Cabinet Ministers are due to table a few hefty, much-anticipated reports for consideration during this parliamentary session.
Among them – the 2019 Transport Green Paper by Minister of Tourism and Transport Zane DeSilva.
You will recall back in March 2018, the Government launched a public survey “to gauge views on Bermuda’s public and private transportation in advance of the Transport Green Paper”.
The Ministry was “seeking to identify issues, modernise public transportation and develop realistic and prudent new policies for the future”.
Then Ministry spokesperson stated at the time that “the publication of the Transport Green Paper is to include forward thinking solutions and will be published in early June 2018”.
National Security Minister Wayne Caines, who is responsible for Immigration, will update MPs on the current status of the Government’s plans on immigration reform. The Minister will also discuss Gang Prevention in Primary Schools.
Public Works Minister Lieutenant Colonel David Burch is listed on the Order Paper to give an update on Kings Wharf Rehabilitation plans.
And Premier David Burt will have an update on the report by the Cabinet Committee on Social Issues. He will also submit the Government Reform February 2019 Report “for the information of the House of Assembly”, in addition to other matters on today’s agenda.
Finance Minister Curtis Dickinson will table the Taxes Management (Large Ship Infrastructure Tax Prescribed Forms) Regulations 2019, the Bermuda Deposit Insurance Corporation 2017 Annual Report, and the House & the Bermuda Public Accountability Board 2018 Annual Report.
Deputy Premier Walter Roban is also due to provide written responses to Parliamentary Questions by One Bermuda Alliance MP and former Premier Michael Dunkley.
Mr Dunkley has asked Mr Roban to inform the House “what is the mean time taken for the resolution of planning appeals for each year from January 1st 2014 to December 31st 2018”.
He also wants to know “how many planning applications per month have been handled for each planning Officer in the Department of Planning from January 1st 2014 to March 31st 2019”, and “how many enforcement actions have been taken by the Department of Planning on a monthly basis” during the same period.
Similar questions were submitted by OBA MP Sylvan Richards, who also wants to know “what is the mean time taken for issuance of planning permission from the initial application to Planning Board approval in each year (by quarter) from January 1st 2014 to March 31st 2019”.
Premier Burt is also due to move a Motion that follows through on a 2018 Throne Speech pledge to “revise the mandatory retirement age to take account of a longer lifespan, the necessity to add additional stability to pension funds and to promote greater choice among the working population about when one retires from full-time employment”.
The Motion continues: “WHEREAS the Government undertook to cause the Legislature ‘to discuss options for such revisions to the age of mandatory retirement from the Public Service, which will preserve the right to retire at sixty-five but permit a post holder to work beyond that age without the requirement for permission to do so’; BE IT RESOLVED THAT this Honourable House supports the recommendations of the Sub-Committee of the Labour Advisory Committee as contained in the Report ‘Reviewing the Retirement Age’.
