Opposition Leader Questions Portico’s EIA

Shyne Barrow

This morning, the Opposition Leader also discussed the stalled Stake Bank project and questioned how Portico was granted an Environmental Impact Assessment.

Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition

“The you have Mike Feinstein, who is a renowned tourism stakeholder, has spent tens of millions of dollars in developing tourism projects, in particular, the recent Stake Bank development, has a Definitive Agreement with the government since 2017, had a causeway that the now government is disputing.  Then you look at Waterloo, again, a port that is in existence.  A group, the Waterloo Group, affiliated with Lord Ashcroft, billionaire, owns sixty percent of the banking market, so two projects that have the credibility and the legitimate agreements to move forward and now here we have Portico just come and skip over what would be the two most credible projects.  It begs the question, how did they get the EIA and Waterloo never got the EIA when Gegg’s project is dredging a million more than Waterloo.  Why is it that Feinstein Group, their causeway permit is being questioned by the Government of Belize.  When you listen to the Minister of Tourism yesterday on TV, he said that “Oh, we have a cruise port emergency.  The cruise ships need docking facilities that do not require tender.”  So you tell me, what proof does Portico have that they even have the money to get started with that facility.  That facility requires building an artificial peninsula in a manatee reserve, so when you are denying one group for environmental concerns, when you said that you don’t want anything to do with Vulcan because they don’t belong in Gales Point because all they will do is come and destroy the natural resources, how do you reach to Mr. Gegg?  So again, it screams corruption.”