[ad_1]
(CNS): Premier Wayne Panton couldn’t say “how many is too many” people, as he revealed that the population of the Cayman Islands in October 2021 was 71,432. At a press conference on Thursday to mark the release of the Cayman Islands’ 2021 Census of Population and Housing Report, Panton said that the target population of 100,000 cited by the PPM-led government was arbitrary since many will feel that today’s census figure is already too high. The premier said the number was less important than managing expectations and delivering the right balance and quality of life in the future around the country’s “staggering population growth”.
However, he warned that a static population could undermine economic growth as the Cayman Islands would still have to find a way to increase productivity and create jobs and business opportunities.
Panton said the data from the full report, which was released today (Friday), was essential for shaping future policy and the development of the country. But he said it was clear that Cayman needed to properly plan its populati,on growth because alongside the benefits there have been concerns and negative consequences from the “unplanned, unrestrained” growth.
“We, as a country, have to decide on what is an appropriate rate of growth and try to design policies that are in line with that instead of just leaving it to the market to generate unrestrained and uncontrolled growth, which is effectively what has happened until now,” he said.
Panton said that over the years, the population increase has been largely fuelled by immigration policies, which were fundamental to the country’s economic growth and success but had led to unintended consequences.
“This has brought many economic opportunities… but because much of that growth was ad hoc… it has left us without proper systems to optimise the growth,” he said, noting the struggling infrastructure and the lack of a national development plan.
The premier stressed that the growth has sustained government revenue and created jobs and business opportunities but has also created problems, especially when it comes to affordable housing and the impact on the environment.
“It has brought us much in the way of economic benefits,” he said. “But… the staggering pace of growth has left many Caymanians and long-term residents feeling a sense of frustration that is only exacerbated today by the issues we’ve been having with significant increases in the cost of living, soaring cost of housing, traffic issues and lack of school spaces.”
How the population will grow in future has important implications, he added, and the Cayman Islands will need more managed and paced growth as it addresses the negative consequences with a sustainable development strategy. Panton said that was the challenge now facing the PACT Government, and the information from the census would form the basis of those plans.
The premier said the next step is to create policies that reflect the desire of the people because it is important that they have input on the direction the country should be going. The census data is expected to provide the basis for such an exercise, not unlike Vision 2008.
“We need to make plans that reflect the wishes of the country,” Panton said, in order to improve the quality of people’s lives and get the balance right.
Stressing the dangers of citing an arbitrary number, he added, “I don’t know that we can ever say what the number should be, but we should be planning and trying to ensure a reasonable level of growth instead of this uncontrolled and unpredictable growth, leaving us behind and trying to catch up in terms of services.”
Panton said the information from the census will be important across all the ministries because the results have extensive policy implications for all social and economic areas, noting that the national development plan was an important part of this management. He said that he expected the plan to be halfway completed by the end of this administration.
See the full census report on the ESO website.
See Thursday’s Census Press Conference on CIGTV below:
[ad_2]
Source link