And over the weekend, the PUP Northern Caucus of the PUP held its first meeting for the year, where it voted to support a Commission of Inquiry to investigate why negotiations between the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association and BSI/ASR failed to arrive at a commercial agreement. According to a press release, the northern caucus is, quote, "overwhelmingly concerned for the thousands of farmers, their families, and the employees at risk if a commercial agreement is not signed." End quote.
But the PM had said before that this issue is not something that can be legislated away, and that the government can't be anything more than a broker between the two parties. But today he told us that he voted on the resolution, and in favor of the commission of inquiry, and believes that is the best route to go down.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"The press release puts it differently, they are expressing, or we are expressing, because I am a part of the Northern Caucus, I voted in favor of the resolution, to saying that these negotiations have gone on for too long and we are concerned, not only for the cane farmers, but also for BSI, who made a substantial investment in Belize, or ASR, and also for Belize because the sugar industry continues to be the most important industries in the country so we believe now, and Commission of Inquiry does not legislate, the Commission of Inquiry, what it would do, if we go down that road, is basically to bring in experts to look at the entire situation and then based on what they find after their discussions with all the stakeholders both the cane farmers, BSI, and government and everybody, they would come with a set of recommendations and then it is for the parties, all three parties, farmers, BSI, and government, to look at those recommendations and see where they can be implemented."
We'll spare you the statistics on Commissions of Inquiry in Belize and how many of them have resulted in anything concrete other than thick reports getting dusty on shelves in government offices.
