Better late than never, mother used to always say. Government has now given us some better idea of where they intend to go with the SAGE report and its recommendations. There will be a take note motion in the House on the Hill today — which means members get to air their views and ideas and concerns, which should make for a long day and evening, assuming all speak, and barring any surprises, there will be no voting — which is to be followed by a series of Town Hall meetings and stakeholder consultations which most probably means meetings with the two key unions, for sure, behind closed doors.

Can’t see all that happening before the Christmas holidays even with the best will in the world. So it looks like we are into the New Year and at a time when the Finance Minister will already be knee deep in final preparation for the 2014/2015 Budget. It will almost certainly be crunch time for the OBA having also had over a year in power and, arguably, more than sufficient time to have looked under the hood and come up with a plan.

The SAGE Report has been with us now for four weeks. Government has had it for six. They received it two weeks before they shared it with us. That’s not including the Appendices which were only made public last week and which features a lot of the work which the Commission undertook in coming to their recommendations; and let me pause here to say that personally I was also pleased to see the publication therein of the revised Ministerial Code of Conduct along with the Public Service Code of Conduct and Conditions of Employment. I agree with the Commission and I have said it before: these documents ought to be available for public knowledge and review at any time and for whatever reason. The Appendices also included submission which makes for a lot more ground to cover for those who are interested, which presumably includes our MPs who will have had to cram to get up to speed for debate today, assuming they didn’t have advance copies of the Appendices which I do not believe was the case, at least not with Opposition MPs. Good luck with that too. I know how difficult that can be, to prepare conscientiously for debate, especially when you get an extra day’s sitting thrown in which was the case Wednesday. Still, I don’t imagine it will prevent anyone from expressing their views. We all have them.

But the ones which we are most interested in are those of the Government. Maybe they will give us a preview in debate today? I expect it won’t be too soon for some.

The SAGE Commission was put in play by the OBA Government. They chose the focus the Commission would have and they chose the members. They had to have a pretty good idea of what they were likely to recommend and surely there were few unexpected surprises.

It is direction voters now look for.

There’s no question some recommendations are more problematic and challenging than others. But when it comes to those that are fairly straightforward and involve reorganisation or better organisation within the civil service, it’s reasonable to expect the work to have already begun. It’s what I have called low hanging fruit.

A sneak peek?

We may have got a sneak peak when the Premier reduced his Cabinet by three on the eve of the SAGE debate. The timing was no coincidence, I don’t think. It is a start on the call to commence at the top and lead from the front. Mind you, the Commission actually recommended reduction by a further two to eight Ministers and adjustments in salaries as well.

My guess though is that voters are also looking for a start on more savings and efficiencies that can be effected tout de suite. Full marks here to the Works & Engineering and the announcement by the Minister (now former) that (a) Government has not taken up the Belco discount in the past and (b) will be doing so in the future. This leads me to also ask what others are thinking: if we are trimming the civil service why do advertisements for jobs continue to appear in the Government Gazette?

Government birthed the SAGE Commission and made it a cause célèbre, but it was the PLP which was first out of the gate with public meetings, taking the contents to the people, while Government was silent. It is not easy to play catch-up, especially in politics.

Already we see battle lines being drawn and in strong terms. This too, surely comes as no surprise to anyone. This is not just about making Government more efficient and effective and driving down the staggering debt. People’s livelihoods are also at stake and that of their families. Some of the early reactions have been predictable and reasonable (why didn’t Government do the same thing on the revenue side?). My impression is that while we may all speak English, we talk in different languages when it comes to identifying the problems and agreeing solutions. The pity was that there was no representation for labour generally, or the unions in particular, on the Commission. People who are shut out at the beginning are bound to feel left out at the end and react accordingly. It’s an approach to Bermuda’s problems that we need to change.

As mother used to also say: you start out on the wrong foot, you end up on the wrong foot.

n Air your views on The Royal Gazette website or write jbarritt@ibl.bm.