Task Force.

Community and Cultural Affairs parliamentary secretary Grace Bell introduced the take note motion following the reading of the Budget Statement by Finance Minister Grant Gibbons.

The task force was set up in October, 1996, and reviewed the areas of consumer product and service safety, misleading advertising, trade descriptions, unfair trade practices and debt collection.

After 22 meetings, 18 written submissions and 24 presentations, the task force, chaired by Sir John Plowman, produced a 45-page report.

Mrs. Bell said the key finding of the task force was that the Consumer Affairs Board should be given statutory powers to give guidance to businesses, investigate complaints and take legal action.

Other recommendations included introducing safety standards for goods which might be dangerous to users; issuing guidelines requiring all packaged food to be date-stamped; and consider introducing penalties for selling food which is unmarked or beyond its date stamped.

It also said a policy should be established for the certification and licensing of mechanics; consideration should be given to the establishment of a Small Claims Court with streamlined procedures; all legislation relating to misleading advertising and false descriptions in particular the Trades Description Bill and the Consumer Protection Act 1989 (UK) should be reviewed; and basic standard lease agreements which clearly sets out the rights and duties of landlord and tenant should be issued.

Acting on the recommendations, said Mrs. Bell, would require co-ordinated efforts between the Community and Cultural Affairs Ministry, other Government departments and outside agencies.

Shadow Minister of Community and Cultural Affairs Paula Cox said the report affected everybody because everyone was a consumer or potential consumer.

Consumers had a right to expect that when they purchased goods or services that they were reliable and of high quality.

They also had the right to know that what they would be consuming or buying would not be bad for their economic or physical health.

The watchwords were value for money, accountability, a fair deal and reasonable quality, continued the Devonshire North MP.

Turning to the task force's recommendations, Ms Cox said they needed to be fine tuned and then adopted.

She urged the Ministry to follow the example set in the UK which had a Director-General of Fair Trading when it looked at giving the Consumer Affairs Board statutory powers.

The Director-General's pivotal role had two functions, one which was active, the other passive, said Ms Cox.

The active role was to keep commercial activity under review and collect information relating to such activity while the passive role was to receive and collate evidence on these practices.

She said she thought Community and Cultural Affairs Minister Yvette Swan should look into the Director-General position and the Office of Fair Trading.

It would keep the supply of goods and services under review, make recommendations to departments of trade and industry, take action against goods and services providers, inform the public of its rights and encourage trade associations to provide statutory guidelines for their members.

"I hope there are aspects of UK legislation which can be incorporated.'' Ms Cox also recommended borrowing the National Consumer Council idea which could serve as a pressure group representing consumers and called for a Made in Bermuda stamp to be used on locally-produced goods which met certain standards.

Government backbencher John Barritt agreed that the profile of the Consumer Affairs Bureau needed to be raised because of the need for guidelines and legislation to protect and assist consumers.

He noted that Government was also a service provider in many areas and should not be excluded -- in this capacity -- from the Consumer Affairs Bureau.

And Mr. Barritt said he backed those recommendations which found Magistrates' Court to be "out of whack'' and those which recognised the need for a court to deal with civil claims and the need for an infrastructure in which the system of a bailiff and serving summons could work.

Mr. Barritt said that much of the legislation referred to in the Task Force report needed to be overhauled.

The most recent legislation was dated in 1978 he pointed out and while he accepted that amendments had been made subsequently, he said the legislation was out of touch with present day Bermuda.

Meanwhile, Shadow Tourism Minister David Allen said that there needed to be greater monitoring of the surcharges which were passed on the visitors and he said that the people of Bermuda needed action on this issue.

He also called for Government to work closer with tour boat operators who took tourists out on fishing trips but did not let them keep the catch.

Public Safety Minister Quinton Edness said that he supported the work that has gone into the Task Force document which Government was pleased to receive.

Mr. Edness called for a range of new laws to protect consumers after reading the report's recommendations.

And he said the report reflected on Bermuda as a "very democratic country'' which was not ashamed of its problems.

Mr. Edness added: "I feel that whenever a new company is formed in Bermuda we need to have rules and regulations so an authority can look at the prospectus to ensure that people investing money in that venture are in fact protected.

"I'm also very anxious to ensure that something's going to get set up to give protection to people who set out to purchase a service or a good and find themselves injured and lose everything.

"We need an act that creates the Consumer Affairs Board statutorily. They will have the authority to set up rules and procedures to give a vast amount of protection in our community, where previously there has been none.'' The Minister said he wanted tradesmen and women to gain qualifications and present identification to customers.

"I'm very pleased that we live in a country where the Government recognises the need to instigate this,'' he added.

"This report is sufficiently forthright to show all the deficiencies there are. We are getting very close to being what we can call a very democratic country.

"It's no reason to be ashamed because things aren't right but it's good to have people who are prepared to look at these things.'' Pembroke East MP Nelson Bascome , for the Progressive Labour Party, called for the Consumer Task Force to look into marked-up prices, the National Training Board, disputes between landlords and tenants and the possibility of setting up a central Bermuda market.

He added: "We see more and more small business going under. Some of these businesses have provided good quality service and we have lost it because the business has failed for other reasons.

"There's some real work to be done to look at why this is happening.'' Tourism Minister David Dodwell also welcomed the report and claimed the hotel industry was already developing a certification programme and focussing on performance standards.

"We could also do that with every trade that we apply work permits to,'' he added.

"And one of the other things we need to do is raise our standards with regard to customer service.'' He said all restaurants should make their gratuities policy clear on menus, outside posters, bills and till receipts.

"Sometimes customers assume there is no tip when there is, and they add one anyway,'' he said.

"That is completely unfair and it's something a bolstered Consumer Affairs Board can get to in practice.'' Opposition House Leader Reginald Burrows noted that taxi drivers also needed protection as he had been made aware that some agents were selling tours for twice as much as the drivers were earning for operating them.

This was part of what made a Bermuda vacation expensive, he said.

Mr. Burrows asked whether anyone from the Consumer Affairs Board went around Island businesses to check if consumers were being charged for the correct weight of goods they purchased.

And he noted that people affected by "get rich quick schemes'' needed protection as they were normally people who could not stand to lose any money.

Mr. Burrows also pointed out that the standard of work done by contractors should be controlled by a licensing body and that people who took out life insurance policies should be protected.

Furthermore he said landlords and protectors needed more protection and stricter measures needed to be taken against debtors.

His colleague, Human Affairs Shadow Minister Ewart Brown said it was important not to simply protect consumers.

It was just as critical to provide consumers with high quality products and services and stressed that it was the providers who had to meet this obligation.

He called for an improved work ethic amongst service providers because if people wanted to continue earning global wages then they needed to provide global service.

Opposition Whip Walter Lister attacked "unclear'' and "outright deceptive'' advertising.

He noted that places offering 75 percent off sales on a repeated basis seemed to be up to something because it was unlikely that they could remain in business long.

"Are customers getting their money's worth?'' he asked.

Devonshire South MP Michael Dunkley (UBP) said the debate would heighten the awareness of people around the Island and, in his opinion, it was the task force's recommendation that a consumers' awareness campaign be launched that was the most pertinent.

Opposition Leader Jennifer Smith added her support to the recommendations and called for Government to move quickly in enacting them.

She drew particular attention to the need to update and correct legislation dealing with landlord and tenant issues.

Shadow Minister of Works, Engineering and Housing Stanley Morton closed the debate with the suggestion that code books be put together for landlords and tenants so they would know what their rights were.