Panton Questions Economic Impact of Fortis Nationalization on Electricity Costs

Things got heated in the House when opposition members took the floor to debate the government’s move to acquire Fortis. Tracy Panton had plenty to say, she went straight at the Briceño administration, raising serious concerns about what this deal could mean for your electricity bill. According to Panton, nationalizing Fortis won’t magically make power cheaper for Belizeans. She pointed to recent comments from the Prime Minister and said, if the government put as much energy into lowering electricity costs as they did negotiating this deal, Belizeans might actually see some relief.

 

Tracy Panton, Leader of the Opposition

“If I heard the honorable prime minister clearly yesterday when he gave an interview to the local media outlets, electricity rates in Belize will increase and we come to the Belizean people and we ask them to bear the burden of a two hundred- and sixty-million-dollar loan arrangement we ought to tell them what they will receive in return. Where it relates to the hundred and fourteen thousand residential and commercial clients of BEL, where it relates to the members of our productive sector, where it relates to those who deliver services in tourism and other service industries, the cost of energy is a major input cost. And we would like to see that some meaningful efforts in these financial arrangements that have been put together in the last six months, to put together this deal, a good deal for the country, that same kind of energy be paid to seriously addressing the cost of energy in this country.”