To riff on a popular expression, a year is a long time in politics. And 2024 was one of the longest in memory as shifting alliances and shaky truces shaped and reshaped Cayman’s government.
The year began quietly enough as Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly settled into her new role, having taken over from Wayne Panton in late 2023 following his departure and the dissolution of the PACT administration.
Vowing to deal with bread-and-butter issues such as the rising cost of living in her inaugural New Year’s Day message, O’Connor-Connolly and her team mapped out a way forward for Cayman without repeating the instability seen in 2023.
Pressure mounts on projects
However, as the pressure mounted to deliver on key projects such as ReGen and the East-West Arterial, the cracks slowly began to appear.
Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, the new minister for sustainability, took over the management of the ReGen project, which had been long under negotiation. Other leadership changes in the ministry negotiating team compounded an already protracted process.
The deal was eventually scrapped in July.
An auditor general’s report, prepared in 2021, highlighted serious concerns with the ReGen contract signed between the previous Progressives government and a consortium of companies, led by the Dart group.
It said cost estimates as of March 2021, when the provisional contract was signed in the run-up to a general election, was $790 million over the 25-year lifespan of the contract.
Since that report, potential costs were made public and negotiations were kept under wraps as talks continued, leaving Cayman without a long-term waste management solution.
Rethink on stamp duty hike
In February, Premier and Finance Minister O’Connor-Connolly had to walk back plans for a stamp duty hike on luxury property fewer than two months after she signalled changes were on the way.
Government, at that time, had hoped to raise the duty – potentially as high as 15%, according to some reports – for higher-value property in the Seven Mile Beach corridor.
Turmoil in Cabinet
Public contradictions in policy started to emerge as the year progressed.
In June, ongoing turmoil in the Cabinet over potential changes to the National Conservation Act surfaced, while government maintained total silence on the details of amendments being proposed.
Multiple sources confirmed that Cabinet was deeply divided over draft changes to the law, with some members supporting significant changes and a number of ministers favouring a more conservative approach.
Whispers of multiple resignations or a Cabinet reshuffle circulated, but that did not materialise then, as further reviews of the changes were agreed to in the end.
There were also differing views on the referendum on cruise berthing.
Boundary changes rejected
In July, government rejected the Electoral Boundary Commission’s recommended changes to the local constituency boundaries, and said it would establish a new commission to review the make-up of Cayman’s parliamentary seats.
The decision to reject the commission’s report was later ratified in Parliament by way of a government motion.
‘Possible or perceived conflicts’
In September, it was revealed that former Premier Wayne Panton had made a $1.64 million loan to his then Health Minister Sabrina Turner so she could buy a house in Patrick’s Island in 2023, according to public records reviewed by the Cayman Compass.
The loan raised ethical concerns given the optics of a financial arrangement made between a sitting premier and his minister.
Nearly three months later, the Commission for Standards in Public Life said it would consider whether legal changes were necessary to ensure potential or apparent conflicts of interest were properly declared following the publicising of the loan.
It said it would also review its “guidance notes” so public servants have a “clear and full understanding of the need to declare possible or perceived conflicts”.
The commission stated it had reviewed the declarations made by Panton and Turner and determined there were no breaches of requirements applying to them under the act, but stressed it was “prudent” to emphasise “to all persons in public life the importance of transparency”.
Brac high school costs
Then in November, public outcry over the cost of the Cayman Brac High School mounted as a leaked report stated that the school would cost three times as much per student as John Gray High School.
The controversial project – for a maximum of 200 students – would cost $45 million to design and build, the report stated, with costs rising to $60 million when consultants’ fees and an accommodation block for construction workers who would build the school were added to the mix.
Elections in the air
With the clock ticking down towards the 2025 general elections, Progressives leader Roy McTaggart announced that he would be handing over the reins to his deputy Joey Hew, who will lead the party into the next election.
McTaggart also stepped down as opposition leader allowing Hew to assume the role, with George Town South MP Barbara Conolly as his deputy.
As talk of the election gathered momentum, government backbencher McKeeva Bush launched a new political group in October, Organisation for a Better Cayman, that he says aims to run a slate of candidates at the next general election.
‘Mischief’ and ‘mess’
He also confirmed rumours that the infighting within the Cabinet had continued since the departure of former Premier Wayne Panton.
The 40-year political veteran, a parliamentary secretary in the UPM administration, described the current coalition as “a mess”, and said, “I don’t believe independents can manage this country.”
Bush was also critical of Turner’s handling of the Poinciana mental health facility project as minister of health. The facility finally opened in December.
Border Control Minister Dwayne Seymour took to government radio to defend the administration, saying Cabinet remained united, as he labelled claims of infighting within the United People’s Movement government as “political mischief”.
O’Connor Connolly, two days after that interview, called for Cayman to break free of the “economic handcuffs” imposed by the UK and be given more control over its own finances.
She said more decisions on spending should be taken locally rather than politicians having to go “cap in hand” to the UK.
Mere hours later, Ebanks, Ebanks-Wilks, Turner and Parliamentary Secretary Heather Bodden announced on 31 Oct. they were resigning from the United People’s Movement with immediate effect, calling their ongoing positions “untenable” in a press release.
The departure of the MPs created political upheaval as O’Connor-Connolly sought to keep her administration from falling apart and having to call early elections.
In the end, with the agreement from the opposition, she remained at the helm of a minority government and announced 30 April 2025 as the date for the general election.
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