October 24, 2012Dear Sir,Last night I attended the Pembroke Parish Council meeting on term limits. The panellists were Larry Burchall, Walton Brown, Shawn Crockwell, Richard Winchell and Chris Furbert. Every single panellist focused his attention on the fact that the present immigration policy is not being implemented fairly nor enforced correctly. Every panellist (with the exception of Mr Furbert, who did not speak directly to term limits) agreed that the term limit policy in its present form was detrimental to Bermuda’s interests and should be reviewed or outright abolished. Many interesting titbits came out of that panel discussion, however what most sparked my attention was the fact that Government regularly waives 70 percent of all term limits. Any company worth its salt will have done its due diligence when deciding where to set up shop and when compiling its list of pros and cons, term limits will go in the cons column for Bermuda, even though the majority of them are later waived. That is like a restaurant putting a sign on the door stating that you can only sit at a table for your appetiser, but you’ll have to take your main course to go (even though seven out of ten diners are subsequently allowed to finish their meal). As a restaurateur you are going to get far less customers coming through your doors that way!I always thought that Bermuda implemented term limits as a safeguard against being forced to give away status (or citizenship in the case of independence) to long-term residents. Legal opinions sought by Association of Bermuda International Companies (ABIC), Bermuda Employers Council, Bermuda Hotel Association and the Attorney General all stated that this was not the case. Bermuda has sovereignty over whom she grants status and no other country or international organisation can dictate otherwise. Walton Brown challenged a member of the public, stating that Bermuda’s term limit policy was not the only thing responsible for the exodus of IB related jobs. I agree with Mr Brown that term limits were not the only policy that caused IB companies to leave. Another action that fuelled the exodus was when his Government pushed the payroll tax rate from 14 percent to 16 percent in 2010. This 14 percent increase — not a two percent increase as described by the Minister at the time — forced companies to examine their expense lines and accelerated the outsourcing process of support jobs to other jurisdictions. Bermudians were heavily employed in support services to these companies and their employees and the result left many Bermudians without work. The Government’s action was a money-grab it considered necessary in order to pay for the huge debt it had accumulated after years of uncontrolled spending.NICK KEMPEOne Bermuda Alliance CandidatePembroke West Central