Speeches by Rolfe Commissiong

3 Feb 2017 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

62 words

Thank you again, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, considering that, constitutionally, the Government House and the person of the Gover-nor and/or the Deputy Governor, in his absence, has ultimate responsibility for internal security, is the Premier saying that there were no discussions from Government House to him and/or other Ministers in his Government with respect to the events that we are …

3 Feb 2017 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

69 words

Thank you again, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Premier not acknowledge that a major democratic deficit exists when decisions such as that which were taken on D ecember 2 nd and resulted in the horrific outcomes that we saw had no meaningful input from the head of Government, as represented by the Premier? Does the Premier not think that …

3 Feb 2017 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

77 words

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just want to offer condolences to [the families of] three people who certainly enriched our culture, and thus our lives, and they all brought out the best in us as Bermudians. First, I just want to offer condolences to the family of Mrs. Elizabeth Dookie- Scott, the former wife of (now deceased, of …

3 Feb 2017 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

84 words

And so I am associating myself as well with her. She was a woman of Trinidadian descent, of which I have some roots as well. And I always admired her. She was very vivacious. And as I said, she gave a lot back to this community during her time with us. Second, I would like to move on to honour …

3 Feb 2017 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

206 words

Well, I want to associate myself with that as well. I did not have the opportunity when we were last here to do so. He was a good friend of mine. He was a pioneer. I think we can safely Bermuda House of Assembly say, or at least I can, that he helped to revitalise the Gombey and its culture …

3 Feb 2017 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

395 words

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I share my fellow Member’s caveats about the length of time that these visiting vendors will be a llowed to ply our wat ers. But I want to just take a few minutes to also reiterate, without being repetitious, the call by the Shadow Minister from [constituency] 33 for what I am going to term …

3 Feb 2017 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

6 words

Point of order, Mr. Speaker .

3 Feb 2017 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

23 words

I believe the Member is misleading the House. I did not make any reference to the broader community. I specifically said black Ber-mudians.

25 Nov 2016 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

584 words

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am going to, like my colleague across the aisle, probably be somewhat brief myself. You know I just find it unfortunate in this House that at a time when statistics now indicate that both the global ice shelves in the Antarctic and in the Arctic are shrinking . . . in fact, the Arctic …

25 Nov 2016 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

742 words

With respect to this Bill, Mr. Speaker, I do know that there will be some within the taxi industry that are necessarily opposed to it. But that does not mean that all taxi drivers are opposed to it. Some do not feel this represents a competitive threat directly at that level to themselves. So I think we need to take …

25 Nov 2016 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

7 words

Thank you, Madam Chai rman. [Inaudible interjection]

25 Nov 2016 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

293 words

Thank you, Madam Chai rman. The issue of safety comes to mind. Perhaps this will be dealt with in the subsequent regulations, but seat belts? I was wondering if you can please a ddress that, whether they will be required. Secondly, again, I want to come back to this issue that at a time when we should be reducing our …

25 Nov 2016 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

90 words

Well, it is clear that the Mi nister, by way of his response, is indicating that this category of minicar was placed here to accommodate an entrepreneur. I frankly am of the view that this is not justification enough. Certainly, if these other entr epreneurs could go and find appropriate electrically generated vehicles, then this entrepreneur who we are accom …

21 Nov 2016 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

368 words

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to associate m yself with the remarks that were conveyed by my co lleague from constituency 15, the Honourable Walter Roban, with respect to the passing of Mrs. Carolyn Young. Mrs. Carolyn Young, it bears noting, was al-ways a person who epitomised those whom I call the silent warriors of …

21 Nov 2016 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

1,448 words

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it seems that every time the political interests of the Government come hard up against the interests of the country, then the country has to take a backseat. Remember the Jetgate debacle? We remember the referendum- gate debacle. Both of those issues were tied to the same issue that we ar e wrestling with …

21 Nov 2016 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

133 words

Thank you, Madam Chai rman. To the Minister: During the general debate, I basically . . . I am in favour of the concept of prov isional licence. My query remains, why was it necessary to, right off the bat, issue or seek to issue or seek to grant a provisional licence to the St. George's r esort? You did …

21 Nov 2016 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

106 words

Thank you, Madam Chai rman. Minister, are we maybe perhaps sending the wrong signal here? Is the Government acting at cross purposes after all? The Finance Minister said that it is very likely that the banking authorities in the US will be more prone to agree to service the Bermuda bus iness . . . with a maj or player …

21 Nov 2016 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

112 words

Yes, I am as well. The Finance Minister stated that we would stand a better chance of getting the New York, or the US banking entities on board if we were contracting or we had a major player in the industry, whether it is in Las Vegas or one of the other major centres, here doing business, as opposed to …

21 Nov 2016 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

46 words

Thank you, Madam Chai rman. To the Minister again: Minister, are you in a position to say whether the Desarrollos group have given any indication that they are prepared to enter into discussions with any of the major players, as alluded to by the Finance Minister?

14 Nov 2016 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report

230 words

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to start off by associating my remarks with those of the Member for St. George’s West, who spoke about one of Bermuda’s great women, who epitomised what i t was to be a true Bermudian woman. And that is none other than the wife of our colleague and friend, the Honourable Mr. …