National Assembly Building Undergoes Renovations, House Sittings Relocated

The National Assembly Building in Belmopan is getting a much-needed facelift after being first constructed in 1970. Renovations are underway to improve the facility and make it more accessible for differently abled individuals. So, tomorrow’s sitting of the House of Representatives will take place at the George Price Centre. The centre has been retrofitted and will serve as the National Assembly for the next couple of months. Today, Speaker of the House of Representatives Valerie Woods spoke on the temporary move and why the upgrades were important. 

Valerie Woods, Speaker of the House Of Representatives: “If you recall earlier this year, not too long ago, there was a passage of the disabilities bill, which was made into law. And that was a very clear and glaring example that our legislature, even though it speaks to the House of Representatives and it is the people’s House of Representatives is simply not accessible. It’s not accessible by members of the public who have mobility issues and quite frankly by members of parliament as well as staff who may have mobility issues and media as well. So that was also an urgent need to do that. It fosters inclusion as well. Having assessed the building the technical personnel, the engineers, there’s a major issue with the roof of the National Assembly which again hasn’t been attended to for all these decades. So for all these reasons there was a need. So we looked around Belmopan to see where we could temporarily relocate and the George Price Center for Peace and Development was one of the options and the one that stood out. So we worked with the board of the George Price Center for Peace and Development and thanks to their accommodation and to the really excellent work of the engineers, architects over at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development and Housing, we are now able to hold a House meeting that will, a House and of course Senate meetings afterwards that will be in a chamber that replicates that of the legislature, is functional as per our standing orders. The sacrifice we had to make is we don’t have public gallery. So that we’ll take on a case by case basis and the only option quite frankly to have persons present for the public gallery would be housing them under a tent outside with a big screen but we’re taking this on a case-by-case basis.”

While the government sought to accommodate all sectors at the George Price Centre, Woods says there were some limitations that prevented residents from being in the gallery. She also spoke on what can be expected once works are completed at the National Assembly Building. 

Valerie Woods, Speaker of the House Of Representatives: “Improved, modern, contemporary, accessible. There should be no leaky roofs. The acoustics should be better. We are actually contemplating a possible solar project with the Government of India who has offered so graciously, but we are in the early stages of discussion for that. So it should be a much more improved environment for staff, for members, for the media and the public. We took into consideration that the National Assembly is now live streamed and so we accommodated a very small space for media. No, it’s not laid out with the desks. However there is sufficient space for the media that has attended and covered the legislature when the meetings are being held. There’s also, as you may know, tomorrow we have a swearing in for the member of Toledo East, so very limited space. We’ve had to use some of this space that we would normally use for the media in this space here to allow for just a couple of the members of his family, as we have done in the past. And so that is the limitation that we’re dealing with. But as I’ve mentioned to media who have asked, of course, Tomorrow we do an assessment getting feedback from members, from staff, from the media to see what other adjustments or tweaks we may need to make for future House and Senate meetings.”

The renovations come at a cost of 2.7 million dollars, 1.5 of which is grant from the Taiwanese Government.