For the past few days we've been reporting on weather related cruise ship cancellations - which has caused millions of dollars in losses for local operators.
The situation has highlighted the Belize district's desperate need for a proper cruise ship docking facility - and not a tourist village that depends on tenders to bring in tourists. When the seas are rough the tourists can't get unto the tenders and if they did manage to do that, they could get seasick on the rough 7 mile journey to shore.
The Feinstein group's Stake bank Project is waiting in the wings, but it's on a hold because of multiple legal challenges. The Prime Minister discussed the various contingencies today:..
Jules Vasquez
"Where are we with the impasse with Stake Bank?"
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"In court and the pleadings I supposed underlined the difficulty. The Fort Street Tourism Village is not only responding to Mr. Feinstein's claim that the exclusive agreement with FSTV is invalid, FSTV is saying we have axillary claim against the government of Belize for having represented that it was valid. Don't forget that when FSTV got that exclusive agreement, I believe it was the said Mr. Feinstein who was the owner of FSTV or the predecessor company. We've now discovered that the Musa administration which had given that original agreement signed some sort of an extension to 27 years. So we would dearly love if we could say to FSTV we don't care, we will simply proceed with the Feinstein project. But no responsible government can do that. We have said to Mr. Feinstein give us an indemnity and we will proceed, but he is not prepared to do that."
Geovannie Brackett, reporter
"Is this room or are you prepared for to make intervention concerning the fact that we do need a port two years from now that the cruise lines will be moving to oasis class ships."
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Well I don't know what intervention we could make, the matter is in court."
Jules Vasquez
"A legislative intervention, as you have for BTL let's say. Yes it's not publicly own but..."
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"I don't think the circumstances warrant that. Ultimately, clearly there has to be a alongside docking facility, but because of the weather, I know its affected the cruise industry over the past couple of days - we can't simply in a knee-jerk fashion do something that's going to be extremely consequential. We've had bad weather before and we will have bad weather again. So while the search for a longer term solution must continue, I don't see doing anything precipitant at the moment. I think, I don't want to say too much, but I suspect that this represents serious skirmishing between FSTV and the Feinstein Group. So let's hope that we can get people to be sensible and practical and work it out."
The suits and countersuits are slated to be heard in the Supreme Court early next year.
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