business leaders for a debate over whether the Island was heading for overload.

Chamber of Commerce president Cris Valdes Dapena said full employment meant the new jobs would have to be filled by non-Bermudians and she wondered whether Bermuda was going in the right direction.

She said: "The Statistics Department of the Ministry of Finance predicts that in ten years time there will be 6,000 more jobs in Bermuda than there are today.'' She added that statistics proved that the Bermudian workforce in 2010 will be no larger than it is today.

Ms Dapena, who was speaking in a personal capacity, said: "If there are, as predicted, 6,000 new jobs created, then 6,000 more jobs will have to be filled by non-Bermudians.

"There are roughly 35,000 jobs in Bermuda -- 19 percent of them, or roughly 6,750, are filled by non-Bermudians. The rest of the jobs -- 81 percent -- are filled by Bermudians and their spouses.'' Worries over job explosion "All Bermudians here who are willing and able to work are employed. All of them. There are no more left. There is nobody who is being deprived of a job by the non-Bermudians filling the 6,750 jobs they hold.'' "To the contrary, there are many Bermudians who are directly employed by jobs non-Bermudians have created.

"And there are many, many more whose jobs (in retail, construction, in restaurants) exist only because of the boom they have created.

"But we live on an island of only 22 square miles. We value our few remaining open spaces. We deplore the amount of traffic on our roads.

"We regret that rents are so high, that there are families in critical need of housing, and the best of our schools have waiting lists for admission.'' The statement was welcomed by Environment Minister Arthur Hodgson. He told The Royal Gazette : "I am very glad to know we're asking the same questions.'' And Ms Dapena said hard questions needed to be asked about other aspects of Bermudian society. They are: How much of the increased demand for housing has come from non-Bermudians and how much from the fragmentation of Bermudian households? How many of the additional cars on the road are driven by work permit holders or their families and how many by us? How much of the demand for better schooling comes from guest workers' families and how much from our own upward mobility? How many jobs will a new work permit create, bearing in mind that, with Bermudians already fully employed, a job created means another work permit somewhere along the line? How much value does it create -- a different question altogether from how many jobs.

Ms Dapena went on: "Are we measuring the right things? Are we regulating the right things? Are we regulating them in the way that is best for us and for our future.'' "As a community do we even know what we want for our future? In my opinion the answer to all these things is `no'.'' Ms Dapena said businesses, individuals, pressure groups and Government needed to work together to solve the problems she had raised.

Pat Phillip-Bassett, executive director of the Bermuda International Business Association, also called for a debate on how the job boom would affect the Island's environment.

She said: "It needs to be done on a collaborative basis with everybody concerned. We're so small so it's quite easy to do.

"It's something we need to consider with a collaboration between the public and private sector so growth can be managed for the benefit of everyone.''