And we also asked the Minister for his take on the situation with Vulcan Material Company - which wants to mine the hills of White Ridge Farm, right next to Gales Point village. You've heard from the Minister of Natural Resources, who has outright rejected the project, and you've heard from the PM, who said he doesn't think Cabinet will approve it. Even the area rep, Dolores Balderamos Garcia, is on the side of the residents who are vehemently against the project.
Environment Minister Habet said he also has his concerns.
Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development
"As a matter of fact, I have visited the area. I know that the people were really strongly against it, not only because of the material that will possibly end up in the sea, affect the alkalinity of the ocean, change the entire biodiversity of the area. We are also concern that if those hills are broken down, that's the landmark going from Belize City by boat over to Gales Point, but also on the other side of biodiversity there are a lot of animal species that will be affected, so really the ministry doesn't look at it favourably either. Of course, anybody can apply, but whether or not it will be approved is something else. But ultimately the government will have to decide, if not now, hopefully sooner than later on what kind of development it really wants going forward and possibly one of the faults that we have maybe along with other governments is that we have plan and made plan for maybe 5 years after election and we have to start looking at maybe 40-50 years development plans and not only with the party, but maybe bring in the opposition party, the churches, civil society and everybody else, so that we can see where we want to be in 50 years. So whether another party gets in to form the form the government, they might be able to change how you get there, but you can't change that's where we want to go, because that's something that's a national development plan."
