Bermuda’s term limits policy came in for heavy criticism yesterday in a debate that led one ruling party candidate to say he was “almost persuaded” by opposing arguments.At a lunchtime forum on regenerating the economy, co-host Sir John Swan told the Cathedral Hall audience that the prospect of handing citizenship to white people upon Independence was a key motive of the policy.Britain had informed the Government that a possible condition for sovereignty would be that Bermuda would have to give citizenship to foreigners who had been long-term residents, Sir John claimed.The former Premier made the assertion when asked by One Bermuda Alliance candidate Sylvan Richards how he would address supporters of the term limit policy.“They (the British) were saying basically that you are the government, you want Independence, you’ve always had a philosophy on Independence and if you’re going then you go with some consequences,” he said.Britain suggested term limits as a way to avoid handing citizenship to foreign residents upon Independence.“Let’s be honest about it, 90 percent of them are white, so what we’re saying is we don’t want to change the voting structure to change the demographics of Bermuda so the best thing is to implement the six-year work permit,” Sir John said.“That’s the reality. People can deny it, but that’s the truth.”He continued: “The six-year work permit led to a debate on race. When you put these two together you can see the consequences. The debate on race was an attack on local businesses but the people in international business thought we were talking about them. The locals had nowhere to run but the people in international business had somewhere to run, and those who could run, ran. And therein started the decline.”The PLP has maintained that one of the rationales for the term limit policy was to ensure that large numbers of guest workers did not become long term residents and develop legitimate expectations that they would get Bermudian status.But it has also been justified as a way to ensure that Bermudians are not left out of employment opportunities.Larry Burchall, who co-hosted the forum stuck to the numbers to argue that term limits are “killing the economy”.With a low population growth rate Bermudians “are a species heading toward extinction,” he said.He noted that there had been a decline of 1,700 Bermudians working in Bermuda between 2000 and 2008.“We compensated by importing an extra 1,700 non-Bermudians. If you are thinking you are preserving jobs for an increasing number of Bermudians, you’ve got the mathematics wrong.”Mr Burchall estimated that 40,000 jobs are needed to maintain a successful economy. And in 2008 13,030 of the 40,213 strong workforce were foreign.“The need to import foreigners is Bermuda’s unique problem,” Mr Burchall continued.“Term limits don’t work and they are not necessary. Mathematically, they are not necessary. What we need to do is ensure that Bermudians can fit into the Bermudian economy.”PLP candidate Marcus Jones declared himself “almost persuaded” by the arguments against term limits. But he added that he had heard many complaints about qualified Bermudians being “pushed out” of jobs by foreign workers.“What do we say to our fellow Bermudians that are well qualified, that have a great work ethic?” Mr Jones asked.“How can we provide them the security and safety? How can we assure them that their opportunities are going to be protected?”Sir John said that during the boom times “we couldn’t find Bermudians to work. There was a group of Bermudians who talked about wanting to work but they wanted an income.”He said: “If you remove the term limits you still have the checks and balances in Immigration.”Term limits, he said, was “too sweeping” a policy and had the effect of driving foreigners away.“If you’re not careful, when the foreigner’s gone, the job has gone with them.”Earlier in the conference, Mr Burchall had described Bermuda’s “national problem statement” as “Bermuda is undergoing an absolute decline in its residential population. This residential population decline underpins and affects everything else in Bermuda’s national economy.”