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Ben Smith, MP

Ben Smith, MP

738
Speeches
138,286
Words Spoken
67
Sittings Active
15 Nov 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
140 words
I am going to finish with this. I believe getting this information on a regular basis, making sure that the process that our children are going through, which is disruptive, and the Minister has said this several times, that he knows that this is disrupti ve. But we are seeing some symptoms that tell us that that disruption is causing …
15 Nov 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
122 words
Thank you, Madam Acting Speaker. It is not actually the question I asked. What I said was, How many of them applied for private school? The school has not closed yet, so they have not moved yet. POINT OF ORDER [Misleading] Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Point of order. The Member is misleading. The Member asked when the school was …
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
613 words
Mr. Speaker, my starting point will be that in the Opposition we agree that there are circumstances that will arise where you should hav e the ability to get into your pension. As an example, when COVID-1 9 happened, this was an emergency, an opportunity then, because people had to have it at that point. But, Mr. Speaker, considering what …
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
318 words
I am not saying it is not. I am telling you the system is broken, but this is actually risking the future of people who are already struggling. We are not talking about somebody who has a savings that allows them to make that payment. And the reason why I think that is risky and not something that we should …
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
362 words
So the problem that we have right now is that we have to be honest of where the position is that we are in the country. We like to talk about what happened a long time ago when people were able to get on that ladder with £30 and £60, but that is not where we are. This is one …
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
449 words
And the Government is saying, Well, it’s for the roof. Yes. And then they did not make the payment, and now they do not have the roof and they also do not have their pension for them to be able to survive. That is the issue. So can they give us the details of who fits in this category, who …
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
133 words
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Minister spoke of early intervention. There were assessments that were done that have kind of shown that there are gaps that need to be filled. Could the Minister just let us know when these assessments were done [and] when they were completed so we know, you know . . . if we have …
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
373 words
The Minister also identified that they were going to have to add paraprofessionals. Once again, when did we have an assessment that said that we did not have the correct amount, that we needed to add more? And in that context, have those paraprofessionals already been hired and part of the new school year, or is this something that is …
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
161 words
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I thank the Minister for his thorough answers to the questions. The only follow -up question is based off of the assessments and the backlog and the fact that we are now going to go to the private sector because we have been waiting for quite some time to be able to fill that post. …
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
67 words
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Minister spoke quite extensively about the Gang Violence Reduction Team and some of the programmes that they will be implementing with what is being provided in the supplementary. Could the Minister explain to us why this was not in the original budget considering that this has been a situation that Bermuda has been …
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
42 words
Yes, but my question is, Was this something that we just found out after the budget that was needed from the Gang Violence Reduction Team? Was this information that was provided that they had a need for these services after the budget?
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
72 words
Yes. The Minister also spoke to antisocial behaviour, mental health, safe house relocation. Once again, are these new things that were needed, or is what we are doing just adding to what was already provided? Could he just let us know whether these were identified prior and we were not able to fund them and that is why we are …
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
170 words
The Minister, under the Police, referred to the body cams that are needed for the police, and he gave quite a bit of detail on the importance of the body cams. Could the Minister tell us . . . he said that there would be 200 body cams available with this new funding. How many body cams did we have …
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
1 words
Right.
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
35 words
That is why I wanted to know, is it replacing . . . we will know once he is able to tell me what the original number is compared to what the new number is.
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
138 words
The Minister also spoke to the new of-ficers who were going to be hired, and he gave a number of $494,000 for the new officers. But the Minister also stated that we are having a hard time recruiting officers. Considering that he then went on to talk about this high overtime number that is being created by not having the …
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
147 words
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before I move to Corrections, just a follow -up on the body cam. Can the Minister tell us when we anticipate having the 200 new body cams? And on Corrections, the programmes that the Minister referred to, do we have to hire new people to implement these programmes, or is it in- house and the extra …
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
38 words
But, so are we now putting this money back because that cut should not have happened?, I guess is the question. 1768 27 September 2024 Official Hansard Report B ermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: Okay. Mr. King?
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
19 words
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just asked a couple questions in that last round that have not been answered.
27 Sep 2024 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
11 words
Can he give us an estimated arrival of the body cams?