Referendum bill to come to parliament in New Year

(CNS): Kenneth Bryan, the tourism minister and deputy premier, who is spearheading the government’s planned referendum next year has said that the legislation has been drafted and a bill paving the way for the national poll on General Election Day will go before parliament when in meets on 31 January. Bryan told members of the public at a meeting, Monday, organised by the Association of Cruise Tourism (ACT) Cabinet is expected to approve the bill shortly and open the 28 day consultation period.

However, the government will need the support of the opposition for the bill to pass even if all seven members of government are present and in support when the house votes on the bill which is expected to include three questions. The most controversial being the question on whether or not the country should build cruise berthing facilities, as well as questions on the decriminalization of the possession of small amounts of ganja and the introduction of a national lottery.

The official PPM opposition has yet to publicly declare whether or not it will give the government the support it needs for the bills while several of the independent opposition members are likely to oppose the legislation. Joey Hew the opposition leader has said that the Progressives will make a decision when they see the draft legislation. But he has also said that the while PPM would support government’s quorum until parliament is prorogued and the bills steered through at the meeting which adjourned Monday it wouldn’t support any contentious bills.

The controversy over the cruise question relates to the concerns that the question is not about a specific project and so will not reflect the true sentiment of the country. Voting yes would give a blank cheque, literally, to the government and allow it to dodge a referendum in the future once an actual project including the where, what and how much is on the table. Equally people could also vote ‘No’ thinking that any cruise berthing project would be as grandiose and costly as the one proposed by the PPM when they were in office and led to a successful people’s referendum campaign – a vote which in the end never took place largely as a result of the COVID pandemic – even though they may be inclined to support a much smaller project.

Bryan has argued that in the first instance the people need to say if they support the principle. After that a future administration can begin to look at the type of facility it can afford that would keep ships coming. He has said it doesn’t need to be anything like the scale of the project proposed by the PPM government and could be just one pier with no upland development.

But with no concrete proposal a ‘yes’ vote could be interpreted by any other administration or future tourism minister as a green light for anything even if many of the ‘yes’ votes are made by people who really only support a very low key, inexpensive and less environmentally damaging dock that does not involve the cruise line companies or who would support the pier in principle in a different location to George Town.

If the bill succeeds and the referendum campaign will be relatively short which is another major concern of those opposing the development of any type of facility. The CPR activists who are leading the ‘No’ vote to piers believe that the government should put a specific project to people and not a vague question but if the poll is to go ahead they have very real concerns about how fair the campaign will be given that government has the full power of the state to use to campaign for a ‘yes’ vote.

ACT the non-profit which is leading the charge for a ‘Yes’ is also well funded from the private sector and their are concerns that without some guardrails relating to campaign spending in the bill for the referendum the cruise lines could pump a significant amount of money into government and the ACT’s pro-campaign distorting the democratic decision.

The ACT appears increasingly confident that the referendum will result in a ‘yes’ vote and they have been using distorted figures to promote the need for pies because of the decline in cruise tourism.

The ACT activists have repeatedly claimed that around 3,000 people depend directly on cruise tourism and many more benefiting indirectly. But this is misleading no one working in tourism is dependent entirely on cruise as all of those working in hospitality and tour operations are also catering to the overnight market and residents. In addition many of those more inclined to cruise such as the workers in downtown souvenir and jewellery shops or restaurants and bars are work-permit holders. While taxi drivers must be Caymanian, that is not the case for public and tour bus drivers many of which are also permit holders even if the buses and tour companies are Caymanian owned.

Many people are also deeply concerned about the environmental impact as dredging for a project akin to the one proposed by the last PPM led government would devastate what is one of the world’s most impressive marine habitats in George Town Harbour at a time when local coral reefs are in rapid decline as a result of so many pressure from climate change and disease. It will also harm what are some of the islands most popular tourist attractions when the cruise lines continue to complain that while they love the Cayman Islands and want to bring their mega ships here they don’t believe we have enough attractions or things for their passengers to do.

What are considered by experts as some of the Cayman Islands best snorkeling and glass bottom boat environments are in the harbour. But the mature reefs and wreck sites will be dredged or killed by the silt during construction. Some of the structures are thousands of years old, reaching deep into the seabed and up above the sand and are unique to the area. A nursery for millions of reef fish the harbour is the most sheltered lee on Grand Cayman with the calmest water and the best shallow reef for glass bottom boat tour, snorkeling and scuba diving.

Ellio Solomon ACT’s Executive Program Manager has argued that the reefs have already been damaged by cruise ships anchors. “In 2014 alone, one cruise ship tore up 16,000 square feet of reef,” he told Monday’s meeting according to a release, as he implied that building piers will allow the water to flow, the sand to flow, and the fish to thrive and that a pier will have less impact than anchors. But in the absence of any proposal even a small dock will require dredging and given the limited locations for a pier in the harbour the damage could be far, far worse that the 2014 crushing.

ACT has said it will campaign nationally in all districts and plans to host at least eight more meetings it also recently hosted a rally in George town while the parliament was meeting lobbying MPs most of which continue to support the idea of a pier.

CPR meanwhile is continuing to campaign on social media for a ‘no’ vote if the referendum goes ahead given their concerns about the potential of the ‘yes’ vote coming out on top and leading to another massively expensive and environmentally damaging project in relation to a sector that is becoming increasingly less advantageous for its ports of call as destinations all over the world are beginning to see a decline in the economic advantages of catering to cruise and an increase in the social as well as economic disadvantages.

The CPR recently stated that after 2019 when Caymanians united for the People’s Initiated Referendum (PIR) to demand a fair and democratic approach to decisions affecting our islands by signing petitioners had proved the power of people coming together for Cayman, making the question of cruise berthing a matter of national importance.

“Today, Caymanians deserve clarity, not rushed decisions or hidden agendas,” the activists said. “In a time of noise and distraction, we stand for accurate data over fear, unity over division, and transparency over manipulation. As of now, no facts or proposals have been presented. Caymanians should not be asked to make decisions in the dark.”

However, if the vote goes ahead the CPR is urging everyone eligible to register before the 15 January deadline and go to the polls on election day and vote ‘No’.