Gov’t motion for cruise vote filed with parliament

| 17/09/2024 | 67 Comments
Cayman News Service

(CNS): A government motion dated 26 August has been filed with the parliament, which sets the groundwork for the proposed referendum on cruise facilities. According to the motion, the government wants to ask Caymanians a very broad question: “Should the Cayman Islands develop cruise berthing infrastructure?” The motion, which is expected to be debated when parliament meets next month, does not indicate a proposed date for the public vote but that it would happen before the end of 2024.

Once this motion passes through parliament — and there is no indication that it will not since both the government and opposition MPs support it — the next step for the government is to draft a referendum bill based on the motion to set out the question and the date of the poll.

Under the constitution, that bill should then undergo a 21-day consultation period, be redrafted if necessary and then brought back to parliament for a vote. However, the government can waive that requirement for reasons of national importance.

It is not clear if the bill will need to address the issue of campaign financing. If government promotes the ‘yes’ vote, there should be equal access to public cash for those promoting the ‘no’ vote.

The cost of the referendum itself has stirred up controversy as Cabinet has set aside $1.2 million, even though it will likely take place some four or five months before the general election, which is expected in April. Election officials have said that if the government held the referendum at the same time as the general election, it would cut the cost by half.

If the government goes ahead with the referendum before the election, there is little time for voters to understand the implications of the vote. However, the tourism ministry has not yet presented any information to back up its theory that a continued decline in the number of cruise calls would have a major impact on the economy.

While the Association for the Advancement of Cruise Tourism n the Cayman Islands (ACT) is pushing for a major project to accommodate as many of the new mega-ships that are cruising this region as possible, there are others who think Cayman should make some accommodation for ships that won’t tender but have reservations about increasing the headcount of cruise passengers.

In addition, among those who believe that a cruise dock should be built, there is still differences of opinion as to where. However, at this stage there is no project on the table for voters to consider.

The battle over the cruise port emerged in 2018 when the PPM administration began embarking on a massive, very costly project in partnership with the cruise lines. Those opposing the project formed the Cruise Port Referendum Cayman group, which gathered enough voters’ signatures on a petition to force a referendum.

CPR Cayman has been reactivated to promote a ‘no’ vote, while ACT has also begun a social media campaign pressing for a hard ‘yes’, and is planning a rally later this month.

The government has not yet provided data about the number of Caymanian-owned businesses and Caymanians trading or employed exclusively in cruise tourism jobs, expected passenger spending, the type of project that might be developed, or where the financing will come from.

Another unknown is how the cruise sector might change in the future, which could lead to a decline in cruise calls whether or not there are piers. Meanwhile, the pro-port lobby is filling that vacuum of information with inaccurate and misleading information.

While the tourism minister has said that he intends to remain neutral in relation to the referendum campaign, he has offered his support to the pro-port campaigners. However, he recently withdrew from one of the social media groups citing the appearance of bias.


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Category: Business, development, Local News, Tourism

Comments (67)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    It takes a special kind of criminal, ops sorry i meant person, to be a Politician

  2. Anonymous says:

    For this to actually work for the government they would need some type of plan, a budget, drawings, a location for the port and a timeliness for completion.This is a vague question that no one in their right minds would vote yes on as it stands.

    If the port was cost-effective, sustainable and showed value for the citizens of the Cayman Islands it would stand a chance of passing. As usual, this government is wholly incompetent, unaccountable and greedy to the point where nothing actually gets done. Where is the update to the Development Plan? Where is immigration reform? Where is the plan to solve the dump? Useless, the lot of them. Voting in new clowns to replace the old clowns won’t work either so I guess we are stuck with what we got. Be happy folks…

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  3. Anonymous says:

    I only see green/yes & red/no placards in the article lead picture, where’s the fluorescent orange one that says ‘f*** off ?’

  4. Anonymous says:

    The cruise lobby is pushing the dock hard again. All the usual suspects are in action from the Ministry down to the Compost, with the cruise concession puppeteers pulling the strings behind the scenes.

    But we can take some hope in the fact that CIG finds it practically impossible to do any massive scale infrastructure project. So this scheme will most likely be kicked up and down the passageways of the GOAB for decades to come.

    In the meantime a hard NO is the only vote.

  5. annoying says:

    Did the Minister of Tourism not state recently in a press release he wanted to focus on Quality over Quantity? If that was the case why is he so concerned over the newer more bigger ships stopping? I truly feel these Politicians take us for Idiots.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    There is no Referendum Law.

  7. Anonymous says:

    The Minister should be courting the higher end small cruise lines. A perfect fit for us and no pier necessary.

    Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection (about 500 passengers). Currently offers a route from Ft Lauderdale that stops in Cozumel and Belize. Why not Cayman?

    Windstar Cruises (also less than 500 passengers)

    Explora Journeys (about 1000 passengers)

    I could go on and on.

    If you read the forums for the large cruise lines, the constant complaint of why people don’t like Cayman is that it is too expensive. So we need to target the cruise lines that charge $7000 per person and not $1000 per person.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Why this year and why only one question? Such a waste of money when they can do it next election. Who are these people working for because it’s not us!!!

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  9. Anonymous says:

    Sail on

  10. Anonymous says:

    You might not know this little piece of history, but they didn’t want anyone to build piers in the sea in front of their houses on the beach. Mr. Norberg Thompson was the one that comes to mind and he tied his boat on his dock. We are seeing more and more of them because THERES NOTHING WRONG with building a dock . It creates shade for fish, it creates a habitat for soft and hard coral which produces places younger fish. Another place that comes to mind was Rum point when Bruce Parker had a pier on his property where picnic lunch boats would tie up. I remember they had a lot of conchs which created a lot of fish, crabs and baby lobsters. He also had 2 stingrays at his restaurant in a pond that you could watch while you eat. Morritts Tortuga has a dock too. It’s not causing any environmental damage. The dock in Cayman Brac at Carib sand condominium has large fish and an occasional shark that comes by to eat. Dive boats tie up to it. In fact as you drive around all three islands you find there is no environmental damage caused by a dock. It’s just people who believe there’s damage with no proof. If there is send it to Compass or Caymannewsservice.com to prove it.
    Every canal from development in Grand Cayman has life in their canals soft coral, hard corals, fish, lobsters, crabs, jellyfish, etc. From Rackleys canal to the Shores in West Bay. Please show your proof. If not then stop the bias and lets build a pier for some Larger Cruise ships.

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  11. Anonymous says:

    The people who don’t want the pier don’t ask any questions to people who are in the business. If there is no money being made with Cruise ship passengers why would we be in business? We have already had 2 plans that have been shown to ministers from when Charles Clifford was a minister of tourism or the port. We have shown proof that there is no environmental damage around the Caribbean or Central America. We have shown damage caused by anchoring of cruise ships since 1937. All you need to do is get Cayman news service to go to the port and wait till one of the ships come in and lay an anchor. Then show that to all the people in the world that environmentalists don’t care about the drop off reef. Because the chain is plowing the reef. we have know for years that there has been a bias of the reporting of our side. But if you were in the cruise ship business you would know.
    Certainly if Bodden shipping has bought millions of dollars of tenders THERE MUST MEAN THE MAKING MONEY. Pilots that are hired are paid at least $10,000 per month. So ladies and gentlemen why the lies??? I am 70 yo. I’m a retired diving instructor PADI AND NAUI open water instructor license. I am telling any of you that all you need to do is go on YouTube and research the lies you all keep spewing.
    When I was 19 yo I worked for Jim Bodden and Rex Creighton who were constantly being bombarded by environmental people who claimed that the turtle grass was going to die because of dredging. They would say if we didn’t stop all life would disappear in the North sound. That hasn’t happen. Prospect park was a large black mangrove swamp . Many people bought very cheap land and was able to build houses there. The only thing that happened was we have less mosquitoes. We had to dredge Harbour house marina it seems like nothing happened and they a lot of boats that need fixing. Thats where they fix them if you don’t know.

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    • Anonymous says:

      9:48, Have you ever heard the expression “think before you speak”?

      Or is your impassioned drivel at 9:48pm as a result of a 6pack of the 345 being consumed?

  12. Anonymous says:

    What should cost $100m will end up costing initially; $500m

    that’s BEFORE the addition of the “snouts in the trough” tax…so now we’re at;

    $1bln.

    add on to that incomptence, lack of qualifications, no relevant experience, change orders/additional vanity projects and a #WorldClass Civil Service and suddenly we’re at:

    KYD 2.5 billion

    AND ….that with an inferior end product.

    …look at the schools, the airport and a myriad of other ill thought out, bloated, over priced, delayed, CIG/CI CS projects that are harbingers of another complete financial disater but one that will BREAK the islands’ economy, for generations to come.

    For no other reason than I have zero confidence that this port project would be completed on time, on budget and even “well”…I will vote agaist this…what ever the merits of the port itself. Time and again CIG/CI CS have demonestrated they are incapable of delivering on projects; any, big or small.

    The dollars are so huge that this project is an existential threat to the Cayman Islands economy, WHEN (not “if”) it all goes wrong.

    The third world is but 45 minutes and one Port away.

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  13. Anonymous says:

    If Bryan is (God forbid) Premier, the government will consist of..Mac, Seymour, Saunders, Jay, Juju, and a couple more like minded parasites who will start talk of Independence.

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    • Anonymous says:

      It’s really Saunders who is in favor of independence. Not so much the others. Seymour might not even know what independence is.

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  14. Anonymous says:

    It’s a yes from me and the 37 votes I control, but only if it’s in the North Sound.

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  15. Anonymous says:

    Didn’t the public already vote NO. What part of NO does Government not understand . Was if time and money.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Go ahead and tell us when the public voted, give us the date. Idiot.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Agreed, the answer is already NO! 1.2 million is well better spent in many other areas. What is the big hurry for a referendum when it can be combined with the general election in May? Sounds very suspicious to me.

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    • Anonymous says:

      They did not. The referendum was never held

  16. Kurt Christian says:

    Vote No !

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  17. Anonymous says:

    Nonsense, there is still no Referendum Law, and that cuts both ways.

    August 31, 2020: “The Cayman Islands Government has no plans to bring forward a general framework law to support section 70 of the Constitution and prevent future problems with people-initiated referendums (PIR). During the legal challenge mounted by the Cruise Port Referendum campaign the government told the court it would be passing this legislation, but now the government’s lawyers say this administration has no plans to steer this important law forward.

    CNS contacted all members of Cabinet regarding this decision, which was set out in a letter, seen by CNS, from the Attorney General’s Chambers to CPR’s lawyers but no one has responded to our enquiries.“

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    • Anonymous says:

      Not surprising… given their lack of schooling, I don’t believe any of them understood your question.

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  18. Anonymous says:

    what a waste of time and what a broad pointless question….
    anyway just another day in wonderland….where poorly educated locals are somehow in charge of billions of taxpayers money…

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    • Anonymous says:

      I think it’s the perfect question, since we don’t have any bid documents to peruse.

      Basically, cruise port expansion, yes or no? Good. That’s more fair than I would have guessed.

      NO. Hard no, for me and the rest of my family — not because I’m the patriarch, but because they also think it’s the wrong direction.

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  19. Anonymous says:

    I will never vote yes to giving CIG carte blanche on any project. No one has put forwarded a design or plan, no one has stated how this project will be funded without incurring debt to foreign entities, no one has said how port operations will continue while this project is ongoing, no report has been made to state what % of Caymanians will be affected either way, no measures to reduce environmental impact have been proposed.

    Until such time as these questions are adequately made and a reasonable argument made for why they should be built in the first place i will be voting NO.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Don’t confuse politicians by asking them difficult questions, all they will want is votes from their public beach higglers, taxi drivers, tour bus operators and drivers, and of course T shirt and souvenir shop owners.

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  20. Anonymous says:

    Listening to the people then?!

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  21. Anonymous says:

    Fix the damn dump.

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  22. Anonymous says:

    Simple answer – NO!

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  23. Anonymous says:

    Cruise berthing isn’t just to drop off more people in town, they want to build a massive mall/shopping area when people get off the ships.
    They don’t talk much about this, but this is the real plan hence all the work being done in town to improve it.

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    • Anonymous says:

      (a) that stinks of Macs original plan with the Chinese way back when and (b) they’re idiots if they think the cruise tourists will spend much money there, so the investment is pointless amd a complete waste of public funds.

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  24. Anonymous says:

    KB has been a disaster as minister

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  25. Anonymous says:

    This lot deserves to be voted out of power like the PPM. It appears they do not want to be honest with the public. There must be a specific project scope for the Minister to pursue this idea unless why else go thru all of this?

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  26. Anonymous says:

    How much will any cruise pier project cost the Caymanian people?

    Why is the Minister facilitating the bullying of the cruise lines to his government and people?

    How is this a top ten priority for this government?

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    • Anonymous says:

      They never had a manifesto, so we won’t know what this “government” stands for….other than re-election.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Self-enrichment is the incentive. Election and re-election is the means to that end.

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      • Diogenes of Cayman says:

        No party is actually bound by a manifesto, its a wishlist and almost never includes costs and details which voters actually care about. Even so parties pick and choose which bits of the manifesto they are even interested in doing if they form a government and most of it is just lip service.

        For instance the PPM manifesto from 2017 had about 3 lines in it that outlined their proposal for a cruise port, a project they had at that point ALREADY been working on for 3 years:

        ‘Enhance the cruise visitor’s experience with a modern cruise pier to enable easier and safer disembarking and embarking of passengers.’

        and the 2013 manifesto was even more vague in relation to cruise tourism – calling for ‘attractive, durable facilities’

        Even if you put aside that fact that manifestos are vague, only referred to for a few weeks and rarely include detail past what the party thinks people want to hear. We haven’t had a majority government elected on one platform in Cayman since 2009. In 2013, 2017 and 2021 there was no clear majority, so in those instances manifestos did not receive the endorsement of the electorate via a majority – In fact more voters have voted against the PPM and their manifesto at basically every point in our recent elections aside from 2005. So as far as most people are concerned their manifestos aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.

        If in order to form a government the PPM has to rope in a bunch of people who didn’t run on their manifesto who have their own desires, policies and priorities which has happened for both of their most recent terms in office then we end up in a situation virtually no different from the one we have now.

        Here is the truth – Our governments set policy on the fly and govern based on their meetings behind closed doors and with monied interest groups with the real motivation being keeping their cushy ministerial pay packages, titles and perks – they don’t give a rats ass about any dusty manifesto that most Caymanians haven’t read and that local media doesn’t ever hold them to.

        I am probably one of the few fools who wastes time here even reading them mostly for a laugh and to call out comments like this one.

        • Annonymous says:

          Agree but the situation is different as the PPM can read and write and left the country in good fiscal shape unlike what’s going go transpire next year.

  27. Anonymous says:

    What a waste of the public’s money. Cruise ships suck…

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  28. Anonymous says:

    Minister Bryant is an idiot and those in cabinet that support this crazy referendum should be seen for what they are aweak .

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