Wally backs Conservation bill
(CNS): Describing the environment as a precious thing that needed to be preserved, Walling Whittaker declared his full support on Saturday night (25 April) for the National Conservation Bill which he said was languishing in obscurity. “The National Conservation Bill needs to be passed,” he said. “We need to stop paying lip service to the environment and pass this legislation.” He also called for a full recycling programme, which he said would require a change in behaviour but one those who loved their country would be willing to make. He also promised to get people back in work and predicted 5-5-5 for the elction result.
Speaking to George Town voters on Marina Drive on Saturday evening, the independent candidate said he fully supported the National Conservation Bill exactly as it was proposed and wanted to see its passage as soon as possible. He also noted that the George Town dump, aka ‘Mount Trashmore’, was getting “higher and higher, stinkier and stinkier and uglier and uglier.”
Criticising the incumbents, though not insulting them, on a number of familiar topics, from unemployment to the lack of affordable housing, Whittaker said the most important thing and the very first job he would see to when elected was the auditing of the various outstanding annual reports across the government ministries and departments.
“How can we run a country if we don’t know how much money we have?” he asked. Although he said not everyone and everything in the current administration was bad, he said it was important to elect people that could get things done and that the message from the parties that independents couldn’t get anything accomplished without them was nonsense.
He predicted that the voters would return five candidates from each of the parties and five independents, which he said would mean the parties could not do anything without the independents and the people would get a coalition. “If you put enough independents into the Legislative Assembly you will change the face of politics and send the message that you are tired of empty promises,” he said, adding that the clear advantage of independent candidates was that they answered directly to the people no on else especially not a party and a party leader.
He presented his case for a national lottery, pension reinvestment, tackling crime by recruiting old Caymanian officers back to the RCIPS and the idea of buying land when it became available for Caymanians to buy back from government at an affordable rate. He said that he had neversaid he would prevent Caymanians from selling their land to foreigners or anyone else as had been attributed to him recently, but his intention, he said, was to try and buy good value land when it became available that could be sold back to Caymanians. Otherwise he said future generations would never be able to afford to buy a piece of their own country.
Above all, however, he promised the people jobs. As former director of employment relations he said he know about getting people in work and that he would develop a manpower board that would take over the issue of work permits and ensure that the right balance was found between the 27,000 work permit holders and those Caymanians who were being laid off on a weekly basis. “I know what it takes to make our people employable,” he said. “Tell your friends that Walling will get them the jobs.”
He asked the enthusiastic and not insignificant crowd of people to vote for number 12, and said he had the solutions that the parties were already borrowing for their manifestos. He said he didn’t mind, though, as he wanted to help but he did wish they would give him credit at least and say that they were Walling’s ideas.
Category: Election 2009
Wally is nothing, he did nothing to help Caymanians when he was Director of Labour and he did nothing to help the staff at HSBC when they were dismissed recently and he will do nothing to help the people of this country when he is elected, but that’s the person he is – a man who does nothing. He is a joke.
Will the real UDP please stand up!
Is Wally a registered member of the United Democratic Party or not?
Please dont try to confuse the people.
A confused electorate wont rally and vote for you but will instead vote for someone who they have a better read on.
Unfortunately Wally you just lost my vote by supporting a lottery.
Estimates are that 52 million dollars per year leave the country through the illegal numbers game.
Govt’s preferred way to tax financial services institutions is through an annual licence fee.
Say that fee is even 500 thousand dollars per year which is the fee for a full service Category A Bank based on CIMA’s website.
Of that no less than 200k would be spent in administration costs for office space, salaries, etc.
For a net of 300k it is totally not worth selling out this country’s culture and heritage.
Also calculate the other social ills that are associated with this "poor man’s tax."
Not to mention the fact that morally gambling is wrong!
Sorry Wally and all others who support gambling, you are selling us down the river morally for a very cheap price. No vote for any of you.
3 weeks to go, time to move on to some factual discussions I think. So I spent 5 minutes out of my busy schedule this morning finding out the following;
From the horses mouth; http://www.eso.ky/pages1.php?page=employment
Statistics show;
2001 – 1311 unemployed Caymanians, 798 unemployed non-Caymanians, 7.5% unemployement rate
2002 – 1058, 492, 5.4%
2003 – 857, 222, 3.6%
2004 – 887, 424, 4.3%
2005 – 1039, 264, 3.5%
2006 – 682, 261, 2.6%
2007 – 1059, 336, 3.8%
2008 – No figures released.
A lot of discussion and blame laying from some of the aspiring candidates this morning and prior, I have drawn my own conclusions based on the facts laid out above, taking in to consideration the Government of the day at each stage and the percentages and would encourage everyone to do the same. My biggest concern is actually the number of unemployed Non-Caymanians, surely that figure should be much lower.
To those people who do not understand – the decline of our natural environment is and will mean the decline of our tourism.
A good natural environment is necessary for our beaches – the mainstay of our tourism which is marine environment based.
Without a strong, yes strong, enforceable National Conservation Law the Law will not even worth the paper it is written on, our politicians sell out our Cayman Islands not to even the hightest bidder, but to the first bidder with cash to give.
Read the Draft National Conservation – it is strong where it has to be strong to withstand against those developers who destroy the Cayman Islands for their own greedy gain.
Wow! Dem parties must real sorry now because everything him come with, you hear dem repeating it the day after.
I heard that the UDP offered several of the independent candidates big time dollars to come onboard at the last minute but it was the candidates that rejected them.
Boy if a Party rejected him they must be sorry now.
I keep seeing these little jabs taken at wally. Nothing of substance though, typical crab in a bucket mentality. They know they can’t challenge him on the issues so they take personal attacks…. sounds like desperation from party members to me!
5 UDP, 5 PPM, 5 Independents… interesting theory and it could work out that way!
WB – Mr. Bush (UDP), CG(UDP), Rolstin(UDP), Bernie(IND)
GT – Kurt (PPM), Alden(PPM), Elio(UDP), Wally (IND)
BT- Anthony(PPM), Gilbert(IND), Theresa(IND)…..only now due to Mark & Dwayne’s big mistake.
EE – Arden Mclean(PPM)
NS- Ezzard (IND)
Sister Isls.- Julianna(UDP) & Moses(PPM)
That looks pretty good to me, a coalition government. A true selection of the best and brightest that Cayman has to offer. I think this will be the best case scenario on May 20th. This what our country needs. No voting straight anymore. No more voting for candidates who want to get in on the coat tails of their leaders. Lets vote for a coalition of the competent.
A 5 – 5 – 5 split in the election results between independents, UDP and PPM as you predict could result in the best Government that the Cayman Islands ever had if polititions really wanted to work together gof the good of the countyr.
Just imagine a Government made up as follows:
Ezzard Miller – Leader of Government Buisness & Minister of Health
Alden McLaughlin – Minister of Education
Arden McLean – Mimister of works
Maceeva Bush – Minister of Tourism
Ronston Anglin or Teresa Lewis– Minister with responsibility for the Financial Industry.
Ezzard would be the best one to make leader of Govt Buisness because he is the only one that could keep the other 4 in line and if Mac gets too many seats he will overthrow the rest. We could have a Government that works as each mimister would not have to learn on the job for the next 4 years ………………………… WAKE UP ……….. WAKE UP FOOL ……………. we are all dreaming if we think that polititions can really get together for the good of the country. … Alas it will never happen.
A 5 – 5 – 5 split,
Good team except for the LOGB.
Wally is going to put a stop to all these sweet dock deals that are going on and he is going to be the new Champion of our environment. So all these companies and their Frontmen getting cheap publicity and photo opportunities better come up with a better plan or leave town. He can’t be bought
Wally, please.
Wally, please – this guy sounds like he needs to join Vincent Fredericks in BT.
Wall E
The Parties don’t need to attack Wally; he was rejected by the Party that he wanted to run with.
Thank you Wally for clarifying your support for this bill. I too have worries about the amount of power that one civil servant can have and I’m glad to hear that you share that concern.
You continue to impress me Walling. Keep up the good work and you have the vote of My wife and I.
to poster ‘Wally is a joke"
You OBVIOUSLY weren’t at wally’s meeting in prospect. I was there and I certainly didn’t here Wally say that a national lottery was the only way to generate revenue. He said it was ONE of the ways we could generate revenue.
He spoke of giving small loans to small business owners to help encourage entrepreneurship…… but I guess you missed that one.
He spoke of the government needing to buy land and sell it back to us the people at an affordable rate because land is not growing and we need to ensure that our future generations own a piece of our country….. is that not something you want for your children?
You see, I was there along with the "enthusiastic and not insignificent crowd" and we heard solutions….. that’s more than what we can say about the parties who’s solutions come from a manifesto and when asked about a solution they have to read from it.
to the poster who attended the meeting and was sorely dissapointed I don’t know which meeting you were at. The man covered all the bases.
You know how you could tell…this morning Jonathan was on the radio regurgitating many of the same points that I herd Saturday night.
No wonder the poor man was saying that people are stealing his ideas.
To here we go again…………….::
As I understand it, Walling has read the entire National Conservation Bill and agrees with it.
Just because some of you all don’t like it doesn’t mean he hasn’t read it. He has clearly taken on board the very stark reality that the world is in dire trouble and that the Cayman Islands like every other country on the planet needs to pass legislation with teeth that properly protects the environment and ensures that alll future developent considers the environment with equal weight to socio-economic issues.
Saying you disagree with him is fine — but I beleive this is one candidate that can read….and he knows full well what is in the law and wants to see those measures put in place. Its quite simple you can either protect the environment properly or you can destroy it. The naitonal conservaiton bill will protect it right now there is nothing at all except the people’s power of protest to stop anyone pooring concrete on anything.
Thank you Walling for being one of so very few candidates prommoting a green agenda. For those of you that care about the future of these isalnds please vote only for candidates that support this bill.
The Conservation Bill as it is now, would not shut down development. It would manage it within a sustainable framework.
And it would not give unlimited power to the Director of the DoE. It is obvious that anyone making this claim has not read the document. It creates a National Conservation Council – composed of representatives of the government and private sector – the director & assistant director of DoE, CEO of Ministry of Enviro, Chief Agri & Vet Officer, Director of Planning, National Trust, plus five other people appointed by the Governor who have relevant qualifications (and someone from Cayman Brac and Little Cayman).
See http://www.gov.ky/portal/page?_pageid=1142,1950725&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
It does require Environmental Impact Assessements on all developments – which is already standard in most developed countries – but not currently a requirement in Cayman.
It does create legal framework which can be used to protect sensitive ecosystems through creation of national parks. We currently have absolutly no way to protect any terrestial ecosystem (Barkers is not protected. It is owned by the Government but could at any point be sold to a developer. Similarly, the Governement has no way to protect the Central Mangrove Wetlands). It allows government to buy land from land owners (paying them the fair market value) or to enter into management agreements with land owners (the Government pays land owners to not develop and protect thier land). It will HOPEFULLY prevent development on critical ecosystems that should be protected – and otherwise allow development in Cayman to happen in a sustainable way.
You all may remember that CIREBA withdrew thier campaign against the conservation bill after reading the current draft (they had based thier attack of the CB based on an old version). There is little concrete anyone can say to justifiably criticise the Bill. The DoE has already made huge compromises to what they would have ideally liked, in order to have a Bill that has a chance of being passed – given the dependance on the real estate and construction industry.
Everyone knows for decades Planning and development have trumped the Environment for decision making. Only lip service has been paid to the Environment. Suddenly at election time the Minister talks about his regret that the Conservation law was not passed. If you believe that then I have a sink hole that would make a good building site.
Wally a Joke!
I attended his meeting in Prospect hoping to hear something productive and was grossly dissappointed.
Here’s an example: Wally told the small group of people gathered that he supported a National Lottery as the way for Cayman to generate new revenue and said ‘that the only thing I can think of to generate new revenue – if you can think of anything else, please let me know’
Now there is someone with a lot of ideas.
It is unfortunate that it appears Walling has not read the Conservation Bill. He would have seen that the reason it did not get to the house is that it is a Bill that would likely shut down much of the needed jobs He speaks of creating.
The Bill gives tremendous power to the Head of DOE, adopts 5 or 6 international treaties like a bitter pill and puts most indigenous plants and animal on a "protection" list, ultimately making it difficult to get anything done on Island.
I am a great supporter of the environment and agree with his support for recycling but I cannot agree with Him that this Bill as written is good for Cayman.
I am afraid this statement is just an election promise from the Hustings. When he gets around to read it , reality will set in.
Here we go again another candidate who has not taken the time to read the law but is out there criticizing and making promises. Independent? OR UDP?
Wally, you have my vote and I’ll be encouraging every GT voter I know to support you. Finally, a candidate who sticks to the issues and offers solutions! Go #12!
This bill in its current form isn’t what we need to protect the environment!!!!
It gives too much power to a Department Head to decide whether or not a development project can go through. I am sorry; while I am for protecting the natural environment…I believe that we have to be realistic as well.
If we are going to be serious about protecting the environment, then we will have to look at population control on thisIsland as well. Are we going to start working towards reducing the population? I bet not!!! Are we going to say no more new people on the Island , as a means of easing the stress/strain on our natural surroundings? prop not!!!
It is like the Landfill…we all are a part of the problem, but yet we demand that Government fix it, and fix it now!!! I don’t recall hearing anyone suggesting that they will be producing less waste or going back to the dump and taking their garbage back.
Anyway, back to the issue at hand, I can’t support this bill. One person deciding, especially the current department head, the fate of development in this country is not a good thing.
The logic and rational of a true environmentalist to that of someone who is a career environmentalist is diff as night and day. One does out of love and respect for the natural environment; the other simply does something to justify their salary!!! (Without giving it any thought)
Walling is easily the leading independent candidate in George Town. He has the ability to get along and work with anyone which is a trait that the other independent candidates don’t have.
I went to his first meeting and I’ve yet to hear any other candidate speak the way that Walling does. Unlike the party candidates he speaks of solutions only.