Statement on PLP Platform by Craig Cannonier, Leader, One Bermuda Alliance
What Bermuda needs more than anything right now is a sound policy to stop the economic bleeding.
It needs a Party that understands that the economy is out of whack, and must be stabilised, and whose policies and programmes bear reality to what can be afforded without massive tax increases.
Bermuda needs a leader who respects the intelligence of the people and who does not make wild promises knowing that he cannot deliver.
Leadership puts country before politics.
David Burt’s election platform is simply not based on reality.
Bermuda, there is a profound absence of reality.
The person who was once the magician’s apprentice is now trying his hand at his own magic – except it is not working.
His sleight of hand has become tired. We see through him. It is all smoke and mirrors.
Let’s look at his promises on an economic plan.
He lists things like the redevelopment of the Fairmont Southampton Hotel – a project that was in the pipeline last year and which has nothing to do with Government.
A new state-of-the-art medical tourism facility. Talks have been going on about this for decades and nothing has ever happened.
And, Bermuda, who is this for? Who will really benefit from this?
He talks about the new arbitration centre – yet conveniently neglects to mention that this prime piece of real estate in the centre of Hamilton has been gifted to a US company under a deal that we still know nothing about, but which has excluded Bermudian companies.
He talks about moving the container port, of new affordable housing and upgrading water supply.
What he does not talk about is cost and who will pay for all these promises.
Who will pay for it all?
You!
These are the questions all Bermudians must ask themselves about David Burt’s fanciful promises.
The Premier promises all these new developments – which will cost hundreds of millions of dollars – then in the next breath he talks about balancing the budget in three years.
How?
The deficit is going to be in the region of 200 million dollars by the end of this financial year – probably even more.
How will there be a balanced budget without having to make very significant cuts in Government employment and spending?
It was interesting to read the Burt administration’s plan for family offices.
He wants immigration incentives tied to investments in Bermuda.
Does this sound very familiar to you? It should – it is almost exactly what the people behind Caroline Bay wanted to do in the first place.
Did David Burt just steal this idea from those behind Caroline Bay? If it is good enough for him, why wasn’t it good enough for Caroline Bay?
The Burt administration also wants to revise the long-term residential certificate policy to ‘require all future residents to make economic investments in Bermuda’.
This is selling PRC status with a twist.
Let’s talk about what your pension money is going to fund in the PLP’s platform.
During Covid-19, Premier Burt allowed people to take money from their pension. We warned about the potential impact but supported this because we knew that people were desperate.
Now the Burt administration is asking you to invest your future in ‘approved economic development activities in Bermuda’.
What are approved economic development activities? Are these the container port, the low-cost housing and the medical tourism plans?
Is he asking people to invest their hard-earned pensions in the Bermuda National Digital Bank? Do we trust David Burt’s record in this area?
The Burt administration should not be playing with people’s futures like this.
With almost 700 jobs lost today, almost one million dollars of your money given away and businesses closing in rapid succession, last night’s platform reveal provided no comfort.
It was just a series of unbelievable promises.
About the only thing David Burt did not promise last night was to walk on water and to personally cure Covid.
The problem is that over the last three years David Burt has made a number of promises that he has either broken or not been able to keep.