Courtenay Clashes With Opposition Over Origins of Sugar Industry Legislation now under consideration

Debate in the Senate of Belize took a pointed turn this morning as Government Lead Senator Eamon Courtenay addressed the origins of the legislation now under consideration.  During discussions on the Sugar Industry and Cogeneration Project Amendment Bill, Courtenay pushed back against criticisms from the opposition, arguing that members of the United Democratic Party were now challenging a framework they themselves helped to create.

Courtenay specifically called out UDP Senator Patrick Faber, reminding the chamber that Faber served as Deputy Prime Minister at the time the original agreement and policy structure were put in place, decisions which, according to Courtenay, contributed to the current challenges facing the sugar industry.

Eamon Courtenay, Senator, Leader of Government Business: “The senator’s opposite said that no senator in this chamber should support this bill. The bill has been described as a sweetheart deal. We need to find out who was original sugar daddy. Who made the sweetheart deal in the beginning? I don’t want to hear you. The Honorable Senator opposite was the architect. He was on this side in 2012 when the original bill was brought right ? You were the Deputy Prime Minister. You stood up and lauded the deal. The sweetheart deal. The original sugar daddy. You say it was necessary. I listened carefully to Senator Pitts, Madam President, and she spoke as if she knew, she spoke as if she had authority, and knowledge and information. She told this Honorable senate that when the bill was originally passed in 2012 there were performance indicators and the incentives were tied to certain specific investments. Nothing noh go so. Senator Arana spoke from personal knowledge, not from ai. Personal knowledge. There are over five thousand cane farmers. The majority of them are small cane farmers who support their family, who stimulate the economy of this country. Who produce significant foreign exchange for this country by farming sugar cane. And let us recall it was under the United Democratic Party government that the Libertad Sugar Factor shut down. The point I make Madam President we can stand here and we can posture, we can profile and we can grandstand. There is a risk that we are facing in the sugar industry both in the field and in the factory. You see ? You hear ? You hear ? You don’t share, why didn’t you ask ? No we get up and we profile and we posture and we talk like we know. We know this, we know that, we know the other, this is what happened. Ask the question, accountability and transparency ? Please, come again.”

The Government Lead Senator maintained that the amendment bill is part of a necessary corrective effort to stabilize the industry and address longstanding financial and operational difficulties.