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

Dr. Douglas De Couto, JP, MP

1768
Speeches
616,883
Words Spoken
69
Sittings Active
20 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
12 words
Are we moving on to the next head? Or shall I wait
20 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
239 words
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, very quickly. This is Head 55, and I was looking at the performance indicator Recoverable Debt. Was Financial Assistance involved in COVID -19 relief payments and can they provide an update on how many of the erroneous COVID -19 relief payments have been recovered to date? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Chairman: Thank you, Senator De …
20 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
544 words
Yes, thank you, Madam President, and thank you to the Junior Minister for her presentation. It is much appreciated. We are certainly happy to support. As you know we are, in the One Bermuda Alliance, big fans of helping to get the economy going, helping to encourage businesses starting up, helping to encourage employment at all levels of the economy, …
20 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
58 words
Thank you, Madam President . It is just a follow up or to clarify my understanding. So a local business less than $500,000 if the Junior Minister could confirm, with a payroll of less than $500,000 is not eligible for new hire relief under this amendment. Is that — Sen. Arianna Hodgson: That is correct, Madam President .
20 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
485 words
Thank you, Junior Minister. The President: Proceed to move your Bill. Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam President. I move that the Bill entitled the Payroll Tax Amendment Act 2024 be now read a second time. The President: Is there any objection to the second reading? No objection. SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 26 Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam President. …
18 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
18 words
Good morning, Madam President — The President: Good morning. GENERAL ECONOMIC DEBATE BASED ON GOVERNMENT’S 2024/25 BUDGET STATEMENT
18 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
614 words
—and to everybody who happens to be listening in. Today we are going to start this three- day process of debating, challenging and questioning the Gov-ernment ’s budget. I will say thank you in advance to the Independent Senators who will chair the Committees and sit through this with us. In the House that is nor-mally rotated through both the …
18 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
361 words
Madam President , it is clear to us that the current Government has no idea how to turn around Bermuda’s finances. This budget is the most recent proof of that . It fails to address fundamental issues underlying Bermuda’s problems. Instead, the Minister of Finance has kicked the can down the road and is playing a waiting game. He is …
18 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
1,072 words
Madam President, first allow me to comment on the global economy because as we know, global and regional trends affect us here in Bermuda. We used to say when the United States catches a cold, Bermuda sneezes . But in today’s massively connected world of global commerce, even small events on the other side of the world can impact our …
18 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
280 words
In our local economy, the situation is much less mixed. But u nfortunately, that is because the signs are consistently negative despite frequent Government statements proclaiming, All is well. This is especially true given Bermuda’ s relatively slow recovery since COVID -19 when compared to the positive rebound seen in the rest of the world. Inflation 186 18 March 2024 …
18 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
144 words
According to reports from Stevedoring Services, container volumes are materially down since 2019. Minus 6 .0 per cent for the 12 months ending March 2023 and break -bulk cargo, those things not in containers (like in trailers) , down minus 22.0 per cent over the same period. For the next six months (March to September 2023) the container volumes were …
18 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
592 words
Madam President, using the Government ’s own retail sales reports, we see similar sobering reductions versus the pre- COVID -19 period. And again, we want to take care here to use what is called the volume statistic , which is designed to take out inflation from the true sales volumes. August 2023 year-to-date, overall retail sales were down minus 3.1 …
18 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
174 words
Madam President, employment figures provide another lens into local activity based on the recent November 2022 Labour Force Survey and the National Economic Report ’s 2023 Bermuda Senate projections . Total jobs are down minus 4.4 per cent in 2023 versus 2019. IB is up 22.0 per cent. But once you take that out, non- IB or local jobs are …
18 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
263 words
Madam President, just to round out our local economy assessment, we will look at the GDP. Using the latest World Bank and National Economic Report data of real GDP —and again, that is after you take out inflation —and comparing 2022 to the start of the latest PLP Government in 2017, we see Cayman and US each grew just under …
18 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
309 words
Madam President, as we have seen, IB remains a bright spot in Bermuda’ s economy. The OBA ’s key message is the next G overnment must ensure we do not get in the way of IB ’s continued success. International business must continue to flourish in Bermuda so that Bermuda and Bermudians can flourish with it. IB must continue to …
18 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
285 words
Madam President, we have been glad to see some green shoots in tourism since COVID -19, but must face the reality that it is not enough. We are well below our pre- COVID -19 [tourist ] levels and are being seriously outperformed by our competitor islands and jurisdictions. Versus 2019, total air capacity, minus 25 per cent. Leisure visitors arriving …
18 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
681 words
Madam President, while asking if Government can deliver, let us turn to our population challenges , which we alluded to earlier . In October 2022, t he Government ’s own report stated, and I hope you don’t mind if I quote, “ the Government will work to develop a strategy to increase the working pop-ulation in Bermuda by at least …
18 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
176 words
Madam President, let’s turn to the Government ’s current fiscal position and performance. But I would like to get something out of the way. This Government has often characterised criticism of its financial management as racism. But when they do that, t hey fail to address any of the substantive points of the criticism and claim everything is a question …
18 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
447 words
Madam President, we have discussed this Government ’s bottom -tier performance in GDP and tourism, which has been reflected in worse economic outcomes for struggling Bermudians. Did you know that our current national debt, not including our pension shortfalls, is about $51,700 for every man, woman and child. Madam President, that Bermuda Senate compares to $32,700 for Bahamas , $6,331 …
18 Mar 2024 Senate
Official Hansard Report - Senate
243 words
Madam President, looking to the future, we have a massive pension crisis both for civil servants—which we understand. We will learn more about the improvements there and I look forward to hearing about that —but for the general public’s social insurance. In the past this might have been called developing, but now this crisis is fully developed, Madam President . …