Key takeaways from North Side candidates’ forum

Date: Friday, 14 March 2025

Candidates

• Johany “Jay” Ebanks* (IND)
• Justin Ebanks (PPM)

* incumbent

The debate

The second in a series of candidate debates hosted by the Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce kicked off on Friday evening and this time it was the two candidates — one independent and one PPM — vying for the North Side constituency, who were answering questions and debating the issues presented by the chamber.

Once again, viewers watched the livestreamed debate online, and this time there were fortunately none of the technical problems that plagued the first debate.

The format remained the same: the candidates faced 10 questions posed by the chamber’s Wil Pineau, Shomari Scott and Omari Corbin. Each candidate was given two minutes to answer each question and an additional 2.5 minutes each as a closing remark.

Topics covered immigration reform, crime, affordable housing, traffic, minimum wage and vocational training.

Neither candidate was aware of the questions before they were asked them by the panel.

The first two questions related to why they had decided to run for election, and what they believed were the key issues facing their district and the Cayman Islands as a whole.

Johany “Jay” Ebanks emphasised his record of delivering results and asked his constituents to allow him to complete the work in progress.

“I want to serve my people and give them a voice,” he said.

Justin Ebanks said that as a member of the PPM, he wants to use collective representation to allow the people of the district to have a say in how the district is run. He wants to create opportunities and find solutions to create a better quality of life for the people of North Side, and put an end to what he described as “the bullying and favouritism that has crept into politics recently”.

Key issues debated

Again, emphasising his party credentials, Justin Ebanks said the three main issues “we” have identified is cost of living, housing and lack of job opportunities.

“Cost of living is robbing people of the ability to expand their lives, being able to do better for themselves and their families,” he said.

Homes must be built quicker, more efficiently and more cost effectively, he said. On the jobs front, Justin Ebanks said Caymanians are hitting very low glass ceilings and not achieving the higher end jobs.

Both candidates agreed that foreign workers in the civil service should also be subject to the roll-over policy, so young people have more opportunities to work for government if they want to.

For Johany “Jay” Ebanks, his top issues were immigration reform, food security and traffic.

“We need to limit the granting of status and if you are going to get status, it has to be either by marriage or descent only,” he said.

He said he wants to tighten up our borders with the use of facial recognition technology, fingerprint scanners and connecting to the Interpol system, “so we actually know who is coming into the country”, he said.

Regarding food security, he said, “I created the first food security policy for this country”.

He added that now we need to get the logistics side of importing food from South and Central America sorted out, “because we see what is happening, and it is only a matter of time before things get tighter”.

“Traffic is another issue that I am running on,” Jay Ebanks said. “We need to get East-West Arterial finished up.”

Minimum wage

On the subject of minimum wage, Justin Ebanks said $6 or $7 per hour is definitely not enough to survive in the Cayman Islands.

“If you are going to pay that kind of money, you are going to introduce poverty … so it has to be a two-fold approach,” he suggested.

“One, the cost of living has to be reduced and cost of goods has to go down, but we also have to increase the salaries, so people have enough to survive in this country,” he added.

“It is unacceptable for people to be surviving and not living if they are from this country.”

Jay Ebanks said we have to look at the sectors we want to have Caymanians working in, “and there are sectors that I think minimum wage needs to go into”.

But he cautioned that a minimum wage, if not applied carefully, could lead to further increases in the cost of living.

“You have to be careful putting a blanket across everything, because people will say, you just raised the minimum wage, and now I can’t afford a helper, so my kids are home alone without someone taking care of them,” he said.

Notable exchange

Both agreed that public transport could be improved and beach renourishment for Seven Mile Beach was needed to protect the Cayman Islands tourism product. But there were moments during the debate when Jay Ebanks suggested that Justin Ebanks was out of touch with North Side constituents.

On one occasion, this related to the need for police to be present to slow down traffic when the children in the district were arriving at the high school, and another related to community programmes involving elderly persons.

“I want to thank Pilgrim Holiness Church in North Side because we do have a Boys Brigade, and if my colleague had known the district, he would have known that there was a Boys Brigade happening there,” Jay Ebanks said.

Later on, he added, “If you do not talk to the kids, you will not know what is happening in your district and if you don’t talk to the seniors, you will not know what the seniors want. I talk to them and I listen and I make sure we get the job done.”

Closing remarks

Johany “Jay” Ebanks asked his fellow North Siders to support his re-election.

“I am someone unbought, unbossed and unafraid. I am a leader for you, I am a champion for you, I continue to fight for you no matter what, and you can always say that no special interest group owns your member of Parliament,” he said.

He added that he has a proven, stable leadership track record.

“I can actually take the slogan from the PPM. I have proven it, I have offered stable and strong leadership, so I can actually take their slogan and I will tonight,” Jay Ebanks said.

Justin Ebanks said in closing that he would like to represent the people of North Side with stability, ethics and trust.

“I want to make sure that North Side is going to have the proper opportunities to excel in their own country. I want to make sure that there are things in place to ensure they have a better quality of life,” he said.

“This is not a job for an independent; this is a job for a collective team.

“That is why we have to have collective representation; the representative needs to be present in the homes and the lives of the people in making sure they have a fair share of what it takes to be successful, and make sure they are given a say in what happens in their district.”

He concluded by saying, “I plan to bring back the district council and make sure there is a district committee so we can adhere to all the different aspects of the community. This job is only going to be successful with teamwork. There is no individualism in this. I am going to need each and every one of you to support me.”

Watch debate online