Tag: Finance Committee
Gov’t budgets $100M for welfare support
(CNS): Although government has budgeted around CI$100 million for payments to those in need, it may still not be enough to meet the demands likely to be placed on the Needs Assessment Unit over the next two years. During Finance Committee, MLA Kenneth Bryan (GTC) pressed government over why it was allocating a very similar […]
CAL’s losses grow with grounded planes
(CNS): Projected earnings for Cayman Airways Ltd have been upended as a result of the worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft in the wake of two fatal crashes last year. CAL CEO Fabian Whorms said that having the two planes leased by CAL parked was not “essentially costing us anything”, but the […]
Turtle farm to open Brac centre
(CNS): Government has allocated CI$2 million over the next two years to open a satellite Cayman Turtle Centre in Cayman Brac. The centre was described as having a particular focus on the conservation of hawksbill turtles. But as Tourism Minister Moses Kirkconnell was questioned in Finance Committee on Wednesday about the new project, it emerged […]
Gov’t adds tens of millions to 2019 budget
(CNS): Finance Minister Roy McTaggart has said that the additional tens of millions of dollars of appropriations voted through Finance Committee yesterday for the 2019 fiscal year will still leave government with an operating surplus of around $67 million. The minister also said that the change to the budget does not break any of the […]
Premier issues stark warning on healthcare
(CNS): Premier Alden McLaughlin has warned that employers and workers will have to pay more into private pension schemes because many retirees are not able to cover health insurance costs when they quit work, which means government is picking up their costly medical bills. As members of Finance Committee voted Monday for an additional $11.5 […]
CAL boss insists new planes will save cash
(CNS): The chief executive officer of Cayman Airways Ltd, Fabian Whorms, has defended the airline’s decision to acquire four new planes, despite its significant debt and the need for millions of dollars in cash injections from the public purse to keep the airline going. Whorms told Finance Committee last week that the fleet had to […]
OfReg under fire after $2M cash injection
(CNS): The premier has admitted that the office created to regulate utilities has encountered a number of teething problems and has needed much more money than anticipated since its creation some two years ago. Outlining the need for more than $2 million in additional appropriations for the Utility Regulation and Competition Office (OfReg), the premier […]
$6M more voted for healthcare costs
(CNS): The opposition member for Bodden Town West, Chris Saunders, urged the health minister to consider a national health insurance plan for the Cayman Islands, after Finance Committee voted last week to give the ministry another $6.5 million to cover indigent healthcare costs for the remainder of this year. Saunders said that the current situation […]
Boycott over as MLAs return to consider 2019 spending
(CNS): The opposition’s boycott of the Legislative Assembly and the suspension of deputy opposition Leader Alva Suckoo came to an end Thursday, when all of the members returned to the chamber and began working on appropriations for the 2019 spending plan within the government’s two-year budget. With the exception of a few digs from the […]
CIG to buy $10M of beach land for public use
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Government is embarking on an island-wide spending spree to preserve beachfront property for public use in all of the districts on Grand Cayman as well as the Sister Islands. The minister for lands, Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, revealed plans by her ministry to spend $10 million from the Environmental Protection Fund this year […]
Health minister gets $8M to cover budget gap
(CNS): Finance Committee has approved millions of additional dollars for the health minister after he revealed that the budget for overseas tertiary healthcare for Cayman Islands people who are indigent as well as elderly seamen and veterans had already overrun its budget allocation at the financial year half-way mark. Committee members voted for the extra $8 million […]
