And in other news, Queen Elizabeth's state funeral will be held on Monday, September 19th, and as we've told you, it will be a one-time holiday here in Belize. It was a decision made by the Cabinet, out of respect for our former head of state.
But in a month that already had two holidays, it puts pressure on the business community who will either be closed or will have to give their employees holiday pay. Today we asked the prime minister if he expects criticism from the business sector and he explained that they were reluctant to give the holiday, but they felt they had to.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Well of course I do and that's fine but the thing is that we reluctantly gave a holiday because the queen has served Belize as its queen for, whether you would like it or not, for 41 years, and as a colony I think it was 39 years, 29 years, that gives you 70 years that she has served as Queen of England. We reluctantly gave the holiday because all the countries around us including Australia and Canada have declared a holiday so it would have seemed very disrespectful on our part if we had not declared a holiday."
And while he won't be attending the funeral due to his commitments on Independence Day, governor general, DAME Froyla Tzalam and her husband, Daniel will be attending along with the British High Commissioner, Therese Rath and her husband, Tony.
