September 8, 2026 — Though the contentious Revenue Authority Bill was pulled from the Senate’s official agenda for this week’s sitting, organized opposition to the proposed legislation is far from dissipating. Glenfield Dennison, a senator aligned with the national labor movement, has launched an aggressive lobbying campaign aimed at convincing his fellow legislative members to vote down the bill when it eventually comes up for formal debate.
The bill, which would establish a semi-autonomous revenue authority to manage the country’s tax and collection functions, has drawn fierce pushback from trade unions across multiple sectors. Organized labor groups had prepped large-scale public demonstrations for Wednesday, ready to mobilize immediately if the bill was added to the Senate’s order paper as a last-minute supplementary item. While the planned showdown was averted this week after the bill remained off the agenda, Dennison confirmed that opposition forces are maintaining a state of high alert and are prepared to resume protest action at a moment’s notice.
Speaking in an interview with reporter Paul Lopez, Dennison, who serves as a representative for the National Trade Union Council of Belize (NTUCB), reaffirmed that he stands in full solidarity with the Public Service Union (PSU) in their demand to scrap the bill entirely. “It was not on the order papers, but the unions are very alert in relation to whether it would be added as a supplemental and we had some protest action ready to be triggered in the event I came to the Senate this morning and it was on the order paper,” Dennison explained. “As the representative for the NTUCB I am very much aligned with the protest action by the PSU in relation to this Semi-autonomous Revenue Authority not being brought into force and I myself lobby in relation to having that bill killed.”
When asked when the bill could return to the Senate for a vote, Dennison struck a confident tone: “If my lobbying is successful then it should not come.” To date, Senate leadership has not released an updated timeline for when the Revenue Authority Bill will be brought up for debate, leaving the legislation’s future uncertain amid sustained pushback from labor groups. Dennison emphasized that opponents will not ease their pressure, vowing to challenge the proposal at every stage — from closed-door lobbying on the Senate floor to mass public demonstrations outside the legislature.
This report is adapted from a televised evening newscast transcript.