Tag: Finance Committee
OfReg inching toward long-awaited fuel price transparency
(CNS): The Utility Regulation and Competition Office (OfReg) is in the process of drafting changes to the law to allow it to publish fuel prices as they land, OfReg interim CEO Peter Gough told Finance Committee on Wednesday. The regulator is also beginning an exercise, starting on Cayman Brac, to provide regulatory accounts that show […]
CAL to increase Miami flights, DoT seeks new routes
(CNS): The Cayman Airways management team is planning to add more flights to Miami to meet demand, and the Department of Tourism is mulling new routes to the United States to attract new visitors from Kansas and Texas. As the parliament’s Finance Committee questioned CAL Executive Vice President Finance and Commercial Affairs Paul Tibbetts about […]
CIG forecast to close the year with $22M surplus
(CNS): After tracking huge surpluses for the best part of 2023, the Cayman Islands Government is set to finish the year with a surplus of $22.7 million, some $5.1 million less than originally forecast and far less than the $116 million it was sitting on at the end of the third quarter in October.
Notorious healthcare bills climb to new high
(CNS): The public purse will be picking up a record-breaking tab by the end of this year to cover the hospital bills both at home and abroad for people who are either under- or uninsured. Although the 2021 Census suggested that 93% of Cayman Islands residents have health insurance, in 2023 the government is expecting […]
Surplus expectations fall to low of CI$3.3M
(CNS): Financial Secretary Ken Jefferson admitted to parliament on Tuesday that the government might be sailing very close to the wind with the revised expectations on this year’s budget. Spending by the end of this year is expected to reach over CI$1.03 billion, an unprecedented amount, leaving the government with a surplus of just $3.3 […]
Minister blames ‘environment’ for planning delays
(CNS): Planning Minister Jay Ebanks pointed the finger at the Department of Environment on Wednesday, maintaining that environmental input was delaying planning applications, though he offered no evidence to support the accusation. That same day, several MPs once again indirectly railed against the National Conservation Law and the environmental impact assessment for the East-West Arterial […]
MPs vote CI$8M more for healthcare bills
(CNS): Finance Committee has voted another CI$8 million to cover healthcare costs for Caymanians who are uninsured or under-insured and have been treated outside the Health Services Authority facilities. When the committee met at the end of the last session of Parliament to deal with supplementary spending, health ministry civil servants told MPs that healthcare […]
Finance Committee to meet to clear stipends
(CNS): A Finance Committee hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, when MPs will approve funds for the March payments to people on the Displaced Tourism Employees Stipend Programme and the Tourism Recovery Grant Programme, officials have said.
DoT to spend $40M promoting Cayman
(CNS): The Department of Tourism will be spending close to CI$40 million over the next two years in an effort to attract back the more than half a million stay-over guests that were visiting the Cayman Islands before the COVID-19 pandemic struck and the tourism sector collapsed.
Saunders defends new CI$350M borrowing plans
(CNS): Finance Minister Chris Saunders (BTW) defended the PACT Government’s plans to borrow just under CI$350 million over the next two years, pointing out that the pre-election forecast financial statements released by the previous administration had outlined plans for borrowing around $330 million over the next two years, and had projected a deficit of more […]
More resources going to traffic, says CoP
(CNS): Commissioner of Police Derek Byrne told politicians during Finance Committee on Tuesday that more police resources are going to be diverted to the traffic unit in 2022 in order to get to grips with the increasingly “erratic and dangerous driving” being seen on the roads.
