Speeches by Jarion Richrdson, JP, MP

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

142 words

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to speak to my colleague, to follow up with my colleague’s query as it r elated to abandoned vehicles. We have that as a large issue in my constituency as well. My understanding, as it is, is that the department does have the ability to recover aban-doned vehicles because they do not have …

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

4 words

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

13 words

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will start with the riveting topic of statistics.

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

283 words

I would start with . . . first of all, in doing research for this contribution, the PATI statement was up to date for that department. And that is always very, very helpful because when we prepare for these, we do want to make sure that our contribu-tions are useful and relevant. And quite often . . . sometimes, the …

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

45 words

Also, I would bring the Minister’s a ttention to last year . The Minister said austerity measures would lead to a decrease in full -time equivalents. I draw the Minister’s attention to . . . can I read, Mr. Chairman? The Chairman: You may proceed.

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

12 words

I am just turning to t he right page of the Hansard.

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

514 words

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will move on. I don’t think that ’s the area that has been dealt with . My question to the Minister is, last year we saw that decrease in full -time equivalents, what, if any, impact has that had on operations for the Department of Bermuda House of Assembly Statistics? And given the anticipated …

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

613 words

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I note the major achievement made under the Department of Statistics, namely, moving from Mi-crosoft Access to an SQL [Structure Query Language] database for international trade data. That is really quite helpful. I am quite sure they are very proud of that and all that work. I also note that m anagement services made recommendations to …

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

151 words

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Honourable Minister. So, waiting on the 22 per cent, and there is a question that relates to what impact, if any, that de-crease of full -time equivalents has had from last year. That is about professional services. So what impact, if any, has happened since the last fiscal year given that headcount was lo …

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

44 words

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Honourable Minister. I am happy to move on to Head 55 while we wait for the response to the question on 24020 under Head 14. Do you want me to continue? The Chairman: Yes please, go ahead.

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

370 words

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My contribution this evening as it relates to Financial Assistance is , first of all , to reiterate just how important it is to Bermuda that we deal with this matter quite fully and conclusively. You might notice, as I think anyone who has wandered around the City of Hamilton, that it seems that more and …

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

107 words

Those two categories in last year were said . . . and I thank the Minister for updating those numbers, but I will have to use last years for this. The persons employed with insufficient earnings or with earnings low, as was outlined in performance measures, was 196, and able- bodied persons unemployed was 170, so there were 366 people …

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

113 words

2“The Financial Assistance Amendment Act 2021 was enacted in October 2021. This change represent s Phase One of Financial Assistance Reform and requires recipients to register with the Department of Workforce Development for job seeking purposes; participate in workforce related as-sessments and development programs and enter into a Personal Employment Plan [PEP] agreement within six months of the date of …

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

57 words

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Further, I noticed in the performance measure, and it might have been in the Minister’s brief, but I would have missed it. I would thank the Minister to up-date us on what I see as Phase Two of the Financial Assistance Reform project, again, if I may read from the Hansard, Mr. Chairman.

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

5 words

Oh, yes, please, thank you.

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

177 words

Yes, I thank the Honourable Minister who responded about the employment plans and the phase of the Financial Assistance Reform. Also, the Honourable Minister just mentioned some of the emotional and mental impacts with employment and we note my earlier question that said there would be psychosocial assessments done. My question is, Have psychosocial assessments been done for all clients …

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

179 words

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Also, [I am] happy to proceed but I want to make sure that we do not lose sight of the outstanding query on Head 4, specifically [page] B -176 on the general summary, the 22 per cent decrease i n funding for business unit 24020. [I am] just very mindful that that is still there. Hon. …

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

78 words

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and I thank the Honourable Minister. I have further — Hon. Jas on Hayward: Just a point of clarification. I believe the brief highlighted that the psychosocial assess-ments will be done for all clients except for pensioners when needed. Like I said, once they have been as-sessed or screened and it has been determined that those …

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

170 words

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and I thank the Honourable Minister. That is an ever -so-slight change from the Hansard, but certainly something that we will keep an eye on as we go into another budget, if I am here, anyway, or the Minister. With that said, . . . oh, moving on to questions still within Head 55, some general …

8 Mar 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

60 words

Page C -13. We see, Mr. Chairman, under Financial Assistance, capital acquisitions, there is a Financial Assis-tance IT project for whic h $95,000 was allocated in last year’s [budget] but the revised estimate shows that it was not spent. Can the Honourable Minister speak to the Financial Assistance IT project and what the status of that is and the progress?