Earlier in the news we told you about the fires in the Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve. But Toledo is still battling with the effects of the blazes. Many farmers lost everything when they lost their farms - including their livelihoods and sustenance.
And the Leader of the Opposition said that's unacceptable. He criticized the Briceno government for not having a plan readily in place for these types of emergencies.
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"I met with several small farmers and they have reported tens of thousands of dollars in losses in cacao and some corn. And this impacts them tremendously, can't pay school fees can't put food on the table, can't deal with medical expenses."
"And so the government has to do better in having an emergency response policy when the wildfires happen, when hurricane, when anything happens, it can't be that a month will go by before the people that have been impacted get any type of relief."
"So we call this to the attention of the government. And we hope we pray that the next sitting of the House before the next sitting of the homes, because the Prime Minister has said that there is a contingency fund. And so that money needs to be disbursed. So what I said in the Honorable House is when we had COVID, for instance, there were social media postings directing the populace as to where to go to get relief. Where can the people in Toledo District go to get relief? It is not forthcoming. So we urge the government to act now to make that information readily available."
