Few surprises as Cabinet portfolios finally confirmed
(CNS): The allocation of portfolios to the eight new elected Cabinet ministers was finalised on Friday. Isaac Rankine was the first to reveal on social media that, as of 3pm, he had been appointed as minister for social development and innovation, the portfolio previously held by his new boss, Premier André Ebanks, as well as Youth, Sports, Culture and Heritage. But it was not until after 5pm that the government released the full new line-up of ministerial portfolios.
The premier announced that he will be responsible for financial services and commerce, his previous portfolio, as well as the Cabinet Office in the new National Coalition For Caymanians (NCFC) administration.
Deputy Premier Gary Rutty will be responsible for tourism and a new portfolio of trade development. Katherine Ebanks-Wilks will be tackling the health ministry as well as environment and sustainability, while her West Bay colleague, Rolston Anglin, will take on finance and economic development as well as education and training.
Meanwhile, Jay Ebanks retains responsibility for planning, despite his continued criticisms of the Department of Environment and his support during the last administration of the Central Planning Authority’s violation of the conservation law and the subsequent court cases, which led to one government entity suing another in costly and unnecessary courtroom dramas.
He will also retain housing and infrastructure, despite concerns about his excessive spending on roads, the diversion of a significant part of the budget to his own constituency of North Side, and his support for the more expensive, less green route for the East-West Arterial extension. Premier Ebanks said on the campaign trail that the TCCP would opt for the alternative route.
Nickolas DaCosta will take on district administration in the Sister Islands and home affairs, while his CINP colleague, Michael Myles, will become the minister for Caymanian employment and immigration.
Wayne Panton said he was happy to join the backbench so that there would be at least one woman, Ebanks-Wilks, in Cabinet. However, he will still have a hand in protecting the environment as the parliamentary secretary for the environment and sustainability, as well as Caymanian employment and immigration; infrastructure; health, financial services and commerce.
Heather Bodden will be PS for social development; education and training; and tourism. Julie Hunter will also support Anglin with education and training, as well as being the PS for planning, lands, agriculture, housing and infrastructure; culture and heritage.
Ebanks said he was confident in the capabilities of the ministers and that their appointments were a strategic move towards the administration’s goals to achieve economic and social transformation for the Caymanians.
“My Cabinet colleagues and I look forward to working together to build a prosperous future for Caymanians,” he said in a government press release. “We are very eager to begin addressing the needs of our people in a way that will positively uplift them now and [for] years to come. It will be a privilege for us to work alongside the hardworking and dedicated members of the civil service to achieve our goals and to make the lives of those we serve better.”
The premier met individually with the deputy premier as well as each minister and parliamentary secretary to confirm the subjects they were being assigned. “The full support and collective efforts of the entire NCFC team will be required to resolve the issues our people have elected us to address,” Ebanks said as he congratulated them all.
Deputy Governor Franz Manderson welcomed the new Cabinet and said the civil service pledged to fulfil its mission. “That mission is to support the elected government by delivering caring, modern and customer-centred public services and programmes, which deliver value for money,” he said.
“We have been working during the pre-election period to facilitate the smooth handover of power to any incoming government, and we now stand ready to help our ministers and parliamentary secretaries settle in. As a civil service, we will be working very hard, as we have done in the past, to deliver on the new government’s priorities.”
See the full list of Cabinet members in the CNS Library.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Category: Government Administration, Politics
Why do we always have one person/minister holding more than one Ministry? considering the enormous size of each Ministry’s portfolio of departments, committees, councils etc… you would think that all governments would do their best to have one person/Minister dedicated to each Ministry. Instead of Ms. Hunter and Mr. Panton being secretaries, why can’t they being given on of those doubled-up ministerial responsibilities?
We not broke enough already? Are you simple?
..’enormous size of each Ministry’s portfolio..’ LOL
The enourmous size of their salaries + benefits should be reduced compared to the small size of their portfolios on small Islands!
@3:53pm. I will share my view on this. I think civil servants should not be reshuffled from one ministry or department to another after each election, but should be matched to roles according to their skill sets. Consistent underperformers should be given six months to resign and go on their way. If our civil service becomes more efficient, we would not only realize savings in the short, medium and long-term, but we could get far more done with a smaller headcount.
Ministers are not responsible for day-to-day operations of the Ministries that is the responsibility of Chief Officers (who often delegate to others), the job of a Minister is setting overarching policy for their portfolios along with reviewing and approving policies, procedures and determining the focus of the department / ministry. Yes, they can be tough jobs especially for inexperienced, or uneducated MPs of which Cayman has had its fair share over the years but the jobs as they exist currently are reasonable our bureaucracy is nowhere near as unwieldly as other countries despite the complaints people have.
Also, as to your secondary question ‘why can’t they being given on of those doubled-up ministerial responsibilities?’ The maximum number of Ministers is set in stone by the Constitution there can only be 8 Ministers out of the 19 MPs at any one time. There can be fewer than 8 as was shown prior to our election when the UPM minority government only had 5 Ministers.
This is for a few which I will summarise:
-Parliament cannot function properly with Ministers being in the majority (that is the purpose of the limitations set in s44 of the Constitution) Ministers are meant to answer to Parliament having them be in total control of both Cabinet and Parliament would negate that function
-Ministers have some restrictions on actions that can be taken in Parliament (they are bound by the convention of collective responsibility, and have limited roles in some committees and making motions)
there were 3 big histories made in cayman
1.Big Mac GONE
2.PPM not government
3.Andre is the new Premier
I also have a question how comes there is PPM billboards still up everyone’s else has been taken down so what happen to theirs they should get charge or fine for having it up for so long after the elections
and for Kenneth why he is so damn extra and just want to be notice that he have up a billboard thanking everyone for electing him back yeah, they did but look where he is the back of the class where the rest are, we all wanted a change, and we did that PPM is in the back of the class now so just have seat and watch how things are done the right way pay attention PPM you might learn something
Because Kenneth is in love with Kenneth
Where did Kenny get the money from to build his new house at Red Bay.
And sadly we allowed Rolston to buy his way back in.
Weh deh pPM deh! no Jamaica Chris either big problem a come for Cayman now Bwoy! Man balling now a yard!
Lets take another minute to laugh at Kenneth Bryan!
And his billboards!
Let’s just enjoy this moment, to not see Kenny, JuJu, Saunders, or DumbDumb with their sticky mitts on power.
As for the dragon that was slayed up in WB, I really don’t even want to mention the name, so as to encourage irrelevant.
“As for the dragon that was slayed up in WB”
Easy deh my poet
Sorry, octopus would be me apt.
Also, apologies to all octopus. Fascinating and intelligent creatures that don’t deserve to be insulted. I only use it to show the groping nature of the person we won’t speak of.
It did not take long for pensioners to be forgotten despite campaign promises.
Gary Rutty in charge of Tourism, what a gret choice, just what we needed. I am sure if anyone will do something about Transport it will be Jay Ebanks. I have zero expectations from Myles, he seems to be a product of the 1960’s. Rolston Anglin talks a great talk but I am not sure how much policy he can implement. After the disaster in completing the sccholls during his last term it will be a sucess if he can improve anything from there.
Ppm replacements are here now in place filled to the brim with lodge boyz and blowhards who will only look out for the lodge first and their personal and private financial interest second their own kind third and sponsors fourth family and friends fifth their loyal govt employees sixth! seventh personal loyal employees! eight simply don’t count fool fool voters who believe they are so great for even acknowledging them sad sad!
I have seen many references to the lodge in previous CNS comments, can someone please elaborate on the lodge members involvement in Canadian politics?
Eh?
Wayne is PS for Employment ? Sign that gonna work out well, NOT! The man has no empathy and believes discrimination is a myth
What do you mean he has no empathy?
Who is the minister in charge of arranging Cabinet lunches? That will be the biggest task at hand
We voted for them, now let us help them achieve what we need. Let’s send them our ideas, suggestions, inside information, etc. by WA, text, e-mail. It takes a village…
They don’t care what you think. You are still stuck in the election romance period. Now they are in, you will see true colours coming out. This government well and truly pulled the wool over everybody’s eyes.
@1:41pm: “this government”.
If you are implying that a PPM-led government would have been better, you are a delusional PPM lover. We voted PPM out because for 20 years—20!—they increased government profits at the expense of Caymanians’ future. Sorry for your loss; now, move on.
Please stop that Brac school & the $8million park in GT. Such a waste of funds when our Caymanians are homeless or on the verge of it.
Stop also the $8Million being paid to foreign consultants telling us we need a resort at Nothward…that fee alone is worth 32 affordable homes.
The park is filled ready for low cost housing
As is the $8m Smatt land in town.
I wish the government well. The former PACT member should have it easy. Just do the opposite what you did for the past 4 years.
Kathy is the weak link. Hopefully she will listen and learn. She would served better as the PS for travel.
Michael is the weakest link. Kathy is a weak link.
Agree with you on weakest link…. potential ticking time bomb especially with immigration.
What a wonderful photo without Mac Kenneth Juju TooDumb and Saunders.
I do believe there is an honest and responsible future in Parliament.
clown show and pact 2.0…..loading
Hush! PPM non grata
If you are right, At least they’re honest clowns under principled leadership.
Congratulations to the new government. I hope and pray that you will be successful on overcoming internal and external challenges to deliver your promises to benefit all Caymanians.
So who will be responsible for not having fixed the damn dump and all the garbage in the middle and f the ETH four years from now?
Which Minister is responsible for Transport?
I think I read somewhere previously that it was Gary Rutty, but I’m not seeing that in this official confirmation.
First we had Minister for Tourism and Transport Kenneth Bryan, who didn’t care about Transport, then he pawned it off to Jay Ebanks Minister for PAHI (including transport), who also didn’t achieve anything, when it comes to Public Transport.
I want to know, is the outlook for Public Transport still bleak, or can I be cautiously optimistic?
CNS: Transport is under Minister Jay Ebanks. The CIG comms dept said they are working on an organisation chart that will show which ministries all the various departments will be under.
@9:59am: Your lack of information is both sad and embarrassing. Ebanks (Jay) took transport only when Bryan took over Social Development following Ebanks’ (André) resignation from Cabinet. Jay presented the public transportation bill last year (around Christmas, I think), which was approved. Say you don’t like Bryan, it’s okay — but to say he did not care about transportation is not true. Maybe you think transportation can be fixed by criticizing what others do.
That is not accurate at all. They moved transport to Jay from Kenneth year(s) before Andre resigned.
Bleak
“Transport is under Minister Jay Ebanks.”
I guess we can kick the transport can down the road for another 4 years then. May as well get rid of the position if they give it to Jay.
I pray for wisdom and integrity for our new MPs. Hard decisions need to be taken for us Caymanians to build a dignified future in our own beloved islands. All boards should consist of people who are knowledgeable and successful in the industry they oversee, and include an accountant or auditor who can raise a red flag if necessary. Allow the electorate to volunteer to serve on boards, instead of tapping people. Giving Caymanians the best, starts by asking Caymanians to give their best to the country.
Myles and Anglin would seem to have the toughest challenges. Both men have been vocal over the years so now the rubber meets the road.
Financial Services and Tourism are humming. No one expects much improvement in healthcare nor the other areas (not saying it’s not important just that not much is expected). The expectations of voters is that our finances will be fixed, and Caymanians will be better educated and have their pick of the best jobs. So good luck to Mike and Rollie.
Cost of living is also a big issue where much is expected, but not sure whose Ministry will directly address that.
I believe cost of living is a joint effort, ie: Can Ministry of health lower the cost of medicines? Can Jay’s Ministry finally tell us why gas is so expensive, and lower that cost? Can all 19 MPs dare and agree to increase minimum wage to a liveable wage? Can they agree to introduce phased moratoriums on different categories of work permits, so more Caymanians can start contributing to the economy? Can they all work towards opening night school come September, so those Caymanians whose job opportunities are limited for lack of a HS diploma can get a head start? These and many other factors are part of the cost of living.
Stop the Brac bluff road coming off the bluff by Tibbetts turn, it’s dangerous turn to have a bluff extit/entrance there. Just for Julie whose house are on top of the bluff there. waste of tax payers money and how much money was paid for the old Percy Green house and land there.
The BIG Problem is when Government
takes off duties off items. ITS NEVER passed on to consumers, it only makes the businesses people richer. For Government never checks to see if it’s passed on. lots of items on the Brac shelves are not priced so comsuners never knows the price until it’s checked out.
Gov.ky of course still has the old Cabinet listed as of 6:30am Saturday morning (I.e. Juliana as Premier, etc). Maybe it’s a small thing but it bugs me.
In fairness, the assignments were only unveiled at 5pm Friday…
They ought to be simultaneously “unveiled” on the gov website.
Only in the real world.
Do you expect Caymanians to work over the weekend?
Bigoted comment, and not funny. If you don’t like us please feel free to leave.
Already done, thanks. You are late as the rest of the island
How pathetic is your life that you continue to troll lil’ ol’ Cayman’s news sites while living elsewhere in this giant world?
Please bring honorable Seymour back for labor as he has us all working so wonderful. He realizes he made a mistake on joining PPM but he will be a loyal member for your team.
5.37… Seymour is too Dumb to even be an MP and is only there because a bunch of BTE Jamaicans voted for him.
Besides, he says he’s “Allegic” to the building, so leave him be ,in obscurity, where he can’t do any damage.
Your comment is sarcastic, obviously; but if not then, no. The Caymanians in BTE want him where he is now.
Go sit down when you cannot even spell correctly, not USA ‘Honourable’!!
‘Labour’
LOLOLOL
We recognise this as satire, but all had to give you a thumbs down anyway, for fear of anyone thinking your suggestions would in any way be beneficial.
We don’t have time for mistakes and mess ups. Seymour is the reason our immigration system is a mess, leave him where he belongs! In the opposition!
Nothing is “honorable” about Seymour.
As for bringing him back, only when he’ll freezes over.
This is a man who profits greatly from his imported minimum wage workers, who don’t dare squeal and risk unemployment.
The days of the likes of Seymour Saunders Jujudas and Kenneth are hopefully over.
I really hope so
Bring jonjon back for labour???????- the same labour that he had and may still have issues with. What about his pensinons issue. I have a young chap working for me now who tried to do something about his overtime and pensions, and to this date nothing. A bull would have borne calf faster. Labour board only cig dept that one is turned away from being helped and told a call would be made next day. My worker waited 4 days and went back to labour board only to behe told that the officer was on vacation.
And this is the Jon jon you want running this or any other ministry. Sad state of affairs.
Nice compilation! However Cinico coverage for children, senior citizens needs to be prioritised ASAP. The previous Government already laid the groundwork which should have been in effect immediately, now having us to wait till January 2026. Please act immediately 🙏🏽
We already broke. Only Seniors should have free medical. Parents should stop having kids if they can’t afford them. Does anyone realise we already supporting thousands of Jamaicans and their kids now you want to cover all of them. Everything put in place for Caymanuans never benefits the real ones.
Yeah, one administration sued the other because the NCC violated their own NCA by giving the CPA a directive without due process – which they conceded on in the appeal case but let’s just keep missing that part out when misinforming – actually disinforming – the public.
And as more and more everyday people have simple applications like a pool deck near a man made canal adjourned or delayed for a 41/3 NCC (DoE delegated) consultation, let’s also continue this narrative that only applications in protected areas or critical habitats trigger a NCC 41/4 consent.
People will eventually learn the truth no matter how much the media manipulates this topic.
Maybe you could submit a viewpoint to educate us, then…
Wrong:
“one administration sued the other” – No, the NCC filed a Judicial Review of the CPA.
“because the NCC violated their own NCA” – No, the CPA refused to follow the law (the NCA).
The CPA lost the Judicial Review. The CPA lost their appeal of the Judicial Review. The CPA lost their appeal to the Privy Council. (Privy Council chose not to hear the appeal because the Privy Council judged, after the local court had also found, that the CPA had no valid legal ground on which to appeal.) So that’s 4 times the CPA argument that they had not broken the law was found to be wrong, i.e., that the CPA had broken the law.
“which they [the NCC] conceded on in the appeal case” – No, it was agreed that the CPA has the right to make their own determination if a permit triggers the NCC review or not. That was always clear (at least to those of us outside). The NCC (DoE delegated) were shorting the process by recognising that under the law the CPA would have to refer to them for review so providing that review up front. The CPA have chosen that they do not want to make the process shorter for the public.
“as more and more everyday people have simple applications like a pool deck near a man made canal adjourned or delayed for a 41/3 NCC (DoE delegated) consultation, let’s also continue this narrative that only applications in protected areas or critical habitats trigger a NCC 41/4 consent.” – Wrong
– ‘simple applications’ being belayed for a 41/3/4 consultation depends on the CPA deciding to ask the NCC for first a CPA section 7 review, then a NCC 41/3, then a NCC 41/4. Instead of just having them all reviewed at the same time when its obvious if they need them (or not). (And the DoE will tell you up front (with some Civil Service CYA) that their review is not changing, they just have to re-issue it every time the CPA send your application back for another review.)
As a developer who followed the case and has since had to call Planing and the DoE about my ‘simple application’ this is all on the CPA. If government wants to sort this all out the best way is to replace the CPA with some people with common sense. Rather than a mad-on for fighting the NCC over everything and using them as an excuse for how slow the Planning process is. (That’s a whole other discussion.)
As such an intelligent developer, perhaps you also read the part of the Court of Appeals judgment where they confirmed that the NCC “jumped the gun”? The case happened to turn on reasons, but the NCC did breach the law and argued that it was for them to decide if a consultation was required, that was incorrect per the judgment.
I did. I also read the part where despite that the CoA ruled that the CPA had broken the law. That is the bottom line. The NCC won, the CPA lost. Repeatedly. Because the CPA broke the law where it mattered and got slapped on the wrist for it. Until the CPA can accept that and correct themselves history will repeat itself.
Why is Jay the only one sitting down… does he secretly run the government? Is he the silent head honcho behind the scenes? Either way, at least he’s got the posture of someone taking things seriously. Maybe next time, when the whole country’s watching, you could take a few notes, Mr. Minister of Education and Finance. Just a thought.
Maybe the photographer suggested he sit down. You obviously love conspiracy theories 🤣🤣🤣
DART and DS got to be super vex up they bet big and lost BIGGLY
You got to be super stupid and grossly naive.
7:00 stupid.
Time for Franz to retire and time for Eric to go!
If you have not been paying attention Eric seems to be the ‘golden one’ who will take over for DG. I doubt either of them will be going anywhere
7:00 pm Jealousy is a bad thing. Poor you!
DO NOT ALLOW Juliana, Jon Jon, Chris or Kenny to join the government under any circumstances! They are cancers and pirates like Joey and his misfits.
They deserve to rod on the backbench with their PPM compadres
Such a bloated structure for a country smaller than the Poinciana Villages HOA in Florida
Rollie work with Roy McT .
He doesn’t belong with the backbench unemployables, and is too loyal to leave them, but as Accounting professionals ,Cayman will benefit from your cooperation.
Michael Myles in charge of immigration. Businesses are about to get royally screwed.
Lets see if it was all ‘mouth’ of he will actually do anything to fix immigration. The CINP campaigned on bringing back the protection board and getting all of the educated Caymanian kids into top jobs ( including their own). WE ARE ALL WATCHING MICHAEL AND PEANUT.
He won’t fix anything. All of them had a vision of how easy it is to implement change in government without actually being aware of what it takes. Plenty rude awakenings are coming followed by another government fallout within a year.
To be employable in so-called “top jobs” the financial services sector, candidates must have:
1. Qualifications. Merely getting a degree means nothing. It needs to be from a decent university, in something useful, and you need excellent results.
2. International experience. Clients don’t think that you’re credible if you’ve never worked in a First World capital. Ideally, 3 yrs+ experience, and in a high profile company.
3. Aptitude. We can’t fix stupid.
4. Attitude. We can’t fix bad attitudes.
Why is it so difficult for the bottom e.g. 30% of Caymanians to understand that jobs are not DEMANDED as of right, they are EARNED?
There are many foreigners holding high paying jobs in these little islands who do not meet your zenith-touching list. They got the job because they arrived here and made friends or got acquainted with so and so who put in a good word for them with their Board or Management team. We Caymanians know very well how that buddy system works. I hope we see moratoriums in place inside of a year for at least some tiers of work permits. Nothing at all against foreigners; the labour law needs to be overhauled so qualified Caymanians get an (honest) fair chance.
exactly. Most of these expats are getting their international experience in our local high profile companies because many come here with degrees and limited experience from their locally unknown businesses. The fact that they come from overseas does not mean they have international experience BUT working in Cayman they and the experienced locals will get that international experience.
12:51pm To earn it, someone needs to hired and that includes being interviewed. Many Caymanians do not even get a reply to job applications. Some employers think themselves too good to even acknowledge applications. How about that?!
I would support introducing a phased moratorium on work permits. Caymanian employers need to be weaned off their cheap labor addiction to get more Caymanians working. There will be a few unemployable, same as in every other country, and there must be practical options for them—night school, NICE, etc.; but every 17+ Caymanian who is willing to work, should be given an opportunity to find a job they are capable of doing.
What is your definition of “willing to work”?
@9:42am: Please save your derision. There are many capable Caymanians willing to work who are simply not given the opportunity. Really… if foreigners have such contempt for Caymanians, why come (or remain) here? Are things in their country so bad that they prefer to suffer here instead of over there? 🤔
Correct. Give a power-hungry man like Myles a position of authority, you are asking for trouble. He doesn’t like to answer to ANYBODY.