Minister of Public Utilities Weighs in on Water Taxi Price Hikes

One of the issues related to the cost of living has to do with the rise in water taxi rates. While the majority of people who board water taxis are tourists going to the cayes for a memorable vacation, a lot of the passengers are from the islands just wanting to make a business trip to the mainland. It is a difficult time to have to travel, Minister Chebat agreed.

Michel Chebat

Michel Chebat, Minister of Public Utilities

“It was three years ago that their rates have been increased and with the increase in fuel, they had reached out to the Belize Port Authority and I believe that they had employed a formula calculating the cost of fuel and other factors to come up to this and it was a formula that was employed, taking into consideration all the factors and this was how they came up with this tariff.”

Reporter

“Don’t you think it will hinder domestic tourism, considering people now, dehn nuh want ketch boat nuh moh?”

Michel Chebat

“You know, clearly any increase in cost in any services will initially have a little bit of effect, but I think we also must take into consideration the provision of the service which has become more costly due to no control of ours. You know, we are finding ourselves in a world where everything – the cost of fuel which is so fundamental to the provision of these services – has skyrocketed and it leaves is in a very difficult position.”