The press also asked Espat about his Ministry's role as custodian over the Belize City Civic Center.
Viewers will remember that back when they were in Opposition, Espat and other members of the PUP Government were harshly critical of the Civic's construction cost of just under 33 million dollars. They even attempted to suggest that the former Barrow Government was under-reporting the total cost of the public building's complete renovation.
Today, Espat told us that the Civic is being put to regular use but that the electricity bill for the air conditioning is massive:
Hon. Julius Espat - Minister of Infrastructure Development & Housing
"We just had the Mexican government coming in to do a large concert. We have tournaments. We have a volleyball tournament coming up in I think about a month's time. We have graduations. It's very active. But what we want to do and what we have done, we have engaged the engineers and architects from the Ministry of Infrastructure Development to do a physical analysis of the building to see if we could maybe design it - redesign it in such a way that it becomes useful without having to use the air conditioning. The air conditioning is the power consumption is holding us back to do more than we need to do. But, the Civic is not there to make money. The Civic is there to serve the people of Belize. And that is what we will do. We will maintain it to the best that we can, and we will make sure that it is being used, once they follow the rules, and once they clean it properly and protect it. That's our role."
