Column: Lightbourne On CARICOM Membership

[Opinion column written by PLP MP Alexa Lightbourne]

On Sunday, 31 May, the Ministry of Home Affairs closed its consultation on CARICOM. Bermuda, you shared your views, filled Centennial Hall, St James Church Hall, and Penno’s Wharf. Many participated in the survey at togetherforcaricom.gov.bm. You asked about the cost, the timing, and whether membership means open borders. Every concern raised is on the record, and they will be answered as part of the White Paper. It will also carry the consultation summaries, the United Kingdom’s feedback, and the outcomes of meetings held with the CARICOM Secretariat.

Before that White Paper is written, I want to speak plainly. Bermudian to Bermudian.

For most of us, CARICOM is not the issue keeping us awake at night. The cost of living, the price of groceries, healthcare expenses and finding affordable housing are where many are focused.

That reality is what brings us to the conversation about CARICOM.

Not because CARICOM is a solution to every problem, but because responsible leadership requires us to examine every opportunity, every partnership and every tool that might help us build a stronger future for Bermudians.

Let me share a picture I have carried since this consultation began. One afternoon I sat on a beach in St George’s and watched a ferry cross the harbour just as a cruise ship came up the channel. But beside that ship, she looked like what she is: a boat made for a world that ends at the reef line. She never contemplates her own size. She has no reason to, until something larger crosses her bow. Bermuda has sailed her own waters for so long that we have started mistaking the reef line for the horizon. All around us, the region moves at scale: on trade, on climate, on food, on security. This consultation was the crossing.

So, what must we do?

We are standing at a fork in the road, and we can take one of two paths.

One path says Bermuda should continue relying solely on the tools and relationships we have today.

The other says we should carefully examine whether stronger regional partnerships could create new opportunities, strengthen our resilience and better protect Bermudian interests.

That does not mean abandoning who we are.

It means asking whether there is more we can do to strengthen Bermuda’s future.

For most Bermudians, the most important question is simple:

“What does this mean for me and my family?”

That is exactly the right question.

If Bermuda can create stronger partnerships that help ensure seniors receive the care they deserve, that matters.

If a Bermudian student gains access to new educational, training or professional opportunities, that matters.

If a Bermudian entrepreneur gains access to new markets and new customers, that matters.

If stronger regional cooperation helps protect food supplies during global disruptions or improves disaster preparedness during hurricane season, that matters.

They are not guarantees, but they are possibilities that deserve serious consideration.

Let me be clear. Full membership does not mean open borders.

Bermuda keeps control of its borders and its immigration system.

Bermuda decides what is in its own best interest.

Bermuda’s interests will remain Bermuda’s responsibility.

Alongside real benefits and opportunities, this conversation is also about relationships that have shaped Bermuda for generations.

Long before anyone debated CARICOM membership, Bermuda’s story was already connected to the Caribbean.

Men and women from across the region helped build communities, churches, businesses and families that became part of the Bermudian story.

Their influence can still be seen throughout our culture, traditions, food, music and community life today.

When Bermuda explores partnerships with the Caribbean, we are building on relationships that already exist.

And consider the precedent. Bermuda has joined international bodies before. Our regulator helped found the International Association of Insurance Supervisors in 1994, the standard our reinsurance market still runs on. It holds full membership of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions. We have been an associate member of CARICOM since 2003, and rejoined the Caribbean Tourism Organization in 2023. The institutions that built our economy were never put to a referendum, and they did not need to be.

And understand what full membership actually is. It is a policy anchor. It is Bermuda declaring, as a country, who our partners are and who our friends will be. Bermuda already runs deep ties across the region. The question is whether stronger partnerships mean new markets for our businesses, training for our students, healthcare collaboration to keep the professionals we need, and shared disaster preparedness for the storms we all face. We are confirming in policy what our history already wrote: our partners are our family. And our actions should intentionally follow.

Because at its heart, this discussion is not really about CARICOM.

This is a discussion about Bermuda’s future. It asks whether we are prepared to explore every opportunity that could help us build a stronger future for Bermudians.

Any decision we make should be judged against a simple standard:

Does it benefit Bermudians?

Does it strengthen Bermuda? Does it protect our ability to determine our own future?

If the answer to those questions is yes, then we have a responsibility to consider it.

Bermudians have never been afraid to examine new ideas when they believe those ideas can strengthen our country. That is why, sixty-three years ago, Bermudians who believed this island belongs to all of us founded a party and put their purpose in its name. Progressive. Labour. Progress is in our name because progress is the assignment.

Beyond this place of doubt and delay, the future is ours to author. We are the masters of our fate. We are the captains of our soul.

- Alexa Lightbourne is the Minister of Home Affairs and the Member of Parliament for Devonshire North West [Constituency 14]

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