Alden and Sammy clash on development
(CNS): The candidates in one of the most watched head-to-head races of the 2021 election met on the debate stage Monday evening, when development was the issue that caused the most disagreement between the two men. Sammy Jackson, whom Alden McLaughlin
Alden McLaughlin (PPM): Red Bay MP, Premier, Minister of International Trade, Investment, Aviation and Maritime Affairs (MITIAMA). Biography: McLaughlin has been a member of the... More labeled as ‘the developers’ lawyer’ due to his long history of advocating for major projects, turned the tables back on the premier over the issue of too much development.
Traffic, roads and development dominated this Chamber of Commerce Candidates Forum for Red Bay, where McLaughlin is hoping to keep his seat and continue his more than two decades long run in political office.
In a debate where Jackson made the rookie mistake of agreeing with his very experienced opponent a little too often for his own good, the newcomer nevertheless scored a number of points when it came to the issue of excessive development not benefitting Caymanians. Jackson managed to get McLaughlin on the back foot over the concessions that government has given to developers over the years.
The challenger said that instead of handing concessions to millionaires, government should be granting concessions to small developers who are trying to build homes for locals, as he accused the current administration of leaving Caymanians behind.
The premier claimed the concessions were driven by the need to recover from the recession of 2008, and he argued that government had given hardly any developer concessions during this administration.
However, this is not entirely true. The current administration gave a whopping $8 million in waivers to Fraser Whellan’s Watermark development in 2018, long after Cayman had begun to recover from the economic downturn a decade before and was by that time enjoying a property boom.
Jackson also warned that increased development was fuelling the traffic problems, as he pointed out that the existing developments in the constituency of Red Bay were going to make the situation far worse and that government had failed to take infrastructure issues into account when allowing large developments. He said that over the years far too many large developments had been granted where Caymanians got very little of what had originally been promised in fees and other benefits.
Jackson also said he believed the “rapid pace of …unbridled development” is driving the population growth and that this is deliberate. He spoke of the desire by some who want a population of 100,000 because that was the point “where we achieve some magical economic benefit from that”, which he said was wrong.
“We need to get a handle on development and curtail the population growth,” he said, as he lamented the limited benefit to Caymanians from development. “We are already beyond capacity in terms of infrastructure and we know there is going to be irreversible environmental harm.”
He said that the 2014 PPM government had removed the need for the Central Planning Authority to consider infrastructure impacts on larger developments unless they are planned area developments.
Despite his comments on the campaign trail that land has no intrinsic value unless it is developed, Jackson nevertheless advocated for greater environmental protection and challenged McLaughlin’s claims that he had a history of pressing for developers to build even closer to the sea than the law permits.
McLaughlin acknowledged the need to address the future issue of climate change, though his government has not done anything at all during the last four years to advance policies in that regard, with the Climate Change Policy from 2011 still gathering dust somewhere in the ministry responsible for environment.
Government accepted a motion from Alva Suckoo
Alva Suckoo: Newlands MP Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Political Career: • Deputy Leader of the Opposition- May 2017-Present• Elected Member of the district of... More in 2020 to introduce a new one but there has been no indication of when and how the new policy will be developed, despite the pressing need for action on climate change.
Blaming history and not his government’s policies for the problems Caymanians now face, McLaughlin said that as a young man he had said that the powers that be should never have allowed development along Seven Mile Beach but should have restricted it to across the street.
See the full debate on the Chamber YouTube channel below:
Category: Election News
