While Cordel Hyde was making his case against the Land Tax Amendment Bill, he also used the opportunity to challenge the Prime Minister on his assertion that the latest phase of the unemployment relief program is proceeding more smoothly than the last around.
The Prime Minister disagreed, and here's that back and forth:
Hon. Cordel Hyde, PUP - Lake I
"I heard the prime minister kinda boast that the second round of Covid relief is going faster and better. I think they lied to you. I don't know who is lying to you, but I think they are lying to you, because based on the public data I think its 62,000 persons who have applied under this second wave of the Covid relief. According to the public records 20,000 persons have been approved, 11,000 for various reasons have been denied or rejected, but check this stats, that program started on August 3rd. Today is September 25th, if my maths is correct its 53 days - 7 weeks and 4 days that 31,000 people are waiting to hear whether they've gotten approval, whether they could go pick up the $150 or however it is being paid, because only 30,000 people out of the 62,000 people have been accounted for. I know a lot of those people go to the ATM every day to check if that eagle land and when you go in there and a zero balance or whatever you have to sheepishly walk out of the ATM because there are people watching you. It's real, because you go and check religiously every other day to see if that money is there. It's not there. It has not been there for those 31,000 people and I feel like the government can be rather efficient in writing off land taxes for the big people. Can be rather efficient when they want to set up this national gas company, but can be rather inefficient when it comes to ensuring that the little people get what they should get. We are talking about 30,000 people where in a lot of cases are legitimate persons who have lost their jobs from March of this year. Who did not get anything in the first round of relief."
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"We are moving far more quickly. On just check, on Independence day we had paid out 20, its now 25,500 plus in a few days. So we are moving far more quickly and your numbers are wrong. It is not some 60,000 plus, that are to be in fact processed and approved in terms of phase 2. It's not to quarrel, it's just to set the facts straight - we already said remember that in phase 1 you had something like 10,000 persons that are the long term unemployed, this was to have been a quick reaction intervention to relief people who lost their jobs in consequence of Covid-19. The leader of the opposition when he was part of the oversight committee pushed for us to bring in as well longer term unemployed and we did so. They are not a part of phase 2 and that's why the numbers of those that are to benefit from phase 2 are going down, but we are not leaving them out in the cold. The longer term unemployed will now become beneficiaries, recipients of the boost 2.0 program, the Belize Covid-19 response. That is what the World Bank is funding. World Bank is giving nothing for the food program, giving nothing for the unemployment relief program, but it is putting up this 13 million US dollars that we will used to put as I said the longer term unemployed on the Belize Covid-19 Response conditional cash transfer program. That's what boost is."
