Bermuda's community.

Ms Paula Cox said funding should come from money set aside to celebrate the Millennium.

The Shadow Minister of Community and Cultural Affairs made her recommendation during yesterday's debate on the Budget for the Ministry of Community and Cultural Affairs which was kicked off by the department's permanent secretary Grace Bell .

Mrs. Bell said the department's total estimated expenditure for the 1997/1998 fiscal year was $4,678,000 -- up 20 percent or $768,000 from the estimate of $3,847,000 in the 1997/1998 fiscal year.

She also revealed that legislation setting guidelines for the trustees in charge of Government's new Millennium Fund would be tabled in the House of Assembly soon.

Ms Cox said the PLP felt the community should have greater access to the increasing variety of arts that were becoming available.

Government should maximise opportunities, demonstrate leadership and provide balance for the community in this area and others, she continued.

To this end, facilities needed to be created to house the arts.

The Millennium Fund Programme -- which falls under the heading of Cultural Affairs -- was allocated $500,000 in this year's Budget.

Ms Cox said she understood that the plan was to fund this project with $1 million eventually.

This raised the concern, she continued, that any trustees appointed to watch over the fund "represented all of Bermuda''.

And she argued that the fund should be used to jump start further development of the arts in Bermuda.

Instead of using the fund to finance activities to celebrate the Millennium "we should look at something that is both permanent and tangible''.

"I would recommend building a purpose built arts centre,'' she said.

This would deal with questions of promoting tourism, youth and community development also, she noted.

With the millennium being a time of the passing out of the old and the bringing in of the new, she added, it would be a wonderful time to have the new cultural centre which would elevate arts in the community. Such a centre would also prevent the arts from becoming exclusionary, she argued.

Ms Cox's call was picked up by Opposition Leader Jennifer Smith who noted that Government continued to place more emphasis on the development of sports than it did on culture.

"Culture and sports develop the same things in young people,'' she noted, including competitiveness, self-assurance and team work.

The arts offered enough variety to provide opportunities to all.

But while sports organisations were given grants of almost $1 million, continued Ms Smith, cultural organisations had only received the "measly'' amount of $870,000 in grants. In closing, Mrs. Bell revealed a Bill entitled the Millennium Funds Act 1998 would be tabled in the House of Assembly.

This would provide guidelines for the committee overseeing the Millennium Fund, she stressed.

Ministry of Community and Cultural Affairs 1998/99 estimates Ministry responsibility: To promote and enhance community relations, support community activities, administer the Bermuda Small Business Development Act 1980, promote Bermuda's cultural heritage, support the community as a whole with a modern library and to collect and preserve archival material.

Budget estimate: $4,678,000(last year $3,910,000) Revenue: $334,000 Budget allocations Libraries $1,228,000 Archives $425,000 Community Services $460,000 Consumer Affairs Bureau $35,000 Community Education $521,000 Central Administration $366,000 Cultural Affairs $1,521,000 Women Issues $122,000