Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly and her new administration spent their first official day in office working on the national budget.
The budget has to be passed in Parliament and assented to by 31 Dec. in order to keep government operating starting 1 Jan. 2024.
O’Connor-Connolly, in a short comment to the Cayman Compass Friday morning, said government is working on getting the budget done.
“Further to Wednesday’s transition, the community can rest assured that the Deputy Premier and I, along with Ministers and Members of the United People’s Movement are focused on the important and pressing business of the Government, and in particular, on finalizing the 2024-2025 budget. The [United People’s Movement] is determined to be innovative and to accelerate the delivery of results for the people of the Cayman Islands,” the premier said.
Tourism and Ports Minister Kenneth Bryan, speaking with the Compass Wednesday night following the swearing-in of the new premier and her team, offered similar assurance that the budget will be in before the deadline.
“The public need not worry about that,” he said, adding it was a tight squeeze, “but not impossible”.
“We have had budgets come close to the deadline on the 31st,” he said, noting that the new United People’s Movement administration has time.
Normally, he said a budget would take two-and-a-half weeks and the government has three weeks in hand to get the budget finalised.
“We think we will have enough time to get the budget passed without it affecting [civil servants’] Christmas period and it will surely be way before the deadline, as per the Constitution, [of] 31st December,” he said.
New government, same faces
As of Wednesday evening, the Cayman Islands had a new administration under the United People’s Movement and O’Connor-Connolly was elevated to the leadership of the government.
Her ascension as premier followed the resignation of Wayne Panton, who agreed to step down from the top after a scathing no-confidence motion in Parliament the day before.
The motion, which was debated at a special meeting of Parliament triggered by the Opposition, ended with two of Panton’s ministers – O’Connor-Connolly and André Ebanks – abstaining from the vote, demonstrating there were major fractures in his government.
The Cayman Brac East MP, who was Panton’s former deputy, was sworn in at the Government Administration Building, along with her new deputy premier Ebanks, who retains his Financial Services and Commerce; and Investment, Innovation and Social Development portfolios.
The new administration’s swearing-in followed a day of negotiations which culminated with the formation of the new United People’s Movement, comprising members of the PACT coalition, including former members McKeeva Bush and Dwayne Seymour, both of whom had crossed the aisle to join the Opposition within weeks of each other.
It was Bush’s departure from the PACT backbench that created a 9-9 deadlock in Parliament, prompting the Opposition to call the special meeting and put forward the no-confidence motion.
The Compass understands another special meeting of the House is planned for next week, at which Panton will be nominated as Speaker of the House. He is set to replace Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, who has resigned the post to become the minister of sustainability and climate resiliency.
Panton issued a statement of ‘gratitude and clarity’ following the government changes, announcing his resignation. The statement, however, made no mention of his acceptance of his nomination as Speaker nor whether he would be affiliated with the UPM.
The Compass reached out to Panton for comment on if he is aligning himself with the UPM, to which he responded, “I remain an independent.”
Saunders in wait-and-see position
At the upcoming special meeting, it is also understood the debate on changes to pension legislation will be held, something independent Opposition MP Chris Saunders called for in his contribution to the no-confidence motion.
He indicated in his speech that his support of the government would depend on how it handled amending the Pension Act, to enable Caymanians to access their pensions to pay off mortgages and land loans.
Saunders, the former finance minister who resigned from PACT in March this year, told the Compass that he had decided not to join the UPM, but that could change. He said he was in the meeting when they decided to form the new group, and had questions regarding the budget and the new direction of the coalition.
“I have given them my assurance I will revisit my decision. The budget is material to that,” he said, adding that he needs to see what their objectives will be as well.
Bernie Bush, who was minister of sport, youth, culture and heritage in the PACT administration, lost his Cabinet post in the new UPM configuration. The release issued by government on Wednesday night indicated he has stepped aside to free up a Cabinet seat for Ebanks-Wilks.
He was missing from an official photograph issued of the new government Wednesday night, because, according to the accompanying release, he was attending a previous official engagement.
Bush will support the new government from the back benches, along with Heather Bodden and McKeeva Bush, whose defection from PACT last week was the catalyst that ultimately led to Panton’s resignation.
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