From The Progressives Manifesto 2017

IMPROVING IMMIGRATION AND THE WORK PERMIT SYSTEM

The Cayman success story has been built on the ability of businesses to not only hire and train Caymanians, but also to bring in guest workers to ensure that we have the resources and expertise to grow the economy. As we allow individuals to come and live and work with us we need to accept that many of them will remain and become Caymanians and have families, children and grandchildren who will all become part of the Caymanian fabric. This is how we have grown and how we will continue to develop and build our country.

However, we must strike the right balance to ensure that the immigration and work permit systems work more efficiently and are more transparent and fair to those seeking employment (including Caymanians) or wanting to become Permanent Residents.

As such we will within two years of being elected, transfer the granting of work permits to a Cayman Human Resources Authority and allow
the Department of Immigration to focus on border control and matters dealing with Permanent Residency and Cayman Status.

But as we know, the current system that has been around since 2003, albeit with changes, has been shown to have serious flaws.We will therefore continue to implement the recommendations of the Ritch Report to address the issues raised by the Chief Justice in his judgements relating to the ‘PR Points System’ used in considering applications for Permanent Residence.

A GOOD STANDARD OF LIVING FOR ALL

In addition to the high cost of health care we know that Caymanians are also concerned about the cost of groceries and other goods.

This is not new, this has been the case for as long as any of us can remember. And the problem has been compounded following the 2008 recession as salaries have not grown in line with inflation.
Cayman will always be at the mercy of world markets when it comes to prices of imported goods. Some non-Progressive candidates in this election talk about introducing price controls. This is impractical. Far greater improvements in living standards will be achieved by driving up incomes than seeking to control prices.

That is why our commitment to economic growth is important. It is why we are committing ourselves to achieving further reductions in unemployment and why we are pledging to improve education and skills development to ensure Caymanians are able to access better paying jobs.

In the short term, we need to build on the success of the minimum wage in raising incomes for the poorest in our community and encouraging Caymanians back into the labour market. Therefore we will keep the level of the minimum wage under review to ensure that it keeps pace with inflation and that those benefits are not eroded over time.
In a new term we will also commit to:
• Impose no new duties and where possible reduce duties in ways that benefit local consumers. This includes removing duties on items such as solar panels that encourage use of sustainable or green energy.
• We will deliver the new cargo dock which will enable reductions in shipping costs that will help lower prices in the shops
• We will ensure fair pricing in uncompetitive markets starting with the fuel sector – the platform and legislation for which has already been done.
• Continue our housing initiatives to provide options for affordable housing, such as the Government Guaranteed Home Assisted Mortgage programme or by assisting qualified Caymanians to build on their own land.
• In addition, we will work with the private sector to encourage the building of affordable homes with Government waiving import duties on building materials and allowing building on a smaller property footprint.
• We will work with pension providers & banks to allow banks to utilise a pension fund as part security for a mortgage. This would be an alternative to withdrawing funds from the pension fund as down payment on a home.