'Tell the whole story' - Minister Minors

Just yesterday, I stood in front of a new Bermudian owned small business opening its doors in the NE Hamilton EEZ, namely Inner Beauty Kid Spa. We had a great ribbon cutting event. After that event, I took a tour of three other recently opened businesses in the EEZ.

A few weeks ago, the Premier did a similar tour in the St. George's EEZ visiting four recently opened Bermudian owned businesses.

These businesses really need our support and they would be grateful for any media coverage telling Bermuda’s consumer that they are open for business. Unfortunately, if we're lucky, when businesses open it'll appear deep within the Business sections of our local news outlets. If we're unlucky, these deserving new job creating Bermudian businesses get no news coverage at all.

I've noticed another trend as well. If there is ever a shred of bad economic news, it is always front page news. It leads the newscasts. It is splashed around and then screamed about as a negative trend. I don't begrudge the news agencies for reporting this - I just think that there needs to be balance. If the closing of a business is worthy of the front page and a prominent spot in the newscast, then a new Bermudian owned, job creating business is also worthy of that same coverage. But, they, the business owner, doesn't get it. Don’t get me wrong. We're not asking anyone to not report the bad news. Far from it. What we are simply asking is that the media tell the whole story.

So let me tell you the whole story. I would like to encourage some great new Bermudian owned, job creating, businesses that are taking advantage of the services available through the offices of the Bermuda Economic Development Corp and thus are seeking to benefit from operating in the North East Hamilton Economic Empowerment Zone, which the PLP introduced. They are Inner Beauty Kid Spa at #71 Victoria Street which provides a full service spa experience for young ladies between the ages of 4 and 15. It has beautiful and fun filled atmosphere with enthused staff that are ready to help. I also recommend to you newly opened EEZ businesses Computer Zone, I-Repair, and Kita’s Wholesale, all of whom opened this year and whose openings were not covered by the news. I encourage you to support these job creating, Bermudian businesses.

No w that I have gotten that off my chest, allow me to talk about the job training programmes that we’ve engaged in and how troubled I am that the OBA has yet to commit to preserving these programmes.

We know that in these times, we need to invest in Bermudians to give them the training and education they need to access jobs. Our job training programmes have touched hundreds of Bermudians and I've heard their stories of success. The Waiter/Server programme; the accounting programme; the Dry Wall programme; CISCO Academy; the Nail Tech programme; the Landscaping programme and many more such programmes that are presently being developed to give our Bermudians to access the skills they need to get good paying jobs. Will the OBA cut these programmes? We don’t know. They aren’t saying. There isn't one thing in the OBA document about job training.

With the doom and gloom the OBA are preaching I wonder if they even go into the NEHEEZ and visit the entrepreneurs who are opening up new businesses and hiring Bermudians. They talk about the business closing, but we never hear them talk about the businesses that are opening, expanding, and seizing opportunities that exist – these are the businesses that need our support the most and we, this government, will give it to them. I see the positive effects of our efforts in training our people for the jobs of today and the jobs of tomorrow while at the same time promoting Entrepreneurship in the EEZ through the BEDC.

Today, more than ever, we deserve leaders who will be honest with Bermudians. The truth is… there are no easy solutions. The truth is…there is no magic elixir that will solve all of our problems. Instead, turning around the economy in Bermuda, similar to what is being done by many world leaders, is going to take sure and steady work and we’re all going to have to do our part.