And while the Leader of the Opposition has been mostly quiet on the Boledo transition - speaking outside the house he said that he doesn't think things will go quite as smoothly as the Prime Minister predicts because he believes Belizeans will still end up paying a tidy sum for cancelling Brad's contract which had 7 years left on it:
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"If you have an agreement that is legally binding, then you expose the Belizean tax payers to litigation and to damages. So, especially when you listen to those numbers, so that means that Brads Boledo will be taking the government to court for 50 million BZ in annual revenues. I'm even more discourage, I'm even more convinced that there should have been other mechanisms put in place to get a greater share. That was my position. I made that position very clear when the tax was instituted, I supported that and I would support ways to get a greater share for the Belizean people."
Reporter
"Are you satisfied with what the government is looking to put in place?"
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"Well, again, I get concern when I hear about 4 entities. How are we going to decide who those 4 entities are, what the profit share is going to be with those entities. I hope that it is that we have learned from this contract that they are cancelling and that the Belizean people will get the lion's share of any arrangements. So whatever master agents as the prime minister describe the new model that they will use, whatever master agents are going to be taken on will not get getting 80%, 90% of the revenues. That they will be getting the very small minority share of the revenues that will come to the government and the Belizean people. And we will see this investment in social development."
