!BELIZE !No. 25/1/12 SENATE! st Wednesday, !1 July 2015 10:20 !A.M. Pursuant to the direction of Mr. President, in writing, dated 26th June 2015, the Senate met in the National Assembly Chamber in Belmopan on Wednesday, 1st July 2015, at !10:20 A.M. ***-***! ! Members Present: Senator, the Honourable Marco Pech – President Senator, the Honourable Godwin Hulse – Leader of Government Business and Minister of Labour, Local Government, Rural Development, National Emergency Management and Immigration and Nationality Senator, the Honourable Juliet Thimbriel – Vice President Senator, the Honourable Joy Grant – Minister of Energy, Science and Technology and Public Utilities Senator, the Honourable Charles Gibson – Minister of Public Service and Elections and Boundaries Senator, the Honourable Lisel Alamilla – Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Sustainable Development Senator, the Honourable Gerardo Sosa Senator, the Honourable Lisa Shoman Senator, the Honourable Anthony Sylvestre, Jr. Senator, the Honourable Patrick Andrews Senator, the Honourable Markhelm Lizarraga Senator, the Honourable Rev. Fr. Noel Leslie !Senator, the Honourable Adelaida Guerra - Temporary Member! Absent: !Senator, the Honourable Ray Davis !MR. PRESIDENT in the Chair. !PRAYERS read by Mr. President. ! ! OATH OF ALLEGIANCE OF A NEW SENATOR SENATOR A. GUERRA: I, Adelaida Guerra, do swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to Belize, and will uphold the constitution and the law, and I will conscientiously, impartially and to the best of my ability discharge my duties as Senator and do right to all manner of people without fear and favour, affection! or ill-will. So help me God. MR. PRESIDENT: Welcome to today’s sitting, Senator. !2 ! SENATOR A. GUERRA: Thank! you. ! ! ! ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT MR. PRESIDENT: Honourable Members, by letter dated June 26, 2015, Cabinet’s! recommendation has been signified to the following: 1. General Revenue Supplementary Appropriation (No. 2) (2014/2015) Bill, 2015; 2. General Revenue Supplementary Appropriation (2015/2016) Bill, ! 2015; !3. Petrocaribe Loans (Amendment) Bill, 2015; and 4. Cruise Ship Passenger Tax! Bill, 2015. ! BILLS! BROUGHT FROM THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SENATOR G. HULSE (Leader of Government Business and Minister of Labour, Local Government, Rural Development, National Emergency Management and Immigration and Nationality): Pleasant good morning, Mr. President, and colleagues, first of all, I want to welcome Senator Adelaida Guerra to these Chambers. It increases the number of women participation in the Senate to five today.! So welcome to these proceedings. !Mr. President, I rise to take charge of the following Bills: 1. General Revenue Supplementary Appropriation (No. 2) (2014/2015) Bill, 2015; ! 2. General Revenue Supplementary Appropriation (2015/2016) Bill, 2015; ! 3. Petrocaribe Loans (Amendment) Bill, 2015; ! 4. Cruise Ship Passenger Tax Bill, 2015; and ! 5. Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre Bill, 2015. Mr. President, in accordance with Standing Order No. 49 (1) I move that the Bills! be taken through all their stages forthwith. MR. PRESIDENT: Honourable Members, the question is that the Bills be taken! through all their stages forthwith. All those in favour, kindly say aye; those against, kindly say no. I think the ayes! have it. !3 ! ! PAPERS SENATOR G. HULSE (Leader of Government Business and Minister of Labour, Local Government, Rural Development, National Emergency Management and Immigration and Nationality): Mr. President, I rise to lay on the Table Sessional Papers 162/1/12 - Fisheries (Hol Chan Marine Reserve) Regulations, 2015; 163/1/12 - Fisheries (Hol Chan Marine Reserve) Order, 2015; 164/1/12 - Supplementary Appropriation (No. 3) Schedule for Fiscal Year 2014/2015; 165/1/12 - Supplementary Appropriation Schedule for Fiscal Year 2015/2016; and 166/1/12 - The Fourteenth Annual Report of the Ombudsman of Belize for! the year 2014. MR. PRESIDENT: Honourable Members, those papers are order to lie on the Table.! ! MOTIONS RELATING TO THE BUSINESS OR SITTINGS OF THE ! SENATE SENATOR G. HULSE (Leader of Government Business and Minister of Labour, Local Government, Rural Development, National Emergency Management and Immigration and Nationality): Mr. President, I move that at its rising! today the Senate adjourn to a date to be fixed by the President. MR. PRESIDENT: Honourable Members, the question is that at its rising today! the Senate adjourn to a date to be fixed by the President. All those in favour, kindly say aye; those against, kindly say no. I think the ayes! have it. ! PUBLIC BUSINESS! A. GOVERNMENT! BUSINESS ! I MOTIONS 1. Resolution Authorizing the Acceptance by Belize to the Protocol Amending the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the ! World Trade Organization Motion, 2015. SENATOR G. HULSE (Leader of Government Business and Minister of Labour, Local Government, Rural Development, National Emergency Management and Immigration and Nationality): Mr. President, I move that WHEREAS, the Protocol amending the Marrakesh Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization (hereinafter called “the Protocol”) was done at Geneva on 27 November! 2014 (WT/L/940); AND WHEREAS, in accordance with its paragraph 4, the Protocol shall enter into force in accordance with Article X:3 of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing! the World Trade Organization; AND WHEREAS, section 61(A)(2)(a) of the Belize Constitution as amended by the Belize Constitution (Fourth Amendment) Act (No. 39 of 2001) provides that the Senate shall authorize the acceptance of any protocol by the Government of Belize; !4 ! NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate authorizes the Government of Belize to accept the Protocol, a full text of which is hereto annexed.! SENATOR L. SHOMAN: Mr. President, there is absolutely no doubt that one of the important functions of the Senate is the ratification of treaties and protocols. All of these treaties and protocols, Mr. President, are important. But I am forgetting! my manners, Mr. President, and that is not a good thing. Let me start, first of all, with your indulgence, by welcoming our newest colleague, Senator Adelaida Guerra. It gives me special pleasure to be able to welcome another woman to this Honourable Chamber. I admit my bias in regard to having more women in the Senate. This is not to say anything at all negative about her predecessor; however, it’s lovely to have Senator Guerra here. I know that we can lean on her special skills. She is a teacher, and I’m sure she has a lot to teach all of us here today. So I look forward to working with you, Senator. Please know that my bench and I give you a warm welcome as well as all our support.! We look forward to working with you. Thank you. Mr. President, the job of the Senate sometimes is described as being a rubber stamp, and that is unfair because one of the important functions that we do have is not only the ratification of legislation, the passage of Bills, but we have an important part to play in legislation making. However, we also have an extremely important role to play in terms of these international protocols, conventions, agreements that we are asked to ratify by motion, and this says that, this is a motion saying that we authorize the acceptance of this protocol. Now I know that we got our papers, some of us, a little earlier than we usually do, and I was happy to have it because it allowed me the time to go and read through this. However, I keep saying, Mr. President, and one day I hope to be heard, that it would be good when these things come to us in the Senate that we be provided with either an explanation note or the same courtesy of the briefing notes that Cabinet gets when it considers these matters. There is absolutely no excuse or reason why the Executive should be given more privilege than the Legislators when it comes to these matters.! And so, Mr. President, I will not and I cannot in good conscience continue to simply just signify my acceptance of these things, even if they are important, even if they are necessary, without being given the benefit of a full explanation because, Mr. President, one of the things that is clear under almost all of these conventions is that they have deep implications for our national law and a lot of time, Mr. President, they place heavy obligations on us, as a country, for reporting. The next thing you know, either we don’t report, or we don’t provide the information, or we skip a step, or we don’t do something, and our country is shown up in the international stage as ignoring a convention which it has ratified. I’m not in favour of that. I’m not in favour of our continuing to just stand up and say, “Aye”, or sometimes nothing at all, and these things pass. I wish the Leader of Government Business to convey, once again, to the Attorney General’s Ministry who normally takes charge of these things that we expect to see explanation! notes on these things. They do exist, and we would like to have them. It is not fair to those of my colleagues, who necessarily don’t have the background to be able to thoroughly go through the international law implications that some of these conventions have and, for instance, this one in particular which I know the Leader of Government Business is probably quite skilled in because it has to do with international trade, and he has always been someone who has been very au fait with the rules and the obligations of that. I had the good fortune of !5 being able to work with him when I was the Minister responsible for foreign trade. And so I was able to read, understand and absorb what is in here. And what is clear to me is that my fellow Senators and I are being asked to ratify these things without notes of explanation, and it isn’t right.