NTUCB Urges Shift from Infrastructure to Food Security

For many Belizean families, the biggest struggle isn’t getting a new road paved; it’s putting food on the table. With rising living costs continuing to squeeze household budgets, the National Trade Union Congress of Belize says the government needs to rethink its priorities and put food security and cost-of-living relief at the top of the agenda. NTUCB President Ella Waight acknowledges the importance of infrastructure and housing, but argues that families cannot afford to wait for meaningful relief. She also says detailed recommendations submitted to the Prime Minister months ago have yet to receive a response. So, what is holding up action?

 

Ella Waight, President, NTUCB

“Now, when it comes to ensuring that we have food on the table, I agree. Government has done a lot. They have done programmes with agriculture schools, with different sectors, where they provide seeds, young plants, to ensure that we can grow what we eat. And we have to ensure that we continue to educate persons and assist in that area. There are a lot of Belizeans who have backyards, who can plant the basics of whether it’s cilantro, whether it’s cucumber. And if it’s $5 a week you save, that’s $5 a week you save. So we have to ensure that we continue to promote persons to get scholarships in agriculture, to make sure that we have opportunities for persons who want to study when it comes to how to do agriculture at another level, where it becomes more sustainable in our country. We understand all of that and we support any initiative like that. We need to grow more. Grow more for ourselves and grow more to export. At mango season time, we know how many mangoes are spoiled in this country. Any time we have any fruit season, we see a lot of fruits on the ground spoiling. We can utilise that to make money, but we have to ensure that we give people opportunities. But going back to the taxation of this country, we recognize that we have to have taxes to have the resources that we need, such as good roads. We want the program of having women having their own homes to continue. We recognize that. There are a lot of projects in this country that are working. But if it means putting food on a table, sadly, to having the construction of some street done, or the pavement of some street done, we would have to say putting food on a table. The NTUCB submitted some recommendations to enhance the cost of living and to improve the cost of living some months back. I personally feel they were good recommendations. We could have built on them. We submitted them to the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister. We have not heard back from them.”

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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