Governor outlines top priorities for new Parliament

The new coalition-led government laid out its plans for the parliamentary session in the governor’s address, delivered at the state opening of Parliament on Wednesday.

The 2025-26 session officially began with Premier André Ebanks and Speaker Ezzard Miller being greeted outside the Parliament building with a Guard of Honour before Governor Jane Owen arrived to deliver the Throne Speech.

Addressing a packed chamber of MPs, officials and invited guests, Owen welcomed the new premier and his National Coalition For Caymanians government and outlined the legislative priorities for the new term.

A main priority, she said, was the proposed reform of the immigration system.

“The government is bringing a bill to amend the Public Service Management Act to introduce term limits for all non-Caymanian civil servants,” she said.

“These changes are intended to come into force from January next year, affording existing and new civil servants the same term limit and putting in place a two-year ‘rollover’ period at the end of the term limit.”

She added that government intended, in tandem with the civil service reform, to consider further changes to Cayman’s wider immigration policy, including rules for permanent residency, marriage and Caymanian status.

To this end, Owen said, “I welcome the committee which the Honourable Premier and Honourable Minister [Michael] Myles have established with the Chamber of Commerce, other private sector entities and key government departments to assist with developing a National Workforce Plan.”

National security

The issue of national security from disasters both natural and man-made were mentioned by the governor, who stressed the importance of being prepared for hurricane season and also against crime.

“Our economy and way of life depends to a large extent on a stable and secure society,” she said, “and we know that this is threatened in particular by the availability of guns, by knife crime, by increasingly engineered drugs and by gangs and groups in organised crime, and those who support and protect them. I am pleased that this government, as its predecessors, is taking a joined-up approach to security and law enforcement.”

She also said the new administration would be working hard to tackle Cayman’s “abysmal record for road deaths and injuries” through plans to introduce a penalty points system on driving licences, as well as by improving public transport.

Young people were also highlighted in the governor’s speech with regard to the importance of mental health initiatives, education, training and employment.

“It is the intention of this government that all Caymanian school leavers have a route to further education either at vocational or degree level,” she said, “or, indeed, opportunities to take up internships and apprenticeships in the private sector and civil service, so that we can ensure in future that all our young people are employed at a level that fits their skills and abilities.”

Election funding

Looking back on April’s general election, Owen noted that both the international and domestic election observer teams raised the need to update Cayman Islands’ rules on campaign financing.

“I believe this is a gap worthy of consideration at an early stage of this Parliament, to reflect evolving international standards and to give our voting public more clarity on political funding,” she said. “Decisions on this aspect, along with any future consideration of election boundaries are clearly devolved within the Constitution to our elected representatives and to this House.”

Financial forecasting

Financial forecasting looks set to be a hotly debated topic in this Parliament following various reports of the state of the country’s finances emerging before and after the election.

“The challenge for the future will be balancing and prioritising the needs of our community for both services and capital projects,” Owen said.

“The proposed change before this Parliament to align the Strategic Policy Statement process with the budget announcement in the autumn will, I believe, help us become more accurate and efficient in our forecasting.”

This session of Parliament is expected to continue for the rest of the week.