During Wednesday’s sitting of the House of Representatives Area Representative for Toledo East Mike Espat raised the concerns of villagers as it relates to proposed cruise tourism in the south.
HON. MIKE ESPAT
“There are over a hundred and ninety tour guides, there are about ninety in Placencia alone registered between Independence and Placencia and they are also concerned; you’ve heard some people complaining about the overnight stays in Belize and that the tendering process and these cruise ships would affect that. What these tour guides are saying to us today in Placencia is that even the hotels that have overnight stays are not using their service; these hotels get their own tour guides and they’re by passed; so, they’re afraid that now here comes another big project and then they will be by passed again. So, the strategy that they’re planning to use is to create a cooperative body where they will have more representation than just them working as independents as they’re doing right now.
"They are concerned of the 25 years exclusivity, Prime Minister, they’re concerned about that and I don’t know if you are aware that the Big Creek Port has spent millions of dollars, over the past years to create the Big Creek Port that we have today and in their business plan they also had a cruise terminal project for Big Creek. Now, they don’t know if they’ll be doing it this year or next year but if these people get 25 years exclusivity that is blocking Big Creek; now, if they wanted 25 years exclusivity on their dock that’s a different matter but not for the whole south and that is something that we would like the other side to look at because that is very important. The head tax which is seven dollars USD and we understand, Prime Minister, I don’t know if it is true that they were asking for a Village Development Fund and they said that you did not agree; I don’t know, I am just reporting what I was told at the meetings with my colleagues because what they are asking for is that some of this head tax go to a village development fund. Now, we all know the critical situation of our villages in the south; we all know that they lack financing; oh, we go out there, we campaign and we try and get a PUP village council or we try to get a UDP village council and at the end of the day they are strapped; they have to come and beg the government for every single thing they need.
"These people are looking to the future; these people want empowerment. It was the People’s United Party government that did the Village Council Act in order to empower these village councils. Today, there is no respect for the village councils in our constituencies even for the UDP ones and that’s one of our problems in this country; we are taken for granted because we support a political party; we need to stop this foolishness, we are all Belizeans; we want this country to grow and if good comes to the country, all us of will benefit but if we keep fighting with each other, quarreling with each other we are going absolutely nowhere.”
Prime Minister Dean Barrow referred to Espat’s intervention as “extremely balanced and constructive”. He responded to some of the concerns that were brought up.
RT. HON. DEAN BARROW
“I made the point that some of the big hoteliers and I know of one in particular who is leading the charge against the project, are guilty of, perhaps greed is the only way to describe it. From way back when, Mr. Member, a tour guide in Placencia said to me, ‘you know the hoteliers, the overnight people don’t want the cruise thing to come down here because they want to keep everything for themselves’ and that tour guide made the same complaint that you’ve had heard that even in terms of things like their dive shops and their marine tours, the hotels in Placencia keep those things in-house and if there’s going to be any kind of tour to the Jaguar Reserve or to Mango Creek or places beyond, the same thing happens that they keep those things to themselves. So, that particular tour guide said, by all means bring the cruise point down here but ensure that, in fact, we, the tour guides and the small people get our fair share and that’s exactly what we’re doing.
"The process is at a point where the Cabinet approved a draft MOU; the Minister of Investment was to sign it; he may well have signed it by now. The thing is though that the M.O.U is not the be all and end all of the process; first of all, the MOU is not binding but we have in that MOU as a signal of where we are coming from and as a way of alerting the developer, put certain positions very clearly; one is that every tour, that the people who come on Norwegian cruise line to the south will take must be tours done by Belizean tour guides. The employment, as you said, what they’re doing is putting a facility, the dock facility on Harvest Caye, if the process continues; all that construction is to be done by Belizeans; as you said this a project that will create a great deal of employment and a sort of concentration on employment at the beginning but the MOU makes clear that Belizeans must be the primary beneficiaries of this understanding. You spoke about exclusivity; well, you have been in government, you know how these things are.
"The people are saying, ‘we want to come, we want to bring development in the south but we need an exclusive’; we had to make a determination. We did know that the people in Big Creek are expanding but as far as we were aware this is principally an expansion of their container report, their commercial port; they do say that in their business model, they contemplate the possibility as well, of a cruise port; we didn’t see that the cruise port and the container port could work side by side. I have since met with the people from Big Creek and they say they believe they could have brought it off, however if the NCL project goes through, we are prepared to go with the exclusive since that is one of the conditions of NCL.”
The Prime Minister said the MOU should have been signed by the Minister of Investment.