HEW AND WELCOME FACE-OFF FOR GEORGE TOWN NORTH

The Chamber of Commerce Candidates Forum for George Town North pitted Opposition Leader Joey Hew against his rival - independent candidate Romellia Welcome, a community advocate and businesswoman.

Mr Hew, a former minister who has been in Parliament since 2013, took over the reins of the main opposition People’s Progressive Movement (PPM/Progressives) last year.

With his eyes on the ultimate prize of leading the country, he outlined his reasons for running.

“This election for me is a bit different in the sense that I am now leader of the party, the People’s Progressive Movement(PPM), and so I’ve taken on that role at a pivotal time. A time where we certainly recognize that the country is at a crossroads politically.”

For his sole opponent Roselia Welcome (IND), Mr Hew is part of the reasons why she decided to enter the political race.

“It’s clear that the empty promises made over the past 12 years have been disregarded and forgotten after the elections,” she said. “For far too long, some individuals in my constituency have endured the same, if not worse, conditions over the past 12 years. There has been no real changes or relief from them. I refuse to let my opponent go unchallenged and inflict another four years of empty promises on our communities.”

It was a method of scrutinising Mr Hew’s record that Ms Welcome displayed repeatedly during the forum, and it was again evident when the two candidates highlighted their three priority issues.

One of the main areas of concern for Ms Welcome(IND) is the cost of living. She said Hew could have done more particularly over high electricity costs caused by the fuel clause in consumers’ bills.

“My opponent, who as Leader of the Opposition at the time didn’t it see fit to send a mere letter, or have the government send a mere two-line email to revisit the CUC(Caribbean Utilities Company) contract.”

Ms Welcome also spoke of tackling shortcomings in the education system with an emphasis on reintroducing a middle school and setting up a trade school.

The link between education and workforce training also came up in a later exchange with Mr Hew suggesting that opportunities for vocational training could be exploited with institutions in Florida. He also reminded that there are already vocational programmes locally offering training in several skills.

For his other campaign priorities, the George Town North incumbent and PPM/Progressive leader listed the cost of living and immigration.

“We need immigration reform. If you look at the statistics over several years, we’ve had some growth in the GDP but we’ve had massive growth in immigration. So actually immigration is outstripping the growth in the GDP, meaning that we(Caymanians) are getting a smaller piece of the pie.”

A discussion on how best to ensure that Caymanians get on the housing ladder again saw opposing positions over high-rise versus lower-level homes.

Building upwards is not an option ruled out by Mr Hew. However, he feels much of the debate surrounding that and other related ould be resolved with a long overdue updating of the National Development Plan.

“I do think that there is room for us to look at taller buildings, but we must take into consideration the landscape. So if you’re starting with the lower buildings, you certainly don’t want to go from three stores or five stories to twenty stories. It has to be planned in a way that you have that gradual increase… I think before we can talk about all of that though, we have to update our National Development Plan. Without a national development plan, we can’t consider any of these things,” he insisted.

On the other hand, Ms Welcome(IND) is adamantly against the idea.

“I say no. No more tall buildings…We’re taking away our island look. It looks like a little Miami. And that’s not what we want…Come on, this is the beautiful Cayman Islands.”

That difference in approach also featured across many of the other topics discussed during the forum including support for the elderly, managing the landfill, beach erosion and policing and crime reduction.