Will Perinchief's promised tide lift all boats?
BIG things are said to come in small packages, Mr. Editor. But please no funny ideas. I am talking not about people but about - what else? - legislation, specifically a piece entitled “Economic Development (Designation of Economic Empowerment Zone) (North East Hamilton) Order 2007” which, while only three short paragraphs long, took us the greater part of the day (seven or so hours) to debate in the House on the Hill.Not that it was contentious. It was the politics of what’s proposed that kept us so long, not so much the economic benefits. The latter are pretty straightforward: businesses and property owners in the zone that qualify may become eligible for various forms of tax relief, payroll and customs duties.
The Order simply designated as an economic empowerment zone “the area of land outlined in red on the map attached”. That was one of the three paragraphs; the other two were the preamble and short title (which isn’t really short: it is the same length as the title of the Order itself). The map is the size of, say, a credit card, and the red lines run along Victoria Street, up King Street, west along “Pembroke Canal” and then south down Cedar Avenue back to Victoria Street.
It’s the area more commonly referred to as the Back-of-Town, although area MP Ashfield DeVent hopes that with the uplift that may result more of us will start calling it Uptown. “You change all the laws and regulations you want”, he reminded us, “but the hardest thing of all is to change peoples’ minds”. Don’t we know it, Mr. Editor, don’t we know it.
A change of name may be a beginning for the area.
But what matters is the possibility of empowerment that lies within.
However, to understand how this is supposed to work, Mr. Editor, you need to turn to the enabling legislation, the Economic Development Act 1968 which was formerly known as the Industrial Development Act 1968. It was changed back in March and it gives the Minister of Finance the power to declare any area of land in Bermuda an economic empowerment zone provided both Houses of the Legislature approve, that is the one on the Hill and the one at the bottom - Step One.
Step Two: The Order gets published in the Gazette (Government, not the Royal) so it will be coming soon in a newspaper near you, assuming you buy The Bermuda Sun <$>which, as I know you know Mr. Editor, is actually the official Government Gazette.
But Step Three - who qualifies and how - may not be so transparent. Duty and tax concessions under the Act are only made available to businesses and property owners where (1) there is an approved scheme in an economic empowerment zone and (2) the owners have agreed to be a part of the approved scheme.
An approved scheme? This is a scheme which has either been approved in principle, by both Houses , up and down the Hill,
This latter option - which can now be the case with North East Hamilton - means that an approved scheme may not see the light of the day — until after the fact, if it all.
That can’t be right or desirable. Taxpayers not only have a right to see how their money is being spent, but who is getting relief from the taxes everyone else is paying, and how and why they qualified.
It’s one of two points my Opposition colleagues tried to press on the Government during the debate, led by the shadow spokesman for Finance Pat Gordon-Pamplin. The second was that Government has to see to it that existing businesses and property owners will be the ones who get to take advantage of the lift concessions could bring to the area; and not just the new who suddenly decide to expand into the empowerment zone.
“As we encourage the new”, said Pat, “we must not ignore or drive out the old. That would be patently wrong”.
Otherwise, the Opposition was in full support, reminding the Government that it was the Opposition United Bermuda Party which brought an empowerment bill to the House on the Hill a couple of years ago which was designed to assist small businesses, principally black-owned businesses, throughout Bermuda, which the Government decided not to take up. Development of North Hamilton is also on the United Bermuda Party agenda.
That’s where the politics of the Order came in, Mr. Editor.
“I am tired of the double-speak”, declared Cabinet Minister Wayne Perinchief, he of Community and Cultural Affairs. “I hear people reading speeches, Mr. Speaker, and tip-toeing around the issue”.
(Well to that point, Mr. Editor, the only people who appeared to have been reading when speaking, that I noticed, were those on the Government benches, from a prepared brief - or briefs, I can’t tell because they never ever share.).
But that did not matter to Minister Perinchief: he was making his point.
“This is intended to lift black businesses”, he boldly and loudly declared. Actually, Wayne, I think we all understood that to be the case, including the listening public.
“Where’s Renee?”, Minister Perinchief also boomed, “she’ll back me on this.” (Ms. Webb was in the House but not in her seat, at the time.)
“She’ll back you on a few more things too, if you’re not careful”, shouted out Maxwell Burgess, through the laughter from across the aisle: a reference, I think, Mr. Editor, to the day’s headline and Minister Perinchief’s position on protection from discrimination for gays in Bermuda.
Maxwell is one of the masters of the House for one-liners. He also made his point on the Order: “Let us help the people there first and foremost. They should not find themselves displaced and if anything they should be empowered to move to Front Street and not restricted to this one area”.
This could be a case, Mr. Editor, where a rising tide lifts all yachts. We’ll need to watch closely to see the yachts that actually do benefit. An uplifting wind is good, Mr. Editor, but sunshine for public scrutiny is even better.
Election signals
EXCUSE me, Mr. Editor, but you do get the feeling sitting in the House on the Hill that there is an election looming somewhere out there on the horizon: not just from what we debate, but how debates run their course.Economic Empowerment Order was an obvious example.
Government members were taunted by the Opposition benches for only just getting around to actually implementing an empowerment scheme.
Typical was the following exchange across the Chamber floor - from those who were listening, not speaking. We call this interpolation, Mr. Editor.
“Why do you think we are doing this now then?”
“Because there’s an election coming”
“You think?”
But there are other signals as well. Take, for example, the debate which followed on the Hotels (Licensing and Control) Amendment Act - which was all about ensuring that adequate security measures are in place in hotels to protect their guests, our visitors. Safety for our visitors is a matter for serious concern, and not just on account of what we learn each day from the police crime blotter. Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell told us that exit surveys show that safety and security in Bermuda has slipped in our visitors’ minds from 84 per cent favourability rating in 2003 to 57 per cent in 2006.
However, the debate took a different tack for Government members who advocated that the only way Bermuda is going to enjoy a renaissance in tourism, and that more Bermudians are going to get involved, is to build a new hotel. There was specific reference to Southlands and the Opposition UBP was flogged for being against, although that’s not entirely true. We’re against the use of an SDO, the mass of the proposed development, and circumventing the planning process, and for the use of brown sites first.
Former Cabinet Minister turned backbencher Terry Lister was one of those who led the charge. He told us that as Education Minister he refused to let the Premier as Tourism Minister come in to schools to talk up tourism as a career for young Bermudians. MP Lister, Terry, said that he told the Premier that as far as he was concerned: “They have no future in tourism. Until the industry gets serious about training and investing[ in new plant] our children just won’t go there.”
The answer: Build a new hotel.
It sure looked like Premier Brown appreciated the attention - and the support. He is also the Minister of Tourism, as we know, and this was his Bill, and this next election will be his first election as leader of the PLP.
Miles ahead
MAKING Dr. Brown the centre of attention, Mr. Editor, looks like it might be election strategy for the PLP - in and out of the House. There isn’t a lot of legislation coming up to the Hill and the two new pieces which were tabled last week both had to do with transport - the other portfolio the Premier has held on to. One of the Bills is to provide for electronic tagging of cars to detect whether they are on the roads unlicensed and/or uninsured. The other is to allow for the impounding of motor vehicles where unlicensed or uninsured.I don’t know about first among equals, Mr. Editor, but we now have a pretty good sense of who among them appears to be first in line when it comes to legislation—.and, thanks to last w week’s Q and A on Ministerial travel, who is also miles ahead as the most frequent flyer.
