Another interesting moment during last Friday's consultation was the disagreement on cruise tourism ideas and concepts between the representatives of PBL and Waterloo and Troy Gabb, the Project Manager of the rival cruise tourism development, Port Coral.
Gabb was the first participant to ask questions, and he set the tone of the meeting very early when he challenged the main speakers to back up their claims that if this project were approved, Belize's cruise tourism industry would grow as a result.
Here's that back-and-forth:
Troy Gabb, Project Manager, Stakebank
"I had not heard anything, plus I'm in the same business that you're attempting to get in. No one has ever consulted with us who have over US100 million dollars invested in the ground right now. There has been no significant economic impact that I have seen or heard of. When we speak to the cruise lines and I speak to every single cruise line, every single cruise executive - I have their emails and I have their contact numbers and every one of them has been saying to us that as far as the cruise industry is concerned there's going to be no growth over the next 10 years that goes beyond 1.5 million passengers."
"Where are those passengers and ships are going to come from? anybody that knows the cruise industry, not only knows that they plan way ahead, but it requires to have actual vessels to come here. We keep hearing that if we build these ports that so more people is going to come. That is a fallacy, that is an economic farce that you all continue to say. There is going to be no more increase in passengers that is going to come to Belize, because cruise ships don't work like that."
Waterloo Consultant
"We cannot comment on the commercial viability of your project. What we can say is that this is the only project in Belize that brings the nation the bulk and cargo facilities that the country so much and desperately needs. Secondly, this is the only project being proposed that process the much needed short side berthing that the cruise lines want."
Kenrick Gordon, Environmental Officer, DOE
"Mr. Gabb, I don't think that you will be the first and you will not be the last advocating for some sort of assessments to go into the social and economic aspects. When you look at the environmental impact assessment, it says that the assessment should address key issues in relation to the social and the economic aspect. In general, the environmental impact assessment addresses environmental issues. It looks at the biodiversity, vegetation, geology, water quality and of recent up until 2020 the outstanding universal value. We surely do need to develop a legislation to address particularly the social and the economic aspect, something as robust as the environmental assessment."
