It is likely that both Government and businesses would like nothing more than to have the row over work permit limits quietly disappear.

In Government's perfect world, employers would recognise that the price of prospering in Bermuda is to turn over "non-essential" employees every six years or so.

Businesses, on the other hand, would like Government to recognise that the price of building a successful business is that they must find and retain the best possible people from Bermuda and around the world and that this will be made much more difficult if potential employees know that they will not be with the company for more than six years.

The truth is that both sides, no matter how much they say they want to keep talking, are speaking different languages.

And their separate languages have been models of circumlocution. There have been statements that the term limit is, or could be, nine years, not six. It is not clear if "good corporate citizens" will have any limits applied. Will Brian O'Hara be considered an key employee. And so it goes. Companies continue to insist that "more dialogue" is needed.

What muddies the issue even more is the idea that non-Bermudians will be replaced by Bermudians when their six years are up. That's not what the policy is intended to do.

Existing Immigration policy already requires that qualified Bermudians can replace non-Bermudians whenever a work permit is up for renewal, which in many cases is every year. What the term limits policy is aimed at doing is putting a stop to long-term residents and replacing non-Bermudians with new non-Bermudians every six years or so.

No matter what is said in public, this policy makes almost all businesses uncomfortable. "Bermuda" companies have no choice but to buckle down and accept it, although no one should be surprised if even they start out-sourcing segments of their businesses overseas. Some, of course, already have.

International companies can up and leave whenever they wish and many will do just that if they feel they cannot hire or keep the staff they need. This is not scare-mongering. It is reality, even if few international business executives will say so on the record.

Now, after months of waffling, Home Affairs Minister Randy Horton has brought some clarity to the situation. He said in a speech last week that regardless of where the discussions on term limits went, the "vast majority" of non-Bermudian staff would not be considered "key" when their six years were up and would be required to leave.

Mr. Horton has made Government's position clear. There may be more discussion on what constitutes a good corporate citizen and a key employee. But in the end, the majority of work permit holders will have to go after six years. End of story.

If businesses disagree with this idea, then now is the time to go public and to re-open the debate.

Both sides have good intentions and both recognise the political costs of making Bermudians feel displaced in their own homes.

The policy tries to avoid a repeat of the problem that Bermuda faced with long-term residents in the 1990s by placing the limit on work permits. But knowing that a blanket limit would be unworkable, exceptions were offered for key personnel and "good corporate citizens".

That gave companies - who would been utterly opposed to a blanket limit - a glimmer of hope. But now the Government has made it clear that key personnel will be a minority, so there can be no more illusions.

What has distinguished Bermuda from most other offshore jurisdictions and the primary contributor to its success has been the degree to which Government and the private sector have worked together for the betterment of both.

Without some compromise this partnership is now on the brink of falling apart. And if that happens, Bermuda will be the loser.