CPR: CIG cash crisis makes cruise piers even less viable
(CNS): Campaigners pushing for a ‘no’ in the upcoming cruise port referendum have said the pre-election finance report shows the country is in no position to invest in a costly cruise berthing facility. Katrina Jurn, from CPR Cayman, said that even if the Cayman Islands Government were to come up with some deal with the cruise lines, the public purse would ultimately be picking up the tab.
Speaking to CNS at a recent fundraiser for the ‘Vote No’ campaign, she pointed out that the last project proposed by the PPM some six years ago was estimated to be as much as US$400 million.
Jurn said that with 20% inflation since then, even a greatly scaled-down project would be unaffordable. “Whatever happens, the people will be paying for it,” Jurn said, adding that, given the current state of the public finances, it’s clear these are costs Cayman will be unable to afford.
It is now known that the next government will have to cut spending or find new revenue sources to cover its operational expenses and reverse the deficit prediction for this year and next, and it will also have to boost government coffers to shore up reserves.
Therefore, it will be in no position to embark on any more capital spending projects. According to the figures in the Pre-Election Economic and Financial Update, the next government will struggle to cover the costs of projects currently underway, such as Scranton Central Park and the Cayman Brac school.
However, candidates in all three parties and independents are campaigning for even more capital projects, including a school in West Bay, the East-West Arterial Road extension, more affordable homes and the re-tendering for a much needed solution to the nation’s waste management problems, which is seen as a priority by all and will be a massive expense.
Currently, the tenders for the cruise ships are paid for by the cruise lines, and the government is collecting all of the fees from passengers, so it is making, not losing, money from cruise tourism. If the CIG went ahead with a project, tendering would still be required but would need to be paid for locally. A cruise project would also see the fees collected from passengers redirected towards the development of whatever facility is eventually constructed to accommodate the mega ships.
The financial risks associated with cruise berthing facilities were recently detailed by regional economist Marla Dukharan in her report, Beyond The Debate and Into The Data: Cruise Tourism in Cayman. Based on cruise industry, regional and international data and relevant local statistics, the independent expert gave the idea a thumbs down for a catalogue of reasons.
Dukharan raised many red flags in the data analysis and warned that committing to a cruise berthing facility is likely to have a serious detrimental impact on public finances.
Cruise tourism makes a relatively small contribution towards the economy as a whole, and the pier does not appear to be a priority for voters. CNS has learned that in a recent private poll conducted by the Cayman Islands National Party, the development of berthing facilities was not even among the top ten priorities among a sample of around 1,500 voters.
Jurn told CNS that although the results of the referendum are non-binding, the next administration could still move ahead with the project unless the ‘no’ vote is overwhelming. She urged those opposed to a cruise berthing facility to think carefully about the position of the candidates they are voting for because the make-up of the next administration is as important as the result of the actual referendum, if not more so.
The non-profit has been funding the campaign from a wide donor support base. Jurn said that CPR Cayman was raising money to cover the campaign costs for more radio air time and blast social media over the last two weeks of the campaign.
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Category: Government Finance, Politics
I would love for there to be a debate between the CPR and ACT groups, where only the facts could be laid out. I understand there have been 2 debates planned by the CPR group refuse to attend – one was Radio Cayman. Can anyone tell me why that is? I would think they welcome a debate? The voters need to know fact, not just all the crap circulating. A frustrated voter.
I’m not sure, but the Vote No folks are right not to engage in the Circus that Vote Yes are producing The pro-port “fat cats” are pushing lies and propaganda down our voters throats.
I thought I would fall off my chair today when I SAW their recent attempt to sway the truth…”Piers are BETTER for the Environment than anchors or tenders.” NOT!!! The proposed piers will destroy 40 acres of marine life that will not come back. Mega ships burn TWICE as much carbon footprint than the smaller ships. Concrete is NOT environmentally friendly foks!
We have a thriving cruise tourism, no need to ruin our waterfront to pander to rum cake monopoly and duty-free Cartel. I have not see a local driving a tour bus in 10 years?
We must remain a high-end exclusive destination and not fall for Mega ship lies. Leave Hog Sty Bay alone!!!
The one silver lining from this whole Vote Yes / No debacle, is knowing that my NO vote will cancel out Evil Ellio’s yes vote
I’m reserving my NO vote to cancel Mac’s.
We don’t pay for it, a portion of port fees pays for it.
Not one dollar from you or this country will pay for it.
You have two choices on the referendum yes or no. Yes ,the government accepts the country want to go to the next step. That step is for them to meet with all the cruise lines and work out the logistics.
A no vote is “We don’t want any piers” Which means THERE WILL BE NO CRUISE INDUSTRY.
What is the confusion with your letter claiming that you want cruise business is nonsense. Research just ask the port. Joseph Wood work as a port director at the Port, he will tell you that the cruise business will become null and void.
Exactly like the 40 stores that no longer operate in town because there is not enough volume of people from the cruise ship.
Don’t forget we still need a cargo dock also? Does the rhetoric equate for that project too?
How about the East West arterial road? Do the government that wins ,will they need plans, where to build it how much is it going to cost and all the details or can we just find out if WE NEED TO BUILD A ROAD GOING EAST TO WEST and does the country agree?
Thats what the referendum is asking.
HOGWASH. Hogs eating from the trough is what this is about. Pay attention people, this is a jackass.
I would personally be quite happy without any cruise industry. It causes massive congestion and makes GT impassible to locals. It largely only benefits a small number of wealthy store owners and the CIG due to duties. Why would locals want stores that solely cater to tourists selling cheap goods from China and that don’t even bother to open on the weekend?
“A portion of port fees pays for it” you say.
You also say “not one dollar from this …”.
That portion of the port fees paying for it IS our money.
Government will have to find another income stream to replace that portion of the fees at OUR cost through increases in Govt fees and charges.
Hmm…
You say, “We don’t pay for it, a portion of port fees pays for it. Not one dollar from you or this country will pay for it.”
Sounds a lot like the BS Ellio Solomon and Act are peddling. I tell you what, Ellio, we’ll take a portion of your salary every month and use it to buy something that we want and you don’t. Because the money was diverted and you never received it, by your logic, you are not paying for it, we are.
To be fair, Austin and Elio are not the sharpest tools in the shed.
Lacking the intellect to debate. they will raise their voice instead repeating the same shallow messages.
Someone should buy them a calculator to work out the financial, physical and social cost to Cayman if cruise piers are installed.
Which precisely is the reason CPR won’t debate ACT.
ACT Are a narrow minded group understanding ONLY that which impacts their lives, without concern for the $450Million cost, or the impact of massive ships with tens of thousands of extra cruisers added to our streets.
ACT are behaving Like children screaming for more candy, with CPR the grown ups, trying to explain what harm it will do to them.
What plan do you have that the rest don’t? If it is based on the previous plan, then we will 100% pay for it. If port fees are redirected to repayment, is that not loss of revenue for the government? Honestly, these ACT trolls. No sense. Joseph “Hot head” woods? Really?
Those are port fees which as of now go directly into the coffers of the CIG, but which would be going immediately and directly for a quarter century or more into the hands of those who would build and would be the primary beneficiaries of any conceivable CBF. Moreover, we have a CIG which as of now operates on a heinous status quo of unaccountability, wasteful spending, bloated and unjustifiable vanity projects and worse, all in collusion with subversive self-servicing miscreant cabals of institutionalized corruption from the inside out and from the outside in.
Ipso facto: You are a liar.
What is being erroneously referred to as a referendum, particularly in the purposefully absent legislation of a valid and viable referendum law, is a non binding scam which is basically just another decrepit and dishonestly executed act of manipulative misinformation and paid for propaganda at the hands of a governmental maladministration who are not acting in the interests of and/or for the well being of the Cayman Islands and her people. They are acting in the furtherance of the pro CBF lobby (among others) which subversively pull their greed induced strings for none other than said lobby’s own singular and selfish interests regardless of what havoc and destruction is wrought in the wake of said CBF project.
Moreover, there are no parameters of reference in this vaguely, opaquely and fraudulently contrived question of a yes or no vote for a CBF. It is a political maneuver born of deceitful intent.
The government, as it stands today, does not want to accept, honour, observe or be held accountable to the will of the electorate. That is why there has been no implementation of a viable and valid referendum law. That is why they (among others of deceitful intent) do not want a referendum law which will see the will of the electorate become binding upon the decision making processes of any given elected government of any given day. That is why they did everything they could to deny the Cayman electorate their right to the validated and binding people’s initiated referendum which was unjustly stolen from and denied to Cayman and the Caymanian electorate. That is who you stand for and with, whoever in the hell you are.
There are multiple, myriad and tangentially interconnected reasons why GT has failed and has become a place which many if not most avoid at all costs, and has now become even worse due to an equally cranially flatulent “beautification project” which has proven to be an over priced and over time boondoggle that has taken away even more of the populace’s practical and efficient access to necessary institutions. Your efforts to place the reasoning or premise for GT experiencing the issues which it faces is laughably pathetic and it is patently dishonest in its entirety.
Ipso facto: You are a damned liar.
For Cayman’s electorate to give a hard no, regardless of whether or not this manipulatively contrived and pathetic excuse for a referendum is invalid in its entirety, would not mean that the cruise tourism industry will or would die. This will remain true whether or not this government sponsored and fraudulently propagandized fear mongering campaign which you and those with whom you collude are presently perpetrating against the well being and the interests of the Cayman Islands and all of her people results in a majority yes vote.
Ipso facto: You are either a Goddamned liar or you are a severely indoctrinated lemming.
Yes to cruise tourism, particularly if said cruise tourism industry is retained or clawed back with true stakeholdership within said industry for Caymanians first and foremost becoming the overriding and protected by law priority.
No to a vaguely construed and dishonestly manipulated question of yes or no in a referendum which is itself patently invalid from the inception of its connivingly constructed formation.
Yes to the necessary improvement of Cayman’s cargo port and docking facilities, in situ, where common sense, time tested and experience based wisdom has seen said port been sited for far more than a century. The West coast of Grand Cayman is for the majority of the year the lee side of Grand Cayman.
A hard no to any idea of degrading any more of Grand Cayman’s coastal environs in a larcenously greed induced lunatic’s “vision” of placing Grand Cayman’s major cargo port facilities on a Southern coast which is the coast most susceptible to the damage wrought by hurricane conditions along with the regularly occurring wave action all through the year, and currents which would see any and all toxic pollution swept down current into what is left of Grand Cayman’s viable marine ecosystems on the Southern coast.
No to a continued allowance of and acceptance of a heinous status quo which will see Cayman and Caymanian’s interests and well being further degraded, dispossessed, and prostituted out to the highest bidder of the cabals and cartels within, at the hands of those whose elected or public office is so bereft of any patriotic conscience for the Cayman Islands first and foremost, any tangible sense of moral and/or ethical compass, any evidence of good governance beyond hollow rhetoric and window dressing exercises, any implementation of direly necessary checks and balances, any acceptable levels of a necessary transparency, and/or the necessary implementation of the harshest of punishments for a repeatedly perpetrated self enriching dereliction of duty at the highest of levels of power and influence within Cayman’s decision making processes and the constructs which guide it.
No to accepting your attempt at disingenuously conflating the need for a direly necessary alternative route to and from the Eastern districts with the subject matter at hand. One can easily see what you are doing. Your intent is to seek to sow further division by conflating the two issues and to capitalize on the division of opinion which exists regarding the EWA.
No to you.
No to those like you.
No the CBF.
No to the furtherance of or to a continued acceptance of a system which not only does not seek to protect Cayman and Caymanians from the institutionalized corruption of those in the highest of levels of power and influence, but which is also is a system which promulgates, facilitates and subversively benefits the players within via the illicitly derived proceeds of an institutionalized corruption from the inside out and from the outside in.
With all the hoopla you have written J adam, it could have easily been stated with less verbosity : The whole bunch a dem Elio, Austin, Kenneth, Mckeeva etc have been bought and paid for, therefore this referendum question on the cruise port is a pile of excrement.
Can’t blame lack of cruise passengers on store closures.
What were they selling
At what price
At what location
Parking availability.
Competition from too many stores selling same tat.
Cheap Carnival trailer park customers.
More cruise passengers will just clog up town and destroy tourism for stayovers and life for residents.
You all going to go insane when the vote is no… and they build it anyway …
Watch this space
I heard this the other day also.
I really hope so.
The cpr team is not willing to debate
There biggest problem is traffic
So say it !
Don’t hide behind it
Either way
It is just a voice of the people
The government can do what they want
Whoever wins
Should just build it !!
why should CPR debate with ACT? They are hot-headed and angry. They are doing political cartoons of members of CPR and you think that a debate will be civilised?
As far as I am concerned, NO PLAN by CIG = a NO vote, and NO BUDGET by CIG = a NO vote
How can you trust this Government and maybe the next, with money. Look at the decision to buy the Smatts land on North Church Street over 5 years ago. What have they done. well they bulldozed income producing cottages, built a fence to preclude people from using it and nothing else.
We do not need an expanded cruise ship terminal and we certainly cannot afford it. Money needs to be spent on long term tourism so we can compete against the Turks and Caicos Islands who are fast overtaking us.
Also chopped down a 100+ year old Norfolk pine tree in fear it was going to topple onto the income producing cottage they bulldosed that had survived Hurricane Ivan. Some serious idiots we have working in the so called betterment of Cayman.
Didnt Mkiva Bush orchastrate a deal with CHINA some years ago to build, own an lease-back a new Cruise Port for Cayman?
I suggest we check out how deals with CHINA worked out for Panama, the look into that.
Mac Bush was stopped in his tracks, after cancelling a properly awarded contract to the winning bidder, and giving it to the Chinese company CHEC.
The FCO through the Governor stepped in to void Mac’s award to the Chinese, as “improprieties” were alleged.
The original successful bidder sued the Government who rolled over and paid almost $3M in penalties.
CIG didn’t even contest the suit as they knew revelations surrounding reasons for the award to the Chinese would be , if not embarrassing, then certainly damning.
The same players are among us, and should be closely watched.
One should not forget that William McKeeva Bush, and those who were then and are now in collusion with him, not only dishonoured prior agreements but he himself also set off a diplomatic kerfuffle between the UK and the CCP when WMB stated that the only real reason that the UK stepped in was because the UK govt was “anti Chinese”.
The Cayman Islands people suffered the cost for his decrepitude then, and the entirety of the Cayman Islands continues to suffer for the widespread decrepitude which he, and those with whom he colluded, set the precedent for and of in that most despicable of bouts of governmental maladministration under the political moniker of UDP.
One should also remember who it was of the private sector, whose use of their immense financial largesse to force an illegitimate and undue influence over decision making processes as it pertains to all of the Cayman Islands, in the furtherance of their own self interested agenda, was then and is now. The name rhymes with fart.
Whilst it is true that said UDP maladministration was the one who set the precedent for much of the ills which ail Cayman today, they also opened the door for successive bouts of political and/or governmental maladministration ever since then to follow suit. Thus, the evidence of this back and forth flip flopping within the PPM’s ranks should come as no surprise whatsoever to anyone. The goings on of parliament today are reminiscent of the goings on within a den of thieves, megalomaniacal charlatans and crooked as dog’s hind leg miscreants more than willing to subversively prostitute out the trajectory of the Cayman Islands to the highest bidder regardless of the detriment which said acts will continue to bring upon all and sundry.
The CHEC has long been proven to be a tentacle of the CCP which engages in massive incidences of purposeful bribery and corruption in order to further their “empire building” agenda. This fact is not up for debate.
Those who would and will continue to lobby for the CBF are as inherently and are as inherently corrupt as those who not so long ago were willing to, and were foaming at the mouth to, inculcate the Cayman Islands into an association with the CHEC and their goals of “empire building” in the global West. As WMB is known to say, they are all “the same dog puppy”.
Regardless of who would take on the construction of a non specified CBF, all those who operate within a morass of shell games, manipulatively disingenuous rhetoric, and dishonest propaganda which is their known modus operandi, they are all that “same dog puppy”, as it were.
There is no one, absolutely no one, who has given loyalty to and/or collusion with the likes of these architects of Cayman’s eventual destruction and who have continually acted as subversive polluters of any and all hopes for either a sustainable or a valid democracy, or as subversive manipulators of any semblance of a trustable and verifiably valid system of decision making processes on a national level, and/or are a clear and present danger to any semblance of a tangible “good governance” and/or good governmental administration who are to be given one iota of trust or privilege in any conceivable parameters which will allow them power and influence ever again. The negative consequences of Cayman allowing all of this to continue unhindered and unmitigated is now beginning to come to pass, and what can be seen today is just the beginning of what is coming down the pike.
Cayman is contending with a toxic iceberg widespread institutionalized corruption which the populace is only viewing the very tip of. These are they who operate in the dark and who fear the sanitizing qualities of direct sunlight.
Regardless of alphabet soup political moniker, new or regurgitated, or even those who claim to be independent, who of the slew of incumbent or prospective candidates has stood upon the rock of calling for and promising to seek to deliver to the Cayman Islands electorate a viable, valid and just referendum law? Who?
Who will seek to deliver to the Cayman Islands electorate an evolution of the Cayman Islands constitution which will see the electorate themselves/ourselves be the only ones who will choose who will be and, more importantly who will not be, given the privilege of the position of premier? Who?
Who, regardless of hollow rhetoric, will seek to remove the causative root factors which have seen Cayman be put into the position which Cayman is in today? The negative consequences are myriad, compounded, and they are all tangentially interconnected.
There will always be those who seek to game the system, any system, for their own greed induced, self serving, idiotically myopic, reprehensible and unacceptable personal political expediencies. This is a given.
What Cayman needs and has to demand is a system which seeks to close the loopholes for abusive self enrichment and profligate dereliction of duty at the highest of levels of power and influence. Unless and/or until these necessary steps are taken with an intent correlative to the severity of allowing this heinous status quo to continue, then this and/or any other highly corrupted and corruptible electoral cycle shall remain just another cyclical rearranging of, and repainting of, the deck chairs upon the metaphorical sinking Titanic.
You need to learn to reduce your sentences and verbosity. It’s hard to read for the average person and the main points get lost in word spaghetti. Thanks.
Chris Saunders did the same thing when he was minister, that cost us as well.
If McKeewa is attached, IMMEDIATE NO! No need to question anything further!
a proud orchestrator alongside Elio in ACT as well as Roy Tatum and Kenneth Bryan. The PPM will align with McKeewa- be careful who you vote for April 30th!
No No No all day. If they “estimate” $400million it’ll be over a billion before they’re done. The brac school was supposed to be 50M and everyone said it would over run, and before they’re even out of the foundation they’re up to $60M projected…on basically the first friggin step of the project!
Already projected to be over by 20%!!!!! WTF.
Bearing in mind that NONE of the contractors in Cayman have the experience to build in the harbor like this…a $400M estimate will guaranteed be close to or over $1Billion.
the brac school is already at 100 million
Wasn’t it PPM endorsed Lonnie Lee who was asked to resign from CINICO for freely giving out money for items not included in their policy?
Mac’s endorsement of Lonnie should be enough to warn everyone not to vote for Lonnie.
If you go to the CNS library and look at the PPM proposal for the cruise piers it states less than 200 million where does she get over 400 million, she is quite the story teller.
CNS: The cost to build the dock six years ago was valued at $200 million. The cost to the Cayman Islands over 25 years would have been $450 million. See here. A nice little earner for the Verdant Isle Group.
I am for cruise tourism and think we need to upgrade the port. However I will be voting no due to lack of trust and belief the CIG would be able to handle a project of this size.
The fact is even if we wanted the piers now, we just cant afford to pay for them in the current financial situation. Sad but true.
Why? You do know $26mil in the hole is nothing right? We spent $1.2Billion last year. All we need is some belt tightening to get us back on track.
Personally I want to see more info.
We must remember the same government could not handle sprucing up and improving the George Town area. So much money for tiles and less businesses in town.
Wow- great! What a winner we have.
Why on Earth would the Cayman Islands volunteer to pay for the capital infrastructure and upkeep for non-resident NYSE-listee cruise liners worth billions? It doesn’t make any sense until you appreciate the ongoing financial opacity of PACI and other loaded government boards and agencies that dangle presents and hold the gaze of corrupt career politicians. Then it’s easier to understand why this keeps coming up, despite failing all basic reasonability tests, and the deafly counter to public sentiment.
PACI loaded..? An understatement.
Hopefully a new government can clean it up, but if Kenneth remains that’s doubtful.
Just like how EVERYONE else is paying for upgrades at the airport that only benefits the high wealth individuals with private planes – and ironically while people are chanting about carbon zero. But let’s not forget that the wealthy with their multiple homes, cars, yachts and private planes don’t have a carbon footprint!
This lady needs to just be quite. AmeriCaribe and CHECC are going to provide financing so they can fast track the job and keep us in the cruise game. Honorable Bryant & the Premier know this and once they have the PPM majority this will be the greatest cruise pier in the world.
Maybe you need to wake up and read the fine print – even if a 3rd party (cruise line etc) “finances” the build, Cayman will still be paying for it because literally every single $ that we currently get per passenger, will go straight back into the pockets of the 3rd party for at least the next 25 years as “payment”.
Plus interest plus maintenance plus plus.
“Honorable Bryant”
I held it together till I read but at this point I genuinely started laughing
Confidently misspelling both his title and his name in one go
You love to see it
I sincerely hope you’re trolling. If not, I despair.
I’d rather take the word of someone with a Cambridge doctorate, than listen to someone who can’t spell.
Re Anonymous 15/04/2025 @234pm
This is exactly what is wrong with our people today and why our society is so dysfunctional today.
We just take the word of “Cambridge Doctorates” the “other guys” make too many spelling errors.
You need to verify everything for yourself by perusing as much information as you can or just look at the big picture and make a quick educated analysis for yourself. But for heaven’s sake do not listen to me, just use your own judgement
Cute. Excellent parody. Looks like you netted four suckers who actually believed you … and agreed!
How does PPM-flavoured Kool-Aid taste? I’ll bet its sour and will be more like sour grapes on May 1st.
I am voting a hard no.
Why are Deputy Premier Bryan, Joey Hew, PPm and ACT acting the fool?
Ask the Chinese..they dangle many good reasons.
The problem with Chinese cash is that 15 minutes after spending all of it you feel like you haven’t spent any money at all.
lol ! Nice one 2:07!
LOL
Cayman cannot afford cruise berthing and the long term debt that comes along with a project that is not a top 5 priority for the majority of the people
Monique Simmons, Elio, Austin, Joey Woods, Timmy Adam and the minister come across as disingenuous and emotional basket cases. No facts just ranting and anger. That’s why it’s easy to vote no because CPR share real facts.
More than ranting and anger, it’s blatant fearmongering. Like their claim that if the piers aren’t built, 3,000 Caymanians are going to lose their jobs and resort to crime. Anyone who votes for these clowns and their lamebrain ideas doesn’t have an ounce of self-respect and is all about personal greed.
CPR are made up of really smart and honest people the govt and ACT are dishonest clowns
There are so many reasons to vote no but the financial situation and costs seals it for me
Fake news, the project will be financed 100% by a joint venture of CHECC and Americaribe. This will be a wonderful project that will make us leaders in the cruise destinations.
so we will cede control of our port to foreing company? yeh no, still voting no
The UK will not allow any Chinese entity to finance and control any strategic port or location in the Cayman Islands.
FCDO approval must be sought and will not be granted.
CHEC their history and how they have screwed Jamaica.
Caymanians will not allow that to happen to our country
Nor will Trump…think about it.
This is what peak delusion looks like. Cayman has got no tourist attractions, no beaches, no decent food, no space and no money. What are you going to do, organize Mount Trushmore guided walks?
who you is ya must be a plague from one of them so called first world yards nuh’ go home.
I think you don’t quite understand how financing projects like this works. Who do you think ends up paying for it all? Not the cruise lines that’s for sure.
…and that consortium will be paying for it out of the goodness of their hearts and won’t expect to be paid back..with interest..?
Please let me have their contact details as I want a house I can’t afford.
Thanks CPR for all your efforts to educate the public
Thank you PPM, Honorable Seymour and Honorable Bryant for true visionary leadership. 4 more years!
Please tell me this is sarcasm! If not then I must ask if you are a clown, no sorry, i meant are you the coco the giant clown?
My , I can’t decide if you are serious or just plain old joking about the present set of circus performers ! Consider that a compliment !
ACT and the PPM especially Kenny Bryant and Joey Hew are reckless and stupid in chasing this project at all costs!
Yes, “at all costs to us”, but potential great Benefit to them.
Don’t forget Mac is experienced in these matters and he is coaching them.
Thank you CPR for speaking truth to power and sharing real information about the environmental and financial costs to the people and our country for a proposed cruise berthing project that we cannot afford and do not need!