Leader of the Opposition Does Not Support Increase in Price of Sliced Bread
Earlier this week, bakers of sliced bread said they would increase the price from a dollar and seventy-five cents to two dollars and fifty cents per loaf of bread. The price hike will take effect as of December eighteenth. Bakers, like merchants, have cited an increase in the cost of inputs, as well as minimum wage as part of the struggle for them to continue seeing profits. And while the Leader of the Opposition says he understands their position, he believes that the government must do what it has to in order to protect the most vulnerable class of people who will be affected the most by these increases.
Moses Shyne Barrow
Moses Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
“I don’t agree that the bakers have the authority to do that. I believe that that is a control good. And so only the government can do that. So the government needs to intervene and ensure that the law. I totally I will always have to be on the side of the people. I understand the business community. I understand that business owners have to do what they have to do. But the responsibility of the state is to protect the vulnerable, to protect all of his citizens, but to protect more than anyone are citizens who are under economic attack, you know. Poverty has never been so rampant and the suffering and the pain has never been so rampant, so the government needs to engage the bakers and they need to find a solution that works for the Belizean people and takes into consideration the challenges that the bakers are having.”
Marion Ali
“By extension, what about the merchants who have, on their own, decided to raise the price of goods and services?
Moses Shyne Barrow
“Yes, well again, that’s because we have a government that does not embrace the challenges, the difficult situations that need to be resolved. As in this case with the bakers, it was the government that was supposed to come to a solution with the bakers. It does not give them the permission to go beyond the law.”
