Dear Sir,

David Burt will step down in October after nine years as premier and for the majority of those years, he also has held the position of finance minister. If we look back at his record of policymaking, there is no question that the two most important pillars of our government's essential infrastructure, ie, healthcare and public education, are still broken.

Healthcare

By this government’s own admission, Bermuda spends more on healthcare than most countries, $770 million annually, yet our health outcomes continue to decline. The heavily funded government quango the Bermuda Hospitals Board gets a $322 million fixed annual grant and it is responsible for running our primary healthcare facilities. Today, Bermuda’s entire healthcare system faces critical issues, including some of the highest per-capita health costs in the world, high rates of uninsured/underinsured residents and major cost burdens from preventable chronic diseases. We are third in the world for diabetes and our dialysis service grows by 10 per cent annually. At least 50 per cent of all residents have at least one chronic disease, eg, kidney, heart or diabetes.

Our main hospital facility has been operating for multiple years without transparent financials. That equals hundreds of millions of annual spending with years of outstanding/late paper trails. The BHB financial history/annual reports will show that the government funding mechanism has had some glaring inconsistencies over the past nine years, which culminated in an operational financial crisis for the hospital. In 2022, our hospital was relying on bank overdrafts and, according to the health minister, at one point had less than six days of operating “cash on hand” (60 to 90 days is the international benchmark). In the 2024-25 Budget cycle, the Government bypassed the normal budget process to directly channel approximately $50 million from the Sinking (debt) Fund to handle these health shortfalls. Additionally, the hospital is also in a literal structural crisis owing to the flawed architectural design of the emergency/acute care wing, the capacity of which cannot satisfy even our average patient-flow demands.

Public education

Despite the largest budget for the Ministry of Education, our public school system remains in crisis. While student enrolment numbers have steadily declined to their lowest in our recorded history, conversely, the annual funding for the MoE has risen from $126 million in 2017 to $156 million for 2026-27. Along the way, we paid $8.2 million in “expert” fees for an Education Reform consultant to transform the system, phasing out middle schools.

That reform has been temporarily frozen, with the Minister of Education halting the intended transition from a three-tier to a two-tier system. The reversals and changing timelines have caused massive confusion, sparking protests and drawing criticism from both the Bermuda Union of Teachers and parents. The recent ministerial interference with school-level decision-making has only served to heighten the tensions between the ministry, parents and staff.

Budget reductions have impacted paraprofessional funding, autism units and specialist support, compounding behavioural and systemic challenges in classrooms.

There are teacher concerns over escalating student behavioural problems and leadership changes within the school system, which has been disruptive and erodes community trust. There have been 13 education ministers in Bermuda over the past 20 years, reflecting a historically high turnover rate.

Bermuda public school students consistently score well below the international averages. This is not new. This has been the norm for decades. Almost 20 years ago, the 2007 Hopkins Report warned that the public school system was "on the brink of a meltdown" and that while several public schools were failing, most others were "merely satisfactory or worse".

Overall, the past nine years under this administration have not been kind (or fair) to the average Bermudian. Long term, continuing care facilities for our seniors remain woefully inadequate. The cost-of-living/housing pressures for locals have not eased measurably, despite the piecemeal policy of government announcements of new affordable units in the pipeline. The government Contributory Pension Fund continues to be on track for total depletion in 2042.

Our rusting, tattered physical infrastructure is much the same as it was nine years ago and our increasing antisocial/violent behaviour across the island reveals a heightened level of strain in the social fabric of our island home. Our prison conditions have deteriorated to the point where the staff are predicting a full-scale crisis, citing security issues and staff shortages.

Very little has improved since 2017 when this Progressive Labour Party administration was returned to power, and it is painfully obvious that just throwing truckloads of taxpayer money at a problem seldom solves it. As our outgoing premier said in his recent and final Budget statement, we must prioritise “fixing systems, not just funding symptoms”. But he is on his way out …

There is one achievement the Premier should take credit for, which is that the Government achieved its first balanced budget in more than 20 years, recording a $29 million surplus in the 2024-25 fiscal year. As the Premier said himself, this milestone was achieved before a single dime of corporate income tax was collected. That is the definition of “living within your means” and Mr Burt has proved that the Government can actually do that. It should be also recognised that this was achieved despite all the “fiscal upheaval” described above, which in plain language translates to hundreds of millions of our wasted taxpayer dollars.

There is widespread anticipation for this corporate income tax pot of gold to fix all the things that are physically and systemically “broken” in Bermuda, but that mindset ignores the real problem that has brought us to where we are today — which is the practice of out-of-control/irresponsible government spending and the associated, unsustainable public debt that comes with it. This upcoming “windfall” of CIT revenue, if used conservatively, has the potential to eliminate our entire $3.2 billion public debt in ten years. A debt that took various governments 20-plus years to amass, the burden and real cost of which has contributed to the very obvious physical and social decline of our 21 square miles.

We are about to be introduced to our new premier and manager of the public purse in a few short months. As they say: “Out with the old and in with the new.” Let’s hope the new finance minister understands the importance and critical timing of this rare opportunity, and has the fiscal discipline to do the right thing. For all of Bermuda.

BEVERLEY CONNELL

Pembroke