Former Interim President of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Bishop John I. Cline, has said the State of the Territory Address delivered nothing new to the people of the Virgin Islands (VI) and was just a rebranding of the same old things, during a Facebook live post on June 15, 2026. Photo: Facebook

Premier and Minister of Finance Dr the Hon Natalio D. Wheatley (R7) presented the State of the Territory Address on June 9, 2026. Photo: VINO

Bishop John I. Cline claimed the Premier drew inspiration from the National Sustainable Development Plan 2037 for the 2026 State of the Territory Address. Photo: Government of the Virgin Islands

Mr Cline was responding to the State of the Territory Address presented by Premier and Minister of Finance Dr the Hon Natalio D. Wheatley (R7) at Noel Lloyd Positive Action Movement Park on June 9, 2026. 

In his response posted to his Facebook Page on Monday, June 15, 2026, Bishop Cline said this was his “personal view” on the Premier’s address, which he listened to with “unbiased ears as much as possible”. 

Keep Moving Forward- a campaign-style slogan 

Cline said that while listening to the address titled ‘Keep Moving Forward’, he kept looking for the bright spots that never came. 

“What I heard instead was what sounded like a campaign-style slogan- Keep Moving Forward. What I heard was a performance report that was a lack of substance. What I heard was promises without proof. What I heard was rhetoric but no results to back it up.”

The State of the Territory Address, he said, was disconnected from the lives lived and the lived reality of the people of the Virgin Islands. 

“The fact that the Premier has to tell the people to keep moving forward suggests that he himself realised that the Territory is either stuck, lost, or both.”

Cline added that while in the past, politicians blamed Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the flood of 2017, COVID-19, and the Commission of Inquiry, which were valid, it is now four years after the last of these events. 

“We’ve almost spent about three billion dollars, and we are still stuck; we are not moving forward.”

Address inspired by ‘old plan’

He accused the Premier of drawing inspiration from the National Sustainable Development Plan 2037, which he called an “old plan”. 

The National Sustainable Development Plan 2037 was developed with the help of the United Nations (UN) to help move the Virgin Islands in economic, environmental and physical directions in terms of development. 

“There was nothing new there. The Premier drew on the last four years of that same development plan. So what I heard was a recycling of words; what I heard was a recycling of promises and a rebranding, but nothing new.”

Cline added, “So the question is, at what point do we move forward? At what point do we move from political rhetoric to tangible results? That’s my question.”