Belize Cruise Terminal Limited has submitted its Environmental Impact Assessment for land reclamation works being done at the Port of Belize. That's what Minister of Environment John Briceno reported to the National Assembly today. He did it in response to a hard charge from Collet Area Representative Patrick Faber who alleged that the government had given special treatment to Port owner Luke Espat, who he called a crony of the PUP.
Hon. Patrick Faber, UDP Rep. For Collet
“What kind of protecting do these people have? What kind of protection do they have? Is it indeed what the Member from Albert as saying? Is it indeed that they are chief crony and cronies and that in fact they are milking and creaming this country?
It has to be some great level of cronyism that’s causing the government to close its eyes to things that certainly have serious effects on this country or that will have effects on this country in the longer run in order to satisfy a few individuals.
What this says to the people of this country is that the government is more concerned about Mr. Luke Espat and the Port Authority. They are far more concerned about that one individual than they are about, and if my colleague from Port Loyola was sitting here he would tell you, about the twenty odd thousand plus residents of Port Loyola who will be affected should the situation be that there will be further flooding.”
Hon. Johnny Briceno, Minister of Natural Resources
“If the Honorable Member from Collet would only take sometime out to inform himself properly, he would not make a...let us leave it at that. The company has to reclaim a large portion of the seabed in front of the port. Because of the scope of that project, they are required to do an EIA. The Department was delivered its EIA. Because a lot of the work has been done before, it is only a matter of putting everything together so that then the Department can review.”
