Belize Port Authority Increases Marina Fees, Sparking Outrage Among Owners

The Belize Port Authority has created quite a vexation among owners of piers and marinas across the country.  This is because the authority has announced an increase in fees as well as the establishment of new fees for boat and marina owners.  For the owners of marinas, they will now be required to get a yearly permit and would have to pay one dollar and five cents per square foot of their marina.  There is also an inspection fee that has been established which can go from one hundred and fifty dollars to seven hundred.  Maritime Consultant Edmund Staine, who works with many of the marina owners affected by the regulations, says that people want to know what services the Belize Port Authority (BPA) will be providing if they will have to start paying for something that they have enjoyed free of cost for many years. Staine says there is also a widespread concern that the process leading up to the passage of the regulations was confusing and left many marina owners in the dark.

Edmond Staine, Maritime Consultant: “Some of the stakeholders were not really as involved as they would want to be in terms of drafting regulation and knowing how the mechanisms would work. So that sparks some level of confusion. And if it comes to Belizean people having to pay new money, the first thing they want to know is what is the new service that you’re going to provide? So some of the questions include if the Belize Port Authority is going to provide some signage and lighting or navigations for them. And those are some of the issues that were raised. It’s just a matter of a lack of transparency in terms of the process that was done and the stakeholder management portion of the implementation package needs to be expanded where they take more into consideration, especially the persons that have big marinas, or the persons that have this “I have this pier all my life and never had to pay anything, and now I have to pay a fee.” So now they want to know okay, I’m paying this fee for what? It has a lot of confusion people don’t like  to spend money, you know, in Belize especially if you had something going on all the years and then now all of a sudden, you know something springs up. They want to know what is this about? What am I going to be paying every year, you know, does this have any limitation for me trying to expand my business? Can I stop somebody from coming up to my pier now because I have to pay a fee now so that means does it become a private pier now? Are you guys going to clear the access channel going up to my pier? Is it, is navigational channel is going to be cleared? You know, are you going to provide lighting for us? Are you going to provide signage for us,  security? You know, what is it that it’d be the Belize Port Authority will be providing additionally that, you know, that  necessitates this type of increase in fees.”

Acting Ports Commissioner Kaylon Young says that the legislation was enacted to ensure proper regulation and safety standards for over-water structures. He added that enforcement is a critical component in the push for greater safety and that the fees are necessary to cover enforcement. 

Kaylon Young, Acting Ports Commissioner: “One of the main things for us is, like I said, to ensure that our waterways are safe. And to do that, we have to do more enforcement. This year, we are focused on doing a lot more enforcement in the maritime space, in the different areas. And enforcement costs. We have to ensure that the people around operating in our waters are safe and to ensure that our waterways, our public are safe, we need public support. We’re not asking them to give us a donation financially. We’re just implementing the marina regulation, which was I should say which was passed last year September 2024. We haven’t been charging anyone as an offense for having a marina. We are currently doing educational campaigns. Before the marina was drafted, we did some consultations in different places with different people. So now we’re going out educating the public that this is what the regulation is and if you want to apply for a marina this is what the fees are as specified in the regulation. And even though we’ve got complaints, we have gotten a lot of people that are willing to comply and they understand the regulation. We have heard that concern already. And that’s one of the reasons why we are not charging anyone, not charging any offense to anyone right now for having a marina. We’ve taken this time to go out and do more public awareness. The law says that if you don’t have a permit for a marina or any structure it’s an offense but we’re not being hell bent on that right now. We’re just using this time as public awareness. I understand a lot of people say they weren’t aware of it, they weren’t adequate public consultations. And so we just want to now take this time to go out and educate the public and so that more people are aware.”

The Belize Port Authority is currently not charging anyone for not having their permits, due to an ongoing public sensitization campaign.  According to Young, he cannot give a definite time on when the BPA will begin cracking down on owners for their permits, but that it will be sooner rather than later. For context, the Harbours and Merchant Shipping (Marina) Regulations 2024 were enacted in September last year.