Column: Cunningham On Votes, Video, Bill, More

[Opinion column written by OBA Senator Victoria Cunningham]

Let me start with what is not in dispute. The cost of living in Bermuda is too high, and reducing it is a shared goal across both sides of the Legislature. The Opposition has never argued otherwise, and nothing that follows should be read as indifference to what Bermudian families are paying for groceries and essential services. The disagreement is not about the goal. It is about whether this Bill achieves it, and increasingly, about how far Government appears willing to go to avoid that question being asked properly.

This week, the Minister’s own personal social media page put out a video that plays a real Senate roll call, the Clerk calling five named Senators individually for their vote, under the claim that we ‘voted no on the cost of living bill.’ On 22 July, the question the Clerk actually put to the Senate was a motion to defer the third reading to September, so that this Bill could receive the scrutiny it had not yet had. No vote on the Bill itself has taken place. The Hansard records the exact question asked that day, and it does not support what the video claims. Attaching a false vote to five sitting Senators, by name, on a social media page, is not a matter I intend to let pass as a simple political dispute. Misattributing how a named individual voted on the official record of the Legislature is serious, and one those five Senators are entitled to have properly examined, including what recourse may be available to them. I will leave that determination where it belongs, but I will not pretend it is a small thing.

I raise this not because it wounds, but because of what it signals. A government confident in its legislation defends it on the substance. It does not need to edit a Clerk’s roll call to make its case. When the defence of a Bill starts to require that, it is usually because the Bill cannot be defended on what it actually says.

And on what it actually says, the concern that should worry every person in Bermuda is unintended consequences, because this Government has a recent, verifiable record of them. The sugar tax was introduced with a genuine and reasonable aim to encourage healthier choices by making sugary products more expensive relative to healthier alternatives. Instead, the unintended consequence was an incremental rise in the price of goods across the board, not just the products it targeted, a cost increase this Government has never fully accounted for. Good intentions did not produce the outcome that was promised. They produced a broader price increase that fell on every household, healthy choices included.

This Bill carries the same risk, at greater scale. Section 7A defines any price increase of five percent or more within a fiscal year as requiring approval, a threshold the Minister may move by order without a vote in either chamber, and it runs only one way: a five percent decrease triggers nothing at all. Retailers have told us directly they were not consulted on this Bill, the earlier Cost of Living Commission Amendment Act 2026, or the related May regulations. That is three instruments in four months, with no consultation ahead of any of them. Their operational warning is specific: a standstill period that does not match how perishable goods are priced, shipment by shipment, risks making fresh food the riskiest category to stock and processed food the safest, the opposite of what this Bill claims to achieve, and an unintended consequence Government has not modelled, disclosed, or apparently considered. That concern should not be mistaken for protecting retailers from scrutiny. Retailers should be expected to justify significant price increases, particularly on essential goods. But we are not protecting retailers from scrutiny. We are protecting consumers from poorly designed legislation whose consequences Government has not demonstrated it understands.

This week, all three Opposition Senators attended a consultation meeting convened by the Minister, despite reservations, shared by retailers themselves, about a process convened only after a Bill has passed the House and stalled in the Senate. We attended anyway, because if there is a genuine opportunity to have unresolved questions answered honestly, the Opposition will take it rather than dismiss it on principle. We came prepared with the same questions raised previously. They remain unanswered. The most important of those questions is also the simplest. What evidence has Government produced showing that this mechanism will actually reduce what consumers pay at the checkout? That is ultimately the test that matters. Not whether Government can say it has acted, but whether its action will actually make groceries and other essentials more affordable for Bermudian families.

That is the pattern Bermudians should see clearly: a government that means well but will not let the facts get in the way of defending its own legislation, and that has not shown it has learned from the last time good intentions, particularly on the sugar tax, produced a worse outcome for the household budget. Bermudians deserve a Bill that has actually reckoned with what it will do, not one asking for their trust a second time while repeating the same promises that didn’t hold up before.

The Opposition’s position is straightforward. We will support legislation that genuinely lowers the cost of living in Bermuda. This is not that legislation. Between now and the September sitting, we will keep making that case on the substance, because that is the argument that should decide this Bill’s fate.

- Opposition Senate Leader Victoria Cunningham

Update 8.30pm: In response to Bernews request for comment, Minister Alexa Lightbourne said, “The OBA says the cost of living is too high. In the Senate, when the moment came to advance it, they voted against moving it forward.

“This Bill was built in public, with the public. More than 2,200 residents and businesses answered our cost of living surveys. On 25 June 2025, at the island’s first Cost of Living Summit, 258 Bermudians and stakeholders filled the room at the Hamilton Princess, with hundreds more watching live, to work through the price of food, housing, and utilities. We promised that listening would become legislation, and we kept that promise. The Cost of Living Commission itself helped shape these amendments to a law that dates from 1974, and the House of Assembly passed the Bill. We moved from listening to legislating.

“The OBA Senators are embarrassed and they should be.

“The proposed bill creates review, transparency, and accountability, and it lets the Cost of Living Commission do its job. You cannot fix prices you cannot see.

“The OBA has offered no alternative for transparency, no alternative on pricing practices, and no alternative that ensures savings reach the public.

“By voting the way they did, they were voting against the interests of Bermudians who wanted the government they elected to bring down grocery prices. They may try to play games with words and seek to confuse the public but they operated to slow down progress for lowering costs for Bermudians.

“What is there to hide?

“The Bill returns to the Senate in September. If that vote was not a no, vote yes. Bermudians will be watching, and so will I.”

Update: A Government spokesperson said, “Any commentary relating to the Minister’s political social media page are not matters overseen by the Government and it’s expected that the Minister will appropriately address any concerns raised by the Opposition.

“But let’s not get distracted. What is important to note is that the Government’s focus remains on the legislation itself and the real issue facing Bermudian families: the high cost of living.

“The Cost of Living Amendment Bill was introduced to provide the Cost of Living Commission with stronger tools to improve transparency and accountability throughout the supply chain.

“Its purpose is straightforward: to help determine whether savings, including duty reductions and other measures intended to benefit consumers, are actually reaching Bermudians at the checkout and to better understand the factors driving prices in our market.

“What is striking is that while the Opposition argues the cost of living is too high, they continue to oppose measures designed to give regulators greater visibility into pricing practices and market conditions. The Opposition’s position appears to be that Government should have less visibility into how prices move through the supply chain and fewer tools to determine whether consumer savings are reaching the public.

“We respectfully disagree.

“The Bill does not prevent businesses from operating, nor does it impose blanket price controls. It creates mechanisms for review, transparency and accountability in the public interest.

“For too long, Bermudians have been left to wonder whether duty reductions and other relief measures intended to lower prices are actually reaching them at the checkout. This legislation will help provide answers. How many times has duty relief been granted to corporate entities without consumers seeing the intended benefit?

“Too many.

“This Bill is about fairness. It is about giving the Cost of Living Commission the ability to determine whether savings are being passed on, to better understand the costs moving through the supply chain, and to identify opportunities to improve affordability for consumers.

“The Government remains focused on practical measures that help Bermudian families manage the cost of living. Consumers deserve transparency, accountability and confidence that relief measures intended for them are genuinely reaching them.”

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