Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Bermudians, I present for your viewing a timeline of the One Bermuda Alliance’s immigration moves over the past 18 months.

• October 1, 2014: Michael Fahy proposed a new work permit policy that included the highly controversial Bermuda Employment Visa, which would allow qualifying firms to hire non-Bermudians as 20 per cent of their staff without having to advertise or apply for a work permit.

• November 2014: the OBA loses its first by-election in Constituency 33. OBA 326 votes, PLP 462 votes, a 136-vote difference.

• November 2014: “ ... the Government will move forward with amendments to the Bermuda Immigration and Protection Act 1956 to provide pathways to Bermuda status for persons born in Bermuda or persons who have been adopted by Bermudian parents” — Throne Speech.

• November 28, 2014: Fahy forced to withdraw the Bermuda Employment Visa proposal

• March 1, 2015: Fahy implements a new work permit policy that includes a new business work permit to allow qualifying companies to receive automatic approval of an unlimited number of work permits if applied for within the first six months. These companies would not have to first seek qualified Bermudians.

• March 2, 2015: Fahy is forced to add an amendment to the work-permit policy when it came to light that the policy allowed for children of work-permit holders to seek employment.

• March 13, 2015: OBA votes to block the Opposition’s motion to form a bipartisan joint select committee of immigration reform.

• February 4, 2016: the OBA loses its second by-election, in Constituency 13. OBA 357, PLP 467. A 110-vote difference.

• February 5, 2016: Less than 12 hours after suffering their second by-election loss, Fahy announces the Pathways to Status initiative, in which thousands of non-Bermudians will be granted status over the next few years, enabling them the ability to vote in by-elections and general elections.

• March 4, 2016: It is shown in the orders sheet for March 7 that the OBA intends to table the Bill for Pathways to Status.

• March 5, 2016: Fahy states on social media that those who oppose his Bill are “dangerous and wish to destroy Bermuda”.

• March 7, 2016: the OBA once again votes against a proposed bipartisan joint select committee on immigration.

Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Bermudians, you can see clearly that the OBA has had a clear intent for the past three years to grant status to persons that it feels will vote for that party in the next election.

You can see that in two by-elections the OBA suffered major defeats with increased votes against, indicating that Bermudians no longer trust its policies or promises.

Less than 24 hours after suffering their latest electoral defeat, the OBA announced that it is creating a pathway to status for permanent resident’s certificate holders.

Its entire campaign was focused on the claim that giving persons status would be a human rights issue.

Let’s look at a few facts concerning PRC holders:

• PRC holders can seek employment without needing to go to immigration

• PRC holders can purchase any two properties in Bermuda as they wish

• PRC holders can travel in and out of Bermuda as they wish

• As per the 2010 census, there are 1,200 spouses of PRC holders and 2,960 children of PRC holders who could be eligible to gain status

So which human rights issues do PRC holders not have? The primary thing that separates a PRC holder from a person with Bermudian status is the ability to vote.

In summation, with a growing proportion of the swing vote moved back to the Progressive Labour Party, the OBA has a very desperate need to get more persons to vote its way in the next election. It will most likely attempt to find a way to process the thousands of applications over the next year to get as many persons registered to vote before the next General Election, which must be held no later than February 2018.

In conclusion, I submit for your final deliberations that this “Pathways to Status” is primarily about votes for the OBA.