Members
Parliament
Transparency
Ben Smith, MP

Ben Smith, MP

738
Speeches
138,286
Words Spoken
67
Sittings Active
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
1 words
Supplementary.
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
88 words
Thank you for that. The reason I bring it up is because obviously the evidence part that goes along with it, plus the ability to make sure that you are protecting not only the officers but the public of Bermuda with a system that obviously is used on an ongoing basis and is able to connect with this communication, it …
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
90 words
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Caines, you spoke specifically in the c ybersecurity [update] to some of the private sectors that have dealt with the attacks that have happened. And we know some of these both locally and in the larger community. I am wondering if you are able to tell us whether there have been any specific attacks on …
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
65 words
So in this particular realm, we all u nderstand that the people who are out there to create these attacks are always moving very quickly. And there is always the need to make the system more robust. Is there any indication that we are going to have to do upgrades with our particular system? And what will be the cost …
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
97 words
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for the Statement on the upcoming CARIFTA Games. Obviously, I support sport in Ber-muda and the development of our young people. B ermuda House of Assembly The Minister spoke specifically to some of the upgrades that are going to have to be done or are presently being done with the facility. …
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
4 words
Good evening, Mr. Speaker.
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
147 words
I would like to start off by thanking the Minister and his team for providing this budget. In a time when there is quite a bit of pressure in our Island, it is important that we have a balanced hand, and the tone set by the Honourable Minister, followed on by our Honourable Shadow Minister. I believe that it is …
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
115 words
I attended his pre- budget talk. And it was important that he spoke not just of all of the pos itive things, but of the potential pitfalls that we have as a country , because I think it is important that we give our population the knowledge of exactly what is hap-pening. I believe our population is tired of our …
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
384 words
They do not want us to waste our time bickeri ng is what I am saying. They want us to get together and try to come up with solutions for the country. The difficulty that the Minister had is that we have one pie —a pie that has been baked over generations. The people that came before us, not just …
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
136 words
No, it is not really roc ket science. So we need to figure out a way to support them and we cannot just quickly dismiss the fact that this sector is not our sector, because we are all attached. Right? We have to take care of all of it. And that is the difficult challenge that the Minister has, because …
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
1,489 words
The problem is we have to understand those connections. So now when we reach this year and we decide that we are going to remove some payroll tax and give a little bit of relief, understand that it is because of the pressure that has been built in those couple of years prior to that. T hat is a balancing …
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
29 words
I am not saying don’t do it. I am sa ying that at the moment we cannot afford it. Look at the budget. Bermuda House of Assembly [Inaudible interjections]
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
462 words
So, moving forward. The problem that we have is that comments are made on things like health care. So this is the i ssue. When statements are made that we do not really care about the reduction, that is painting everybody with a brush. It does not make any sense. There is nobody in this House right now that doesn’t …
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
395 words
It is actually super important that we do that because we have a very unhealthy population. That is our real problem. So when we have a sugar tax that has been put in we are told that we are doing it for the health of our population, I am 100 per cent behind it. I did not think it was …
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
393 words
So, the issue is this. Because of it, our people . . . the second the word “immigration” comes up, the scar s get picked. That is what causes it. The emotional level goes up immediately. So this is the difficulty. You hear people talk about bringing people into the country. Right? You talk about getting that number up. But …
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
11 words
That is because we are measured. We are taking our time.
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
14 words
Listen, for me, this is about the pr ogress of our country. [Inaudible interjections]
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
25 words
I am not dealing with the pointing of fingers. Our country is too important. [Mr. Hubert (Kim) E. Swan , Acting Speaker, in the Chair]
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
63 words
I will. Our count ry is too important. The future of this country is too important. The young people in this country are tired of politics as politics is right now. They are tired of it; they do not want to hear it. They are done with us. And the ones that can are getting o n a plane and …
28 Feb 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
607 words
We have people in Bermuda who are sacrificing their hard- earned money to send their kids away to school for that same child to then say to them, I am not coming home. I am not coming back. They are not going to be there to take care of their parents when they are in their older years. They are …