Decision on Transportation Industry Woes Postponed Yet Again

There are tensions bubbling in the transportation industry. The Belize Bus Association and representatives of the Government were scheduled to meet on Thursday morning to finalize the way forward regarding concerns within the industry brought forward by stakeholders.  But that meeting was postponed for a second time at the eleventh hour which is not going down well with operators who want better management of routes allowed to Mexican and Guatemalan buses.  The Ministry of Transport says a final decision has been delayed because the Ministry of Tourism needs to be involved.  Instead a meeting has been rescheduled for September third.  This evening, News Five spoke with Ewart Metzgen, secretary of the Belize Bus Association.

Ewart Metzgen, Secretary, Belize Bus Association

Ewart Metzge

“The 2009 SI that we wanted repealed was repealed.  A new document was presented to Cabinet in the way that we wanted it when we met with the AG and Minister Panton.  When that paper went to Cabinet it seemed like the Minister of Tourism and the BTB had a problem with the way it was structured which kind of came as a surprise to us because we had met with the Minister of Tourism at his office in Belize City along with the Minister of Transport and at that meeting he had agreed that the SI needed to be fixed or repealed because the way it was structured Belizeans couldn’t go into Guatemala but those people were coming here.  So when we got the message that we had to have another meeting, this meeting was suppose to take place last week Tuesday but it was put off until yesterday.  We were all in Belmopan after nine, this meeting was supposed to be at ten, after nine we were told that the meeting was postponed.  We are a little bit confused because the Minister of Transport is now saying that he is willing to go through with what we wanted but it’s the BTB and the tourism minister that’s stopping it from going forward. Tomorrow, the BBA and its affiliates, we will be meeting at home base in Burrell Boom to really discuss where we go from here.  I mean they’ve asked us to meet with them on Tuesday and we will meet with them and we will prepare ourselves also because for whatever it may be, we will prepare and we go from there.”