Key takeaways from Prospect candidates’ forum

Date: Monday, 17 March 2025

Candidates

• Crystal Gomez Wilson (PPM)
• Michael Myles (CINP)
• Sabrina Turner* (TCCP)

* incumbent

The debate

The three main parties in the Cayman Islands took centre stage in Prospect on Monday night, as for the first time in this series of candidate debates hosted by the Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce, there were no independent candidates standing for election.

Instead, the People’s Progressive Movement, the Cayman Islands National Party and The Caymanian Community Party went head-to-head in a three-way party tussle. For two contenders, the evening was a rematch: Sabrina Turner and Michael Myles both ran as independents for the Prospect seat in the 2021 general election, with Turner edging victory by just 46 votes.

First-time candidate Crystal Gomez Wilson said she was “not feeling her best” but managed to overcome nerves and illness to stick it out until the end of the debate, which covered a wide range of issues, from landfill and the future of cruise to healthcare, pensions and traffic.

Key issues debated

1. Do you believe the current points systems for Cayman residency works as intended and if not, what changes would you propose?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, none of the candidates were fans of the points system, but differed in how they were going to improve it. First up was incumbent MP Sabrina Turner, now part of TCCP, who said that the points system did not work as it was intended, “because where you had a demand for specific industry or occupations, no points were ever given for that”.

She added that the current system “created demand for persons to purchase property, which is why we’re having this talk today about housing, land banking and properties being bought and not occupied. It was not intended to be that way.”

Turner suggested exploring other ways of raising revenues and to “stop using immigration as one of the major driving mechanisms for income”, adding, “We do not want any form of legislation or points system … to create a divisive environment where it’s him versus us. We want inclusivity. We want togetherness.”

Caymanians a priority

Myles of the CINP said that “the current point system doesn’t work for us. It doesn’t work for our people. It never has,” and that he would “do away with it, period”.

“We have to return to the Caymanian Protection Law, where it protects our people,” he said.

“We have to now be the priority in our country. Our kids are buckling under the competition that is coming in.

“We cannot have this particular point system where the actual goal of this point system is to buy property. We can’t allow someone to sit in Canada, the US, the UK, or anywhere in the world and send a million dollars to Cayman and buy as much property as they possibly can.”

He added, “I don’t think that we have a housing issue, we have an immigration issue, and because we have an immigration issue, and we’re letting just anyone buy Cayman citizenship at this point. We have to change tack.”

Gomez Wilson said that population growth was getting out of control, and that she believed the points system was “a bit skewed” but added, “You can’t put a price on having good people that want to live in your country. I’ve come across many people from all walks of life that, you know, they could not tick all the boxes to actually end up with permanent residency, and they deserve to live here. They’ve done what I think every person who chooses to work and live in the Cayman Islands should do, which is to assimilate into the culture.”

2. What improvements to the road system would you recommend for residents in the Prospect area to improve safety?

Myles was the first to answer and pointed out that several years ago, government paid $250,000 to Deloitte to provide a national transportation plan for the Cayman Islands.

“To date, we have not implemented anything of that plan,” he said, adding, “We’ve paid a lot of money for a plan; we haven’t executed the plan, and then we’re turning around and saying, ‘Well, there’s too much traffic in our road’.”

His answer was to get traffic cameras on the road and more police officers, to implement the national transportation plan, and to look at taking cars off the road by getting a national school bus system.

“Let’s face it,” he said, “Look at traffic when there’s no school — it is smooth sailing all the way through from East End to George Town and back.”

National issue

Gomez Wilson agreed that traffic was a national issue.

“We should not be spending hours in the morning and hours returning home, losing quality time with our families,” she said.

Some fixes she suggested were to encourage employees who weren’t customer-facing to work from home, to focus on road safety and to look into who has the right to own and import vehicles in Cayman.

Turner took a more local view, saying the residents of Prospect need to be their “neighbours’ keepers” in curbing bad driving and excessive speeding.

“The speeding that is happening within the immediate area of Prospect are a lot of the persons that live there, and that is a behaviour and a culture that has to change, and everyone should be responsible,” she said.

She also advocated more pavements, bus shelters for children along the East-West Arterial road and said she welcomed speed calming dividers, better lighting and resurfaced roads.

3. What strategies would you propose to address the skills needed by Caymanians to move into skilled and senior management roles and reduce the reluctance on imported labour?

“Every day I have the privilege of working with some of the finest young people in our country,” Myles said.

“What is heartbreaking is that all of these youngsters have come out of our public school system, and they have nowhere else to go. They stay unemployed, many of them for years, or they bounce between low-income jobs.”

He plans to get government departments that manage education, work and labour to work together, so that people can be trained to fill the jobs which are required.

“We have many different industries that we’ve created in our country that are paying thousands of dollars,” he said, “yet the majority of our young people don’t even know where or how to access those jobs. We can do this from the school system.”

Parental responsibility

Gomez Wilson said, “First of all, any job where there’s a qualified Caymanian should go to a Caymanian. And I know that that’s easier said than done, but at the root of all of this, I have to refer to the parents of the children coming up into the workforce. My parents pushed me and pushed me to go and get my education … and it has opened up experiences I never thought I would have.”

She also suggested that more Caymanians should be given opportunities to work in the tourism sector, saying that on a recent holiday to the Bahamas, “I was so in awe of how every single person at those hotels was Bahamian, from the person that drove you to the hotel to the person that checked you in. I can’t tell you how many people I have come across that have told me they have not had one single interaction with the Caymanian in the Cayman Islands. …

“There’s some incredible opportunities to have Caymanians in senior management roles, and I’m not sure what is stopping that from actually happening.”

She added, “There is no better person than a Caymanian to promote the Cayman Islands. It’s that simple, and we’re missing out on a huge opportunity to upskill, to train all of these young Caymanians to have these senior roles right here in the hotels along Seven Mile Beach.”

Turner said that the strategy was “simple”, saying that a big problem was the “glass ceiling”, which is preventing local people from accessing jobs in certain roles.

“Caymanians need to be able to be placed in a position where persons are willing to give them a chance in order to climb up the corporate ladder and one day actually sit in those senior management roles if the opportunities are not given there. Because what it appears is that Caymanians with the skills are not given the chance in the first place,” Turner said.

She added, “We have to be giving our people a clear chance. Someone has to take the chance on them.”

Notable exchanges

The Chamber’s Shomari Scott asked, “Mrs. Gomez Wilson, are you ready?”

Gomez Wilson replied, “I was born ready. I just wish I didn’t have the flu tonight.”

Turner, answering a question about gathering the general public’s views on developing a long-term vision for the Cayman Islands, said, “I’m data driven … Data, data, data. Getting your people invested and being part of your growth will be the foundation of where we are moving forward. I would support developing a long-term vision for the Cayman Islands, but only with all-hands-on data taken from our people.”

Myles, answering the same question, said, “I don’t think we need any more data. I think what we are doing is looking at data as an escape and an excuse for actually not acting … We do not need any more data in our country. We have more than enough.”

Standout moments

Myles on the need to prioritise spending better, said, “When I see people out in a hot sun or in the rain, I’m embarrassed for us as a country, knowing that we are spending a significant amount of money on parks. I have nothing against parks, but when we spend $10 million on a park and we [still] need shade for our tourists to go under, I think it’s an insult.”

The next Chamber of Commerce debate, held on Tuesday, 18 March, will feature the candidates from the Savannah constituency.

Watch debate online