So, that brings us to the main business of the day, which was the heated debate over the Prime Minister's budget.
Opposition Leader Patrick Faber opened with his formal response - his first time in that role.
And while the Prime Minister took almost an hour and thirty minutes to make his presentation two weeks ago, today Faber took over 50 minutes to make his response. Here are a few excerpts:
Hon. Patrick Faber - Leader of the Opposition "All now agree, Madam Speaker, that the Prime Minister and the party, while they watch the UDP Government from the sidelines for 13 years, with constant hopes to one day be the government, arrived at the coveted spot with no substantial plan for the nation. Rather than manning up, and I am in no way referring to the Prime Minister as a boy, Madam Speaker. But rather than manning up to the challenge that he knew to be forthcoming as the country's new leader, he instead chose to create an atmosphere of the greatest desperation and panic, with the hope of gaining sympathy for his inability to handle the job. The PM lamented about the large mandate given to him and his party in November 2020, and also about their successive victories in March for the Municipal Elections. But, he seemed deaf to the cries of the masses of Belizeans all over, especially on social media, and especially the teachers and public servants, about 15,000 in number, who now seem to be sending him and his party a new message after just a few short months, in fact, a few weeks after the victories he bragged about at the polls."
"The Prime Minister's budget speech was riddled with panic and words of a man fraught for sympathy because he appears to lack confidence in his own abilities to carry out a job he so desperately wanted. Rather than speaking to change, rather than inspiring hope and sharing with our citizenry a plan for getting through what no one can argue is the longest economic obstacle we have ever faced, he inspired panic, as he appeared to be panicking himself. A glance at the figures will show that, in fact, the PM operates an animal farm, where some animals are more equal than others. Take, for instance, a 33% increase in the budget in the Office of the Prime Minister, while most other areas are cut, an almost reversal in the philosophy from people can't eat concrete and road to a ballooning budget for infrastructure, an increase by almost 50% for a press office that largely contracts its work to PUP-friendly media houses. I won't say which ones, Madam Speaker. This indicates, Madam Speaker, that propaganda is high on the agenda of this administration. Big-time increases in travel and subsistence in every ministry, in a time when travel should be limited, in keeping with the pandemic regulations."
"In short, the budget allocates less money for salaries, for services, for scholarships, for good governance, and for reform, but allocates more money for legal fees and travel. Waste, Madam Speaker, and hustling seem to be the order of the day when it comes to this section. Social programs, madam speaker, are significantly cut. It slashes right through the heart of their famous catchphrase, Everybody Fi Win. We now see the member from Belize Rural Central spurting out in various different ways how it is that everybody can't get. The allocated budget is now 10 million dollars, which is a third of the previously allocated 29 million dollars for these social programs, and this does not include the food pantry, apparently. I think the allocation for the food pantry is a measly 3 million dollars. Plan Belize, Madam Speaker, and the budget seem to have fallen out of alignment when it comes to certain social programs in particular. Where free education is promised in Plan Belize, we see allocations for school assistance cut in 2021/2022. School transportation has been reduced from almost 8 million dollars to 4 million dollars, with the government's intent to reopen schools in persons in the near future, it begs the question of how it is that these students, requiring assistance in the form of transportation, will get to school if the allocation for school transportation is cut in half."
"If things are improving now, you would think that they would ease up on cutting the subvention to the University of Belize, which they vow they love so much. It's you all who told the people that you will give them free education, you know. All the grant money cut, students are returning to school, parents have to pay fees, and the government is saying there is nothing for that. The PM boasts that one of the impacts of the new budget will be the government's ability to maintain the jobs of 15,000 employees, and again, we immediately note that this is a farce. Since coming to office in November, this administration has terminated the employment of over 800 government employees. And while I don't see any space for it in the budget, Madam Speaker, I make an appeal now to the Prime Minister as Minister of Finance to ensure that those persons who you terminated or whose contracts you did not continue, make sure that the people get their money."
