OBA sets record straight on Senate impasse over cost of living
An opposition senator has accused a minister of misleading the public about a vote on cost-of-living legislation recently pushed back in the Senate.
In an op-ed published today in The Royal Gazette, Victoria Cunningham, the Opposition leader in the Senate, said that there was no dispute over Bermuda’s cost of living being too high.
However, she rebutted a claim made on social media by Alexa Lightbourne, the Minister of Home Affairs, that OBA and independent senators had voted against the Cost of Living Commission Amendment (No 2) Act 2026.
Ms Cunningham responded that the OBA voted last month in the Senate to defer the third reading of the legislation, approved in the House of Assembly days earlier, to September so that the amendments could receive proper scrutiny.
She wrote: “I raise this not because it wounds, but because of what it signals. A government confident in its legislation defends it on the substance. It does not need to edit a clerk’s roll call to make its case.
“When the defence of a Bill starts to require that, it is usually because the Bill cannot be defended on what it actually says.”
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Home Affairs issued the following in response to opposition senator Victoria Cunningham’s comments:
“Any commentary relating to the minister's political social-media page are not matters overseen by the Government and it's expected that the minister will appropriately address any concerns raised by the Opposition.
“But let's not get distracted; what is important to note is that the Government's focus remains on the legislation itself and the real issue facing Bermudian families: the high cost of living.
“The Cost of Living Amendment Bill was introduced to provide the Cost of Living Commission with stronger tools to improve transparency and accountability throughout the supply chain.
“Its purpose is straightforward: to help determine whether savings, including duty reductions and other measures intended to benefit consumers, are actually reaching Bermudians at the checkout and to better understand the factors driving prices in our market.
“What is striking is that while the Opposition argue the cost of living is too high, they continue to oppose measures designed to give regulators greater visibility into pricing practices and market conditions. The Opposition's position appears to be that Government should have less visibility into how prices move through the supply chain and fewer tools to determine whether consumer savings are reaching the public. We respectfully disagree.
“The Bill does not prevent businesses from operating, nor does it impose blanket price controls. It creates mechanisms for review, transparency and accountability in the public interest.
“For too long, Bermudians have been left to wonder whether duty reductions and other relief measures intended to lower prices are actually reaching them at the checkout. This legislation will help provide answers. How many times has duty relief been granted to corporate entities without consumers seeing the intended benefit? Too many.
“This Bill is about fairness. It is about giving the Cost of Living Commission the ability to determine whether savings are being passed on, to better understand the costs moving through the supply chain, and to identify opportunities to improve affordability for consumers.
“The Government remains focused on practical measures that help Bermudian families manage the cost of living.
“Consumers deserve transparency, accountability and confidence that relief measures intended for them are genuinely reaching them.”
Ms Cunningham said that the legislation, specifically a clause that requires approval for price increases of 5 per cent or more within a fiscal year, could have unintended consequences for retailers and the public.
She said: “A standstill period that does not match how perishable goods are priced, shipment by shipment, risks making fresh food the riskiest category to stock and processed food the safest, the opposite of what this Bill claims to achieve, and an unintended consequence Government has not modelled, disclosed or apparently considered.
“That concern should not be mistaken for protecting retailers from scrutiny. Retailers should be expected to justify significant price increases, particularly on essential goods.
“We are not protecting retailers from scrutiny. We are protecting consumers from poorly designed legislation whose consequences Government has not demonstrated it understands.”
Ms Cunningham said the OBA senators attended a consultation meeting and raised questions but those questions remained unanswered.
She said: “The most important of those questions is also the simplest. What evidence has Government produced showing that this mechanism will actually reduce what consumers pay at the checkout?
“That is ultimately the test that matters. Not whether Government can say it has acted, but whether its action will actually make groceries and other essentials more affordable for Bermudian families.”
Ms Cunningham added that the OBA would support legislation that genuinely lowers the cost of living, but said the amendments before the Senate did not meet that test.
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