2005 Throne Speech in a nutshell

Here's what was promised in the 2005 Speech From The Throne.

Social Agenda

• Establish a Social Agenda Management Resource Team to advise the Government on its Social Agenda and assist in its implementation and management.
  

Independence

• Hold public meetings to educate the public about the conclusions of the Bermuda Independence Commission.
  
• Present a Green Paper (for discussion) and then a White Paper (containing policy proposals) to the House of Assembly.
  

Media

• Launch a Government Information TV channel to increase Bermudian content on the airwaves and provide an opportunity for young Bermudians to enter the field of public media.
  

Housing and Family Services

• Build 330 new rental units over the next 30 months.
  
• Establish a team of case managers responsible for identifying and assisting families who need housing, financial assistance, and family counselling.
  
• Start building a night shelter and rooming house facility for 200 persons. Residents of the facility will be provided with "quality programmes" to develop their skills.
  
• Institute family counselling and mediation to aid families during separation and divorce.
  
• Introduce an Online Child Protection Bill to prevent the creation, distribution, possession and access to pornographic material.
  

Law and Order

• Establish a National Steering Committee on Drugs.
  
• Give Cabinet direct responsibility for directing and coordinating the national assault on the supply of, and demand for drugs.
  
• Implement strategies to assist young black men, in line with the recommendations of the Government's recently-concluded study.
  
• Divert first-time offenders away from incarceration and into counselling and rehabilitation programmes.
  
• Develop a Juvenile and Family Treatment Court System to target young offenders and their families as a unit, rather than dealing with the offender in isolation.
  
• Review the requirements for jury service with the view to increasing the categories of law-abiding citizens who are allowed to sit as jurors.
  
• Bring forward legislation to establish a DNA database in Bermuda.
  
• Modernise the law on sexual and other assaults and introduce harsher penalties as appropriate.
  
• Rid “drug houses” of users of illegal substances and return these homes to the housing stock.
  
• Tackle dog attacks and illegal breeding by increasing penalties and strengthening enforcement.
  

Seniors

• Amend the reporting structure of the National Office of Seniors and Physically Challenged to improve the administration and support provided to Bermuda's senior citizens.
  
• Eliminate fees charged for British Overseas Territories Citizen passports for seniors.
  

Economy

• Create a Scheme of Short Term Assistance to Newly Unemployed Persons.
  
• Develop a Workforce and Employment Strategy to provide employment and economic opportunities to current and future workers and small business owners.
  
• Amend the Bermuda Small Business Development Corporation Act to serve the needs of new and existing small business owners.
  
• Develop an Economic Empowerment Zone be developed in North Hamilton and elsewhere to encourage and protect often overlooked entrepreneurs.
  
• Hold Directors of companies legally responsible for unpaid pensions and taxes due to Government on behalf of workers.
  
• Establish a new dedicated Tax Court so that cases of non-payment of taxes can be dealt with expeditiously.
  
• Improve customs clearance processes for passengers and goods at all ports of entry.
  

Education and Training

• Provide a full financial grant to members of the Bermuda Regiment who attend the Bermuda College.
  
• Give Regiment soldiers free travel on all buses and ferries.
  
• Expand the cooperative work release programme between senior school students and employers.
  
• Revise the Bermuda Public School System Testing Programme to better serve the needs of students, teachers and parents. (More details here.)
  
• Provide additional funding for the Raleigh International Expedition in 2006.
  
• Start certifying workers in certain technical occupations.
  

Community

• Amalgamate the different divisions of the fire services so that they can better serve the Island.
  
• Give enforcement power to the newly joined-up Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service.
  
• Give Charity Commissioners increased regulatory authority, and to strengthen the reporting requirements of charities.
  

Race

• Establish Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda (CURB) to recommend to the Government tangible, achievable strategies for the elimination of racism in Bermuda.
  
• Amend CURE legislation to require large companies to review their policies to ensure that racial barriers to opportunity are removed.
  

Environment

• Expand the number of lands protected under the National Parks Act and increase enforcement powers against offenders.
  
• Reduce stamp duty on land purchased by non-profit organizations to maintain open spaces.
  
• Enhance safeguards for protected species and habitats.
  
• Amend the Agriculture Act to maintain viability of Bermuda’s agriculture industry.
  
• Introduce a Control of Pesticides Act.
  

Tourism

• Develop a master plan for Bermuda’s ports infrastructure.
  

Comments

[Slowhand on 05.11.05 at 18:22]

Blah blah blah! Lets get it done.

Regarding the TV.... maybe Fresh has found a way to keep going, but with tax payers money instead?!!

"Establish a Social Agenda Management Resource Team to advise the Government on its Social Agenda and assist in its implementation and management"

So now the Govt. needs advice and assistance for the Social Agenda that they created?!!!
Does this not sound stupid to anybody else?

" Hold public meetings to educate the public about the conclusions of the Bermuda Independence Commission.
Present a Green Paper (for discussion) and then a White Paper (containing policy proposals) to the House of Assembly."

HOLY CRAP!!! How much more time and money are we going to waste on this? The advisor that told 'P' that "the longer he draws it out, the more accepting the electorate will become" needs to be drawn and quartered.

[Gray on 06.11.05 at 08:57]

Tourism - "Develop a master plan for Bermuda’s ports infrastructure"

Is that it?! It shocks me just how little the focus is on tourism here, and how much the economy could benefit with a serious focus on it by someone who knows what they're doing.

Mind you, I don't know why I should care, when the government clearly doesn't.

[Tiger Bay on 07.11.05 at 15:21]

"Hold Directors of companies legally responsible for unpaid pensions and taxes due to Government on behalf of workers."

This is a good start. But don't forget:

1) the mess that the union pensions are in. Money was paid in; the dispute is over subsequent mismanagement and veiling of information. That's equally as bad.

2) government made businesses fund their pension liabilities in a relatively short period ... and then did not impose the same burden on itself. Government's pension liabilities are growing very rapidly with no funding plan apart from "sticking it to the future taxpayer".

This Throne Speech was full of gestures - what they call "trial ballons" - and short on management tactics.

[Sparky on 09.11.05 at 19:26]

"# Provide a full financial grant to members of the Bermuda Regiment who attend the Bermuda College.
# Give Regiment soldiers free travel on all buses and ferries."

This organisation to date has provided little to the community or those who serve except in times of emergency such as hurricanes.
We've got to give these people a job and make the regiment useful. Make a water-based force. Train and equip them for search and rescue. The honor they recieve will more than make up for having to pay for the pink limosine.