7 News Belize

Did DOE Fast-Track Harvest Caye Against Public Interest?
posted (July 17, 2015)
The lawsuit filed by the Belize Tourism Industry Association to battle Norwegian Cruise Line's Harvest Caye Cruise port project in the South was argued to completion today. And tonight, it is in the hands of Justice Courtney Abel to decide if the challenge is legitimate or frivolous. He has to determine whether or not the Department of Environment and the National Environmental Appraisal Committee (NEAC) acted properly when it approved the project, despite the challenges from the private tourism partners.

But, as we told you 3 weeks ago, NCL's attorney, Eamon Courtenay tried to get it thrown out of court on the basis that the BTIA wasn't actually making serious steps to advance their case. He was basically saying that the organization's principals were, in effect, wasting the court's time, because the immediate past president, Herbert Haylock, was unavailable to testify for BTIA.

Justice Courtney Abel decided to allow the association to proceed, and today, their attorney, Godfrey Smith, was allowed to make his case. Norwegian's President of Destinations and Strategic Development, Collin Murphy, was called to the stand as the last witness in the case, and Smith grilled him about the process that the company went through to get its environmental impact assessment approved.

BTIA says that the National Environmental Appraisal Committee (NEAC) and the Department of Environment, both headed directly by the Chief Environmental Officer, Martin Allegria, rushed through the approval process. Viewers will remember that in January of last year, the public consultation in Independence Village revealed that the first draft of NCL's EIA was greatly lacking, and so they had to go back and revise it with the missing information, which was then submitted as an addendum.

Today in court BTIA's attorney tried to convince the judge that after this addendum was submitted, NEAC went ahead approved the project without giving the public a second opportunity to critique it in a public forum. NCL's attorney Eamon Courtenay says that there was no need, and that the first consultation was good enough to reveal what needed to be fixed. That in a nutshell is what came out of 3 and a half hours of arguments, and when the lawyers came out of court, we spoke with both sides:

Eamon Courtney, SC - Attorney For Belize Island Holdings/NCL
"Essentially the allegation by the BTIA is that the Department of the Environment and the NEAC did not comply with a very discreet provision of the regulations that there was a second publication that should have been given and that it didn't have in it some details. Our position to the court is that first of all when you read the regulations its not required and secondly, we say to the court that there was a publication, a second publication and no member of the public say that they wanted to make any comments, any criticisms etc. You will recall that there was in fact a public consultation where approximately 500 people were present and they had a lot to say and as a result of that, constructive criticisms were given and amendments were made. The NEAC which is the expert body said that additional information was required. That additional information was supplied and then they considered it and then decided; 1). That they will approved the EIA and 2). That there was no need for a public hearing thereafter and so we are asking the court first of all to give respect to the decision of the NEAC because they are the experts and that a requirement now to public a notice for a project that's 80% done, which serve no useful purpose."

Godfrey Smith, SC - Attorney for BTIA
"They submitted that EIA, there was a public consultation. As your news station reported, it was filled with errors, deficiencies and they were asked by the DOE to submit further information. In submitting that further information, they attempted to follow to the statute by publishing it in the newspapers. That publication had several deficiencies. We are saying that the fact that the notice in the newspapers only gave the public one day to review, meant that that procedural requirement had been breached. Our argument is that there can only be a proper public consultation on an EIA that is complete."

"The public consultation that they had was on an incomplete EIA. We tried to persuade the court today that that supplementary information that they submitted wasn't only supposed to be published in the newspapers and so on, but it must have given adequate time to properly respond, because that is the true spirit and intention of the law of Belize."

Eamon Courtney, SC - Attorney For Belize Island Holdings/NCL
"Let's be frank, you heard allegations of corruption this morning in court without evidence. What we have here is a few people in Placencia who are against any big project. You remember Placencia, they were against that. Now, there is Harvest Caye. They are against that. As long as they feel that their business is going to be affected out of personal interest, they commence these claims and we are hoping that the court is going to see it for what it is."

Godfrey Smith, SC - Attorney for BTIA
"The claim is brought by under the sanction, under the imprimatur of Belize Tourism Industry Association, which as I understand it, is the leading, if not the only mass based private sector tourism representative organization which chapters countrywide. If somebody wants to cast aspersion and say that they are masquerading for some other interest, well that's not the view of they take off, the venerable BTIA."

Eamon Courtney, SC - Attorney For Belize Island Holdings/NCL
"We say this entire case is academic. This is a decision that is 15 months old, that they are now seeking to say to the court was not done in strict compliance with the law."

Both sides are being given a few weeks to submit written arguments, and after that, Justice Courtney Abel will deliberate and give his decision at a date to be announced.

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