Welcome to special edition of the News Navigators with me,
Jeremy Deacon. And me, Jonathan Starling.
And delighted to have with us today Owen Darrell, the Minister
of Tourism, Transport and Sport. Is that right, Minister?
Jeremy, Tourism and transport, culture and sport.
Well, we got off to a really bad start.
Yeah, the, the, the, the people at the Department of Culture are
not going to be happy with you. But they're friends with
Jonathan, so I think you'll be OK.
Well, I'm, I'm, I'm OK. I'm in the UK so they can't.
They can't beat me up tonight. That's, that's probably why,
that's my excuse. I haven't been in Bermuda for a
couple of months so I forgot. Absolutely.
How are you doing, Minister? I'm doing well.
We just came off the CTO conference.
We, we hosted quite a bit of delegates from the Caribbean
region. CTO, it's a Caribbean tourism
organization. So as everyone knows, even if
you're just hosting a couple of family members at your house or
you're hosting 100 and and 70 delegates at Hamilton Princess,
you're going to be tired afterwards.
So I'm a little tired after the hosting.
Everybody started coming in Saturday and Sunday and the last
I think I left this morning so. We'll come on to that.
We we want to talk about that. Well, if you're tired, we'll try
not to give you too hard a time. Tell us.
We always ask, we always open with these kind of questions
because we like to get to know who we're interviewing.
Who is Owen Darrell? Tell us about Owen Darrell.
Yeah, I'm, I'm a man of service. You know, I, I went to school at
Harrington Sound. I went to the Berkeley
Institute, ran off to university.
So it's kind of like the standard traditional upbringing
of many Vermedians, you know, went to Saint Paul AME church
every, every Sunday. I was in their youth group.
So, you know, I, I do credit the AME church for a lot of my
training as far as protocols and, and decorum.
You know, from a young age I was able to go off to YPD institutes
and, and different church conferences, which, you know, if
anyone knows the Amy church, they, they go through strict
protocol procedures. So sometimes you, you, you
wonder, well, why am I in this? Why am I doing it?
And you know it, it comes with as a teenager, a lot of the
social elements. But as you get older, you, you,
you see that a lot of that training comes to the fore.
So that's where my, my roots were started.
I have to always put a shout out to my mom and dad, Marlette
Darrell and Oliver. Darrell, I have two beautiful
children, Tatum and Oliver and Oliver.
Yeah. Other than that, man, I just, I,
I just, I'm here for service. And that's, that's been my
calling card. I was elected a year ago.
Before that, I was as, as you both know, long on the political
scene, started, you know, sorting Flyers in the backroom
of Alaska Hall. You know, you move to the
executive table, different committees, appointed politics
and and now elected politics. So that's a little bit of the
journey, but other than that, I like sports, I like sports, I
like getting into the community and I like having a good time.
But. You went to politics in the 1st
place. Is it through the AME or?
No, I, I, it wasn't, you know, I was a, a educator, happy,
happily educating Bermuda's youth.
And I got a call from a friend of mine.
I tell this story often and he says, hey, you know, Doctor
Brown and the PLP are having a, a youth, you know, get together
at BIU Hall. And I was just like, OK, why are
you calling me? And he was like, no, you don't
want to go check it out. And I was just like, all right,
well, if you want me to come. So when you're young and and
you're, you're working, you're always looking for something to
do after work, right? I don't get there free time.
Now we have, we have gym obligations and children and
having to cook dinner and, and meetings.
But back then your, your afternoons, your evenings were
free. So I went to this meeting.
It was organized by the then chairman of the party, who is
now, you know, the Honorable E David Burke.
But then he was a young chairman of the PLP.
He wanted to get young people involved.
I went, I enjoyed the presentation.
You know, I, I think I threw $5 at the lady standing at sitting
at the door to, to fill out a membership form.
And I thought that that would be it, right.
You know, you sign up to your member, they give you a card.
You, you, you could tell people that you're a member of a
political party, but it went further, you know, and the, the,
the Progressive Labour Party at that time was really good and we
still are good at getting people involved.
So they followed up, they said, hey, we'd like you to come to
your branch meeting. After I went to a couple of
branch meetings, they said, hey, we want you to come to Central
committee. And I started learning that, you
know, it's, it's better to be inside the room and, and knowing
about the policies that the government is putting in place
than hearing it second or third hand.
So that's how I got in. That's how I started getting
into politics. I tell everyone all the time, I
have no family members that are politicians.
My mom wasn't politicians, my dad wasn't.
We didn't really talk politics around the house.
We were civically conscious. I knew who my MP was.
I knew who John Swan is growing up in the 80s.
But I was not into politics. So that's how I got where I am.
You You were Debbie Bird's chief of staff for a long time,
weren't you? I was but but I'll I'll tell you
God, the history goes way back before that.
Well, that's that's what I was getting to.
So I think you will know him very well indeed.
Do you think that as party leader he's going to be greatly
missed? Absolutely, you know, but that
that's said the same with with with all PLP leaders.
I mean, I could remember, and you know, the late Lavarne
Farbert, she put her own campaign in place when Doctor
Brown said that he was going to leave.
I mean, it was a very public campaign that, that, that the
late Lamar Farbit had. And she was like, no, we really
want you to stay. So you know, when, when you do a
good job and, and, and you've progressed certain areas,
everyone's going to have their, their areas where they say you
could have done more or you should have done something
different. But I think every leader that
has some significant, you know, wins under their belt is going
to be missed. So I, I think he will be, but as
you have seen in, in the last couple of days, I'm, I'm sure
you, you can see around the, the, the, the feeling of the
public as the election that we won a year ago, the election
that we won in 2020 and 2017. The public have confidence in
the leadership and all of the, the political team of the
Progressive Labour Party. So although you will be missed,
I I know that the Progressive Labour Party will step up as
leaders of this country. And he's only stepping down as a
leader in October. He's going to stay as an MPI,
understand. He will stay as an MP.
Yes, he will. Would would you, would you
welcome him to the Cabinet if he was asked to serve in the
cabinet? Well, I mean, I, I, I think I'm
on record as saying that I'm, I'm not intending to put my name
forward as, as leader. So that decision would, would
not be mine. You know, there's no guarantee
that that the next leader will put me in the cabinet.
So I, I'm Jeremy with, with, I know you, you're a seasoned
journalist, but you also know that that those decisions and
that decision will not be mine to make.
I do know that, Minister, but I still like to ask the question.
I actually am surprised. I thought you would be
interested in running for a leader.
Maybe not this time, but maybe in the future.
Well, I tell people I I feel like a leader every single day.
I am the leader of this ministry.
I'm the Ministry of Tourism and Transport, Culture and Sport.
It's not a small ministry, it has many departments.
I, I am the minister that appoints 27 boards.
You know, I, I lead a constituency that has 1150
constituents and all of them need my attention.
So I take that that very seriously.
You will find me in constituency 15 Pembroke East at least once a
week, sometimes for significant amounts of time to make sure
that I'm serving the people that elected me to serve.
So while I know your question is directed at the leadership of
the Progressive Labour Party at this time, I, I consider myself
a leader every single day and I'm happy with where I am
leading. And you know, I have a lot to
learn. I have a lot to learn.
I have a lot to, to to continue to, to achieve.
And maybe sometime down the line we will be having that
conversation. But As for now, I put my support
fully behind the leader who still has eight more months to
go. So everybody's acting like he's
going tomorrow. He's got, he's got some
significant time left. And as I, I've said and people
say, 24 hours is a long time of politics.
So I'm going. To when, when you kind of
announce your retirement, if you like so early, there is a bit of
a vacuum and, and lots of speculation comes up.
What about the, the announcement from Jason Heywood and and Zane
De Silva? Were you pleased to see that?
Oh. It was bold, right?
And I remember giving a speech at the Progressive Labour Party
delegates conference some time ago and the title of my speech
was Be Bold. And I, I that, that used to come
up quite a bit over the last, I think it was four or five years
since I delivered that speech. And I was waiting to when are
we, you know, when does being bold raise its head?
Like, you know, and, and you can go back and forth as to say that
ministers make bold decisions every day, but sometimes they're
not picked up. This was a bold decision by
Minister Hayward. It was a bold decision by Zandy
Silva, who also was on record that's saying that he was going
to put his name into leadership. So it was bold.
He announced it on our podcast. Yeah.
It was it was a bold decision for him to come out and I think
they did it at the right place. Why?
Why was he minister? Why is he bold?
Why was he bold of them? Well, because so many times in
these in, in, in these elections that are coming up, there's a
cat and mouse game. Everybody's kind of jockeying
for position and it's will you, won't you?
And and you know that that's kind of the, if I may say this
around the world. This is not a Bermuda thing, but
that's the political playbook, right?
It's like, well, it will you, I mean, even, you would have seen
other party recently, they were clearly making moves behind the
scenes. You know, they, they clearly had
a plan in place that maybe didn't go how they wanted it to
go. So when I say it was bold, you
know, we talked a little bit that sometimes you can, you can
talk about timing. But hey, if, if those, my 2
colleagues decided that that was the time were right for them,
they boldly made a decision. They did it in the comfort and
and surrounded by the PLP family and I wish them all the best.
What what did you think when you heard that Zane de Silva on this
podcast had declared that he was going to run as leader?
Because it's I think we talked about this the other day,
Jonathan and I talked about the other day that it went round
like went down like the proverbial lead balloon because
it just wasn't the way to announce it.
And we were kind of speculating that that kind of bad blood, if
you like, had led him to rescind his leadership ambitions and to
team up with Jason Heywood. Well, I can tell you this, I
didn't hear the initial announcement, I heard about it.
So I don't think I can get into the analysis of to how it was
done and if it should have been done differently.
I'm not really best position to make that decision.
But as they always say, like anybody in this position as
ministers of the government, anyone that puts their their
name forward to be elected, they are leaders.
So if you're not at some point going to be OK with saying I can
lead or I wish to lead, then quite frankly, politics isn't
the business for you. Because I know everyone gets
stuck on the the pinnacle of leadership.
But if you don't have leaders throughout and and throughout
and assisting you in your leadership, then I mean, what
really do you have? I think Hayward and De Silva,
Minister De Silva and Minister Hayward, I think it's a
formidable leadership team. I'm not sure if anyone else is
going to put their name forward now.
Well. We will see, you know, like I
said, there's eight months and the Progressive Labour Party,
all of my colleagues are, could be well positioned if that's
what they wish to do. The party has a great mechanism
in place. I I would like to say, and this
is not a dig, but I'll say it. I'd like to think that that the
mechanisms that the Progressive Labour Party has, and it's tried
and true over time is a lot better than what we've seen in
some other because clearly they got it wrong and had to go back
to the drawing road and try to fix it.
Why? Don't you just, why don't you
just name the Oba minister, No. We're not doing that.
You know, Jonathan and I were talking on the last podcast we
did, which was about Ministers Heywood and and De Silva
announcing their, their ticket, if you like.
And we kind of agreed that it would be good if somebody else
stepped forward because there'll be a proper debate.
We'd get to hear the party would get to hear the public would get
to hear exactly what those people thought.
And that's really important because they're going to be the
next premier. Would you welcome another
leadership candidate for that reason?
Like I said, we, we, we won't be able to have that conversation
until the timelines that the Progressive Labour Party
executive put in place. There's a nomination process,
there's eligibility processes. And then once that is in case we
will find out together who has their name in and you will get,
well, I'm not sure of you, but the party and the the membership
and the delegates who ultimately get that vote will get that
opportunity. But just just as a general
principle, do you think it's healthy to have more than
healthy not to have a simple coronation?
There's, there's been times that we've had almost like, kind of
like the wild, Wild West where, where there's multiple people
running and there's times that, you know, the, the vote has kind
of been almost like a coronation.
So like I said, I don't think I have an opinion at this time as
as of right now there are to one individual, sorry, that has put
their name forward to be leader and that is Jason Hayward.
And you know, he he is definitely suited to to do so.
Does he have your vote? That that time for that will be
October 22nd to leave. I love asking these questions
because I know I'm not going to get an answer, but it's still
good fun. Minister, you mentioned that as
part of your role you oversee, what was it, 27 different
boards? Yeah, those quite a bit.
I'd say the biggest 1 is probably the tourism.
Actually, it's it's it's important, but it's not the
biggest 1. So I think you're talking about
the board of the Bermuda Tourism Authority, interestingly enough,
and and you. What's the biggest hot potato?
Well, I will tell you this, but interestingly enough, that is
the board that I actually do not oversee.
The way the legislation is written.
I appoint that board and then once the board is appointed,
the, the board of, of trustees of the Bermuda Tourism
Authority, they operate and run the Bermuda Tourism Authority.
I cannot say how many times and you talk about hot potato, I
can, I cannot say how many times.
I've given the quote to multiple media outlets that you know, I
have no operational matters of the BTA nor the board.
I mean, I, I appoint them, I appoint the chair, I appoint the
the other board members to a certain time and then they go
along and do their work. It's, it's still the elephant in
the room though, because going back over about a year now, it
still hasn't been properly resolved, has it?
I mean, just for the listeners and, and, and viewers.
For the listeners and the viewers.
Just just to recap, there was the EY report, which Jonathan
and I discussed at length and we kind of came to the conclusion
that, well, we've worked in places like that, it's not
actually that bad. Yes, EY did find some bad
things, you know, talked about, they describe the culture as
being blunt and negative terms. Accountability was a major
weakness, integrity gap, etcetera.
But it also found a lot of positives, good work life
balance. There was a, a majority of
people, 60% of people who who came with more positive words
than negative words. I I'm just trying to understand
what was the point of ordering that report because it wasn't
that bad in our opinion. Jeremy, I'll say this, I started
this conversation by saying that I'm here to serve.
And I also started this conversation by saying that I
get out in the community quite a bit.
I can tell you this when your phone, your personal phone is
ringing off the hook and people are crying and people have
family members that are in situations that are of far less
than ideal. It is my role as a servant of
the people, my role as the minister who carried the title
of tourism, to put it back to the board and say this needs to
be looked at. You were quite threatening.
Weren't you remember, remember I, I wouldn't use the word
threatening. I was firm and I needed to be
firm because, and, and we're not going to get into it, but there
were multiple times where I did not feel at the time that and
the individuals working in the organization did not feel that
they were being hurt. And it is not, it was not my job
at the time to investigate. It was not my time, my job at
the time to to make the the aspersions or, or come to
conclusions. It was my job as the minister to
give make sure that those concerns got where they needed.
I mean, at one stage he did threaten to dismantle the board
or value to have the legal power to do as you said.
As you said, that was pretty. Well, I, I will tell you this
when I say the, the, it was, I encourage the board that they
should look into these concerns because you know, it, like I
said, when you, when you're serving the people, I mean, one
of the number one things that individuals say about
politicians is what you guys know what it is that, oh,
politicians don't listen. So I mean, I say this all the
time. If if I say that it, I am here
for service, all right. And individuals, I feel they
feel they are not being heard, you have to go to the
individuals who have been appointed by the minister and
say please look into this. And it's interesting.
I mean, because you say and these are your words that the
PPWC report was not that bad. The board then decided that it
was bad enough that they did a further internal audit on the
culture and I, you know, you know, the, the, the, the public
hasn't really heard much about that audit because it was an
internal one. However, we.
Haven't heard about that audit. Can you tell us?
What was it? No, it was an internal one, But
you've seen the results of that internal audit and I, I, you
know, I, I think it kind of speaks for itself.
But I mean, let's talk about where, where the BTA is now.
I mean, 170 people coming to this island.
For a tourism conference that is far away from the Caribbean
region proper, that's organized and it's it's it's run and and
assisted by the people in the BTA, we should see we that that
they are doing good work. Their job is exactly that, sales
and marketing. You know, you you talked about
people, your phone ringing off with people complaining about
the atmosphere in the BTA, etcetera.
When Jonathan and I went into a great level of detail on quite a
few podcasts and we had an awful lot of people contacting us to
say there was nothing wrong with the BTA, that people were being
victimised. You know, the Tracy Barclays,
the CEO at the time, the Wayne Keynes is the chair at the time,
but being victimised and that actually wasn't that bad in the
BTA. Maybe the board talked to those
individuals, I don't know. I was not in that investigation.
I was not in those those those interviews.
But there's nothing to say that those individuals did not get
their opportunity to speak as well.
I think Jeremy might have more. Questions.
I will put this on record now. As you say, we've been a year
past that the BTA, I've been very happy with where the BTA,
the new Chairman, some of the, the, the, the board, how they're
working now. And you know, we started by
saying, well, that that's one of my biggest boards.
And it's actually once it is working as it should, it's it's
it's actually not. I want to go back on this.
I'm not going to go that easily. I know you've got a relatively
tight time frame, but Wayne Gaines, former chair, came on
this podcast and just summarising what he said and
these are these are my words, but I think it's a fair summary.
He was arguing that the public narrative about the BTA actually
ignored the positives, which we've touched upon, and became
about finding someone to punish well.
I mean, Mr. Keynes is, is entitled to that opinion and and
I'm, I'm not, I didn't come on here to to talk about what
anybody else said. I know you, you asked me to come
on, but you know that every, everyone's going to have their
opinion as to what happened. I'm, I'm happy as to where we
are now. I'm happy with the work that the
BT is doing. I've said that publicly, I've
said that privately. I've sent it to the board and
we're looking forward, we're looking to forward and continue
the work of selling and marketing Bermuda because what
the government's true role is, is to invest in the torso
product. And we are.
Doing more questions on your turn.
You were looking for a smoking. You were looking for a smoking
gun, weren't you? He didn't find one.
Absolutely not. I, I, I, I I would not say that.
Jonathan. I think it would be useful for
our listeners. I mean, we're the name of the
podcast is the News Navigators. We try to help our listeners
navigate the news and understand what actually is the role of the
government, the Ministry of the Department of Tourism and the
Bermuda Tourism Authority. How's that Division of Labor
work out? The The Bermuda Tourism
Authority focuses on the sales and marketing of Bermuda to
ultimately get visitors to the island.
And there is a portion of once visitors do get the island, they
assist with their own island experience for visitors.
The government's role is to invest and, and make the
investments possible. And you've seen through the TI
OS that the government has continued and we will continue
to invest in tourism properties and tourism products.
We've we've changed it a couple of years ago to even add
restaurants and experiences. So you'll have seen things like
the fireworks company and the drones and and other experiences
that have gotten assistant assistance from the government
to assist with when tourists do get here, they have good
experiences for their vacation. We've invested heavily.
You would have recently heard of the TIO for Hamilton Princess
where they renovated the much needed renovation of their
remedial ring. You would have seen TIO and and
subsequent acts, you know, enabling investment to take
place there at the Elbow Beach with the the Lauren moving up
there. And there have been others, the
Azura that have greatly benefited from the investment of
the Bermuda Government. So I think once we're focusing
on the investments, the the VTA is focusing on sales and
marketing. They just hired a couple of new
key members in their operations team, sales and marketing.
Also, they hired a, a human resource individual and they've
done some other experience team higher.
So, you know, I, I'm, I'm happy where we are.
And you know, 2026 is, is shaping up to be a good year
already, especially on the heels of what just happened this past
week. What's coming?
And we have a hotel opening also in 2026.
So at Fairmount Southampton. Absolutely.
You talked about the work of the BTA, still haven't got ACEO.
Can they give us a scoop as to who that's going to be and when
that's going to happen? The CEO will be announced when
the board selects one. Clearly the board is going
through a, a process to get it right because we know that
Jeremy Deacon and Jonathan Stalin will be the first on
their podcast to, to, to go into detail as to whether they agree,
whether they disagree. And and as as you say, Jeremy,
maybe look for a smoking gun and I I don't know, but we'll leave
it to the BTA board of directors who are going through that
process. They are close.
And once they have ACEO, they will make their announcement.
Do you think it'll be a Bermudian?
Would you rather it be a Bermudian?
I do not know. So the Caribbean Tourism
Organization, the CTO, you just had a was it the annual meeting?
No, actually the the CTO has about four Council of Ministers
meetings per year and what they do is 1 is standard.
They have it at Caribbean Week in New York.
We have a meeting there, we always have one in February,
call it the spring meeting and then they have a AGMA annual
general meeting which is in October and that's around so
tech and then they have a end of year meeting in December.
So what typically happens is we have the Council of directors
meetings in the morning, on one day in the afternoon, the
councils of ministers meet on important topics and then we
always put an event or summit tagged on to the ministers and
the and the directors meeting. So this summit was the Air
connectivity Summit, which happened on Tuesday.
There was, like I said, a total of 170 delegates overseas local
that were at that summit and it was very well done.
Some very good takeaways came from that.
So that was the spring meeting. The next one that the CTO has is
in New York. They call it Caribbean Week.
It's in New York for obvious reasons, just a huge catchment
of individuals that they try to market to, to get to the
Caribbean. The same process happens and
Caribbean Week is a little longer where they allow
different destinations to showcase.
They have a next Gen. kind of debate for young people who want
to talk about tourism products and and marketing strategies and
also other engagements in the New York region in the summer.
It's state of the tourism industry.
So tech conference they they have last year it was in
Barbados, this year it is in Guyana.
So we do a good job of bouncing around the Caribbean region to
not only have a different location, but to also showcase
different regions. And I can tell you, even with
the weather that we had this week, the people of Bermuda, the
culture of Bermuda was definitely on, on display.
It was definitely on showcase. And you know, I thank everyone
that was a part of making that happen.
Now we just, we just saw the conclusion of that CARICOM
meeting. I think it concluded yesterday,
right? And that was kind of
overshadowed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the
docking of the USS, I think it was the San Antonio in Saint
Kitts, just outside of where the Caracal meeting was going.
And I say that is because we've seen in the last year attacks on
Caribbean people in the oceans of the Caribbean Sea and we've
seen recent military action throughout the Caribbean.
How is that affecting tourism in the in the region?
Well, I would tell you we, we had concerns that our ministers
meeting the last three meetings, I believe we had a discussion
about it. And on Monday we had a
discussion about it at the meeting in December and we had a
discussion about it at SOTIC last year in October.
And there is a concern, especially for, you know, we
have a, a member that is part of the CTO that's from Tobago, but
you know, Trinidad does not. And you've been following you,
you know, Trinidad's position on this and Tobago's position is a
little different. And there's concern.
There's concern because outside of Carnival, Trinidad doesn't
really rely much, like I say, outside of Carnival time on
tourism, but Tobago does. So that's just one example.
You know that the islands that are close down there like a
Grenada, you know, would be very concerned simply because of
their geographical location. So we have had, and I'm, I'm not
going to get too detailed into the contents of those, but we
have had geopolitical discussions at the CEO and you
know, we're, we're leaving that right now with CARICOM.
But exactly like you, you mentioned there are issues and
you know, there are effects that come due to tourism when you've
got destinations that have for years relied on US tourists and,
and individuals now are saying, well, we're not going to go
there. We, we have to look from, for,
for tours from other destinations.
So a lot of marketing from the CTO members are going into
Canadian destinations. I, I know the Bermuda Tourism
Authority had a massive presence at World Travel market in, in
London. Many of, of, of our colleagues
are leaving here and going down to Brazil.
I am not giving by the way, we have budget debates.
So put that there. I will not be in Rio, Brazil.
So they are going down there because at the Roots conference
and this air connectivity summit that we have, we're realizing
and and the region is realizing that, you know, if we can't rely
on, you know, the same lift that we got from America or other
places or you've got to go through America to get to
Bermuda, we really need to solidify their inter regional
travel and the air connectivity. So you see in Bermuda air link
up with Anguilla, we had inter Caribbean airlines that was here
for our air connectivity summit and and that's where they're
trying to go. So it is a concern.
But as if if you've heard of Minister Bartlett from Jamaica,
the word that he continues to use over and over its
resiliency. And the Caribbean is a resilient
region. It's resilient people.
But even with that resiliency, we are taking steps to ensure
that tourism is remained able to to operate despite what is going
on with other countries. Is there the potential to get a
sorry? Go on, John.
I was just going to ask if there was a potential to get flights
from Bermuda F way to Nassau instead of going through Miami
to get to the Caribbean. I can't travel to the Caribbean
now unless I go to Canada do. You have interest, Do you have
interest in Nassau? I mean you was very specific.
Well, it's just the closest to the airport to South, South of
America. There are discussions, but you
know, there's other things that, you know, Bermuda has at play
here. I mean, we're, we're working on
getting our a bed supply up and, and you know, your Guado Bay is
expanding the fair amounts of Hampton's going to come on
board. You know, the, the Hamilton
Princess again, renovated Elbow Beach, it's a couple of years
away, but it is going to get there.
So once we're seeing our, our supply come back up, we will be
able to have better discussions with those airlines.
Have you seen them also on record of going to meet with
these airlines? That's what ministers of tourism
and transport do. And they're very frank.
They're very frank and they say, listen, right now you can't
guarantee us the loads that we want because of what you know
of, of the beds that you don't have.
However, they've said, you know, we, we will be back at the table
and ready to serve as Bermuda when necessary.
But with that, even with that said, they've been very gracious
in other things. If anybody's going to New York
recently or, or, or Miami, you'll realize that they will
find these a three nineteens, very, very small planes.
And I said in one meeting, I said, listen, Bermuda is a
destination where we have many business travelers.
I mean, you've got, you know, 8 business class seats that are
getting full. You've got business travelers in
the in economy seats paying business class ticket prices.
And I said, you know, what can you do?
So a few months later, without much fanfare, but I'm going to
say it, you will notice that they're now flying the 3730
Sevens, which has doubled the capacity of the business class,
which means that other seats on the flight remain at a lower
price for locals. So there were some things that
we're doing quietly. I know you, you, you guys did
want to hammer me and about wait, that's my word.
It's come on. You're striking fear.
About, about some of the the other things, but there's some
some really good things happening in the ministry of
this side. And, and I would be remissed of
me if I didn't talk about, you know, the directors, the
permanent secretary and all the public offices that actually
work hard to execute the policies that the government
puts in place. Oh yeah, I want to piggyback.
Oh, sorry, Jeremy. Well.
I was just saying we're on a bit of a tight schedule here with
the with the ministers time and I did want to just come.
Back, We've got more minutes. That's exactly Let's make a
1050. Rapid fire round.
And I haven't had my rant on road safety and I need to have
that. I feel better with a rant on
road safety. But seriously, you've got an
extra 15,000,000 in your budget this year, what are you going to
spend it on? Well, I have not had my budget
press conference yet and I want to.
Give us the scoop, Minister. There, there have been some,
some pressing needs in the, in the community that we've had to
address. You want to see the National
Sports Center that does come under my ministry is, is, is
starting to need some significant upgrades.
So we've put some additional money there.
We've put some additional money to the BTA with the, the, the,
the, the opening of, of Fairmount Southampton and, and
we've been on record of saying we're expecting 2026 to, to kind
of be a, a bumper year. We've given them some more money
to do the work that they do in sales and marketing.
We've also taken some, some other funding and, and put it
into social programming like you've seen elite athlete funds.
We've increased that also the Summit E Camp program, very
happy to say that there were over 4000 spots available for
somebody camps and we're going to be tweaking the registration
process to make that less stressful because when you put
something that good in place, sometimes there are unintended
consequences that come. Not everybody could get in The
vegetation process is is jammed. And then also the government
golf courses. The government golf courses has
been work have been working hard to make sure that they are ready
every year for for Port Royal Golf course.
They're supplementing some of their funds to to to bring that
to bring that tournament to life.
And as a result, I'll be honest, like the the second golf course
has suffered. That's ocean view.
So we're putting more money into golf courses to be able to make
sure that, you know, the working class individual that doesn't
want to play at, at, at a championship course like Fort
Royal can, can have a decent round of golf at Ocean View.
You know, a year ago, I heard a lot of complaints about the, the
state of that. And I'm happy that the chairman
of the golf courses, Mr. Jason Reed, has, has done a lot of
solid work. And, and that noise, you, you
don't hear about people complaining as much about the
state of the public golf courses.
So in order to make that work, people have to be the ones that
are, that are, that are doing that work.
And if they're doing that work, you need to make sure that the
funding is there so that they have the proper tools to be able
to do so. I'm gonna, I'm going to park on
my sports questions until we have you on another time or
maybe we can dedicate a whole thing on sports.
Absolutely. But I did want to touch on the
electric buses. We've got an increase on them
and road safety. Yeah.
Well, we, we, we call it modernization of transport in
Bermuda and we've done quite a bit there.
That's another thing I did miss. Significant funding is going to
bring in an additional 20 electric buses.
You know, they've become, the bus service has definitely
improved. There's a lot less
cancellations. You know, we, we have the Shore
Link app where you now can have confidence in where your bus is
and what time it's coming. And to complete that
modernization, I will be tabling the Rideshare Act in Parliament
on Friday. Is that like Uber?
It would be it's not Uber, it's it's rideshare, it's allowing
individuals and and all the the details will be in a statement
on Friday. So I'm not going to give too
much. Oh, but I'm just saying that
that completes the modernization of public transport.
We've got 2 brand new 550 passenger ferries that are going
to they're here and they're going to come come on board for
the start of the, the busy season.
But I, I, I'm not going to start around the elephant in the room
as much as we are modernizing public transportation in this,
in this country, we still have a major culture issue with the,
the roads and, and the behaviour on the roads.
And, you know, I, I can't put it all on the road safety console,
the road safety console every single month they're doing,
they're doing communications, they're going into schools.
They have, you know, but it's, it has to be a culture shift.
It has to be individuals, but. You have to, but this is this is
where I think big government works.
If people won't change their habits, they have to be forced
to change their habits. And it's always struck me that
there's no appetite to force that to change.
I mean, we've only just got legislation to get Project Ride
to be able to teach kids on the roads.
My kids went through Project Ride, and as much as I admire
the instructors, it was a waste of time.
After my daughter had done Project Ride, I said, oh, no,
you're not getting on the roads. You're coming with me on the
roads. Well, not every parent is going
to do that. I don't understand why these
things take so long. We're on 4 deaths.
It's February the 26th. We're on 4 deaths.
But why is there no impetus? Why?
There's no desire, it seems, to
actually do something. I will tell you this and again,
not to give too much away right now, but there has been meetings
recently with another ministry and that is the Ministry of
National Security that, that does enforcement.
It was actually called by the governor.
So we, we are having discussions.
So although I understand the frustration and you know, my
heart goes out to the families, not just these 4, but you know,
there's, there's individuals that have have gone through this
trauma 1020 years and it, it, it doesn't get any easier.
This is it, 1020 years doesn't get any easier.
But we still don't see things like roundabouts.
I mean, T St. and Middle Rd. it's a notorious accident.
Black spot. We have a sign saying black
spot. And if you're driving there,
you're so busy looking at the draft, you're not going to see
that sign. Yeah.
Why not put a roundabout in? Why not?
Infrastructure changes. You're right.
And these are all things that we'll be looking at.
It's. Just a bit late.
Just noticing the Time Heritage months coming up in May from you
today. Anything you want to say on
that? Absolutely.
You know, it's the, the, the theme this year is for the
culture. And you know, it's, it's a time
that even now everyone talks about heritage month, everyone
talks about the May 24th parade. And you know, there's, there's
jokes that come out about, about tape and put in your spots and,
and the things of that nature. However, even now, these groups,
these community clubs are starting to prepare.
So kudos to them. They're putting in their time.
It's labor of love for many of them.
And the the department will will supplement some of some of their
their costs that they need. Some of them need a rent halls
to get ready. They need infrastructure, maybe
a truck to carry their equipment.
But I, I don't want to not acknowledge that the work has
already started for many of the people.
For us, it's a matter of getting up in the morning, ripping up
the macaroni salad, looting the car and dropping it off.
That's, that's our extent. And, and, and then complaining
about the gaps of the parade. But it's the individuals now
that are working and getting ready so they can perform for
us. So I'm looking forward to the,
the, for the culture. We will announce the grand
marshals when Heritage Month starts.
We will announce them and I'm sure that there will be some
excitement over some of the individuals that we will be
announcing. Everybody's looking forward to
it. I'm sure you're running out of
time, Minister. I've got one more question.
Promise. Tell us something about Owen
Darrell that might surprise people.
Oh, might surprise people. Well, you know, other than, you
know what, what I like to do to relax is actually sitting on the
couch and watching sports, just watching sports.
You know, some people, you know, they, they, they send me
messages. And it's always starts with, I
know you're busy. And I'm like, yeah, I, I am very
busy. But when I just want to relax,
I, I like to sit on my couch. I'm a huge fan of the NFL Tampa
Bay Buccaneer fan. I'm a Manchester City fan, which
always brings great debate. People think I'm a a bandwagon
fan, but that's not correct. You're.
Sitting with an Arsenal supporter and a Spurs supporter.
Oh, here we go. And a Spurs supporter didn't do
me any favours last weekend but. But that's I, I, I was there.
I. Actually, some of some of the
things that, that I do and people think I'm doing it for
work is actually what I just enjoy to do.
And if I was not a minister tomorrow, I would enjoy to do
it. And, and there's people that say
you really look like you're enjoying it.
You really look like you're having fun in this room.
And I do, I, I really enjoy the work I do because, you know,
it's, it's kind of always been in me, right?
Always trying to help, always trying to be present.
And, and so I'm, I'm a, I'm a community person, you know, kind
of by heart, Those of you know it, if you've looked at my
resume, you would know this. I, I was a teacher, I was an
educator for, for 15 years. So when I go into community,
those are not just constituents that I see, they're just not
residents of Bermuda. They're former students.
And if they're not former students, it's a former
student's mom or, or, or, or family member or grandmother
that used to come and, and read to work to, to, to move in, you
know, their child into, into the right place educational wise.
So that's me, right? I mean, I'm, I am, you know,
it's kind of what what you see is what you get, right?
It's it's the real deal. And the last thing I'll say
this, I think that people may not, might not like me as much
as, you know, these headlines go up and I have to say it about
travel, administrative travel and just any other, I can tell
you this, I cannot stand being on a plane and going through
airports. But I tell people, I have to
remind people the nature of, of especially the portfolios that
that I serve. It's work.
It, it is work and it is hard work.
Even the one here, it wasn't overseas.
But when you're having these conferences and stuff, I mean,
your meetings are starting very early in the morning.
Their days are ending with a, a dinner and then a reception.
And then somebody wants to have a follow up meeting at the end.
So it's, it's, it's difficult, It's hard.
And being away from your family. I've got two kids, a 14 year old
and a nine year old. You know, you're missing
football games, you're you're missing sometimes significant
milestones, which is why I'll tell you guys, I do have to run
because at 11 AM, my daughter is receiving honor roll certificate
at her school, the Barclays School.
I do have to go and get over there.
But gentlemen, thank you for inviting me on.
It's been a pleasure. Hopefully have you back one day.
We have more questions, so we'll get you back sometimes.
We didn't even get into tourism industry all.
Right. Thank you, Minister.
Appreciate your time. Thank you.
Take care.