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Hon. Julius Espat
"Why are we doing something that will just incur cost. I mean anytime you set up a legislation like this you will have to have the directors, X,Y,Z which means that we will be spending unnecessary money. If at the end of the day the Prime Minister appoints all the members of these boards, so therefore are his yes sir men or women and at the end of the day all the recommendations that they put forward to him, if he refuses to listen to them and implement it, then this absolutely has no role to play. It will just be another council made into law that will have no role to play, but just increase in cost for the government of Belize."

Hon. Patrick Faber "Madam Speaker it is something that I believe should be applauded. Here you have the government engaging. If you look at the way the council is set up - 5 representatives from the government, 5 representatives from the private sector, co-chairs. It is saying to the private sector that we value their contributions in helping us to come up with solutions. We are not trying to make solutions on our own and then they behave like this is something new Madam Speaker, because in fact this council is already in effect."

Hon. John Briceno
"In effect the Prime Minister is appointing his choir and his choir is going to sing praises to the Prime Minister. This should not be an economic development councillor, it's supposed to be the Prime Minister's choir. Why do I say that? Why because there are going to be 10 members. Of the 10 members, 5 of them are going to be from the ministries, which he appoints as the Prime Minister, so they are going to do what he wants, they will tell him what he wants to hear. This is an advisory council. They are not going to implement policies, so bring people who may not think like you. What the Prime Minister is doing with this is by appointing the people he wants and the people that loves him and the people that will praise him, will not allow him to have a different view of how they'd be messing up the economy since 2008."

Hon. Michael Finnegan "And I resent the leader of the opposition, looking on these people and saying that they will just sing the choir of the Prime Minister of the government. These are independent thinkers in this country Madam Speaker who serves this country."

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"This is one time when the member for Cayo South, perhaps uncharacteristically was talking rubbish, absolute foolishness and displayed an ignorance, I mean it not in the creole sense, lack of knowledge that I would not have expected from him. The economic development council is not some afterthought. This is not something that we are just doing as you are suggesting, this has been in place for years. All we are doing is to enshrine it, to formalize it, putting it into law."

The bill was passed with government support.