Bermuda is “losing its people” as a result of emigration and must do more to attract them to return, according to a government MP.

Backbencher Jamahl Simmons spoke out on Friday during a debate on the ruling Progressive Labour Party’s Economic Development Strategy — a paper that sets out plans for economic growth over the next four years.

The MP for Sandys South applauded the initiative but also warned that more needed to be done to “bring Bermudians home”.

Mr Simmons said that he had heard “anecdotal” evidence of why Bermudians were leaving the island but there had been a failure to “analyse the full spectrum of cause that has led to this effect”.

Mr Simmons told MPs: “For people to leave, they have genuine and real reasons —multifaceted reasons — and for a government to address these reasons, we need to move to a place of facts and information and not just anecdotal information.

“When I read the report, and having this committee to investigate why Bermudians are leaving, my first impulse was — because I’m old, cantankerous and argumentative — I know why people are going anecdotally, because of what people have told me.

“But we have not sat down and fully broken down and analysed the full spectrum of cause that has led to this effect.

“The departure of our people and the ability to bring them home – because we all know that there was a time when Bermudians didn’t leave Bermuda, especially not for cold England — we didn’t leave, we found no reason to leave if we could avoid it.

“And we need to move pretty quickly on this because we are losing our people. We have to find out ways — just as we’re becoming more competitive to attract investment and tourism investment and things of that nature – to attract our people and our talent.”

Taking a swipe at the Opposition, Mr Simmons said: ”I’m not stupid. I know we have to increase the population. The question is to ensure that the people can maintain their confidence in our ability to do it so that we do not follow the same path as the OBA.

“The PLP is the only party right now that can tackle the issue of immigration. It’s important because the issue of immigration and the abuses and the exploitation that has occurred under it for my Bermudian people from time immemorial is one of the reasons I got involved in politics.

“I came back to Bermuda in the late Nineties, and Bermudians did not feel that they were getting the treatment that they wanted, the opportunities they were qualified for, and the protection that they needed from being discriminated against foreign workers who were less qualified.

“We must make sure that our people continue to feel protected and to feel that the trust they have placed in us — when we went up there and blocked Parliament and did what we did — that they’re not going to be forgotten or left behind. That is a critical component in moving forward with this. We ain’t giving away status like some other folks plan.”

Mr Simmons’ comments were backed up by other MPs.

Michael Dunkley, the shadow minister for National Security and Health, pointed out that the Government had claimed that it needed to bring in more than 8,000 workers over the next five years to fill the workforce gap.

He suggested that many of those spots could be filled by Bermudians who had left the island in recent years — as long as the island’s economy was conducive to attracting them back to Bermuda.

Mr Dunkley said: “One area to tap into is the challenge of emigration. If we are successful in creating new hope and new opportunity in Bermuda, I believe — as my colleagues do and colleagues on both sides of the floor believe — that there is the ability to bring many Bermudians back home to work,

“Not just Bermudians in education, but those who have gone to other places or for whatever reasons for greener pastures.”

Government backbencher Kim Swan said the island faced challenges from the ageing population but the strategy laid out a road map that would encourage Bermudians who had left the island to feel more comfortable about returning.

“Unless we get enough people contributing to the tax base, we are going to be in a pickle — and in a pickle fast,” he said.