Sylvan Richards: Where Is Government’s Plan?
“This Government needs to start communicating with its people about how they are going to address the real issues facing Bermuda,” Shadow Minister of Home Affairs Sylvan Richards said, asking, “Where is the Government’s plan? Is it Fintech or bust? Is there another plan to save the economy and protect the jobs of Bermudians?”
Mr. Richards said, “Premier David Burt suggested on the floor of the House of Assembly that the reason the PLP will succeed on advancing immigration reform where the OBA couldn’t was because the PLP holds the people’s trust.
“So, when is the PLP going to start using its mandate and the trust it claims to hold to have real conversations about immigration and how it relates to the major economic challenges facing Bermuda?
“Retail sales have fallen for more than six consecutive months for the first time in 5 ½ years and Bermuda needs more people living and working here, spending money to support the many retails jobs held by Bermudians whose jobs must now be under some threat.
“The America’s Cup benefitted Bermuda – it cost $64m and generated more than $350m for the economy – but that direct stimulus is long gone and as a result, Bermudians are now suffering due to Government’s short-sighted approach and the purely political reasons for not capitalizing and building on the AC legacy.
“A case in point is Tourism Minister Zane DeSilva’s recent comments that he would now support anything that brings more people to Bermuda when asked about Bermuda potentially participating in Team Oracle Larry Ellison’s new world sailing series SailGP which he plans to inaugurate in September 2019 using the very same sailing catamarans that raced in the 2017 America’s Cup.
Mr Richards said the Premier putting Walton Brown — who he called “the architect in chief of the immigration protests” — in charge of Immigration “eventually led to a backlog of work permits,” with Mr Richards saying it “took the direct intervention from international business who asked the Premier to deal with the situation, shows that actually addressing immigration is far less important than using it as an campaign tool.”
“And the fact that Minister Wayne Caines had to be moved from Fintech to Immigration to clean up the backlog shows just how few options the Premier has on his abundant back bench to help the cause.
“This Government needs to start communicating with its people about how they are going to address the real issues facing Bermuda. Where is the Government’s plan? Is it Fintech or bust? Is there another plan to save the economy and protect the jobs of Bermudians?”
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They have no plan, just spend and travel.
And to think they preached transparency..
Thanks voters…
That’s the crux of this whole dilemma the plp are very shallow with astute business leaders most have never operated a successful business so how do you expect them to have the innovation to turn a failing economy around its a simple term my grandfather told me he said “son you just know what you don’t know”. This country needs to make a decision do we want to continue to spiral out of control and the only means of increasing revenue is to Tax us more or do we put people in Government who can actually get us back on track. Many voters voted on the fear of the trash the plp spewed out about the obs selling out Bermudians ,,think about who is selling us out today
Time to vote No Confidence in the PLP.
Already did but 25-11 as they say. I will vote no confidence in PLP any time not because I am a hater but because I care about this place and all the people in it. We need quality and that is not what we have.
Burt pretended to have all the ideas in opposition, but the last 18 months in Government have shown that he has nothing other than FinTech
We need the Government to start Foodtech. Once the figures confirm we are in recession, we need to be able to grow our own food.
It is too late for immigration reform. That will take a few years to have an impact.
Our island is in serious trouble and we must be more agile and respond more quickly.
If we wanted a nursemaids we would have votes for some.
Do you jobs !
Fintech ain’t happening in Bermuda. It was always just a pipe dream. Government is the third pillar of the economy, sadly, and the plp is trying to make it pay by raising taxes and fees across the board. But the gap will continue to widen as government produces nothing. The enormous civil service is simply superannuated welfare payments masquerading as a job. Fiscal responsibility will eventually be imposed from abroad. In the meantime, it’s a slow descent into penury.
Richards is quite right – where is the plan? All we have seen is a hike in taxes
Wheres the plan? Is this a serious question? Coming from your failed govt which till this day if the OBA got back in power(God Forbid) what are YOUR plans to take us forward? Were still waiting on them 2000 jobs.. as for Fintech it’s already starting to bear fruit. You have a company purchase a building that wasnt in use to make it their global headquarters, you just had a company that advertised 27 jobs and they received an overwhelming response. The PLP govt had a 100 jobs initiative that got more than half of the target number of ppl employed. You have 50 fintech companies registered and I GUARANTEE that within the next year to 2 years you will see a whole lot more coming. I swear Sylvan, you really think growing a beard automatically means you have wisdom when it’s clear you have sold out. As for you trolls we can tell it’s a bunch of old lot with the colonizer’s mindset that really believes your own lies and thinks for one second the younger lot will listen to you when you have failed us time and time again. You notice all the young ppl are excited by Fintech but it’s you old colonizer gang that wants to keep things the way they are cause it works for you. You have the WHOLE WORLD tuning into Fintech and you lot with your sheer lack of knowledge and intellect on the subject are trying to tell us what it ain’t gonna do for us and it’s a failure, but yet I can swear on my own life ALL OF YOU use Fintech in some way shape or form. It’s disgusting to see this blatant attempted sabotage coming from the OBA, a failed govt with a leader and its asinine followers.