{"id":5562,"date":"2018-05-14T10:12:16","date_gmt":"2018-05-14T15:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/projectcalls.com\/?p=5562"},"modified":"2018-05-14T10:12:16","modified_gmt":"2018-05-14T15:12:16","slug":"opposition-calls-for-cayman-cruise-port-referendum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/opposition-calls-for-cayman-cruise-port-referendum\/","title":{"rendered":"Opposition calls for Cayman cruise port referendum"},"content":{"rendered":"

The opposition has announced plans to spearhead a campaign to collect enough signatures from registered voters to trigger a referendum on the proposed development of cruise berthing facilities in the George Town Harbour. Opposition Leader Ezzard Miller told CNS Tuesday that he believes the majority of Caymanians do not support this costly and risky project but a small vocal group has been driving the agenda, which is not in the best interests of the country. Miller said it was time to put the project on hold until the people can have their democratic say.<\/span><\/p>\n

Miller has continued to raise more concerns in recent months as his efforts to find out the details of the proposed development, including anticipated costs and the issues surrounding the final design, have failed to shed any light on exactly what the country will be getting, how much it will cost and precisely what the various parties involved are actually bidding on.<\/p>\n

The opposition leader has become increasingly alarmed\u00a0about the lack of transparency<\/a>\u00a0and the growing evidence that the arguments and justification for the project are misleading and unfounded.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now there is a vacuum of information, when at this point you would expect government would be able to tell us important details,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As well as questions about cost and environmental risks, not least the issues relating to Seven Mile Beach, Miller queried what exactly is the final design government has decided on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there a final design that all of the pre-qualified bidders are competing on or are they all suggesting their own?\u201d the opposition leader asked.\u00a0\u201cThe public does not know what it is getting,\u201d he said, as he railed against the secrecy surrounding what would be the biggest ever capital expenditure project in Cayman\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Miller also questioned the justifications government has given for the piers and claims about why Cayman needs them. He said that from the beginning, government has claimed that the smaller cruise ships were going to disappear from the Caribbean, which he said was plainly not true. He also debunked the claim that the new class of mega-cruise ships were unable to tender because the cruise industry has made it clear that this is not the case. He said the ships are tendering in several destinations, including their own private islands.<\/p>\n

Claims that peers will facilitate tour operators to sell more trips are also false, he said, because offering berthing facilities to cruise lines will not alter the timetable for when the ships come and go, as this relates to the port calls and the on-board casino opening hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no clear justification for this project. Government\u2019s own\u00a0statistics make it clear that every year the cruise industry is growing and there are no projected reductions on the horizon,\u201d he said. \u201cGovernment has been saying for some\u00a020 years that the ships will not come unless we build piers, but they are still coming in ever greater numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opposition leader said he and his team still have concerns about the many known risks to the marine environment and Seven Mile Beach, as well as the unknowns. \u201cWe don\u2019t\u00a0know where the piers are going to be. Will they be in or out of water, as we know there is a risk to the current and by extension the beach?\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Miller also questioned the approach government has taken to the tendering process and asked where the truth lies. Nine bidders were said to be qualified but now maybe three or five are being invited to actually submit bids, and the opposition leader called on government to explain how all this has come about.<\/p>\n

Following a recent FOI request submitted by CNS regarding the cruise project, a slither of information was released last week indicating that five bidders from the original nine who were pre-qualified had been invited to \u201csubmit outline solutions\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is at odds with other sources who told CNS that government is in talks with just three possible bidders. But whatever the current considerations, none of these bidders have been identified, and no details of the basis for the bids or what process is being followed have been revealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t even know\u00a0the methodology being used for this tender and what we do know doesn\u2019t make any sense,\u201d Miller said, as he questioned how the procurement\u00a0committee would be able to properly evaluate bids.<\/p>\n

The opposition leader also asked about the finances and queried how much of an impact there would be on the cargo port if the project is to be financed entirely from cruise passenger fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow much of the subsidy from cruise passenger that goes to the cargo operations will be impacted?\u201d Miller asked, as he raised the real concern that diverting that subsidy could fuel a cost of living increase if the port operations and fees increase.<\/p>\n

He further warned that the impact on the local infrastructure of 2.3 million passengers a year would be huge. On busy days there would be no tendering process to control the influx of passengers, he noted,\u00a0 compounding the overcrowding and adding to the challenges of managing the numbers.<\/p>\n

Miller said that,\u00a0instead of taking on the massive and unpopular risk of the berthing project, he wanted to see government invest in improvements to the current situation, buying bigger and more modern tenders, and improving the onshore experience at both the George Town terminals and at Spotts.<\/p>\n

With so many unanswered questions, the opposition members are working on\u00a0formulating a motion to force a debate in the Legislative Assembly and to get the questions that government has avoided answering into the public domain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a debate on floor of the Assembly to force government to unveil this information,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

\u2026 more<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0 geralt (Pixabay<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The opposition has announced plans to spearhead a campaign to collect enough signatures from registered voters to trigger a referendum on the proposed development of cruise berthing facilities in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":5567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[112],"tags":[77,144],"class_list":["post-5562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-newsdevelopments","tag-cayman-islands","tag-marineshipping"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/silhouettes-black-red-geralt-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6u9Qa-1rI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6820,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/government-ignoring-key-laws-says-opposition-leader\/","url_meta":{"origin":5562,"position":0},"title":"Government ignoring key laws, says opposition leader","author":"Michele Marius","date":"September 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Unity government is failing to comply with, or fully implement, its own legislation written to ensure good governance in the Cayman Islands, even as it is in the process of executing a number of costly and far-reaching public projects and contracts, the opposition leader has said. 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Despite the massive public interest in what will be the biggest ever infrastructure project in Cayman Islands\u2019 history, the tendering process has been far\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News\/Developments"","block_context":{"text":"News\/Developments","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/newsdevelopments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cruise-ship-cruiser-cruise-ship-Pixabay.jpeg?fit=1024%2C681&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cruise-ship-cruiser-cruise-ship-Pixabay.jpeg?fit=1024%2C681&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cruise-ship-cruiser-cruise-ship-Pixabay.jpeg?fit=1024%2C681&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cruise-ship-cruiser-cruise-ship-Pixabay.jpeg?fit=1024%2C681&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7882,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/cruise-petitioners-seek-assurances-from-governor\/","url_meta":{"origin":5562,"position":2},"title":"Cruise petitioners seek assurances from governor","author":"Michele Marius","date":"January 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Campaigners collecting signatures for a petition to force a people-initiated referendum on the controversial cruise port project met with the governor Friday as they continued their push for Cayman Islands voters to decide the issue. The group, Cruise Port Referendum Cayman, says it is getting close to the target of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News\/Developments"","block_context":{"text":"News\/Developments","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/newsdevelopments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Seven-Mile-Beach-Grand-Cayman-James-Willamor-flickr.jpg?fit=800%2C591&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Seven-Mile-Beach-Grand-Cayman-James-Willamor-flickr.jpg?fit=800%2C591&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Seven-Mile-Beach-Grand-Cayman-James-Willamor-flickr.jpg?fit=800%2C591&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Seven-Mile-Beach-Grand-Cayman-James-Willamor-flickr.jpg?fit=800%2C591&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10635,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/port-bid-partners-to-meet-stakeholders\/","url_meta":{"origin":5562,"position":3},"title":"Port bid partners to meet stakeholders","author":"Michele Marius","date":"October 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Representatives from the cruise lines and the engineering firm that are involved in the Verdant Isle group, which was selected by government to build the cruise berthing facility if it goes ahead, will be meeting with government and other stakeholders here in Cayman this week. 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