The Chief Minister this week suffered a major setback as MHKs refused to allow debate on the Council of Ministers’ vision for the future of the Isle of Man.

Alfred Cannan had intended to lay out his Island Plan in Tynwald on Tuesday.

But backbenchers said they had not had enough time to go through the 68-page document, which was published only on Thursday last week.

Ministers had described the plan as ambitious. It was a plan to ’build a secure, vibrant and sustainable future for the Isle of Man’.

They said it ’establishes a firm direction of travel for the island over the next five years’.

However, it includes few specifics, while firm plans were intended to appear in individual departmental reports later.

Voting in favour were the Council of Ministers plus Daphne Caine, Ann Corlett, Stu Peters, Sarah Maltby and Andrew Smith.

However, Jason Moorhouse, Claire Christian, Joney Faragher, Tim Glover, Dr Michelle Haywood, Tim Johnston and Chris Thomas joined Speaker Juan Watterson in voting it down.

Douglas North MHK John Wannenburgh and Onchan MHK Rob Callister were not present for the vote.

Because the plan was not published before Thursday, it had been listed as part of the supplementary order paper, published on Friday.

Since it had missed the deadline for inclusion at this sitting, members needed to vote in favour of suspending standing orders.

Under the rules, to suspend standing orders, two thirds of MHKs have to agree. So ministers lost the vote.

They are likely to put it on next month’s agenda.

Mr Cannan said: ’It is surprising that eight members of the House of Keys have chosen not to support the suspension of standing orders to allow the Island Plan be debated in Tynwald, but I accept the overriding message that they felt they did not have enough time to read the plan in the five days since publication.

’Whilst the Speaker said the matter was not an emergency, the Council of Ministers felt it was of sufficient importance to seek the suspension of standing orders to allow for debate in line with our commitments to Tynwald.

’We will now bring the plan back to Tynwald as appropriate, but in the meantime we will get on with the work that this plan seeks to address.

’The public expect Government to deliver and I am keen that this administration gets on with tackling the critical issues of the day.’

Enterprise Minister Alex Allinson said: ’After months of consultations, workshops and community events, I was disappointed to be sent home from Tynwald early and not allowed to get on with the work we were put here to do.’

Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Jason Moorhouse later said that something fundamentally wrong had happened.

He said ministers had not ’tested the water’ to see if backbenchers would back them. So Mr Cannan’s expression of surprise at the result

’That vote should not have been a surprise, the Council of Ministers must start to listen more carefully, to ask and not to expect members to simply call in and say "This won’t work". Unfortunately, that was still the mind-set of several ministers on Tuesday night.’

He added: ’My concern as a backbencher is that we were not being listened to. Three ministers clearly stated to me following the decision "this can’t be changed".

’To each of them, I said the same thing: "That is not the issue, the issue is you need to listen and the document needs to be accompanied by additional materials such as a ten item priority list".

In his manifesto to MHKs as he sought to be chief minister, a central plank was the creation of an island plan - which seems to have replaced the Quayle administration’s Programme for Government.

As the draft plan was published, Mr Cannan said: ’Our Island Plan sets out a bold and ambitious vision for the future of the Isle of Man and a clear direction of travel for the next five years. At its heart are the people of the Isle of Man and the work required to improve the quality of life for everyone in our community.

’The Island Plan is simple, focused and high level to enable us to forge a strong sense of purpose and address the issues that matter most to our community. I engaged with Tynwald Members within 24 hours of being elected as Chief Minister to ensure that our plan reflects their views and develop the issues MHKs heard on the doorstep in the lead up to the general election.’

The plan sets out five priorities for the government: ’building great communities’; health and wellbeing; a ’strong and diverse’ economy; an environment ’we can be proud of’; ’outstanding’ lifelong learning and development opportunities for everyone.

Underneath the heading ’one vision for the Isle of Man’, the document says: ’Our over-arching vision is to build a secure, vibrant and sustainable future for our island nation.’

It says the plan sets out ’high-level’ commitments for 2021-26.

As well as the housing crisis, the plan aims to ’address critical issues in Health and Social Care’ while delivering greater access to its systems.

It promises a ’stronger and more diverse economy’ and to ’improve our basic infrastructure’. There is also a pledge to ’recognise the importance of investing’ in education and put in place an ’action plan’ for climate change transition.

’Fundamental measures and metrics have yet to be developed,’ the report states. However, the appendices provide a more detailed breakdown of aims under each of the key priorities and ’indicative measures to monitor delivery and performance’

The document acknowledges that, in addition to housing and climate change, challenges include a skills shortage, wage disparity and inflationary pressures.

February’s Budget will also see the key principles for a medium-term financial strategy outlined, the report says.

The majority of items listed in the key dates section are for the delivery of reports, strategies and action plans, although one notable inclusion is the transition from mandatory minimum wage to the living wage by 2025.