Charles Clifford a BT candidate

Attorney Charles “Chuckie” Clifford, former minister of tourism, environment, investment and commerce and former second elected member for the District of Bodden Town, has announced he will again contest a seat in Bodden Town in the upcoming election as an independent candidate. 

“It is time to return integrity and accountability to the governance of our country and I hope to be elected with a group of like minded candidates who will deliver this to our country and our people,” he said. 

“I was proud to be a member of the Cabinet, which delivered the Freedom of Information Law, the Anti-Corruption Law and the Standards in Public Life Commission to our country. The unfortunate era of political corruption is being brought to an end and it is time for us to move on united as a people and free from the divisiveness of party politics to address the multitude of very serious challenges facing our beloved Cayman Islands. 

“I will be endorsing and associating with other candidates in the upcoming campaign and I hope to be elected along with enough of them to form the next government.”  

He dismissed the party rhetoric that independents cannot form a government. 

“Political parties really only came into being in a real way in 2001 and for the 40 plus years before that there were loose affiliations and independents that formed every government.” 

Mr. Clifford was a member of the Peoples Progressive Movement but resigned from the party in 2010 following a fallout with the leadership over its failure to support him with a protest march against the UDP government over its proposed sale of the new Government Administration Building and significant changes to immigration policies, which did not favour Caymanians.  

Mr. Clifford will publish his National and District Manifesto soon, but he has stated that his top 10 priorities for the 2013 – 2017 term are as follows: 

Bodden Town District issues and solutions 

The extension of the East West Arterial into the Northward area to properly manage the increased traffic, which will be generated by the rapid development of Bodden Town; 

Construction of a new primary school along the extended East West Arterial to relieve the overcrowding at the Savannah and Bodden Town Primary schools and to cater to the significant increase in students that will result from the rapid development of Bodden Town; 

Create new jobs at the district level through the reintroduction of the Go East Initiative and collaboration with the cruise lines to increase tourism to the eastern districts, which will drive job growth; 

Implement the already designed/engineered solution to the flooding problem in Savannah and Newlands, which is caused by the Savannah Gully; and 

Implement the already designed/engineered solutions to the flooding problems in the Cumber Avenue and Belford Estates areas. 

National issues and solutions 

Public debt and budgeting – The public debt and budgeting issues can be addressed through a programme of rationalisation of our tax policy and public services. This will be addressed in a National Strategic Country Plan, which deals with, among other things, tourism, financial services, development, new industries, growth management, immigration policy, unemployment, education, crime, health and social welfare. 

Closure of businesses – We must urgently stem the closure of businesses and resulting loss of jobs through an urgent focused policy to significantly reduce the cost of doing business, which in turn will reduce the cost of living. This will incentivise the creation of new businesses which will result in an increase in the volume of revenue to government while adding new jobs to the economy which in turn creates additional economic activity; 

The environment – We now have a constitutional right to a clean and protected environment. We must prescribe the details of those protections in a National Conservation Law that places our environment on equal footing with economic and social issues in public policy development; 

Port development – Cruise berthing facilities are long overdue and must be done now. We must simply follow the law and ensure transparency in the public procurement process. By so doing at least one pier can be completed by 2015 and the second one completed by 2016. The loan can be secured through a third party, such as the cruise lines, with the loan payments coming from the per passenger tax and retail revenue. Mr. Clifford started this project with the Environmental Impact Assessment when he was the minister responsible and the current government abandoned those plans. Four years later they have achieved nothing, businesses are closing and jobs are being lost; 

Airport redevelopment – If we are to remain a competitive tourism destination the airport redevelopment is a priority. We must simply follow the law, ensure transparency in the public procurement process and let’s get it done. When he was the minister responsible for the Airports Authority, Mr. Clifford implemented a special fee to pay for this redevelopment and the result is that the Authority generates enough revenue to fund the loan on its own. Mr. Clifford also started this project when he was the minister by relocating the utilities, creating new car parks and a new road system in front of the airport in preparation for the redevelopment. This government abandoned his plans.