RED BAY FIVE PUT CAYMANIANS FIRST

By Staff Writer

The perception that Caymanians are being relegated in their own country echoed prominently throughout the Chamber of Commerce’s Candidates Forum for the Red Bay constituency.

The latest question-and-answer session in the ongoing campaign series featured the five new candidates following the retirement of the incumbent Sir Alden McLaughlin, the current Speaker of Parliament.

Hoping to retain the seat which Sir Alden has held for the People’s Progressive Movement(PPM/Progressives) is Roy Tatum. Aiming to snatch it away from PPM control are; independents Phillip Ebanks and Leon Gould, Dawn Thomas of the Cayman Islands National Party(CINP), and Melrose Natasha Whitelocke representing The Cayman Community Party(TCCP).

While not a case of sparks flying, the exchange nevertheless heard trenchant positions on a series of pressing issues confronting Cayman.

All candidates felt to varying degrees that Caymanians were not reaping the full benefits from the growth and development of the jurisdiction, especially in senior roles.

This was apparent in a series of cross-cutting questions including ‘creating a national human capital plan’ as a critical component of a white paper(discussion paper) on immigration reform.

Leon Gould (IND) felt the situation required drastic action, especially in the civil service. “After looking at the White paper, one of the things I believe the government needs to work on is to make the civil service 100% Cayman staffed,” he affirmed.

Phillip Ebanks (IND) said the national human capital plan was a good idea and called for more transparency in public sector hirings, especially of expatriates. “There’s no oversight over how long they remain in the employment of government or whether they have to continue or be removed when there is a Caymanian who can take that position up.”

PPM’s Roy Tatum agreed that there are too many expatriates in the civil service to the detriment of Caymanians. He questioned whether Workforce Opportunities and Residency Cayman(WORC) was overly focused on residency than on work opportunities for Caymanians. “That department of government wasn’t just to be looking at the residency aspect of it, it was also supposed to be looking at what jobs are available to Caymanians; working with the private sector and the education system to suss out where are the jobs of the future coming; and to try to make sure that our education system was meeting the needs of those jobs,” he declared.

Equally strident on the issue was TCCP’s Melrose Natasha Whitelocke. “They continue to stay in positions that should be earmarked for our Caymanian children. Too many times we see Caymanians being sent overseas. They get their education and they try to come home, but they can’t.” That was due to the lack of job opportunities for them matching the qualifications and a fair chance to progress. “They need to be brought home and interred, and those expatriates should have to train our children,” she asserted.

Dawn Thomas(CINP) said she fully supported the national human capital plan and that long-term planning was fully required. However, she said previous governments had failed to ensure this. “It is very, very important that we provide the opportunity for Caymanians,” she stated, noting however that there was a need to ensure that students are prepared for the workforce. “Let’s face it, we failed our students in school by not properly preparing them for the workforce,” the CINP candidate observed.

That general theme of putting Caymanians front and centre echoed throughout the forum on topics ranging from access to affordable housing, succession planning within the private sector, ensuring that Caymanians benefit from economic growth, the impact of the high cost of living and its impact on individual and family finances.

On the subject of a national development plan, although differences emerged on how best to proceed with the existing document, the competing candidates were clear that it needed to be activated.

Asked about their priority projects should they be elected, the five Red Bay candidates all placed the landfill, the east-west arterial road project, and beach erosion at the top of their list.