Fortis Releases its comments on B.E.L. expropriation
While the government’s release highly charged, today, Fortis issued its first statement out of Newfoundland, Canada where it is headquartered. The announcement was brief and concise, saying matter-of-factly that the government has expropriated the Canadian company’s controlling stake in the country’s main electrical distributor and that Fortis had owned seventy percent of Belize Electricity Ltd. Unlike what the prime minister asserts that there was no dispute, the Fortis release says the company and the government had been involved in a dispute over a 2008 planned rate increase. Fortis also announced that its nominees on the board of directors of Belize Electricity Limited had been dismissed and that the expropriated company represents less than two percent of Fortis’ total assets of more than thirteen billion dollars. Fortis also noted that it owns the Belize Electric Company Limited, a non-regulated operator of three hydroelectric power plants and that there is no expropriation order for BECOL. The company said compensation for the expropriation is yet to be determined and that it had made the investment in the company after an invitation by the Belize government twelve years ago. You can view the full release at fortisinc.com.
Fortis probably saying to himself,” this Government sucks…one less cow to milk. The last one was great because they invited me to their Jewel twelve years ago, recently after getting in power, to buy BEL…they had their motives for making such a fantastic invitation…was good for me and rather bad for Belizeans…that was between Belizeans and its government to battle…I am a business man and that is what I do – make profits and prevent losses for my personal interest.”
The Belizean consumers & taxpayers are expected to pay the past due bill or face black outs & we need to pay these people for what? Pulling up our shorts & leaving? Did Enron recycle their people who did not go to jail? I am not sure that letting us know that you were in Belize by invitation is such a good idea. That same Government invited the heartless thieves from South Africa to buy & improve our water supply. Just to refresh your memories, they decided they owned our vats, our rivers & if we dared to cry & drank those salty tears, that too. To add insult to injury, they had to be given twenty four hours a day BDF protection & we ended up having to fund the disinfectant we needed after the spit left on our hands from holding that stick.
The people are well aware of the dispute over rate increase but that particular dispute is insignificant now.
Of course, it is common sense that all high ranking Fortis agents at BEL have to go. It is not wise to keep a few rotten apples among a big bag full.
As for the compensation Fortis is now expecting, I want to see the government of Belize deduct for all the debts and pay the debts that Fortis refused to pay first.
Notice how they like to say “non-regulated” when it comes to BECOL? I think we can read that to mean they intend to charge huges prices for their electricity they generate when they get the chance and they don’t think the government can regulate them. In the US, the electrical power grid is consider critical infrastructure to the nation and is pretty heavily regulated. This would include generation such as the hydros. When a blackout happens here, power companies can be fined millions of dollars! If the hydros are truely un-regulated, then I think it is time for some new regulations!
Companies go into business to make a profit. This is the basis of all capitalism. You buy something for a dollar and sell it for two. you cannot buy something for 2 and sell it for 1. this is financial suicide. If you think that Fortis came here to “serve the public” you are sadly mistaken. They came here and invested in Belize and expect to make a Profit. This is not “Raping the Country or Milking the Cow” this is how business works. This is how countries become sucessfull. You people cannot afford to be this naive!!! This is the way the world works. If you want government to look after you, move to Cuba.
If you want to keep bashing Foreingners for trying to make a profit then go back to rubbing coconuts together and stop using our “foriegn” goods like Cell phones, Computers, TV’s, Cars, DVD players etc.
San Pedro would still be a Fishing Island if it weren’t for “Foreign” Investment.
There would be no BTB and hundreds of jobs if it weren’t for Tourists. Many of you would not be working or eating if it weren’t for foreigners coming here and opening businesses and investing.
If foreign investment dries up…. you can expect to live like Haiti. The Dominican Republic on the same island a thirving country why??? Tourists – Foreigners….Haiti broke & poor – no tourists or Foreign investment….. get the picture???
I hate when people act stupid, like Foreigner above. The point that the other blogs are trying to bring across is that no monopoly should be allowed to plunder a country, you idiot. Even the greatest capitalistic country has anti-trust laws, and consumer protection agencies, against both foreigners or locals. Its not about returns on investment, its about not allowing our people to be taken advantage of. As to cells phones, and all, we buy those, you fool, with money the country makes from sales of its natural resources, exports, etc. If the tourists choose not to come to Belize, what can we do? Force them? If they want, then they must be subject to all our laws, the same way we are subjected to their country’s when we go there. Its called civilization, bubu. Stop sweating Fortis’ fever against the Belizean’s right to exist in dignity.
Javier Solis:I totally agree with your statement.And to you foreigner the Belizean people are no fools and we’ll not be oppressed anymore.
Javier solis: You are the typical case of the saying that a litttle bit of knowledge is dangerous. You reflect the quality government that serves you. He that knows not that he knows not, is a fool shun him.
Foreigner, when you so called modern foreigners began coming to our Jewel, you not only thieve us as the old timers but now you polute, disrespect, show your racist selves, and the list can go on, but you use SOME of our Government people who are gangsters just like you to manipulate us the poor. If you do not want to invest here in Belize, go back home and do your best where you come from. Belize will never be a 1st world Country, so you because you cannot broke us to death, because we refuse to die and leave everything for you, you hate us I don’t know what do you want from this Small Country. Everything that we own, we worked for it and paid for it. No British, Yankee, Afrikaaner, Aussie or who the cap fits, has ever came to Belize with Billions of dollars to distribute to Belizeans and then left back to their country. You claim to be from a first world country, well I tell you leave us here, because none of you is giving us nothing free. Go to where you come from and I will still live. I will still have my healthy meals planted in our jungles. You can go back to your Bacon burgers, hotdogs and sodas. I eat my callaloo, chaya, rice and corn, with a glass of cold coconut water or freshly squeezed orange juice. By the way in my parcel of the jewel sweet oranges and many other crops grow too!!! Not only on land that foreigners own!!! Belize does not need more parasites!!! You have no mercy!!!