Honourable Minist er Jason
Hayward has laid out some actions we have taken and
Honourable Minister Kim Wilson has laid out actions
that we have taken. I am sure other Ministers will do the
same.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, let me make it very clear
that change does not come over night. But this Government is committed and determined to finding solutions
to problems and to take action. The One Bermuda Alli-ance speaks about finding solutions to problems. As a
matter of fact, the Honourable Member Craig Cannonier mentioned in his opening statement in 2012, I
am proud to present more solutions for a better Bermuda. But guess what he did, Mr. Deputy Speaker,
what they did between 2012 and 2017. They promised
to help our seniors. The Honourable Member Jason
Hayward said it. Here was a chance to increase social insurance, but they did not give an increase to our sen-iors for over five years, which means, Mr. [ Deputy
Speaker ], that they set the seniors back.
They promised to increase jobs by 2,000. Do
we all remember that?

Yes.

Another Hon. Member: Guaranteed.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Guaranteed, by the way. Not
only were the jobs not increased, Mr. Deputy Speaker,
they were decreased by 2,068 jobs. That’s for the time
they came into office .
Mr. Deputy Speaker, they cut the budget for
scholarships, education and training in 2013, 2014,
2015 and 2016. They increased tax on job makers
which caused a decline in jobs. Mr. Deputy Speaker, it
is easy for the One Bermuda Alliance to stand and crit-icise and point out what is lacking. But it is far [more] challenging to take the reins of leadership and guide
our country toward a better future. Mr. Deputy Speaker,
as I mentioned before, we believe that actions speak louder than words. And our record of governance
demonstrates a commitment to substance and direction.
So, what have we accomplished? Honourable
Members have mentioned a few. In a move to make the tax system more equitable, the PLP Government has
cut taxes for 86 per cent of workers —that is significant,
Mr. Deputy Speaker —and local businesses providing
such needed relief and stimulating economic activity.
We have doubled scholarship funding. We have increased child day care eligibility to household incomes of $130,000 or less. We have assisted the Bermuda
Housing C orporation to provide 66 new affordable
hous ing units, creating a nation of owners. The Honourable Minister of Finance, the Honourable Premier
David Burt enlarged the mortgage guarantee. These
are actions that were taken by this Government and a
promise that we made that has helped our people over
the years.
The PLP Government has shown a strong
commitment to environmental sustainability. We completed the solar project on the airport finger, electrified
Bermuda’s bus fleet, and are now installing solar panels on government buildings. We have also made significant strides in infrastructure development, the opening of the new St. George’s marina in May [2023] has
provided improved dock area and facilities. And thanks to the Honourable Minister Jason Hayward, a minimum
wage has finally been introduced.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, what are some of the initiatives that we will carry on? We made a promise, and here are some that we will do. You heard the Honourable Minister Kim Wilson talk about estates, and the Honourable Member Jackson talk about estates taking
a long time to be settled for certain reasons. The Government will take action on that. A promise made, a solution found, and we will take action on that.
The Government recognised the challenge of
an ageing population. The Minister of Labour will take action to address those particular issues.
The Honourable Minister Michael Weeks, a cadet training programme for uniform services will be implemented by the Honourable Minister of National Security. And, Mr. Deputy Speaker, digital fare met ers will
become the norm for public transportation, not just
buses, but public transportation, for both residents and
tourists. We hope to have that up by next year, as soon
as possible after we come out of the New Year.

Honourable Minister, let me refer you to [Standing Order] 19(7), about reading your
speech. If we allow you to read your speech, then you
have to give a copy to every Member. You can refer to
your notes, but you cannot read your speech and reply.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Deputy Speaker, I am referring to some notes here.



Bermuda House of Assembly The Deputy Speaker: Well, it appears to me that you
are reading. But if you say you are referring to your
notes, then continue. I just remind you of [Standing Order] 19(7).

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Thank you, Mr. Deputy
Speaker. I need to look very closely if I am reading or
not.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, when we talk about the
problems of airlines, we know we have problems. The Miami flight (I’m not reading this, Mr. Deputy Speaker)
had a challenge. We recognised that, we visited the
American lines and we got the Miami flight back. Mr.
Deputy Speaker, as you are aware, we had a problem
with the Boston airline flight. We went and had a word
with JetBlue and now the Boston airline flight it back.
As of April next year, (I think it is April of next year) we will have a flight out of Washin gton, DC. These are
problems that were recognised by this Government and
we took action to make solutions happen.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I will be reading this probably next week, but the cruise line industry has in-creased from $74 million of economic activity to over
$200 million under this Government. We have taken
action. We recognised the problem, and we took action.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, we had challenges with
the buses, our diesel buses were breaking down. Last
year under Honourable Member Lawrence Scott, we brought in 30 new electric buses. This year we brought
in 40 new buses. It takes about 72 buses to run an effective bus operation. This has been a problem and the Honourable Members mentioned it. Some buses were
breaking down, they were late. Mr. Deputy Speaker,
the last month of October since we got those buses, we
have had very little challenges in that field. So , we have
taken action to make it work. Mr. Deputy Speaker, we have challenges with
electrifying the buses on a timely basis. We currently
electrify four buses. That’s all the transformer s can do.
We just got a new transformer in place that will be able
to put 20 buses on the road at one time. These are
promises made for solutions that were discussed in
Cabinet and other places, and action that has taken
place.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, let me deal with taxis. We
have had challenges regarding public service vehicles.
Many hoteliers, many individuals have complained that
the challenge of getting service was not appropriate. I
have been up to the cruise lines many times and the challenge of getting service has not worked out properly. The Government is continuing to take a look
at what action we need to take. Those different things
will come before the Cabinet and they will com e to another place with the [PLP] caucus and hopefully bring
some legislation here to improve the public bus and the
public service overall. You talk about simple things like this. Out of the current situation a minibus driver, a
person who gets a minibus, has to incorporate a com-pany. So, these are discussions that we are having
within the Ministry. It costs about probably $5,000 to $7,000 for an entrepreneur to drive a minibus. And we all know, as a lawyer, you can either have a sole proprietor, you can have a partnership, or you can form a
whole company. Every one of us owns shares in a company. So, over the years we made minibuses incorporate, which costs $5,000 to $7,000 a year. That is absolutely . . . and we know that don’t have financial statements or, as a lawyer would say, an AGM to talk about
what they have done for the year. So, the idea of improving the efficiency in Bermuda of the minibus we are
looking to actually move the concept of actually having
incorporated minibuses. So , you can have a sole proprietor, you can have a partnership, or you can keep a
company based on the risks that you want to take over
it.
Secondly, Mr. Deputy Speaker, is that taxi drivers . . . if you want to be a taxi owner you have to take
a test. And you have got to know where Harvest Lane is in Hamilton Parish, or you have to know where other
roads are in Hamilton Parish. We all know that right
now what we have is the Google Maps or GPS. You
can [enter] Harvest Lane and find yourself down in
Hamilton Parish or wherever you want. Those types of efficiencies we will be improving within the Ministry allowing bus drivers and others who want to become taxi
owners to operate more efficiently.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, the Government has a
plan. The Government has made promises, the Government has solutions, and the Government will take actions to ensure that our people are served in the best
ability we can.
Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

Never sleep in the House.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, this is my fifth Throne
Speech [debate], and in years past what I have tried to
do is point out certain things in the Throne Speech that
I agree with and am supportive of, and then to go on to
point out things in the Throne Speech that I will off er
58 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly constructive criticism. Before I do that, I would like to
pick up on two things that were said earlier that were
said by the Honourable Member from constituency 33
(who I see is now back in the Chamber; I am glad he is). I very much agree with one thing he said, and I re-spectfully disagree with another.
What I agree with is when the Honourable
Member for constituency 33 said that so many people
do not see the relevance of what we talk about up here
and that so often we are throwing bricks back and forth
or being personal and we are not really focusing on the issues as the Honourable Member said that are important to their lives. And I very much agree with that.
In fact, I have expressed that sentiment here previously.
Where I would respectfully disagree, or at least
ask the Honourable Member to think again, is his state-ment that the Throne Speech provides very little. And
why I disagree with him is because what a Throne
Speech is about. It is about the policy intentions of a
government, what they are going to do through the next parliamentary sitting, through the next parliamentary
session and the things that they feel are important in
the Island and the legislative proposals that they have
in which to deliver.
Respectfully, I do disagree with the other Honourable Member because I think that is important. But
it is important because it is about policy. It is not in-tended to be, and really shouldn’t be, personal. And I
am going to try and stay on that wicket if I can for this
speech. It depends how often I get heckled.

And at page 9 is the creation of a
single payment portal for all government services. We absolutely agree. A very, very sensible thing. Some-thing, and I mean this in a bipartisan way, that should
have happened long ago. No doubt back in the days
that Mr. Kim Swan, MP was talking about when he
spoke earlier, which I think was the 1980s or sometime 30 or 40 or 50 years ago—before my time, anyway. We
would love to see that. We would be supportive in that.
Likewise, Mr. Deputy Speaker, page 8, again if
I may, we have heard a proposal for digital fare media
for public transport. Again, a very, very sensible idea. It
might have to be a hybrid. Again, I want to stick to policy, it might have to be a hybrid because not everybody
has their c redit card on a mobile phone. There are still
some perhaps like you or perhaps like me—

[Laughter]

I will tell the truth. Thank you, Mr.
Deputy Speaker .
I thought the presentation by the Minister of
Health of the challenges that are currently faced in Bermuda in regard to our health system was delivered informatively, professionally and shows the effort that is
going on in that department. Like MP Jackson for constituency 20 before me, I would commend the Minister
because that was the sort of presentation that actually does inform this Honourable House about the troubles
we face [and] the solutions that are being implemented.


Bermuda House of Assembly Again, sticking with policy, and this is perhaps
a little bit of constructive criticism, at page 2 of the
Throne Speech is where we hear a little bit about the
health plan. It is right at the top and it says, “ In this Session, ” if I may quote, with your leave, “the Legislature
will consider the promised Bill to support data collection
to control medical ‘co-pays. ’ This critical step on the
journey towards universal health care will be accompanied by the establishment of core health care services
to be incl uded in a universal health care [benefits package] for all residents . . .”.
So, yes, information is important. But I would
respectfully suggest that the time for journeys is behind
us. Let us get to universal health care. I know we may
differ about whether that should be provided by the private sector, as we say, or the public sector as some on
the other side have previously said. I don’t know if they still do, but they previously said that. But let’s see if we
can get there because the journey is not going to help
those who need universal health care coverage now.
Moving then to another point also in the Throne
Speech is the point on the issue of death certificates being issued, and that is at page 2 as well. Again, I am
delighted to see the progress being made. I am sure
those who have been waiting, and certainly I have been contacted by people who have been frustrated in their
efforts to get these death certificates, so I am delighted
to see that being done. Again, constructive criticism. It does seem unfortunate to me that this just couldn’t
have been solved in s ome administrative way and that
we have to announce it as a legislative change. I have
not seen the amendments to the legislation but it does
seem surprising, eyebrow raising, that this is what is
needed. Perhaps it is. I do not say it . . . I don’t know, is
the answer. But you know, one would have liked to
have thought that this could have been a problem that could just have been fixed then and there at the time.
Also, at page 3 or 4, I think, it is this idea of
taking derelict housing, abandoned housing or build-ings and using them for artists and creatives. I like the
idea. But again, dealing with policy and not personal, I
think it would have probably been a bet ter focus for this
Government (or any government) to focus on the state of homelessness because that was very much a fea-ture of the Throne Speech and one we also support.
But we need to tackle that. But you know it is a missed
opportunity. We have had a mi ssed opportunity there.
That would I think be something that if Bishop Spencer
could have been done, it probably should have been
done, maybe we still can get something like that achieved. I know that particular property may no longer
be an option.
Likewise, the CCTV which is dealt with at
page 7. I think it is fabulous that we are doing this. But
it is important to note, and the Minister (who is not in
the Chamber) did confirm this when he announced the
Bill and when we talked about it, we put questions to
him. But what is being talked about here is Phase 1 and
he made very clear, rightly so, that it is only when we get to Phase 2 that this system will actually do the wonderful things it is supposed to do. So, I wouldn’t want
people out there to thi nk that this is an implantation of
a solution fait accompli , all done. It is not. And the Minister was very frank in recognising that that was part of
Phase 2.
Now the heckling may start because I am going
to move on to a few constructive criticisms.

If I had to step back and give one
general criticism about this Throne Speech, and by the
way this is a debate about the Throne Speech although
it seems to have largely featured as a debate about the
Throne Speech Reply, that may say something. But
there we are.
If I had to step back and give one sort of overarching criticism it is that a lot of what is said here . . .
it is not something people are going to disagree about. Most Bermudians are going to say Oh, that’s great . But
it is stuff that we have heard before and really should have been done before. And again, I emphasise, I say
that in a bipartisan way.
We have heard three former UBP speakers today. Their Government did not do it. The PLP G overnment has not done it. The OBA was in power for four
years and some of these things did not get done. But it
is a shame. I think if you were a student of Bermudian
politics to hear . . . what’s the word that’s relatively
new? Not rehash. That sounds unfortunate. But just something that is like, Well, I have heard that before.
Like, I have heard that the year before and I heard it the
year before that. These are not bad ideas per se, but
what I think it does focus on is, and I will steal a line
from the Opposition Leader’s speech, which is that
Government should be boring because it is about getting hard work done. I think what we need to focus on here is it is not so much promising these ideas, again
previously promised. It is about delivery. That is really
what we need to focus on.
For example, the two examples that I gave earlier, the single portal for government payment for services and the digital fares for public transportation. All
well and good to say it, but let’s get it done. I will be slightly political, but of course, this is a contentious Parliament with people on Opposition. But a number of
times today some of the speakers who were talking
about the Throne Speech concepts of the PLP Govern-ment said things like, We will, we are focusing on, we
have set out goals, we have plans, we have strategies .
Well, all of that is wonderful, particularly if the strategies
are ones that have bipartisan support and more importantly than bipartisan support have the support of
the people of Bermuda and want to see its implementation. But if we don’t get the job done, it is really just hot air from both sides.
Also in the Throne Speech, page 9, again with
your leave—
60 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Deputy Speaker: Mm-hmm.

It says this in the middle paragraph, “ Though legislation and policy are the primary
levers for serving voters’ interests, Governments have an obligation to ensure that Government services that
fall under legislation are delivered well. ” And I think that
is really the heart of it.
There was a speaker earlier who complained
that we are not really focusing on the things that matter. I think the things that matter are service delivery, at least in the eyes of the service users and the voting
population at large. They want to know that what a government (and I mean small “g” government) is doing is
providing them with the services they need to the best
of the server’s ability. And so, I certainly agree with that
statement, that they need to be delivered well. But I guess my question is, and this is critical, where is the
delivery? And if it is coming, when is it coming?
Likewise, we hear about the streamlining of the
planning process. And that is something that was cov-ered in the Opposition Leader’s Reply. The frustration,
I think, that is felt by so many in this Island, where
someone has a good idea, someone wants to adv ance
a good idea. It may [help] assist the economy of Bermuda . It may create jobs. It may make people’s lives
better. It may give them more interesting work. And yet
we seem to get tied up in planning. I mean, things take so long it is just hard to underst and. But I just make that
point. Again, we don’t disagree. Great. Streamline it. Get it done.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, likewise, again in the
Throne Speech, page 4, a constructive criticism. A compliment but a constructive criticism, and that is the suggestion that we are going to assist in the modification of homes for disabled persons so that they are bet-ter able to wor k from home. And the point is made, w ell,
we had COVID -19, many of us were forced to work
from home and we did so and therefore it would be good for disabled people if we were able to modify
homes and allow them to work from home. I don’ t disagree with that. But I think that misses the much bigger
picture. The much bigger picture is that I rather suspect
that disabled people don’t necessarily want to be iso-lated from the rest of the workforce. What they want is
accessible workplaces where they can work alongside
everyone else who is not disabled.
I think, again, I appreciate that this goal is a
more expensive goal and I appreciate also that the Minister (not in the Chamber at the moment) has spoken about that in the Chamber in the past. But again, you
know, I wonder how that would be received. And I wonder whether, again, post COVID -19 [if] it is really in the
interests of all of our mental health to be sitting isolated
at home because I think we are social creatures and
we work better together, which incidentally is the title of the Reply, I think. But there we are. Page 4 is about economics. I heard what the
Minister for Economy and Labour had to say in his re-sponse to the Throne Speech Reply. He too had his
talking points that he accused us of having. No doubt
that is how it works. I am slightly concerned that we ar e
hearing economic statistics again and again where
something goes down but it doesn’t stop to say, Oh and
by the way, 5,000 to 10,000 people no longer live here.
So, it is going to go down. Or something is up but we
are comparing it to a COVID -19 period w here there was
no activity at all. I would rather have an honest statistic
about inflation, say, than a statistic that really is a bit of
spin and fluff because it really does not help, in my respectful submission. People know they are being misled and it is not helpful.
Moving on now, if I may, Mr. Deputy Speaker,
to our Reply to the Throne Speech. It is interesting . . .
I mean, this is politics, I guess, but it is interesting what
was heard by the other side versus some of the things
that were actually said. But what was heard by the other
side appears only to have been, if I will call it politely,
the laundry list of negative facts at the bottom of page
2 and at the top of page 3 where the Opposition Leader
read out a list of factual statements —none of which
have actual ly been rebutted yet —of things that are
wrong in Bermuda. But that was one paragraph in an
entire speech.
I mention that because there were things said
that I think are absolutely spot -on. The Opposition
Leader spoke about hope. And frankly right now we
need hope. The Opposition Leader spoke about unity.
And frankly right now we need unity. The Opposition
Lead er also spoke about something in his speech, indeed it was a sort of theme that ran through it, which is
the notion of accountability. I think that is really, really
important because there is a general dissatisfaction,
and it is not limited to Bermuda. Th ere is a general dissatisfaction with politics and politicians in the world.
They are all just as bad as each other, it is said. They
only speak because they are trying to line their pockets,
it is said. They are not believable. They stand up and
say things they don’t mean, it is said. And this demeans
the entire political process in Bermuda as well as in
other jurisdictions.
There was a time, or perhaps I am deceiving
myself, I will defer to you. You have been around this
game a lot longer than I have, Mr. Deputy Speaker , but
to my mind as an outsider now standing here, there was
a time where I felt that Bermuda politics was perhaps
slightly different than the Punch and Judy of the UK or
the cut -and-thrust and personal attacks in the United
States. And I rather thought (perhaps wrongly) that
things were a little more better, that there was civility.
You heard stories of the Premier and the Opposition Leader (whoever they may have been, whichever party) sitting down and being friends and having
personal relationships. We heard today from MP Jackson about her personal relationship she had with the


Bermuda House of Assembly now deceased MP from the Chamber from the other
side of the House.
I just think that sometimes we need to step
back from the Punch and Judy, that cut -and-thrust and
realise that we all presumably got elected at one point
in time because we wanted to try to make Bermuda better. We wanted to try and inspire our people with hope.
We wanted to achieve a greater degree of unity. I think
the notion of accountability that was at the centre of the
Throne Speech Reply today is fundamental to that because I know one of the mottos of the PLP was Standing strong.
Another popular motto which is not PLP but it
is Stand up and be counted. These are notions of taking
accountability and taking responsibility for the reality
that is faced because if we do not acknowledge the reality we cannot diagnose potential solutions and if we can’t diagnose potential solutions, we cannot even argue about the solutions because we do not agree on
what the problem is.
Whilst it is right, and one of the speakers on the
other side earlier said today that they had hoped to hear from us about policy arguments so that we could have
policy arguments, you can’t have a policy argument, a
legitimate policy argument with a Minister who does not
believe there is an economic problem in this Island. I
mean, I believe that there is a problem, and the Minister
believes there is no problem whatsoever. To actually
quote his specific words, [he said] , “They have got a
strong record of delivery” (in quotes), and that the
“economy has expanded before pre- pandemic levels.”
And if he believes that and I fundamentally don’t believe
that, it is very hard for us to have a serious, positive,
solution- based conversation as to how to deliver a
problem to the economic solution because as far as the
Minister is concerned there are none. And I am not just
making that up. Again, his own words, Mr. Deputy
Speaker .
Hon. Jason Hayward: Point of order, Mr. Deputy
Speaker .

Yes.

Hon. Jason Hayward: I then highlighted a report from
a ratings agency which then re- reported that particular
fact as an independent source. So the Honourable Member and I do not have to have a debate on the
facts. The facts are the facts. The Deputy Speaker: They are.

Hon. Jason Hayward: And he has to learn to accept
them.
[Inaudible interjections]

You see, that is exactly, Mr. Deputy Speaker, what I am talking about. The facts are the
facts . . . by the way, my quote was in quotes, and he
repeated it, “expanded beyond pre- pandemic levels” in
quotes, and also in quotes, “a strong record of delivery.”
Again, in quotes. I do not think I am misrepresenting
what the Honourable Minister said.
He also said this when referring to the people
who were visiting to golf, They don’t see the poverty.
They don’t see deprived economic conditions . What
was implicit in that statement from the Minister , or at
least this is how I heard him, was he was trying to say those aren’t there. That is why they do not see him. So,
I mean, if he could agree with me there is poverty.
There are deprived economic conditions.

[Inaudible interjections]

Let me just find my place in my
notes . . . yes, I was just coming on to our points in our
Reply and I think whilst it is my opinion that most on the
other side only heard the laundry list of negativity in the
62 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly two paragraphs at 2 and 3, I would just like to take this
Honourable House back to a few other statements in
this document.
Right at the beginning on page 1 with your
leave, the Honourable Opposition Leader said this,
“However, it falls on us to determine whether these
changes will create a thriving Bermuda and a life of prosperity for our children, or not. ” And the point I would
take out of that statement is that it does fall on us. And it falls on all of us and so we are going to have to do
that. And either we will do it together and we may suc-ceed, or we will choose not to do it together and we will
in all likelihood fail.
Also at page 9 is a statement from the Honourable Opposition Leader which struck me, and it was the
third paragraph of that page which is, “ To get out ”—
quote (it is now Madam Acting Speaker) —

[Ms. Lovitta F. Foggo, Acting Speaker, in the Chair]

Madam Acting Speaker, with your
leave, “To get out of this extraordinary and once- in-alifetime challenge lands on the shoulder of every living
Bermudian on this island today. ”
The point that struck me in that sentence was
that it is not just the responsibility of those in this Chamber. Indeed, not just the responsibility of all of those
hardworking Bermudians who work for the government
(small “g” government). But it is for every living Bermudian. All of us will have to come together or we are not
going to tackle the problems. And why do I say that? I
say that because the problems are getting increasingly
more complex. We are a small Island, but we have
some very, very big issues. Those issues are not merely contained to the issues that happen in any small
community. We also have pressure and force being pressed upon us from the outside world and there are some in the outside world who would frankly prefer that
international financial centres such as Bermuda don’t
survive. It would be in their economic and financial interest to see us wiped off the map as an international
financial centre. And therefore, when we start to deal
with issues such as global minimum tax, for example,
and we have had a cyberattack recently, you know, these are complexities beyond any complexities we
used to try to wrestle with and deal with. And these
complexities arrive at a time in addition to the existing
social complexities that we were facing and sti ll have
not resolved.
I really do think that the notion of accountability
that flowed through this Throne Speech Reply and the
idea that it is for all of us, for every living Bermudian , to
focus upon these challenges together is the right way
forward and is what this party is about and I hope what
that party is about so that we can achieve at least some
solutions. We will never achieve all of them, obviously. That is just life. But we can work towards trying to
achieve those that are solvable. I do not have too much time left so I will just
touch on a few more points in the Throne Speech Reply
that I thought resonated. The first of those, Madam Acting Speaker, is at page 7, it is the third paragraph from
the bottom, and he says this, “ The problem is that this
Government has proven time and again its own power
and interests supersede those of the community. ”
I note that this statement is not going to be welcomed by those on the other side of the aisle. I note
that there are probably many of them who disagree.
There may be some who do agree. But I might put it in a more diplomatic and more subtle way which is this:
Bermudians are only going to have our problems
solved when we, their elected representatives, put Bermuda before party. That is when it is going to happen.
And until that happens, I am not persuaded that we are going to be able to come together and s olve the problems. And if someone says that it is all about the party,
and it is not about the Island—

He will have his time as he is rightfully entitled. Thank you, Madam Acting Speaker .
And that is the point here at page 9 where the
Honourable Opposition Leader identified what he thought was the foremost importance here was to get
back to the basics of good governance. And I am not
going to repeat further all the points that he made given
the time available to me, but I think that this is a fundamental that we need to focus on and seek to deliver.


Bermuda House of Assembly Over to page 10, he said this, “ If the people of
Bermuda are expected to be accountable for their actions, according to our laws and values, then so must
their leaders .” And I respectfully agree with that point.
Then I would just go to another point which is at . . .
forgive me, I have lost my place. Let me find it. Time is
ticking, time is ticking. Page 9 . . . no, we dealt with that.

Hon. Jason Hayward: We dealt with that.

In fact, here is a point I did miss.
One of the refrains obviously in the Opposition Leader’s
speech was accountability. One of the refrains in response from the Honourable Minister Jason Hayward
was this, and we heard it 9 or 10 times during his
speech, the Government you elect matters . Well, on
that, Minister Hayward, I quite agree with you. The G overnment you elect matters and I think the people of Bermuda are focusing in on that now.
Moving on, Madam Acting Speaker, I would
just like to say this: one of the concerns expressed by my Honourable colleague, the Member for constitu-ency 8, was that the Government is not listening. I believe that to be true and I believe that many Bermudians believe that to be true, perhaps some in this Chamber on the other side of the aisle. It is certainly true in the
eyes of the farmers, the fisherman, the taxi drivers.
They believe that this Government is not listening and
I was particularly disappointed that when the Opposition Leader got up to give his Throne Speech Reply the Premier wasn’t listening because he wasn’t even in the Chamber.
[Inaudible interjections]

Madam [Acting ] Speaker, I want to
thank the Honourable Member who just took his seat.
You see, I do not believe my colleagues fully
understand what just happened. I do not think they fully appreciate that what we just witnessed was a masterclass. You see, we just heard someone speak for 20plus minutes yet still managed to say absolutely noth-ing. That is an amazing skill.
Madam Acting Speaker, I do not even feel a
way about anything he just said. I am actually more up-set that he just wasted our time. But I digress.
Madam Acting Speaker, I will start by saying
that I am proud of the accomplishments this Government has made thus far. Not only have we increased
the amount an individual receives in child day care allowance, we have also made it so that more people are
eligible for the allowance as well. What that means is
that the Government has listened to parents and those
considering starting a family. We have heard their concerns about the rising cost of child day care and as a
result we have not only increased the al lowance that is
granted, but we have made it so that more people can
receive that allowance as well.
Madam [Acting] Speaker, we have introduced
a mortgage guarantee programme to not only help Bermudians get on the property ladder but also reduce the
interest rates for those with existing mortgages as well.
So now imagine my surprise when the Opposition says
in their Reply, and I will quote, that they would like to
“imagine a Bermuda where young people look forward
to accessible home ownership.” And so, I will remind
the Opposition Leader that this Government’s Mortgage Guarantee Programme has put 49 young people
and their families on a path towards purchasing their
first home.

Forty -nine.
Many of whom would not been able to do so
had it not been for this programme. That is this Govern-ment doing exactly what they say we should do but also
demonstrating that this Government is committed to
building a nation of owners.
We have opened a long- awaited Independent
Living Programme centre so that those foster children who aged out of the system with no place to go now
have a place to call home. We recognised that there
were far too many of our children who grew up in [the]
foster care system that were left to fend for themselves
when they turned 18, and so we as a Government decided to do something about it.
Madam [Acting] Speaker, it is the look on the
faces of those young adults , grateful that their Govern64 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly ment has answered their call, grateful that their Government has not forgotten them. It is the look on those
faces that is the reason we do what we do.
Madam [Acting] Speaker, we are not just talking about a minimum wage; we have actually imple-mented one.
We have successfully increased the number of
flights to Bermuda.
We have arranged for 23 firefighter recruits to
receive special training overseas who have now come back and replaced those foreign firefighters.
We are reforming how we educate our children
so that they are better prepared to excel in an ever -
changing world.
[Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr., Deputy Speaker, in the
Chair]

—and GDP, as you know, has surpassed pre- pandemic levels. Again, I am proud of the
progress we have made thus far. But Mr. Deputy
Speaker , it is not lost on me, and it is not lost on this
Government that there are still too many of us going
through hardship. And so that only stands as a reminder that there is still more to be done.

And so, I say to the listening public
that my colleagues and I are not only pleased with this legislative agenda but most importantly we are ready to roll up our sleeves and execute.
But Mr. Deputy Speaker , before I go on, I figured I would have a little fun and address today’s Reply .
Mr. Deputy Speaker , I do not know if you were like me,
but I came here today ready to be impressed, to have
new and invigorated energy in these debates. I thought
[that] surely under new leadership the One Bermuda Alliance would raise the bar, which in turn would call for
a more fulsome debate. Mr. Deputy Speaker , I came
here today expecting the One Bermuda Alliance to
draw a line in the sand and with conviction clearly identify the differences between our parties. I was expecting
to hear specific alternative solutions and some compar-ative analysis. I thought for sure the Opposition Leader
would ensure that there were some projections, some
timelines, and some targets.
It is not enough to simply complain about the
Government. What specific laws will they amend, and
how will they amend them? What Opposition Bills do
they plan to put forth? The OBA had plenty of time to
prepare. This should have been the moment that they
present a vision for this country that is both inspiring and thought provoking, but once again all six of them
have managed to squander the opportunity and give us
all a good laugh while at it.
Mr. Deputy Speaker , I am not going to sugar -
coat it. I am going call it as I see it. Today’s Reply to the Throne Speech was flat out embarrassing.

I do not know who their consultants
are. Nor do I know who is paying them. But whoever is, I strongly suggest they ask for their money back.
I may be the only one on this side of the aisle,
but I admit that I had higher expectations for the Opposition Leader. But listening to today’s Reply [to the
Throne Speech] , I think some of my colleagues were
right in that perhaps he has taken on a bit more than he can handle.
And so Mr. Deputy Speaker , since they are unable, unwilling, or unprepared to clearly identify the dif-ferences between our parties, then I will. You see,
much to the Opposition’s chagrin—

[Inaudible interjections and laughter ]

That is the same S&P that has
maintained our credit rating since we returned to Government, and in their last report they said they did so
because of Bermuda’s strong institutional framework,
prosperous economy, and prudent policy making. Mr.
Deputy Speaker , both S&P and Moody’s see the differences between our parties, and I am confident that the
public does as well.
And so, I am going to now quickly move on to
deficits where I will remind the public that the two highest deficits in Bermuda’s history came under the OBA.

It must be emphasised that the One
Bermuda Alliance was in Government for just over four
years and two of those years resulted in the largest deficit in Bermuda’s history.


Bermuda House of Assembly Notice the silence. Please someone correct me
if anything I am saying is incorrect.
To put the OBA’s weak economic performance
and weak public finances into context, I want to remind
the public that during the peak of the pandemic —with
our tourism industry decimated, our airport temporarily
shut down while paying MRG payments to Skyport,
while paying unemployment benefits to thousands of
residents, while paying for PPE [ personal protective
equipment ], laboratories and testing equipment, while
providing additional funding to our entrepreneurs and small business —the deficit that year under this Government still came in $100 million less than what it did under the OBA.

And so here is the point to remember. Whilst the OBA gave us our largest deficit in history, the PLP ha ve been reducing our deficit every year
since the pandemic, so much so that this February the
Premier will be announcing a balanced budget for the
first time in this country in over 20 years.

[Desk thumping and inaudible interjections ]

While the OBA gave us our largest
deficit in history, the PLP has been reducing our deficit
every year since the pandemic so much so that this
February the Premier will be announcing a balanced
budget for this country for the first time in our 20 years.

[Desk thumping]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Okay, I heard you that time.
[Laughter]

—is how they try to convince the
public that the country’s debt is solely the fault of the
PLP. They love to remind the people of our debt levels
and then point the fingers at us. And so, I think it is only
right that I give some facts that the remaining s ix cannot
deny.

[Inaudible interjection and laughter ]

And MP Famous, you are going to
love this one because in their 2017/ 18 budget, former
Finance Minister Bob Richards said, Had they stayed
in Government, they would have borrowed another $135 million. I could not believe it. You see, we must
not also lose sight of the fact that the One Bermuda Alliance is directly responsible for this Government
having to increase our debt in 2020 to honour their poor Morgan’s Point deal that has now cost the Government
or the taxpayer over $215 million.

[Inaudible interjections]

And so, I think it is only right considering we have a former OBA Premier in the building
that he face the public and acknowledge that a significant reason the debt is as high as it is is because of the
decisions that happened under his watch.
[Inaudible interjections ]

Hon. E. David Burt: Yes.
66 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Jache Adams: Mr. Deputy Speaker , I am then
[mindful ] of today’s Reply [ to the Throne Speech] where
the Opposition says, and I quote, “Imagine waking up
to hear that the Government has implemented a plan to
pay off our national debt.”

[Laughter]

Again, I am simply establishing the
differences between our parties. While the OBA made
sure to increase payroll taxes to its highest levels ever,
the PLP has reduced payroll taxes four times. While the
OBA made sure to cut funding for government scholarships, the PLP has increased the amount of government scholarships every year so that now we have dou-bled the amount that was given under the OBA.

Hon. E. David Burt: Doubled, doubled, doubled.

[Inaudible interjection and laughter ]

While the OBA told our seniors that
money does not grow on trees when they were asking
for a pension increase, the PLP has honoured its promise and has increased the pensions for our seniors at
the rate of inflation.
While the OBA found money and used it to fund
America’s Cup, the PLP found money and used it to increase the number of affordable houses. But Mr. Deputy Speaker , what is most upsetting, most egregious, most disheartening, is when Bob Richards told us directly that if given the opportunity —

So Mr. Deputy Speaker , with the
10-plus minutes I have remaining I think I want to talk
about a few initiatives that were in the Throne Speech.
First, I want to speak about the Homelessness Strat-egy, you see, because I believe that a true measure of this Government —or any government for that matter —
is how it treats the most vulnerable. It is too easy to
discard those with no fixed abode as a nuisance or an
eyesore, but this Government sees them as human beings first who deserve a level of dignity, a sense of purpose, and a path to receive the appropriate care to im-prove the quality of their lives.
Mr. Deputy Speaker , I for one fully connect with
the African concept of ubuntu—accepting our role
within humanity, our interconnectedness, our responsi-bility for one another. Putting politics aside, I am looking
forward to the development of this strategy because it
is necessary but also because I just feel like it is the
right thing to do.
Mr. Deputy Speaker , allow me to also remind
the OBA —and I am upset that he is not here— that in
response to last year’s Throne Speech, their former
Leader , Cole Simons , asked why homelessness was
not included. And so, you would think that now that it is
included in this year’s Throne Speech, they would at
least give us some acknowledgement.

I digress, Mr. Deputy Speaker .
Nonetheless, I am excited to see the fruits of this col-lective effort to end homelessness, and I fully support
the intent of the initiative.
Finally, Mr. Deputy Speaker , I would like to end
by expressing my enthusiasm for the progression of education reform. I am pleased to see that we will be continuing our journey with the introduction of some new
parish primary schools and the introduction of hospitality and tourism i n one of our signature schools. With the
anticipation of the opening and reopening of hotels and
the continued improvement of our tourism figures, I
think it is the opportune time that we invest in our young
people and introduce them [to] and get them involved
in the hospitality industry. I think it also key that we
acknowledge the fact that when we talk about the signature schools educating on the hospitality industry, we
are not just talking about maids, receptionists, doormen and bartenders. And believe me, there is nothing wrong
with those careers as well, but part of the education
puts them on the path to be managers and senior man-agers and even owners in that industry.
And so, Mr. Deputy Speaker , I will simply finish
with this. I am entering into my fourth parliamentary
session, and I am pleased to see this year’s theme of
the Throne Speech be S erving the People because as
I sit around the table with my colleagues, I feel the passion. I feel the empathy. And so, I am confident for our
future, because at the end of the day, serving the peo-ple is what we strive to do best.
Thank you.

Just following the protocol.
Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
I think what I want to do first is address some
of the things that were said that quite frankly were not
in the line of exact facts. There was an Honourable
Member who stood to his feet and talked about statistics of Bermuda back in 2012, 20 13, 2014, 2015, 2016,
and a part of 2017, when in actual fact jobs for Bermudians increased at that time. And it was the first time they had increased for quite some time. So, it is a bit
disturbing when you hear —

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

What is your point of order,
Premier?

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. E. David Burt: I am not trying to interrupt the
Honourable former Premier, but he is certainly, I think,
misleading the House. Is he saying that jobs for Bermudians increased from 2012 and 2017 when 2, 000 jobs
were lost? I am trying to find out how that makes sense.

Yes. I will continue on. I think
the facts are there. They have been stated many, many
times. The graphs have been shown in this Honourable
House on numerous occasions, and to continue on
some of what I would consider to be misleading facts
going forward, yes , in fact, we did borrow quite a bit of
money in order to run the country.

But the fact is, when we became Government in December of 2012, by the time February had come around in 2013, the stark reality was we were unable to pay even civil servants at the
time. And I have told this story many times in the
House. And so, we had t o regroup and think long term
as to what the needs of the people of Bermuda were
going to be and what would be an adequate amount of
money to borrow basically in order to keep things going
and not find ourselves falling into the situ ation we were
in—not being able to pay civil servants. Now there—

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

There is a p oint of order.

68 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Deputy Speaker , I have the
information that comes from the government statistics
on accurate employment from the period of 2012 to
2015 and they show a decline in Bermudian jobs every single year in addition to a decline in overall jobs. The
Honourable Member is misleading the House. He
should retract his statement.

Yes.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Hon. E. David Burt: The Honourable Member is misleading the House. In the statistics that are published from the Department of Statistics, the number of Ber-mudians who were employed, the difference in 2012
and 2017 . . . There were 1,461 less Bermudians employed between 2012 and 2017. Those are the facts.
The Honourable Member must retract his remarks. He
is misleading the House.

No problem. I will bring back
the facts. But that goes back to . . . You are talking
about borrowing money here. And the greatest money
borrowed . . . this, this . . . What happens when you
cannot feed people? I mean, this Government under-stands exactly what is going on. They are trying to
make sure that people can feed themselves. And so,
you have to go through measures to ensure that the
country can be run and run eff ectively. And so, when
we became Government and it was clear that we were
not going to be able to pay civil servants month after month, that we had to get ourselves into a position
whereby the Government could get close somewhere
to balancing the budget . . . and to stand up in this Honourable House at this particular time . . . and in 20 years
we are finally getting to a balanced budget. Well, I can
assure you that while Bob Richards, the Honourable Member, was the Finance Minister, we were very close
to balancing the budget before we lost the election in
2017.

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

What is your point of order ?

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. E. David Burt: The Honourable Member is completely misleading the House on that statement. I know
because I came in as Minister of Finance, and there
were budget deficits that were projected for forward
years. The Honourable Member is misleading the House. He should ret ract that statement. He is trying to
revise history.

Honourable Member —
Hon. E. David Burt: The budget projections had projected an increase of the debt ceiling again the first year
we came in. The Honourable Member is misleading the
House. He must retract. Trust me. I will find the B udget


Bermuda House of Assembly Statement if he wants and make sure he does. So, he
can retract before, but I will find them because he is not
telling the facts.

No, I do not. But I was the
Premier at that time , and I recognise that . . . Michael
[Dunkley] was the Premier at th e time, the Honourable
Member, and I recognise the plan that was put in place was to balance the budget before the election was
called —now, not before the election was called. But an
election was called at an untimely time. We were looking at our term moving into the next year to balance the
budget, and we had a plan in place —

Hon. E. David Burt: Point of order.

Mm-hmm.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Deputy Speaker , I refer to the
estimates of revenue that were tabled in this House in
February 2017 for the budget year, and the Honourable
Member just said they were projected to balance the
budget the following year and the statements that were
submitted —
[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. E. David Burt: Yes. And the statements that were
submitted said that they were projecting a budget deficit for 2018. The Honourable Member is —
[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. E. David Burt: [In] 2017 there was a budget deficit. [In] 2018 there was a budget deficit. He just said, the following year after we were projecting a surplus ,
when the statements that were tabled in this House by
the same Honourable Member that he spoke about
said that they were projecting a deficit. He is misleading
the House. He has engaged in revisionist history, and he should retract it, Mr. Deputy Speaker . They are records in this House that were tabled. The Budget Statement that I just pulled up is stating that the Honourable Member is misleading the House.

Incomprehensible.
70 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. L. Craig Cannonier: —and frankly, unbelievable
that when you come into Government at the end of
2012 you cannot pay civil servants and you have to borrow money in order to ensure that the operation of this
country continues on. And we, all of a sudden, are the bad guys because we couldn’t pay civil servants. Every
government that comes into government inherits a certain amount of challenges that were there before and
they need to deal with those challenges.
[Inaudible interjection]

What I was saying is that we
had to borrow the money. The largest debt. He is talking about the largest amount ever that they have seen.
There was a reason for that. And we are neglecting the
total reasoning behind why this money had to be borrowed.
Now, are we going to say that it was the OBA’s
fault? What we said was, Listen, we got to get on with
fixing the economy here. And that is where the difference is . . . we fall into a difference between what we
are seeing with the PLP as a Government and the OBA
as a Government. What we are seeing here time and time again is that we continue to reduce tax, continue
to reduce tax, but we are not bringing revenue in fast
enough to save the economy, to save entrepreneurs, to
save people from leaving the Island because they feel
despondent. We have got to move faster. And I think the theme that we have been presenting here today is a theme of: Are you listening?

[Inaudible interjection] Mr. L. Craig Cannonier: Exactly. Are you listening?
Because the people of the country are basically saying a whole lot about where they feel we are.
And we cannot deny the facts that are in front of us. I
mean, if you have a farmer driving a tractor through town because he is frustrated that he cannot make it,
then it would suggest that something is going on that is
not quite there. And these folks are not saying, Oh, well,
down with the PLP. What they are saying is, We would
like for you to at least listen to our concerns so maybe
we can come to a position of making something happen. Many times when people complain we take it out
on them personally because they are in front of you.
You know, the screaming and shouting. I can recall a
protest on the Hill at one time. But I was looking at the
gentleman and I could understand. He was in f ear because he could not quite figure out what was the next
move for himself. And so, it is incumbent upon us as
Government and as Opposition to sit down and to listen
to what the people have to say despite and in spite of
all of the good that we may be doing.
[Inaudible interjections]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank
you for that.
What I was referring to was that parents were
told that the Whitney [Institute Middle] School had been consulted with and that it was okay for the kids to go to
Whitney and that was not the case at all. Whitney came out and said that they had not been consulted about it.
That is what I am talking about. And these kinds of misleading —
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Point of order.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy
Speaker.
In my estimation today there has been a lot of
things said that were not true. But the proof has not
been shown. So I recognise that as far as you are concerned you would like to see some of these things presented to them. But I know after sitting in the meetings
that is what I heard in those meetings, repeatedly, and
I will endeavour to go ahead and ensure that we pull
that up so that it is shown to be factual.

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Deputy Speaker, if I may just
rise on a brief point of order —

Yes.
Hon. E. David Burt: —because I do not appreciate the
fact that the Honourable Member is questioning the in-tegrity of the Chair.

POINT OF ORDER
[Challenging the Chair]

Hon. E. David Burt: I would just like to remind the Honourable Member that you have asked for retractions after points of order were raised where contrary infor-mation was presented or persons had said otherwise.
Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

So, one of the challenges that
I have is that the people of Bermuda are now looking
and saying, Well, you know, where are we going with things? And I can go down a litany of all kinds of challenges that we have had. As I have said already, we
have seen tractors driving around town. We have seen
where taxi drivers and the like . . . and it goes on and
on and on. I talked about the fact that we had small protests and that more were going to come. And with the way that things are today, I suspect there are going
to be more.
And I also suspect, as far as the economy is
concerned, what will continue to happen is we will con-tinue to see more layoffs when it comes to some of these larger companies that are looking at how they can streamline the challenges that they are having. So
it is not all roses coming down . . . to the future for us in
2024. We have got some challenges on our hands and there is a general consensus and a feeling out there that not enough is being done or I am not being listened to.
It is hard to govern. We recognise that. Everyone wants everything all of a sudden, all at the same time. But the challenge that our Government is having today is that there are far too many protests now and far too many people who are complaining of the f act
that, Hold on a second here. We are not being listened
to. If you look into today’s paper, actually, and Khalid
Wasi in his opinion piece today says our Government
suffers from “collective blindness.”

From collective blindness.
And it was an interesting article as he went
through it. I will not regress to that particular opinion piece, but it was very clear. The opinion was, Hold on
a second here. What’s going on? When you have professionals weighing in and trying to tell the Govern-ment, This is where we believe the direction should go,
and the Government goes contrary to the advice and the direction that is put there for them —

—and we are talking about
the SDO, then people begin to question, Well, hold on
a second. What exactly are we doing here?
Now, the Premier has every right to go ahead
and shuffle his Cabinet and the likes, and he has moved Planning to another Minister, but at the end of
the day there has to be some reckoning and some reasoning given to the public as to why the Minister has
gone ahead. Now, the reasoning that was given thus
far was he did not disagree.
[Inaudible i nterjections]

What i s your poi nt of or der, Mr .
Premier?
POINT O F ORDER
[Misleading]
Hon. E. David Burt: The Honourable Member is misleading the House again. The Deputy Premier had an
entire press conference where he went over all of the
reasonings that were given. I do not understand why
this Honourable Member continues to make statements
in this House which are factually incorrect. I would ask
him to withdraw [that] the Honourable Member did not
give reasons. Because he did!

But the people believe that
his answering was not substantial, and he was not listening, especially to the concerns of experts who have
already weighed in on the situation. So, you know, we
can say that he gave a substantial answer to what he
believed was the case, but I can assure you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, that as we talk to people, they have felt
that the answers were not justified.

You know, I think one of the
drastic differences that I have been talking about is the fact that we have not seen . . . you know, we can give
and give and give. And lower taxes . . . let’s just use
food for an example. We are lowering taxes down to
the point whereby just about everything, food in Bermuda will be at a zero tax. Right?

But at the same time, factors
that are outside of us are increasing the challenge, like
sugar going up 33 per cent, increasing the challenge
that we have got to find a better way of getting goods to the Island at a better price. Now, some things we cannot change. Some things are beyond us. And the
only thing that fixes those things beyond us is a robust
economy. And that is what people are looking for. People are not leaving the Island because . . . you know,
they want to. They are l eaving the Island because they
have to. They cannot make it here. What balances out lowering taxes is ensuring they will get more money into
the country. And that is way too slow. That is the challenge.
We faced that same challenge when we were
Government. More had to be done to get money into the economy. And one of the solutions to that for us
was America’s Cup, to bring in $300 million into the
economy. All the homes were rented out; even Grand
74 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Atlantic was rented out. And as we talk about Grand
Atlantic and Bermudiana, here we are trying to get the
former Southampton Princess hotel open. And promises have been made. It’s done. It is a done deal. It is
going to be open. It is going to get done. And yet to this
day it is still not done. It is still not done. But Government has now embarked on Grand Atlantic to build a
hotel when one of the major concerns this country has
is housing. It was built for housing. We are turning it into
a hotel. When y ou got on both sides of Grand Atlantic,
both sides —

[Inaudible interjections]

And it will come to that
amount.
Now, we are still waiting for the updates on the
work that is being done up there. And let’s see what
those numbers come in like. But the challenge that we
have is we are directing monies when we have two pristine hotels on both sides —East End and West End, of
Grand Atlantic, Bermudiana, whichever you want to call it—when we rightfully as a solution could be putting that
money into these establishments to get them up and running.

I understand what you are alluding to (right?), but if you are talking about a higher figure, you know, it may be true. But $90 million would not
even . . . no near completion for Elbow. Everything has
to be pulled down and started all over.



Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. L. Craig Cannonier: Thank you, Mr. Deputy
Speaker.
Let me move to —

[Inaudible interjections]

I looked on page 9, Planning.
I mean, I tried to build a deck. It took a year to get approval. A wooden deck! How is that even possible? Unbelievable! Almost a year just to build a wooden deck.
And according to the Government by that time, you know, prices, the lumber and everything, had gone up.
So now I have got to pay more money because the
Planning Department was having challenges with getting it back.

But I am glad to see this. It is
a long time coming. It is the theme with this one here.
Immigration, on page 9. Customer service
must be improved. Well, you know what the OBA did?
They went and hired a company to help to get caught up because people were so frustrated. Frustrated. I
mean, I know that our colleagues when they walk on
the stre et they are hearing about immigration issues all
the time. I mean, I think it took my son like eight months, almost, to get his passport.

[Inaudible interjections]

Creation of a single payment
. . . and I think this is probably the one thing that I was
more excited about than anything. We are going to create a payment portal for all government services, ena-bling people to come in, to be able to, you know, make
their payment. One of the challenges I have that I have been
speaking to this in the House for many, many, many years is the fact that we have people who can just about
make it. They are trying to catch a bus to go here and
if the bus gets cancelled, they are late for w ork. They
are trying to get up to government services, they have got to go from one to the other to the other to the other.
[Inaudible interjections]

76 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. L. Craig Cannonier: Right. That we are going to
ensure that we have something that allows for streamlining, where people are becoming more frustrated at
the fact that they just cannot get to what it is that they
need to do for government, yet at the same time bal-ance out home —

—and the likes. That is frustrating. But it is nice to see that it is in there.
And then I turn over to page 11. Now, I do not
know all of the incidents that speak to the issue of street
harassment in Bermuda. This seems to be a specific
event that took place which is why I believe it is in here.
Or maybe it is several events that have taken place. But
here we are now at this day and age and all of us can attest to this, we have a culture of disrespect in this Island for the law. And—

[Timer chimes]

And not only that, we have a
culture of disrespect for good morals in this Island. And we have got to do more. We have got to pump up the police, get them to where they need to be because this
needs to be stamped out. It is a scourge on this Island
with t he disrespect morally, and the disrespect for the
law is putting a dark cloud over this Island.
No retraction of that, Mr. Deputy Speaker?
[Laughter]

I would like to echo some of
my colleagues. Mr. Deputy Speaker, today I was disappointed. Mr. Deputy Speaker, for the last three years
since July 2020 I have got to know the Honourable
Member of this House who throughout the three years
has been extremely meticulous. He has been kept above the fray. He showed so much promise. When he
became the interim opposition Leader, I said, Okay,
good. but now I see without a shadow of a doubt, after
this 13- page manifesto that this Honourable Member
has allowed himself to read scripts that I know he did
not write.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, during the bye- election, in
[constituency] 8, we walked around, we canvassed,
and we saw OBA flyers. Not one flyer had anything that the OBA is going to do or will do better , as their slogan
is. All their flyers were just negativity. Negativity. Negativity. Negativity. People asked, Well, what is the OBA
offering? And we said, Well, look at the flyer.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, during the bye- election
the then candidate, Senator Ben Smith, was asked by
the Royal Gazette (no less), Where is their platform?
He could not produce one. He said, It is coming out.
During last week’s OBA press conference, they were
asked after they spouted all this negativity, Where is
their answers to what they are talking about? They said that you will see that in next week’s Throne Speech.
Well, here we are —

So here we go. [Reply to
the] Throne Speech. I took a glance through it. I am
looking for the solution. I went to the last page and did
not see anything. I thought it was just me. Then I looked
at the comments on the Royal Gazette and OBA supporters were saying that they do not need to provide
solutions. They just need to point out wrong things.
So I say about that Honourable Member who
just left, I am disappointed. Mr. Deputy Speaker, on
page 11 of their [Reply to the] Throne Speech, an increase in population leads to lower costs. Mr. Deputy
Speaker, with your permission, may I read something from the Cayman Compass , August 28, 2023? It is very
brief. “The cost of living has surged over the past three
years, making it challenging for many to afford the


Bermuda House of Assembly same goods and services that they were comfortably
able to purchase a short time ago. In the first quarter of
2022 alone, energy and food price [indices] rose by
80% and [24.7%], respectively . . . .”
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I have been studying the
Cayman Islands for the last 10 years. In 2018, they had
a population of 63,000. In 2023, they now have a population of 83,000. That means an increase of 20,000
people. Their own Caymanian people cannot buy a
house because the house prices have now gone up to
$1.3 million. In this Cayman Compass it says the food
has gone up, energy has gone up.

They made great emphasis
about we are not listening. We are not listening. Mr.
Deputy Speaker, as you know, we canvass. And we
also do surveys. And one of the surveys in Devonshire says that the greatest concern of people are the roads
(52 per cent); foliage on the road, and then the cost of
living. So, yes, we listen. We hear it all the t ime. We
debate it all the time. So, yes, we have to pave the
roads. Yes, we have to trim the foliage. And yes, we have to try to bring down the cos t of living.
But, Mr. Deputy Speaker, we do not own the
retail or service providers in this country. We do not own the banks. I have yet to hear the OBA ever publicly
chastise the banks for raising interest rates. I have yet
to hear the OBA ever chastise retailers for bringing up the prices of food. But somehow when the Government
is dropping their duty down to zero, the cost of food it is
still our fault. How is that logic? That logic does not add
up. It is those people bringing up their profit margins.
We do not own the health care insurance companies
who report millions of dollars in profits, but yet they
never lower their premiums.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, let me move on to a subject that is dear to me. I am going to read off some names, Mr. Deputy Speaker: Dr. E. F. Gordon, Dame
Lois Browne- Evans , Dr. Ewart Brown, Dame Pam Gordon, Dame Jennifer Smith, Honourable Craig Can-nonier, Honourable David Burt, Honourable Paula Cox
and Honourable [Sir Edward Trenton] “ET” Richards. What do they all have in common, Mr. Deputy
Speaker ? They were all leaders of this country. I will
get to that in a minute.

When we hear OBA supporters saying we should not be joining CARICOM,
Why do we have to be involved in CARICOM? These
are our people, Mr. Deputy Speaker . It is in the Throne
Speech, so I am bringing it to a point.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, if you travel to those islands you will see businesses that you would think you are in Bermuda. CG Insurance, Goslings, Barritt’s,
Logic, and Conyers —in every major Caribbean island
making money. Why is it good for them to have a business association in the Caribbean, but it is bad for us
as a country to have a political and cultural association
with these same countries?
Mr. Deputy Speaker, they made an issue that
the PLP has not yet been able to control climate change. Mr. Deputy Speaker, we cannot control climate
change. We are the victims of climate change. But to
that point, Mr. Deputy Speaker, the Honourable Walter
Roban, Deputy Premier, he is the most respected voice
in the Overseas Territories when it comes to climate issues and energy issues —the most respected. When
other Ministers have to read over a script, he knows it off the top of his head, Mr. Deputy Speaker .
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I am going to close here,
one last thing—

OECD are the people that
black -listed us. The UK are the ones that throw us under the bus all the time. The United States throws us
under the bus. The European Union throws us under
the bus. The only people that work with us, who stand with us is CARICOM. The only ones. But no, we should
not be aligned with them, according to some OBA sup-porters.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, in closing, the last thing:
housing. During 2013 to 2017, there were . . . I will
leave that in the end. In the last year, the PLP has fi-nanced $15 million towards affordable housing for our
people in this Island. In totality, there were 77 units renovated and another 60 brought online. So at the end of
the day, Mr. Deputy Speaker, PLP 77, OBA 0.
78 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker .

Thank you.
The Chair recognises the Honourable Minister
Diallo Rabain.
Minister Rabain, you have the floor.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Deputy
Speaker .
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I want to actually take this
time to thank all of the honourable colleagues on this
side who have spoken. It has been an enlightening and
interesting afternoon. But, Mr. Deputy Speaker, like
most of the people who messaged me after listening to
the Reply to the Throne [Speech] this morning, we were
left wondering What did we really listen to?
I am grateful that that finished before lunch because it gave me an opportunity to reflect on what was
spoken and I started to merge that with the statements
that are made, not just out in the press, but actually in
this House. And the thing that came to my mind, Mr.
Deputy Speaker, was there is nothing new under the
sun.
Let me explain what I mean when I say that,
colleagues. When I hear Member Ben Smith speak in-accurately on purpose (my words) about education reform, I am reminded. When I heard Member Scott Pearman preference sentences in this House with “Burt Government ” I am reminded. When I hear the Shadow
Finance Minister who sits in another place speak about the proposed corporate tax regime and drop little sprin-klings about mismanagement of those funds , I hope it
doesn’t happen, I am reminded. When I hear about pot-holes and overgrowth, I am reminded. When I hear
about country before party, I am reminded. And, Mr.
Deputy Speaker, when I heard today’s Throne Speech
[Reply] with a title of “Let’s Get it Done Together,” I was reminded.
But, Mr. Deputy Speaker, what am I reminded
about? I am reminded about a secret report that came
out after the 2007 election, Mr. Deputy Speaker . A report that was done specifically to undermine the Progressive Labour Party at that time. Mr. Deputy
Speaker, it pointed out —and we will see some similarities here—that in order to win an election in Bermuda ,
the then UBP (now OBA) must wage a campaign that
highlights the following: You cannot trust the leader.
They are only self -servicing. Corruption—friends and
family are rampant within them. Mismanagement of the economy. Strong negative statements about cr ime,
unity, housing, education, and creating opportunities
for Bermudians. Highlighting the need for good governance.
Yes, Mr. Deputy Speaker, let us not be fooled.
The OBA are in election mode right now and they will
continue to hammer home at these talking points sup-plied by their consultants. It worked before, why not try
again. Why not try again? However, Mr. Deputy
Speaker, I am confident that the electorate has grown up, has matured, and absolutely recognises this fallacy for what it is.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, this Government is busy
at work, rolling its sleeves up and will continue to serve
the people. We understand things take time. We know that some things have people wanting to see them
done overnight. But, Mr. Deputy Speaker, that has not
deterred us from our goal and that is to serve the people. We will continue to move forward. We will continue
to serve the people. We will continue to break down
historical barriers which still exist that make it difficult
for Mr. and Mrs. Smith to live in this Island. So, despite
the efforts of this Government , we are still fighting
against that boogeyman, but we will continue to fight until that boogeyman is completely gone, Mr. Deputy
Speaker . We will continue to serve the people.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, my contribution to our
team effort today is leading education. I was saddened
when I listened to the Shadow M inister speak from a
position of simply not knowing what is going on. But I
will not give up on him yet. I will continue to invite him
along. I will continue to implore him to actually come
and find out what is going on so he can speak from a
position of a uthority.
But working together, Mr. Deputy Speaker, involves actually participating . . . not listening to one or
two people and then forming an opinion and running
with it, not making statements that are not rooted in research or facts, but making statements that are dangerous and ones that reek of politi cal expediency. Ironically, I keep hearing statements about removing politics
from education. But I listened to political promises being made by the Shadow Minister today. Not state-ments led by what is best for our children, but statements crafted to appeal to the electorate only.

[Ms. Lovitta F. Foggo, Acting Speaker, in the Chair]
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Madam [Acting] Speaker ,
this morning I spoke on our Signature Schools and how
we are progressing. I clearly outlined where we are,
what the data is showing us and what the next steps
are to be taken to continue our reform process. We are
moving forward, and we will not be deterr ed because
our students cannot afford for us not to work for them.
Madam Acting Speaker, while I spoke of our
Signature Schools this morning after the Thone Speech Reply, I am surprised to have to remind Member s Opposite that we have trades in CedarBridge right now!
This Government instituted that. Their forefathers killed
it.
[Madam Acting] Speaker, I am also shocked to
hear the Opposition Leader say, and I have to quote from this 13- page diatribe, “Because [of] the first step,
getting back to basics,” (it is important) “getting back to basics, we will have the statistical inf ormation to ascertain what skills are needed in the market and the [pro-fessionals] in the education authority, properly legisBermuda House of Assembly lated to produce results, in a position to develop curriculum that equips Bermudians to work, live, raise families, and retire in Bermuda.”
Madam [Acting] Speaker, anyone reading that
and anyone who has actually paid a scintilla of attention to what has been going on in education reform would
read that and wonder, Where the hell have they been?
because when I heard that I wondered [how] they actually crafted an opinion on education policy being so uninformed. How did they do it? Back to basics —really?
Back to basics is a vague idea. Aside from literacy and
numeracy, can the OBA define what it means by “basic
education”? This, [the] least our children need, is anything but visionary. It does not account for the fact that
our world today is different from what our children are
going to experience tomorrow. We have to continuously evolve our educati on system to suit our children
as they grow up and live and thrive within Bermuda.
This is not serving the people, what they are
suggesting. It is not uplifting our communities. If any-thing, if the OBA is going to have an opinion on educa-tion policy, they should at least be informed by the connection between education policy and societa l policy.
That is what is going to get us moving forward.
Madam [Acting] Speaker, again I refer to this
statement made, and I remind Members Opposite that in 2020 an analysis of the future of education in Bermuda was done. This world of work was undertaken. It
involved education professionals, government professionals and the private sector. We undertook a local
scan of all employment briefs, surveys of employers and analysis of reports of employment trends in Bermuda . We took a global horizon scan using the World
Economic Forum and OECD highlights in cutting edg e
research from global thought leaders.
But this was not all that we did. We spoke to
people here. We conducted dozens of interviews with mom and pops, with businesses all over Hamilton including from down on Pitts Bay Road to Back o’ Town.
We asked them what their thoughts were, what their
opinions were, what trends they are seeing, the impact
of COVID -19, what they thought would snap back or be
transformed forever. Using that data we developed the
first listing of signatures that should be instituted in our secondary schools. But we did not st op there. We put
that back out for consultation and narrowed it down to
the 10 signatures that we have today.
Madam [Acting] Speaker , I want to take this
time to school up the OBA on what this process that
resulted in Signature Schools is about. It includes trades and professions with strands focused already
underway at CedarBridge. It includes STEAM at CedarBridge. Currently at STEM, but we clearly intend to add
the “A” back, and that would stand for the Arts and Culture track that we will be introducing at CedarBridge in
2025.
But unlike what was said in the statement
where it said and all students don’t need to be lawyers and accountants, we are trying to account for all students. We cannot shy away from the employment op-portunities that actually exist in Bermuda here for our
young people and those are ones that happen to be in financial and insurance services, in health and social care. That is why we have those Signatures on offer at
the Berkeley Institute. But we will not stop there. In
2025, we will be introducing Sports and Leisure Management to the Berkeley Institute. We will introduce Social Care. We will introduce Hospitality and Tourism
and Education Services at Sandys Secondary Middle School, and in future years, Climate, Environment and
Resources and Community and Soc iety Investment will
be at the Clearwater site.
Signature learning opportunities include modules of relevant academic subjects, appropriate practical skills, individual and group projects focused on real world issues and challenges, authentic real world learning experiences, effective guidance on careers and further education and relevant accreditations.
Madam [Acting] Speaker, these are well -
rounded, holistic, deeply tied to the future world of work
in Bermuda and international learning experiences that
will enable our students —yes, our students —to develop the skills, knowledge and relationships to follow
their passions, build on their talents and achieve their
career and further education aspirations. Our chil dren
deserve nothing less and we will continue to push for-ward with no apologies.
But, Madam [Acting] Speaker, I honestly get it.
As I said at the beginning, the narrative to spread doubt is oh -so familiar. However, I will still continue to reach
out and request the OBA to be engaged and help Bermuda move forward. If they are serious about not playing politics with education, there is ample space for the
One Bermuda Alliance to show the people, but more
importantly show our students, that they give a damn.
Bermuda, we need you more than ever. We
need you now. And OBA, Bermuda needs you. They
need you to step up and actually be a political party that
cares about Bermuda and not about just winning an
election. We need you to step up to the —

Thank you, Member.
Minister, continue.

80 10 November 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly [Crosstalk]

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Madam [Acting]
Speaker. Thank you, Madam [Acting] Speaker, and I believe actually acknowledging that is simply just taking me off my game because we all hear what has been
said by the Opposition and their statements and none
of it actually adds up to doing anything but spreading
doubt and not being a part of the solution. If they are ready to move beyond being obstructive and being constructive, I am ready to welcome them in.
Madam [Acting] Speaker, this Government will
continue to put its shoulder to the wheel. This Government will continue to serve the people. This Government will continue to do what is needed to make sure
that Bermuda is prosperous. We will continue to invite
the One Bermuda Alliance to join with us on this journey
and get us to a place where we can certainly say that
we are all working together. But until then, Madam [Acting] Speaker, until they want to join in and be a part of
the solution, get out of the way so we can get what needs to be done for our country.
Thank you.

Thank you, Member .
Are there any other Member s who wish to
speak?
I recognise the Member from constituency 29,
Zane De Silva.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you, Madam [Acting]
Speaker. God’s country, indeed.
Madam [Acting] Speaker, I left the House a little while ago to go to a function. I had to give words at a business celebration, that being the business of Mr.
Reggie Raynor at Raynor’s Gas Station and Garage in Southampton.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Sixty -five years. I did not get
a chance to congratulate him in the session this morning because I had so many things on the agenda in my
two minutes, but I will certainly take the opportunity to congratulate him.
For those that do not know, his mother and father started that business in 1958. They applied to open that business and being two Black folks from Southampton, the banks continuously turned them down.
Took them to court, won the case, got the gas station open and they have managed to survive, their son has
taken over and he has survived, and the business has
thrived.
What gives me . . . you know, they say the Lord
works in mysterious ways. And it is ironic that we had
the Throne Speech to debate and the Thone Speech Reply . . . I will not say “debate,” you just take note of,
because this business reminded me of the ma ny things that the Progressive Labour Party have done since
1998.
Members Opposite today talked about the lack
of things that this Government has done, whether it be
this current administration, the one before or the one
before that, starting in 1998. And what I want people to
realise is that when you get the Opposition who is trying
to cut down, slander (as they have done in this Throne
Speech [Reply] and I will get to it in a minute), what they
have tried to do and they continue to do is to try to make the Progressive Labour Party look like they are not do-ing anything, they don’t care. And of course the tag line
that they have been directed to use today, it seems to
me, is that we are not listening to the people of this
country. Seems to be their tag line.
Well, this business reminded me of some of the
things that we have been doing since 1998 and, in par-ticular over the last five years, and what we do as a
Government , because we heard Members Opposite today talk about one thing or the other, how people this,
we are not doing this and we are not doing that. What
we have been doing consistently is creating opportunities and creating opportunities for Black businessmen,
entrepreneurs that want to get into the business world.
And when they say we do not care an d we are doing
things to hurt people and hurt our people and what . . .
if you look at some of the things we have done, and Minister Hayward, I think, outlined things very, very
nicely today in his opening speech. I would implore the
OBA to take a copy of that speech and hang it up in
their office. It laid out exactly what this Government has
done and what we are doing and what we are going to do.
When you heard the Honourable Member
Scott Pearman say earlier today that Bermuda is a
failed state . . . a failed state! Is that what a representative of this House tells many of his clients that come to
his place of business, a respected law firm?

Or potential clients that he
is trying to get to come to Bermuda.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Does he say that to his current list or his potential clients that want to come to Ber-muda , that Bermuda is a failed state? Don’t come and
give us any business, we are a failed state! I don’t think
so.
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: I bet you he doesn’t say
things like that.

Nope!
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: No point of order there, is it?
[Inaudible interjections]



Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: And then, the Honourable
Member Pearman also says, Oh, we are going to wait
for the Government to get up and defend our Throne
Speech. Defend it? Defend it? We will get to our Throne
Speech in just a minute. I don’t think the clock was re-set, Madam.