CIG spends $55k promoting cruise port
Attendees at a recent port meeting
(CNS) The Cayman Islands Ministry of Tourism has admitted spending more than CI$55,000 of public cash advertising the cruise and cargo port project and engaging a public relations company to promote the controversial proposal, largely via social media. Following what is believed to be several freedom of information requests about how much government has spent pushing the port project in the face of mounting support for a referendum on the subject, the ministry admitted that since August, it has spent CI$25,292.50 on advertising the ‘Support our Tourism’ campaign up to the end of November.
In addition, the ministry is paying Fountainhead, a local communications company, CI$5,000 per month for six months to help run the campaign. Officials said the expenditure includes a series of full-page advertisements in both print newspapers, as well as radio ads on a variety of local stations.
CNS can confirm that no taxpayers’ cash was spent promoting the project on this website. The public expenditure did, however, include the cost of creating a Facebook page and a website specifically to promote the project. The ministry said this was to provide a “central repository for all of the reports and studies related to the project to date”.
The tourism ministry’s chief officer, Stran Bodden, claimed the rationale behind the campaign was to provide the public with information about the project and make accessing the reports easier.
“Since 2013 a tremendous amount of research, data and other relevant information regarding the cruise berthing project has been posted to the Ministry of Tourism’s website, but over time it has become harder to locate, in between other ministry related information,” he said. “We therefore wanted to provide the public with a more convenient, central location for retrieving the cruise berthing project information.”
He said that Fountainhead had been engaged by the ministry because it does not have the resources available to take on this public relations campaign to drum up support for this increasingly questionable proposed project.
“We have a single member of staff handling PR, communications and speech-writing for all of the ministry’s portfolios and felt it was prudent to provide additional support so that a high level of public engagement could be consistently maintained for the duration of the campaign,” Bodden said, adding that the ministry’s PR manager was also working on the campaign alongside her normal daily duties, with support from the PR company.
The PR campaign has caused particular controversy as some of the promotional material has been directly in opposition to the petition for a people-initiated referendum on the project, leading to concerns that public cash has been spent opposing the idea of a people’s vote.
On Wednesday, the minister denied on the floor of the Legislative Assembly that government had spent public money opposing the call for a referendum. However, the PR campaign that it has now admitted to funding has posted promotional material that suggested supporting the referendum was already a ‘no’ vote to the port, which was also re-posted by the premier.
Documents pertaining to the cruise port facility are in the CNS Library
Category: Government Finance, Politics
So ……The Government spent our money to tell us we should not have a say in this! Wow.
I just want to know where all you concern citizens was when the previous Government was on the verge of signing a company to build the cruise port and we heard nothing from you.
Don’t worry about that unless you have some agenda you’re not stating. We are trying to express out concern Now.
Let the good ol’ Cayman Fascist flag fly!!!!!!!!! All hail…
The people pulling the strings at CIG probably see this as a good investment. After all they are trying to sell us on a $200-$300million project that anywhere else could not only be built for about $50million but it would be fully funded by the private sector.
I find it interesting that the firm hired, Fountainhead, is housed at Bay Shore Mall. Does anyone else not have an issue with that or find it a little too close for comfort?
They’re a business development company, they don’t see any benefit from cruise passengers.
People should stop by and offer them their opinion of their business.
The anti-port, pro-referendum folks are registered at sunset house with the tender company owner named as the founder of that organization.
Do you find that too close for comfort as well?
909 Teecha. You are wrong. Everyone should be given the opportunities to reach as high as possible. You sound like someone that has problems and taking it out on your kids by telling people like me that I will never amount to anything. You would be surprised at my achievements and I donate to my community and am respected.
Who cares
How much of our public money are CIG spending to combat our civil obligation to recognize and protect same sex unions for our own fellow Caymanians and others? The Unity Cabinet seems to be a factory of endless expensive mistakes unsupported by any mandate to do so, and without organized polling of any kind.
Look at all that silt in George town harbour over the past three days! now all the coral will die….LOL
And you are being ignorant, that is not what will be created by dredging, the silt created by dredging is very fine like powder, that stuff you see out there now is not and poses no risk to the reefs.
It’s too bad they could find a PR firm, on island, that would represent this mess.
Talk about blood money.
I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night knowing that I took money to push this catastrophe along.
Moreover, how is it an educational campaign when they purposely dumped Gina Petrie-Ebanks?
Whomever said it was a PR nightmare was right – there is no way anyone could rightfully take on this project with a clear conscience.
It’s hard to talk about the Unity propaganda campaign against democracy without also addressing the raft of serious personality problems and immorality that are propelling our party-affiliated kleptocrats from the other side. Given the shallow universe of candidates, it should be clear by now that we need to broaden the Caymanian eligibility criteria for MLAs, insist on clean police records (and past professional lives), and introduce minimum education standards for eligibility.
Here we go again with another one of the CIG blatant disregard for the Cayman people’s opinion. The people voted them in there to take us forward yet every other term they are taking us to the grave. If this has to be promoted and money has to be spent then maybe it’s not needed? As an educated Caymanian I’ve traveled to many countries and I can firmly say that there are so many alternate avenues CIG can take to maximise tourism spending and this port definitely isn’t going to help. They should focus on developing our tourism product for the over stayers as they spend more money.Think outside of the box if not add to what we have improve it or make more unique attractions (no more bars please).There is so much more pressing issues we are facing in this country and I can say this port isn’t a priority but it seems it is for those in the office who have a hidden agenda. Wake up people Cayman is heading to dark times unless we speak up!!! Take a look at the CNB situation as well as Calicos so much selling out in a short space of time!
There need to be some arrests and charges – if only we had an Attorney General willing to do the right thing.
CIDOT is laughable at the best of times. They have no clue what kind of unique product Cayman is or how to save it. They are too busy going after the look of other jurisdictions.
For example, we see one of the few remaining natural areas on Grand Cayman about to be Dart-ized when the new bar goes up to Barkers National Park. More than four acres of marine replenishment zone, to be removed to make room for more of the same.
The piéce du resistance? That next day, the next day!, after those news articles come out – the social media pages of the CIDOT feature a person in a kayak having an eco experience through mangroves!!!!! Well. Better come do that natural kayak tour today because soon nothing natural on Grand Cayman will exist.
Everything ripped out and destroyed to cater to … well?… who knows who? We don’t. The people coming to Cayman after all is said and done won’t be familiar anymore.They are going to be the faceless masses, who come to straight to the all inclusive offerings on a tour bus, and don’t move from their beach chair. It’s safe you know! Some of the biggest hoteliers on the other islands have welcome seminars where they tell the visitors it is not safe to go off their compounds. If they do venture off their resort, make sure to go on one of their bus tours to their shopping complex. Actually, we’ll just substitute the idea of shopping complex for, hmmm, Camana Bay. Just saying – that day is coming. The visitors, no matter what anyone tells you, are not going to be bussed into George Town.
What the CIDOT should do is: hop on a Cayman Airways direct to Miami. Go into the Miami tourism board and start picking up pointers. Today. Maybe find out who their PR firm is as they’re going to need it!
Miami is what Cayman is fast becoming. Concrete. Tall buildings. Over passes. Chain restaurants. Bars. Crime. Over crowding.
Keep the Cayman charm.
I’m wondering if this dock debate will end up as Caymans Brexit? If the lobbyists get their way and stop the dock, and in a couple years unemployment goes up, cruise numbers really do come down and the stuff the government saying actually comes to pass. I wonder what all you will be saying then? Brits are marching by the thousands now that they see Brexit isn’t what they thought it would be. Learn from their mistake don’t copy it.
Except that the liners are public companies with securities filings, and analyst reports you and I can read to establish the truth (if you want to). The handful of future ships of the 6000+ pass description, not yet built or launched (save for one, every second Thurs during high season), were never destined to come here. The Florida “home ports” for these same liners, don’t yet have facilities to dock and service them. Most of those Florida home port developments (for future Eastern Carib itins) won’t be finished until 2020-2022. Google it.
You so have no clue about what you are talking about. Completely uninformed fake news comment.
probably the worst comparison ever.
This comparison on Brexit can be found on the Fountainhead social media pages and the oh so expensive to build SupPORTourTourism free media pages. Hopefully, like a good media company, they are monitoring their contributions and noting the up and down votes.
Yes but if we had a port at least a day like today friday 16th the ships would have been able to dock —— oh yeah thats right I forgot its only a fair weather dock!
It’s hard to understand if this can be legal. It’s certainly not ethical. Surely the Dept. of Tourism should be spending its budget on persuading visitors to come to Cayman?
If Govt. has a spare $55k kicking around for a local promotion I would suggest that encouraging residents not to throw trash out of car windows would be a good place to start. It’s getting completely out of hand. Residential areas are looking more and more Third World as a result.
Not ethical? The public is asking for information and so government puts on a public education campaign, and that’s not ethical? Gimme a break.
One mans public education campaign is another mans propaganda. Look at the information provided, tell me where the material critical of the piers is so that public can have a balanced view rather than seeing only the stuff supporting what CIG wants, and I will give you the “break” you think appropriate. Oh and BTW, that wouldn’t even begin to explain the advertisement spending, which is nothing t do with providing even handed perspectives on pro’s and con’s.
CNS: All the documents on the government website plus the documents critical of the project (which are not on the government website) can be found in the CNS Library.
Using the peoples money to send out and share messages that people should not sign the petition for a referendum is not ethical. Spreading inaccurate rumours and propaganda and providing false or skewed/twisted statistics and information to fool the people is not ethical. Going against the will of the people who pay you is not ethical. Acting like dictators in a democracy is not ethical. Having blatant conflicts of interest is not ethical. Failure to enact Standards of Public Life and Environmental laws, which is pretty obviously to facilitate future projects including the piers is not ethical. Putting Cayman into further debt to fund this lunacy, when they can’t even tackle their own pension liabilities or use the money to invest in infrastructure, education, crime, trash collections, fixing the roads to the East and all the things crucial for the Cayman people is unethical. The way the public purse is abused here is unethical. The way most of the politicians conduct their offices and abuse their positions is unethical. I could go on but anyone with a brain can add 2 and 2 and get 4. Can you?
Except this isn’t an accurate “education campaign” this is a misleading and at times completely incorrect fear-mongering campaign meant to muddy the waters so that citizens back down from voting in the referendum
The open message from government is that a referendum is a ‘No’ to the port. That is not education, that is a politcal statement against the very thing they should uphold – democracy.
The materials are definitely educational. They inform the general public that if they delay the decision by waiting for a referendum to be held then the project will have to be cancelled.
Exactly!
Oh, like the endless radio Cayman propaganda that suggest that signing the petition is a vote against tourism and Caymanian business. How do you equate their active despot lobbying against a democratic process and transparency as an positive education campaign?!?
Where on radio Cayman have you heard any government advertising that suggests signing the petition is a vote against tourism? None of the government ads say anything at all about the referendum. You’re making that up my friend.
There is no mandate for this port! The general election was NOT a single issue vote and in fact in a lot of districts you were forced to vote for certain a candidate purely because of the ridiculously poor quality of those others running. Issues were irrelevant as you voted for the person who could at least represent you moderately well. Tell me how that qualifies as a mandate? Have look on the BBC news website recently where there are articles detailing Venice, Thailand and Holland all protesting about the over tourism of their towns and countries by greedy Cruise Lines.
Overtourism is one of the Oxford Dictionary’s Words of the Year for 2018.
Most of these protests are because peoples homes are being over run by hoards of obnoxious cruise ship passengers who spend next to nothing when they come on shore. This backlash is occurring throughout the Mediterranean. There is no public beach left in Cayman, the Sandbar is abhorrent when the port is busy and the roads will grid lock shut down if we accept more ships. How is that an advert for return tourism? And maybe just maybe by building a dock you slay the golden goose and destroy the 7 mile beach eco system which hosts the lucrative stay over tourists. Go on, toss the coin, lets see! And the whole project will come in so over budget and mis managed that there will be nothing left in the government chest to rectify the problem.
Regardless whether you found the candidates to be of ‘ridiculously poor quality’ the ones that got elected were elected to take decisions on our behalf. Do you expect them to ask your personal opinion every time they change a law or make a new regulation? You probably do, but thankfully they don’t have to. If they had to consult every voter for every decision they have to make on behalf of the county, nothing would get done.
We elected these representatives to act on our behalf. Let them do their job. If you don’t like the way you’re being represented you can pick another ‘ridiculously poor quality’ candidate next time round.
Better still why don’t YOU throw your hat in the ring instead of rudely criticizing people that had the courage to stand up and be counted.
The referendum with take 6 – 8 month to verify the list and cost in excess of CI$2 million. Ci$55,000 is a small amount when compared to that figure and the private sector money that has been spent to kill the port deal… just saying we can foi CIG but we have no way to document the other side of the spend
You cannot justify spending 55K (and I honestly believe the true figure is more) of public money (to be spent protecting the public’s interests) on advertising campaigns against a democratic process brought by the people for the people, because their government won’t listen to them. You can justify any amount if the majority of the people want it. And we do want a referendum so that money is well spent.
Nobody paid our household to take time out of our day to do something important for Cayman, to go find and sign the petition. We did it for free, at our cost, and would do it again to dissolve the LA, call early elections, or to compel enactment of the Standards in Public Life…that would allow the ACC to start making their first long-overdue arrests.
@6:19 Please explain how you are interpretting the governments public education campaign as being against the democratic process?
The public sector functions on two simple principles –
1. It’s not our money so who cares what we do with it?
2. There’s plenty more where that came from.
Trust me, I’ve been there, seen it and (in my younger days and much to my shame) done it!
Scary to see there are so many out there who still want to proceed with this BS even though its becoming more apparent every passing day that this project is an absolute farce. It’s clear they are too stupid to realize they are being lied too their faces and they should put their name to the Elections Office so their voting rights can be revoked.
CHEC paid years ago for this contract…must be willing to pay more or possibly “honoring” that agreement was part of the coalition between previous opponents?
It just serves to highlight how much this government does not care about the opinions of its people. It’s been said before but these appointed individuals are here to serve themselves and everything else is an afterthought. These guys are selling us out at every opportunity.
A minor point, but why does the Ministry of Tourism have only a single PR person? If any industry needs an actual PR unit it’s that one
Because nobody would touch the job? CIDOT (that’s their official acronym) peddles so much BS and misinformation that no responsible PR person would touch it. I’ve done public sector press/PR and there’s a golden rule in that line of work – don’t put out anything that you can’t back up 110%. If some of CIDOT’s claims about our current tourism ‘boom’ were subject to independent scrutiny they’d all be screwed.
as a new status holder… i will spend every minute trying to tear down the inbred, corrupt, local cartels of the cayman islands.
Hope you have something happy in your life.
Politicians who are not already conflicted in this CAYMANGATE should distance themselves now. This is not going to be good.
using people’s money as mind control game! yet gambling is illegal? ha ha ha
Time for Stran to spend a few weeks gardening by the sound of it.
If the port expansion project is such a Golden Goose for the working Caymanian & tourism , why does it need to be promoted and advertised ?
The only burgers you see advertised on TV are the heart-stopping ones!
Because there are so many dinosaurs or people with blinkered viewpoints that detailed explanations are needed.
A 20 second ad filled with misinformation is a detailed explanation?
Because other than saturating social media and the radio with fake information and scare tactics the government hasn;t done much
Such as yourself for instance
So his rationale is that they spent over $50,000.00 because people could not find the information on their website???
Does he really think that the public are morons??
It would have been free for Computer Services Department to update the Ministry’s website and put all the information in one place!
No – the reality is that they spent well over $50,000.00 to try to brainwash people and convince them that the dock/port is a fantastic idea. They do not want us to think for ourselves.
SIGN THE PETITION – you can vote yes OR no for the dock/port but we all need to vote to have our say!!
Frankly, you could pay a freelancer to deploy a WordPress site for 1/100th of that. If it’s not an illegal use of tax payer funds, it’s certainly an immoral and governance-less waste of public money.
Certainly this is illegal in any country that has laws.
I would love to know who bought and distributed those support the port shirts
Was that out of the people’s purse or was that a private group?
I had the same question. Also who paid for the A/V for that 26 September meeting?
Most of that was likely on the public meeting. Not really news.
How much of the 55k was spent on trying to fool the public that most people were in favor of the dock by manipulating polls with fake likes and dislikes on forums like this? Truly disgusting behavior and a total misuse of public funds. I will never vote for any of those involved in this again no matter what future promises they make.
Spin, spin, spin. These guys should work for Trump.
Moses Kirkconnell is surely finished. I cannot see how he can get out of this one.
hope so. just look at the economic blackhole of cayman brac that he has created.
Meanwhile Caymanian students will only receive 20,000 dollars per year to pursue educating themselves and that is only after they sign a contract saying they will come back here and work for the amount of time they spent getting educated
Nothing is wrong with that.
Can’t have everybody acquiring an education. Got to weed out the competition if they’re to remain in power indefinitely.
Education for the masses is over-rated, it should be reserved for those with the intelligence to properly benefit from it.
@Teacher. Spoken like a European colonizer. People like you truly disgust me. You sound just like the English woman who was a guidance counselor at the local high school back in the ’80s who told me not to “reach above my station” when I asked her about university scholarships. Two university degrees and a professional qualification later, I saw through her words then and I see through your words now.
So should those with lesser intelligence just be excluded from educational opportunities and left for the State to support? How do you determine whether someone fits your criteria? It is your way of thinking that has kept millions of black and brown people around the world out of the competition. Just the way you like it. Well guess what, we’re wise to your game.
That kind of comment ifrom anyone, colonizer or not, should also be enough to prove him wrong. Remember if you can conceive it you can achieve it. Do not let anyone determine your future when you have the power by whatever means necessary.
I guess your two university degrees and professional qualification didn’t include explaining sarcasm.
@10:47 pm – You are clearly deflecting, which is another colonizer tactic.
One someone shows me who they are, I choose to believe them.
Which while not nearly enough to attend Mickey Mouse U in Butthole, Florida, is plenty to get an education at a decent education in an established UK university, including accommodation and flights home.
Right, attending Canalside-upon-Stratfordhartshire University (formerly polytechnic) in Dumpside, UK.
Or Oxford or Cambridge; nearly enough for two years at Edinburgh …
2017/18 undergraduate fees for international students started around £10,000 (US$14,130) for lecture-based courses, up to £38,000 (US$53,700) or more for a top undergraduate medical degree. Postgraduate fees for classroom-based programs started at around £11,000 (US$15,545) up to £32,000 (US$45,200). For laboratory-based programs, average annual fees vary from £12,000 (US$16,940) to £27,200 (US$38,400). Factor in that it takes around 3 years for the average undergraduate degree (UK) compared to 4 (US), and 1 year for a master’s degree (UK) compared to 2 (US).
But, Cayman students don’t pay international fees in the UK; they are classified as home students.
Annual undergraduate tuition fees for Cayman passport holders are capped at £9,000 (CI$9,600) in England and are a consistent £1,820 (CI$1,945) in Scotland.
For Cayman students, school choice in the UK is primarily determined by the admission requirements of the universities and interests or preferences of the student not by finances.
Whilst you have many Mickey Mouse U’s in US, you also have some of the best. It’s the online ones that really worry me more….
8:27 it is so sad that you are so angry at Americans by your jerky comment. I hope you get good medical attention if you ever need it in Fix it for Free, Florida.
It is ok. You are probably a low IQ person that could not qualify for any where in the UK. Please get counselling. You are really angry because of your poor teachers here on GC.
Is this news? Government promoting its own policies. Isn’t this the same as the Government promoting the building of a school or a church?
The news in this would be the government spending money to convince the people not to sign a referendum while also claiming the people support the government position
If you are the government claiming you have a mandate from the people and simultaneously saying that the only people against the port are special interests and opportunistic opposition members then why is it necessary to spend $50,000+ on advertising
Either you have a mandate and the people’s support or you don’t
The government is trying to have it’s cake and eat it too
The political doublespeak does not and should not go unnoticed
No it isn’t the same, this is a promotion against democracy
Promoting its policies is one thing, but working against our democratic/constitutional right is totally diff. Thats DICTATOR-ish
time to push even harder for the referendum….this is sickening. ppm must be taught a lesson.
surely illegal under the constitution???
Nope, and when the referendum is trigger they will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars campaigning against the people using the public purse
In most referendums, the spend is explicit, capped, deployed to an official body to fight each corner and the same for both sides. And then there are the unofficial campaigns…that’s where the trickery will happen.
The Unity gov’t is interested in the Constitution from almost a decade ago! Standards in Public Life are yet to be enacted!
In Moses WE DARE NOT TRUST!
More than ever do we need this referendum so these politicians elected to serve the people know what democracy is. At first I was on the fence about the dock. Since listening to these politicians, I am now convinced with all the associated secrecy that BIG lies are being told simply to fulfil the whims of career politicians and influential people. This government is a disgrace to these islands.
More misdirection from Moses Kirkconnell and minions.
More nonstop waffle by a UNITY government seemingly incapable of telling the truth.
1. Notice no mention of full page ads in the Cayman Compass, we know it was not free.
2. No acknowledgement of the costs of the public meeting at the family life center on 26th Sept 2018
3. No acknowledgement of the air time and ads on CIG TV plus Radio Cayman or associated costs.
4. No acknowledgement of costs to run pro-port ads on other radio stations all day.
5. No acknowledgement of ads that are run at Camana Bay Cinema
If the Ministry of Tourism has allegedly spent CI$55k dollars trying to stop this petition from reaching the threshold. One can only imagine how much they will spend during the actual referendum.
@7:51 – You’re wrong:
1. The cost of all the full page ads in both newspapers was provided and is included in the 55K.
2. The cost of the ads for the public meeting at the family life center was provided and is included in the 55K.
3. The cost of all radio ads and airtime was provided and is included in the 55K.
4. see #3 above.
5. Government is not running those ads!!
And with all those costs included is still only amounts to 55K over 6 months for a public education campaign.
Public brainwashing scheme more like.
Totally disgusted. Is this not proof the government has lied to the electorate?
Some members of the public complained that information was not being made available to them. Now the information is being made available and they complain about paying to have it made available. You cannot please everyone.
CNS: Almost all of the documents on this website were in the CNS Library (I’ve added a few that were missing). This has all been public knowledge for some time and is not the information that is missing from the public domain. The $55k was not spent on uploading a few documents on a webpage.
Thank you CNS for responding to a kool aid drinking zombie troll!
Running propaganda reels filled with lies and misinformation is not not “information being made available”
And in this instance the public is asking to be included in the mostly costly project ever proposed for our islands
and you are chastising people for being skeptical even with the CIGs trackrecord with projects like this
I know who the bigger fool in this equation is and its not us
@ CNS: No, it was spent on a public education campaign because the public asked government to explain why the dock is needed.
Show me where actual education took place, and the public’s questions were answered? Wouldn’t a government memo have been cheaper, and would have perhaps done the job better.
All the marketing Fountainhead did was say a vote for the referendum was a no vote for the port….Seems like less of an educational focus, and more an attempt to misinform Caymanians.
A shame that the government stoops to tactics similar to fascist regimes to push through their corrupt goals. Cayman needs to “fix” those currently in power, and realize that they are not for Caymanians. And when I use “fix” I mean the Caymanian meaning of the word .