Attn: Editor
Belize Times
Belize City,
Belize, Central America,

Re: The University of Toronto Forum on the Chalillo Dam

Dear Editor:

In his March 23, 2003 article (“Matola Says Belizeans Are Stupid”),
Belize Times reporter Norris Hall accused Belize Zoo Director Sharon
Matola of saying that Belizeans “are not capable of reaching the
‘right’ conclusion on the building of the Chalillo dam on the Macal
River.” Ms Matola said no such thing. If anything, Ms Matola and
other speakers at last month’s University of Toronto forum on the
Chalillo dam controversy argued just the opposite by defending the
Belizean public’s right to voice their worthy opinions through the
democratic process. Clearly Mr. Hall has missed the point of the
Toronto forum, which was to provide an opportunity for open and
civil debate about this very Canadian project.

The entire proceedings of the forum are available for anyone to
listen to by webcast at www.envireform.utoronto.ca.

Regrettably, Canadian proponents, including Fortis Inc. of
Newfoundland and Toronto-based AMEC, declined the opportunity to
respond to their critics, as did the minister responsible for the
Canadian International Development Agency – the agency that used
Canadian aid dollars to pay for Fortis’ now-discredited
environmental assessment. It is these parties that are treating the
Belizean public with disdain by refusing to account to them in the
open, transparent, and democratic process that all Belizean citizens
deserve and strive for.

What Mr. Hall failed to disclose is that his “source” was the
Honorary Consul of Belize, Toronto-based lawyer Michael Peterson,
who argued that since Belize has an elected government noone has any
business questioning the US$30 million deal it promised Fortis – the
billion-dollar Canadian power company that owns Belize’s national
electric utility (BEL) and the private company (BECOL) that wants to
build the Chalillo hydro dam.

As a lawyer, the Honorary Consul should know better. Governments are
obliged to do a good deal more than hold elections every now and
then if they want to protect citizens’ rights and electricity
ratepayers from monopoly abuse. Fortis has an unregulated monopoly
over an essential public service. At the moment, Fortis can force
its captive electricity ratepayers to pay whatever it decides is
acceptable for electricity, it can shut out competitors thus denying
ratepayers any choice of supplier, it can unfairly impose costs and
liabilities onto taxpayers and communities along the Macal River,
and it has somehow acquired the “rights” to the Macal River without
liability for damages to downstream water supplies, property or
businesses, and without informed consent from the people who will be
directly affected.

Since Fortis bought the Mollejon dam and proposed building Chalillo
further upstream, it has evaded formal public and regulatory
scrutiny of its business operations and the proposed dam deal
between its government-protected utility (BEL) and its private hydro
company (BECOL).

What the Honorary Consul and other Canadian proponents of the
Chalillo dam fail to grasp is that Canadians will not stop asking
tough questions of Fortis and their own government, as is their
right, until Fortis submits to proper public and regulatory
scrutiny, and answers those tough questions.

To ensure that happens, Ms Matola and Belize’s environmental
coalition, BACONGO, have asked Belize’s Public Utilities Commission
to uphold the public’s right to a formal review of Fortis’ costs and
competitive generating alternatives. The coalition also intends to
ask the Privy Council of Great Britain to uphold the Belizean
public’s right to a fair and impartial hearing process on Chalillo.

Ms Matola and BACONGO are asking the government of Belize to uphold
the laws of the land in order to protect citizens’ democratic
rights. What could be more respectful of Belizean citizens than
that? Fortis cannot hide behind the Belizean government anymore.

Gr√°inne Ryder, Policy Director
Probe International