HUNTER GOES SOLO, MAC NO-SHOW IN WEST BAY WEST FORUM

By Staff Writer

In what turned out to be a veritable job interview, Julie Hunter of the Cayman Islands National Party(CINP) turned the West Bay West Candidates Forum into an unchallenged pitch to replace the longstanding incumbent McKeeva Bush, who was a no-show.

“The incumbent has concentrated on his own self-preservation and legal battles and has not been able to fight for his constituency. Tonight, once again, he’s not here to represent his people,” Mr Bush’s sole opponent observed. In the 2021 election Mr Bush had declined the invitation from the Chamber of Commerce to participate in the forum then.

With the floor to herself Julie Hunter took advantage of the opportunity to expound on the issues presented to her in a series of 12 questions.

“I’m running for the many Caymanians who migrated to other countries because they did not have any opportunities in their own homeland and need an advocate. I’m running for the young Caymanian entrepreneurs who endured in silence during COVID-19 because grants that should have been given to help them were given to foreign-owned businesses because our government felt they were more deserving of those grants. They need a champion to fight for them.”

In that vein, she listed her priorities as the cost of living, education reform and immigration - suggesting a two-year moratorium on certain types of work permits as one way to rebalance the jobs market in favour of Caymanians and reinstating the Caymanian Protection Law.

“For too long, ever since we lost that protection, Caymanians have been at a severe, severe disadvantage. It’s like we don’t have anyone to fight for us as Caymanians, our voice does not matter.”

The CINP candidate said she would pay keen attention of elected to pressing concerns such as pushing for apprenticeships and vocational programmes for young people in addition to academic studies, to fill a skills gap that’s keeping them out of certain professions.

Mrs Hunter listed several jobs currently held by work permit holders that she feels should be done by Caymanians.

“There are many, many Caymans who are unemployed, and they can do the job, but they’re not getting jobs. We have a lot of unscrupulous immigration practices that need to be rooted out. We have unscrupulous employers. We have many, many people here that are on work permit that should not be here, because we have Caymanians that can take those jobs.”

And she asked: “Why aren’t we bringing in Caymanians to sit at the front desk? Caymanians to pump gas, all of these little jobs that we’re bringing in people for. I mean, I know that we need to hire them for higher-paying jobs as well, but we should not have people in those kinds of jobs.”

She also favours a national workforce development plan to match Caymanians to jobs across the various sectors.

Another matter of concern to the CINP West Bay West Hunter is that “young people can’t own a piece of land in their own country”, citing land banking by non-residents as one of the reasons pushing up the price of real estate. It’s a matter that Mrs Hunter wants to see reviewed with stricter regulations also linked to the permanent resident system.

She also listed free healthcare for the elderly and children, and education policy reform - focusing on early years and technical vocational training for young people. With a tariff war on the horizon, the CINP candidate said the reliance on the USA for food imports should be replaced by sourcing from Caribbean and other producers. The cruise pier (which she supports) and concerns about crime were some of the other areas addressed by CINP’s Julie Hunter in her solo appearance on the West Bay West Chamber of Commerce Candidates Forum.