Bernard Wagner Delivers Final Independence Address as Belize City Mayor

Belize City Mayor Bernard Wagner delivered his final Independence Day address as head of the Old Capital. Wagner, who has led the Belize City Council since 2018, is serving his final term with municipal elections due next March. He used the occasion to reflect on the city’s progress, the country’s journey and the work that remains.  News Director Renee Trujillo reports.

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City: “From generation to generation, from citizen to citizen, from prime minister to prime minister, and here in Belize City from mayor to mayor. Each of us receives something unfinished. Each of us is given a distance to carry and each of us must eventually place the baton of independence into another pair of hands. When we said, “Look at me I am Belize at 45.” It is not an invitation to vanity, it is a call to accountability. For me, that carries a particular weight this year as this is my final Independence Day address as mayor of Belize City. During my eight years as your faithful mayor, I have understood this office as both an honor to hold and a responsibility to fulfill. For if I can stand before you and say “Look at me, I am Belize.” Then Belize must be reflected in more than my words. It must be present in my choices. It must be present in my sacrifices and it must be present in my decision in what I defend, whom I empower and what I leave behind. That conviction has guided our work from patching problems to building systems, from reacting to challenges, to preparing for them, from helping people get by, to creating opportunities for them to get ahead and from depending on hands out for the council to survive to building steady self-sufficiency. During my nine years we have upgraded close to 300 streets but our ambition does not end where the pavement ends. Through our partnerships with the European Union and the United Nations Development program and other agencies, our pioneering electric buses have delivered around half a million rides in just two years because progress means giving our people better ways to reach their opportunities. Through climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives such as the Yabra pumping station and our ongoing floating boardwalk project, we are investing in a city better prepared for tomorrow. Our responsibility is not merely to respond when danger arrives, but to act while there is still time to protect what matters.”