In less than a month, the Government will set out its financial plan to pay for its Social Agenda. In other words it will be Budget time. Bermudians will hear, in explicit detail, how Government intends to implement its Social Agenda and to pay for it. The ?it? will be the construction of ?two, three and four bedroom manufactured emergency homes?; the improvement of ?circumstances of our senior citizens?; and to equip young people ?with the tools to enable them to develop into productive citizens and to allow them to take their place as the leaders of tomorrow?.

When Government presented its Social Agenda, I along with many other PLP supporters wondered ?What?s the big deal?? I thought the Social Agenda was what the PLP had always promised and had been doing. Accordingly, it came as no surprise when the Opposition immediately pounced upon the ?Social Agenda? with the comment ?If the PLP Government didn?t really have a Social Agenda before, then what have they been doing for the past six years??

Still, this comment was self incriminating. After all, the charge that the PLP had done nothing in their six years of Government is an admission that the social problems existed before the PLP became the Government. In which case, it is clear that the UBP, after 35 years of trying, certainly had not done very much either, with respect to the problems of housing, seniors and the development of Bermuda?s youth for leadership roles.

Also of interest is the fact that the Opposition Leader agreed that the key items of the Social Agenda were serious problem areas. In fact, he heartily endorsed the issues defined by the Social Agenda, when he pointed out that the solutions promised by the PLP were initiated by the UBP during its 35 years of governing Bermuda. This claim in turn forced him to admit that the actions taken by the UBP were usually driven by the actions of the ??old PLP?, formed in 1963, who worked hard in Opposition to bring necessary change to an entrenched social order that was not responsive to the needs and interests of most Bermudians?.

After emphasising the insincerity of the PLP in proposing the New Social Agenda, the UBP Leader proclaimed that the Agenda contained a number of initiatives that it could support because they were taken from the UBP party platform. This led me to the following conclusion: If the criticisms of the UBP are to be given any credence, then if the PLP had failed the public by not implementing a Social Agenda after six years in Government, than the failure of the UBP during 35 years in power were tantamount to criminal negligence. Of all the proposals put forward in the Social Agenda, I and others remain convinced that the Housing issue is of critical importance because it is the direct result of Bermuda?s enviable economic expansion. It is the one issue on which the two parties could agree and probably will never be resolved except by means of a bi-partisan effort.

To appreciate the basis of this conclusion, one need only to ask the question, ?Who benefits from this boom in housing?? The PLP is beset with the fact that many of its supporters are landlords and these landlords earn a major part of their annual income from the rental of housing.

For the UBP on the other hand, an important segment of their support is based in the owners and shareholders of the major corporations. These persons earn a major slice their income in the form of profits from sales of materials and services to the expanding International Sector and the industries supporting them.

Hence, both parties face serious constraints against implementing policies that will slow down the expansion thereby reducing Bermuda?s dependence on foreign labour which is causing the intense competition for housing which, in turn, is causing the advance in rents and the price of housing.

For those who remain unconvinced that the issue of the mass importation of foreign labour is carefully avoided by both political parties, they need only to refer to the content of the debates during the Throne Speech. At that time, according to reports in , only two people, Ms Renee Webb and Mr. John Barritt referred to the need to manage properly the economic expansion. Only one person, Mr. John Barritt, pointed out the relationship between the economic expansion and the shortage of housing.

I raise the issue here because I hope the impact of the economic expansion on the Social Agenda will be thoroughly discussed during the Budget debate. There should be ample opportunity to do this. From my perusal of the Throne Speech I see nothing being proposed that will have a marked impact on Government finances. There will be demands for additional housing but this is not likely to cause a drain on Government finances since there is ample reason that investment in housing can be expected to provide sufficient returns at least to recoup the cost of the original investment.

If the issues of housing and health care for seniors are seriously addressed, there could be a considerable drain on Government coffers. But even here there could be some revenue offsets, if the compulsory retirement age is raised from 65 to 70.

The increase in expenditure required to improve education and training requirements will be offset by the long-term decline in the size of the school age population as well as the marked growth in the enrolment in private schools. These twin phenomena should ease the pressure on Government to find financial resources to educate a diminishing public school population and release funds for more intense and expanding training programmes.

There are many initiatives calling for information gathering. If these are carried out by an enlarged Government Statistical Department in cooperation with the departments requiring the additional information, then not only will the expense be minimised but Government will have an opportunity to develop a very well developed central statistical system. Such a system will be more and more required as the need for long term planning moves out of the realm of a catch phrase of politicians to a real and meaningful exercise in economic planning.

Clearly, Bermuda cannot long continue to carry on as if it really is God?s special little universe. We talk and act as if our ?strong economy? is based upon solid rock and not quicksand. We seem not to realise that the United States leaders are becoming more and more conscious of the need to attend to domestic issues. Such being the case, how much longer shall Americans allow its major corporations to hide their profits by setting up facilities in Bermuda and other offshore financial centres in order to avoid paying taxes in their own backyard? Had Mr. Kerry been elected, efforts to stop this behaviour might be occurring right now.

In order to properly prepare for the possibility of these dangerous outcomes, Bermuda does need the data gathering that the PLP is proposing. However, the process needs to operate within a centralised statistical authority with the power to set definitions and standards and thereby facilitate the cross ministry interchange of ideas that is emphasised throughout the Social Agenda.

In the words of the Premier, Bermuda must make a real effort to ensure ?That the have nots will have more.?

If this worthy goal is to be realised, the time is now overdue to start discussing how Bermuda shall implement and finance the Social Agenda. We cannot afford to leave this most important debate until Budget Day. By than the horse will be out of the stable instead of just trying to kick the door down.