Key takeaways for Cayman Brac East candidates’ forum

Date: Tuesday, 25 March 2025

Candidates

• Ruth Ann Bodden (IND)
• James Albert Christian (IND)
• Maxine McCoy-Moore (IND) – Absent
• Juliana O’Connor-Connolly* (PPM) – Absent
• Layman ‘Dan’ Scott~ (CINP)

• • * incumbent
  • ~ party leader

The forum

The first Sister Islands forum, part of a series of pre-election events hosted by the Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce, took place on Tuesday evening, when two of the five candidates were no shows. Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, the incumbent MP and Cayman’s most recent premier, along with independent candidate Maxine McCoy-Moore did not attend.

No reason was given for the absence of the two candidates.

The remaining three hopefuls – Dan Scott, leader of the Cayman Islands National Party, and independents James Christian and Ruth Ann Bodden – answered a series of questions delivered by chamber members.

Key Issues

What three national issues would you address if elected and why?

The opening question of the night, put to the three candidates who attended the forum, received a variety of answers.

For Christian, the first to respond, the three main issues he said he planned to tackle were jobs, affordable homes and minimum wage – issues he said had been “taunting and haunting” the people of the Cayman Islands, including Cayman Brac East, for many years.

He suggested that people who had passed retirement age should step aside to allow the younger generation to take up jobs on the island. Such a lack of jobs for younger Caymanians, as well as a minimum wage people can’t live on, meant they couldn’t afford homes.

Bodden’s three main national issues were police, border control and education. Lamenting that the Brac had to rent out a space for the police station, rather than having a dedicated building, she said local officers “don’t have the tools to do their job” and were understaffed.

Stating that she had called for years for the creation of the Cayman Islands Coast Guard, she said she intended to push for a base for the service on the Brac to deal with border-control issues there. On the education front, she said she wanted to see a technical and vocational education and training (TVET) trade school on Cayman Brac.

Scott said the three main national issues he would like to address were unfettered development, cost of living, and jobs for Caymanians, which are all encapsulated in uncontrolled immigration practices, “and, in particular, as it relates to importing cheap labour”.

He added, “It undermines the workforce in the Cayman Islands because Caymanians cannot live on $6 an hour.”

Do you support building the new Cayman Brac high school? What benefits or concerns do you see with the current proposal?

The thorny issue of the proposed new high school for Cayman Brac was put to the candidates by the chamber panel. The escalating costs of the controversial project – spearheaded by the absentee Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly – was one of the reasons cited by four MPs for their resignation from government in October last year.

Acknowledging it was a “hot topic”, Scott stated he had concerns about the expected cost of the new school. Scott, whose father Layman E. Scott Sr., was the first principal of the current school, which is named after him, said he had no problem with a new school being built, but “the question, however, is, are we getting value for money? Is it being built in a way that makes sense?”

Scott and the other two candidates also raised concerns about a lack of Cayman Brackers working on the construction of the school.

Christian said he had “nothing against” the island getting a new school, but added, “What I’m against is the tendering was given out to certain contractors but none of the local contractors got a piece of the pie.”

He also questioned why the Brac needed a school “of that magnitude”, and called for the current building to be repurposed as a trade school once the new school is opened, a suggestion Bodden also put forward.

Bodden also suggested that the timeline to build the school within two years be extended to four years, which, she said, would enable more Brackers to get jobs on the site.

If the proposed Port Zeus project passes environmental and regulatory reviews, would you support it?

Another controversial issue that is a hot topic on Cayman Brac is Frank Schilling’s proposed plan to build a multi-million-dollar harbour and marina development, which is currently undergoing an environmental impact assessment process.

Bodden stated categorically and briefly that she would not support the project, saying, “People come to enjoy what we have to offer. We should not change our environment to accommodate anyone else.”

Scott, however, was more measured in his response, saying his view on Port Zeus “or anything else on Cayman Brac comes down to what do Cayman Brackers want”.

He said he’d attended one of the EIA meetings about the project and felt that the process gives residents a chance to air their opinions on the subject, and if the majority of Brackers supported it, so would he.

Christian replied that while there were pros and cons to the Port Zeus plan, he said he did not believe the people of Cayman Brac would benefit from it. Saying he and his daughters had challenged developer Schilling about the project at a meeting on the Brac, Christian insisted it would be a “disaster” for the people of West End and that “the majority of Brackers say they don’t want it”.

What practical steps would you take to diversify the Cayman Brac economy and create new opportunities for its residents?

Scott, who served as regional managing partner of financial services firm EY for almost 20 years before retiring in 2023, said he envisioned a future in which financial services companies could play a major part in diversifying Cayman Brac’s economy.

He said he’d like to see Caymanians working for financial services remotely on the Brac or while office facilities are set up there. He said developing this sector on the island would not only create high-paying jobs but bring young families back to the island to live. This would, in turn, have a knock-on effect of people building more homes, thus creating more demand and more work for contractors, electricians and masons, for example, he said.

Christian said a “clear and transparent investment policy” was needed for Cayman Brac to help develop a sustainable economy and to protect against unscrupulous investors. He called for government support of local businesses, to enable them to develop and create job opportunities.

“Our economy is in a dire need,” he said, noting that children were leaving school with good academic results but with no jobs to go to.

Bodden called for jobs to be reinstated within District Administration that had previously been done on the Brac but were now based in Grand Cayman.

“Those jobs could be filled by school leavers,” she said.

Notable exchanges

Scott has described the efforts by his new CINP party as not just being a campaign but a movement.

Christian, in an apparent jibe at that, said about his own campaign in his closing remarks at Tuesday night’s forum, “This is not a movement, I would just like to clear that up. This is reality, a realistic time for you, the people of Cayman Brac East to make the right choice.”

Christian also said he was the “only Cayman Bracker you are looking at tonight”.

Scott hit out at what he said were false rumours about him planning to roll back salary increases for civil servants, and cut back on pensioners’ and seamen’s benefits. He said it had also been circulated that he planned to cut the head count at Public Works, “yet again, not true”.

“Three for three, not true stories. I wonder who has been telling these stories?” he said. “Every one of the increases civil servants, seamen and pensioners have received have been long overdue.”

Standout moments

The three candidates were unanimous in their response to a question about whether air travel between Grand Cayman and the Sister Islands met the community’s needs and that answer was no. All three suggested that the Cayman Airways’ Saab jet that flies between Cayman Brac and Grand Cayman was ageing and needed to be replaced with a larger, more modern jet. They all also stated that the number of flights should be increased.

Both Christian and Scott called for more cargo to be transported to the Brac on the airline’s passenger planes if the holds have space and the flights are not full, hence bypassing expensive port charges.

The next chamber election forum will begin at 7:15pm on Wednesday, 26 March, and will feature the candidates for Cayman Brac West and Little Cayman – CINP’s Nickolas DaCosta and independent Lonny Tibbetts.

Watch debate online