OBA: ‘Govt Must Start Making Hard Decisions’
“At some point, the Government must stop publishing what we all know and start making the hard decisions,” Deputy OBA Leader Jarion Richardson said, adding that “the time for proposing, discussing, reviewing, and considering has long since passed.”
Ministry: ‘Bermuda is facing a demographic crisis’
This follows after the Government released a position paper today which states, “It is predicted that Bermuda’s current working population will be unable to support the local economy in years to come.”
“According to the Department of Statistics data, total filled jobs in 2008 was 40,213. More than 10 years later, and severely impacted by the pandemic job losses, total filled jobs in 2020 was 32,427. That is a loss of 7,786 persons or more than a 19% decline in the number of jobs filled since the peak.”‘
“The prospect of Bermuda’s declining and aging population in the coming years raises critical concerns about GDP, employment, health care, retirement benefits, and social support services. Bermuda is facing a demographic crisis that requires strong, decisive leadership and urgent action to be taken.
“This challenge calls for objective and comprehensive reassessments of existing social, economic, and political policies, including immigration policies and programmes,” the paper states.
Deputy OBA Leader Jarion Richardson
Mr. Richardson said, “Here we go again. At some point, the Government must stop publishing what we all know and start making the hard decisions.
“Bermudians have left the island in droves over the last few years and sadly we can’t even say how many because it seems quite frankly, that the PLP Government didn’t care. At one point it was young people who were leaving, now sadly, it’s seniors and those who are soon to be, so that they can find easier ways to enjoy their golden years. A travesty.
“Unless the country is successful in increasing the working population within the next five years, the results will be even worse.
“This is exactly what happens when we successfully politicize demographics and economics. The subsequent tinkering with work permits has failed. The PLP Government has failed with immigration reform under successive Ministers.
“They’ve chased away those from overseas and Bermudians alike – we’ve created economic refugees.
“Healthcare continues its steady decline toward unsustainability and our economy continues to shrink. The delay in comprehensive immigration reform has made our situation even more precarious and the consequences of failure even worse.
“It’s time for Government to give up on the easy decisions and start making hard decisions. The time for proposing, discussing, reviewing, and considering has long since passed.”
So easy to say for the 6 who have no jurisdiction to make any decisions. What hard decisions would the OBA make? Would they continue with their plan to make children of guest workers eligible to work summer jobs in Bermuda, thus taking away opportunities from Bermudian families who are using summer jobs to further their education. I am sure we all remember their attempt to implement this policy.
Everyone agrees that tough decisions need to be made. What would be great is if the OBA and their new leader actually got involved in the process rather than the armchair quarterbacking.
What is needed is comprehensive immigration reform, including pathways to status. Stop cherry picking a meaningless strawman.
How in the same post are you saying the OBA has no jurisdiction in the decision making, yet want them to be involved in the process?
Instead of flipping the script and blaming a party that isn’t in power, we need to realize that he is right. As someone who is in their late 20s there are limited options for people to be able to work and make enough to live comfortably. Unless every young person plans on living with their parents/guardians until they’re lucky enough to inherit a home there is no way to be able to afford to live in paradise as a young adult.
@watching. You really have no idea. The PLP are the Government and have been since 1998, apart from a period from 2012 to 2017 when they made sure the OBA couldn’t do anything. The PLP have to make the tough decisions, not the OBA. The OBA should have reduced the admin personnel of the Civil Service by 20% at least, but they didn’t. That is the start and the tough decision that has to be made by the PLP.