And on the adjournment, Albert area rep, Tracy Panton, stood up to speak about the $500,000 donated by the Social Security Board to the government for renovations to the Supreme Court building, which was damaged during Hurricane Lisa.
The handing over ceremony occurred this morning, and we were there, but before we get to that, Panton's concerns reflected that of the workers whose contributions were used to fund this donation. Here's how she put it:
Tracey Panton, UDP Albert Rep.
"Now I am not saying that those repairs are not absolutely necessary, but it is not the function of the social security board to be using the contributions of hard-working Belizeans to gift to the government. It blows my mind quite frankly, particularly since the prime minister has stood up in this house on more than one occasion and have spoken about the rebound of our national economy, we are doing so well. We are growing by 12%. The fact that the prime minister has said that all productive sectors of our economy is doing far better post covid versus pre-covid. We live in a real society and the hard-working men and women in my community is taking lick. They are finding it very hard to put food on the table. That's a reality. It's even harder for them to get access to the benefit programs offered by the social security board."
