And after Barrow's speech, he promptly left his seat, not returning for most of the afternoon. It wasn't long before the other UDP members present, Hugo Patt and Tracy Taegar Panton, followed suit, leaving the opposition side empty for a portion of the speeches.
But though the UDP's weren't there to hear his speech, the deputy prime minister, Cordel Hyde, came out strong, quickly correcting what he called glaring inaccuracies in Barrow's speech.
Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources
"You say the people are bawling to have the UDP back. I don't know where you are living, member, but I have not heard a single soul, not even the UDPs are bawling for the UDPs to come back."
"You ate every can of sardine in the cupboard, every single can. I had an aunt one time who was taken to the court because she whipped one of her kids and they charged her for child abuse. So she said to the Magistrate, that's not child abuse, you know what is child abuse? Child abuse is when your four kids look at you hungry and you have nothing in the cupboard to eat. Well that is what the UDP government did to us the Belizean people, they abused us."
"You say the economy grew under the UDP by 4.5% in 2019. But I have it right here on my phone, somebody was listening to you and sent it to me, where the SIB said that it's actually that the economy contracted by 2.8% in 2019. You can't make up your stats, bredda. You can't just pull numbers from out the sky. The numbers don't lie, the facts don't lie, the fact of the matter is that this country was in a recession in 2019."
And after, he went into the budget's high points, giving an overall explanation of some of the majors sectors including education and housing.
Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources
"The fact is that what has been proposed in this budget and what is being debated today is another budget, the second consecutive budget with a primary surplus, in other words, a sustainable budget that has more income than expenditure before including interest payments. A budget surplus is a sign of stability, it is a sign of progress, it is a clear sign of prudent financial management."
"The fact is that tax collections have exceeded targets for a second year in a row and this budget touches people where it matters the absolute most, more money for healthcare, more money for education, more money for housing, more money for land survey, more money for rural roads and village streets, more money for digitizing, more of the services that the government provides to the people of this country."
"The minimum wage is now $5. That's a promise we made when we were in opposition, lots of people said we couldn't do it, lots of people advised we shouldn't do it, but we did it and now 43,000 are making $5 an hour when they were only making $3.30 an hour."
"This new budget will see the expansion of the free education program from four Southside high schools to an additional five in southern Belize, in the Stann Creek and Toledo districts. I need to big up the Minister of Education and his team for the serious targeted work that he has been doing at the four Southside high schools. Imagine all your fees are paid, your books provided, school bag, tennis, healthy meals, all you have to do is show up and put your foot underneath the table and study."
"Now to the ministry for which I am responsible."
"Our innovative and now institutionalized mobile land clinics are designed to serve the land poor, to regularize their leases, to give them the chance to a lease, a purchase approval, to resolve their unfinished transaction, to deliver their grants and certificates to put those of us who are sworn to serve in direct contact with those who need our services the most."
"11,000 persons taken out of land poverty, lifted to the status of land holders. And after land, Madam Speaker, comes housing. You know back then when I was 12 years old, and I won't say how long ago that was, moms had to put down… $3,000 as a down payment for that house. You know what was the monthly mortgage? It was a $100 a month. Now, in present day scenario, single mothers don't have to put down a dollar, and the monthly mortgage is what? Nothing changed."
