Members
Parliament
Transparency
Dr. Douglas De Couto, JP, MP

Dr. Douglas De Couto, JP, MP

1768
Speeches
616,883
Words Spoken
69
Sittings Active
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
168 words
Point of information, Mr. Speaker. Hon. E. David Burt: I do not yield. It sounds nice. [Inaudible interjections] Hon. E. David Burt: It sounds nice. But again, it is impractical. But here is what we have done, Mr. Speaker. We do provide customs duty relief to projects that are with the Bermuda Housing Corporation to construct af-fordable housing, and those …
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
5 words
Point of order, Mr. Speaker.
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
16 words
The Premier, the Honourable Premier is perhaps misleading the House — Hon. E. David Burt: Perhaps?
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
86 words
—because of course we're not here to vote on the Budget Statement. We're here to vote on this particular piece of legislation that was tabled without the full information that we knew in black and white was being associated with that legislation. Not prior statements. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, that Honourable Member just has …
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
10 words
Mr. Speaker, the Premier is misleading the House. [Inaudible interjections]
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
49 words
The Bill referred to a Schedule. The Bill's Schedule referred to an online Schedule. The online Schedule is the prior customs tariff, not the tariff we were being asked to agree. Now I am grateful to the Premier and the public servants for when we followed up on asking—
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
2 words
Thank you.
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
5 words
Point of order. [Inaudible interjections]
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
527 words
The Honourable Minister is misleading the House. He doesn't know what I was laughing about and there was some sidebar conversation on an unrelated topic. I know he's the speaker, but not everything is revolving around him today, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, it may be misplaced laughter, I'll accept that. But for the residents who …
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
3 words
Point of order.
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
27 words
The Minister is misleading the House. We did not say we oppose. In fact, I started my response in this debate specifically saying we support this Bill.
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
16 words
But we did suggest that they could have considered a different approach. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
8 words
Point of order, Mr. Speaker. POINT OF ORDER
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
13 words
I literally stood to my feet and said we support it. [Inaudible interjections]
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
54 words
Yes, thank you, Madam Chairman. Regarding clauses 3(3) and 3(4), the diesel and fuel oils, was there any consideration to do a graduated or a progressive way of looking at this tax that could have been adjusted . . . so that this duty relief could have been adjusted according to usage? Thank you.
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
198 words
Yes, referring to the Bill, Madam Chairman, the clauses I referenced adjust the tariff code on diesel and fuel oil usage respectively down from $0.08 per litre to $0.04 per litre. My understanding of this, of course, flows through into your BELCO bill fuel adjustment rate and it is much touted by the Government as a tax saving to the …
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
40 words
I actually did not ask for any particular thing to be achieved. I asked if the Government had considered that. I believe the answer is no, they did not, because it is complicated. That's my takeaway. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
27 words
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker . I believe it was stated by the Premier that they know what questions I am going to ask — [Inaudible interjections]
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
38 words
So, I would have hoped they perhaps could address them in the brief so we could just get through all this. But listen, we support this. Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Don’t give me the “but” now.
30 May 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
349 words
We support this, Mr. Speaker, but I want to talk about this: the base rate. And I guess the question is, or the suggestion to the Government is, why is everybody getting this break on the base rate? Again, it's the same principle which we discussed of targeting the relief to those who need it most. Now, Mr. Speaker, I …