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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.

Grainne Ryder, Policy Director
Probe International