Date: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Candidates:
- Gueva Richards (CINP)
- Delmira Bodden (PPM)
- Isaac Rankine* (IND)
- Roydell Carter (IND)
- John B. McLean Jr. (IND)
* incumbent
The first in a series of candidate forums hosted by the Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce kicked off on Thursday evening and it was the five candidates — three independents, one CINP and one PPM — vying for the East End constituency who were up first.
Frustratingly for the several hundred viewers who were attempting to watch the livestreamed debate online, the broadcast was plagued by technical problems, which meant the forum had to be restarted while the audio was fixed. Later on, the forum was halted once again as the audio was lost for a second time, meaning that viewers were treated to a succession of messages from the debates’ sponsors.
However, those watching who held on through the disruptions were rewarded with a wide-ranging discussion as candidates faced 10 questions posed by the chamber’s Wil Pineau, Shomari Scott and Omari Corbin. Topics ranged from education, landfill and traffic to immigration, cruise tourism and erosion on Seven Mile Beach. Each candidate was given two minutes to answer each question and an additional 2.5 minutes each as a closing remark.
Key issues
- What three national issues would you seek to address?
Gueva Richards chose unemployment, immigration reform and traffic problems, while Roydell Carter picked the cost of living, immigration relating to job opportunities and the “forgotten Caymanian people”.
John McLean Jr. singled out “rampant crime”, the employment of Caymanians and work permits, saying, “We shouldn’t have any unemployment when you’ve got 50,000 people on work permits.”
Delmira Bodden opted for immigration reform, clamping down on the abuse of work permits, and lowering the cost of housing, while Isaac Rankine said immigration reform, the environment and education were top issues.
2. East End residents waste countless hours of productive time in traffic daily. What ideas would you recommend to reduce this time and to improve traffic conditions?
As befits five people who live in East End, the issue of traffic reform was one they didn’t have to think twice about. Many candidates said they supported the East-West Arterial extension but that there was also a need to improve the public transportation system. Carter suggested firing bus drivers who leave passengers stranded by not completing their routes, and suggested staggering working hours for people working in George Town to stop the current rush-hour blockages. He also proposed decentralising government services by moving them to East End.
“It’s always been an objective of mine that we have some of the decentralised government services in the eastern district,” he said. “There’s no need to travel to George Town for all of these essential services.”
Bridge from Rum Point
McLean also said he supported the East-West Arterial extension and better public transport, but that an alternative route was also needed.
Saying that he was putting himself out on a limb, he said, “I would say we should put maybe a bridge with minimal impact from the Rum Point area and drop it somewhere nearby the airport, for example. We need to think outside the box.”
He also suggested that people on work permits should not be allowed to import cars, but should have to buy a car already on island.
Bodden said that getting up early in the morning for work or school was “tiresome” for so many people and needed to be addressed from several angles, including staggering school and work rush-hour times, and to build a school for pupils in Bodden Town, Prospect and Savannah.
Rankine said that it was costing millions of dollars in lost productivity and “we must look at technology to assist us”, wondering why there couldn’t be something like Uber on island.
Finally, Richards recommended more government-owned buses, proper bus stops instead of vehicles pulling over to pick people up wherever they were, and to look at getting school buses for private schools as well as public schools.
3. The government recently released the white paper for public feedback on proposed changes to immigration. What changes would you support to improve the current system?
East End incumbent Rankine was the first to speak, saying that he was “quite familiar” with the paper and that one of the changes he would like to see was the civil service subject to immigration control as currently, “it’s a much easier path for them.”
He added, “We should not be growing our population artificially through the means of work permits,” saying that the population should instead grow “by descent and by legitimate marriages … and by Caymanians having more children, as right now we are outnumbered significantly.”
Richards agreed that the “loophole” regarding permits for civil servants needs to be closed to be the same as for the private sector, and to look at other work permits as well, asking why there are work permits issued for apprentice jobs in Cayman when there are unemployed Caymanians.
Mass training
Carter agreed that the work permit system needs reform regarding civil servants and added that the way that jobs are required to be advertised also needs to be looked at, as well as if all vacancies needed to go through WORC. He concluded by suggesting “mass training” for Caymanians, saying, “Let’s take the bold approach and train 50 teachers each year for the next three years or five years, so that at least we can start to make an impact.”
McLean said he would end status grants altogether.
“If someone is here for nine years, for example, and they want to become a resident, I have no issue with that,” McLean said. “I just don’t think that you should have eligibility to vote. I don’t think that they should have a Caymanian passport, because there’s been many occasions out there that Cayman has gotten a bad name internationally for new status grants.”
Last to speak, Bodden encouraged the listening audience to take part in the white paper discussion and make their views known, as well as suggesting that a work permit should not automatically be renewed just because you have one, and that there should be a clampdown on work permit abuse.
Notable exchange
As the candidates delivered their closing speeches to appeal to the electorate, Rankine listed many of the things he says he accomplished for the people of East End while he was in Parliament, giving details on the installation of an ice machine, new flooring and new waste disposal for the civic centre.
In response, Carter said, “I hear the list of accomplishments the incumbent minister made for the East End, but you can’t take none of that to the bank or to Foster’s to eat,” adding, “I’m going to ask one question — why could there not have been some public toilet facilities at the Donovan Rankine field with all of this money and investment, and prevent the youth from having to use the bush for number one and number two?”
Standout moments
In a debate which was notable for its lack of interaction between candidates, who were all content to put their own ideas forward rather than commenting on their rivals’ policies, there were still some memorable moments.
On crime, McLean said, “Never in the history of Cayman have we seen such rampant crime happening around [which] I contribute to too many people on island. There’s too many work permit holders, and I’m going to be probably the only one that can bluntly say this. I’ve never seen the amount of disrespect by majority of the work permit holders that we have … Those officers that are not doing their job, please leave. This is my country. Fight for it. You’re in a pivotal position to protect us.”
Carter, on the issue of beach erosion, said, “In the long term, what I would like to do is to encourage those developers and those owners who have … encroached on the beach to tear it down, remove it … [and] the government through their process should be able to facilitate these developers to move further inland, and if they need to go up five levels or 10 levels, I want the new regulations to reduce their footprint and shift their pool on top of the roof.”
The next Chamber of Commerce candidates forum will be held on Friday, 14 March in North Side.
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