The conversation then switched to last Thursday's public consultation on the cruise tourism proposal from Waterloo/Port of Belize Limited.
For almost four and a half hours, opponents and proponents of the project debated its pros and cons. The Port's management wants to upgrade the Port's bulk storage capabilities, but they also want to build a cruise terminal that could offer shore-side berthing to the biggest cruise ships in the world.
When the Sunup hosts asked Senator Chanona about her views on the extended discussions at the Biltmore Plaza Hotel, she said she disagrees with the current format that the Department of the Environment employs. She explained why:
Kevin Mendez - Sunup Host
"We saw the most recent public consultation happening last week."
Senator Janelle Chanona - VP, Oceana Belize
"I will agree to disagree that that was public consultation."
Kevin Mendez
"Oh yeah?"
Senator Janelle Chanona
"I think that was a perfect case study, yet again, to show that that is not what consultation is. Because if you look at the format of that, it started late, so it didn't start until almost seven. The developers gave a presentation, I think, for 45 minutes to an hour, and then people started queuing up to ask questions. The questions were timed and limited to what the responses weren't. Okay, so you ate up a lot of time, and then it came across like, oh, this is an extended public consultation. But if you look at how the time was spent, there was not that exchange, there was not that conversation, and therefore not that meaningful consultation that I walk away knowing, okay, I either got an answer to my question, or I need to dive deeper on this issue. This format is broken, is not working, and we've known that, and it's tragic, and Valdemar can tell you. When the Independence Placencia in southern communities came out at the public consultation for Harvest Caye, there was difficulty there in weighing those public comments into the decision-making. So that, when it came out that Norwegian was approved, everybody was like, but we had real concerns, and we had scientific concerns that had to be addressed, and they weren't. So again, when we talk about the EIA regulations, clearly figuring out how we're going to define consultation is key. Otherwise, it just comes across as a checkbox, had a public meeting, check."
