2 Hour Video: Airport Development Meeting
[Updated] The Government is presently holding an information session on the airport redevelopment plan in St. George’s this evening [Oct 20].
The announcement said, “In attendance will be the Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance E.T. Richards, Minister of Tourism and Transport Development Shawn G. Crockwell and Minister of Economic Development Dr E. Grant Gibbons.
“There will also be presentations from representatives of prime contractor CCC and construction firm Aecon. During the meeting Tuesday evening, short presentations will be made followed by a panel discussion and a question and answer period.
You can tune in to our Periscope stream of the public meeting on the airport development project here.
As a note the audio on Periscope streams is not exactly the best, but for most systems [computers/tablets etc] listening through headphones plugged into your system makes the audio more ideal. If the stream ‘sticks’ refreshing your screen [F5 key] generally works to get it going again.
Update 7.41pm: The meeting is still ongoing. It started with brief speeches from Government Ministers and the overseas speakers, and then the floor was opened to questions.
Update 7.59pm: The meeting has concluded and the replay of the stream is below. Apologies for the low audio, we will replace this with a ‘proper video’ later, which uses our mic system, however that will take a few hours due to the logistics of getting a two hour video online, so in the meantime the 2-hour stream replay is below.
Update Oct 21: The stream replay has been removed and the full 2-hour video is below, with considerably better audio
The speakers were Tourism Minister Shawn Crockwell, Finance Minister Bob Richards and Economic Development Minister Dr Grant Gibbons, as well as representatives from CCC and Aecon.
Those in attendance included St George’s Mayor Quinell Francis, Airport General Manager Aaron Adderley, BPSU President Jason Hayward, BIU President Chris Furbert, Rev Nicholas Tweed, Kim Swan, Senator Diallo Rabain, PLP MP Lovitta Foggo, PLP MP Lawrence Scott, PLP MP Wayne Furbert, PLP MP David Burt, OBA MP Nandi Outerbridge, OBA MP Suzann Holshouzer, OBA MP Glenn Smith, Minister Craig Cannonier, Minister Michael Fahy, Minister Wayne Scott, Senator Vic Ball and others.
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This govt is crap
And plp would be so much better. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Actually, after attending the meeting and from the years past, I don’t think we have any real viable parties. This meeting was a mess. Fumbling questions, vague and ambiguous questions, getting caught in a lie. Both parties apparently just wing it when then get into office…
Didn’t see it as you did!
PLP is a mess and destroying this country, not the OBA! If you cannot see this, you’re blind! Different country in 1998 compared to 2013…
The OBA continues to struggle to fix the mess the PLP left (how short memories are).
PLP lacks worthy leaders…founding leaders would be disgusted as to what’s morphed! The void in leadership is leading to chaos…misinformation; frankly just a lot of nonsense.
It’s time for a third party, PLP needs to split up for the sake of Bermuda’s survival.
I agree with Quinton. You are only blowing the OBA horn because you’re a fanboy and that’s it. OBA supporters will give praise to the OBA no matter what happens and that’s a FACT.
After reviewing this, it’s clear that there was not enough time for a concise Q & A and the young lady who questioned SpongeBob about tourist numbers caught him in a Fuzzy space. But it would be nice to have Rev. Tweed and SpongeBob on an one on one open mic and unrestricted dialogue.
Priceless.
You mean a debate between a Government Minister and a non Bermudian on work permit? Rev Tweed, an American, has no right to stick his nose into hie our country is being run. Period
Buzz does not equal increased arrival numbers. She was the fuzzy one.
That’s the point exactly Lois Frederick. So why say it in the first place?? BoBo Richards was trying to infer that more tourists would come here just because we have a brand spanking new airport. Stop treating people like they are stupid. He messed up; he got caught. Simple. Stop defending the circus.
The fundemental fact of life… no plan survives contact. However I am still not convicted that what Minister Richards is doing to for a new airport isn’t in our best interest.
An RFP doesn’t in anyway garauntee value for money, that only comes with a concise construction contract. That contract would have to be developed with whoever wants to build this airport, and as is being shown, that contract development is not an overnight process, to date it has taken over a year, is expected to take another year more, and they have only just begun working on the contract.
To date, no one, and I mean no one, has come forward with a better proposal that won’t leave government on the hook for the costs… not even the PLP’s version of an authority, which is effectively what they did with the Hospital plan, and now we saw a huge increase to our premiums this year to pay for it.
Anybody and everybody that knows, knows that our existing airport is in life support, so we can’t put off a new one much longer. And why should we, how can we market ourselves as a first class business and travel destination if people have to get off a plane in a deluge, and try and sprint to the terminal, or try getting someone in a wheel chair off the plane with some dignity. Then there is the matter that the airport has had major flooding multiple times during major storms, one of which was with its own sewage.
And as for Reverend Tweed now claiming that this is nothing more than another robbery of our freedom of speech, how can we take that seriously when the PC had the media gag comments from the public in another matter. Of course the Minister isn’t up there talking about everything they are doing, they are in high level negotiations on a large and complicated contract… NDA’s aside, until there is a signature is signed, you don’t openly blab on about everything you are doing in those negotiations, because nothing is set yet. You say something one day, and you might have to say something else the next. Now either the PLP/PC now this and are using this fact to their advantage of spreading misinformation that can’t be directly refuted immediately (in which case that shows their definition of integrity) or they don’t understand this (in which case, they show themselves as unfit to even play at such high levels of business and leadership).
To date, the Minister has made it very clear what they are trying to do and achieve for this country and the difficulties and comprimises that we must realize to achieve it and to date, no one has been able to show that he isn’t trying to do the best he can for Bermuda on this critical matter.
Missed that autocorrect, second sentence should read ‘However, I am still not convinced…’
Really??? That’s all you can say on the subject matter and you expect us with intelligence to listen to you??? Why don’t you for a moment sit back and think of it this way?? Would you rather support the ” what’s in it for me plp ” or support the ” what’s good for all BDA ” OBA!!! Anyone with any once of intelligence has to start thinking with all that has happened in the last few days, Example being, AC, ST George hotel and soon to come Morgan’s Point and let’s not forget Pink Beach and Ariel Sands along with this Airport Develpment and before long we are going to have 100% Bermudian employment again!!! So tell me again why you support the ” what’s in it for me plp?? ” They are directly responsible for all your economic pain and you still can’t see it, how dense are you???
see this is why we cant progress as a country because of die hard political a@#$#%&s like this one because in their eyes their party can do no wrong. we understand OBA the IMF pulls your strings they tell you what to do instead of you doing whats right by the MAJORITY of the people.
What does the IMF have to do with the OBA, the actions the OBA. Have taken in the last couple years to cut and try and eliminate the massive PLP deficit, are what has stopped us from being sold to the IMF. It was the PLP who were trying to sell us to the IMF
It’s the PLP that sold us into financial turmoil to foreign banks.
ok so….what do you suggest? Do you have another govt in mind or are you just saying they suck in general?
Can you honestly say you would feel more comfortable hearing from Finance Minister BURT? With Premier BEAN sitting at the head of the table?
Think on these things…
I don’t exactly trust our govt but I’d trust the plp a whole lot less. Who are they kidding?
Only a fool can / or would be confident in them two needless to say the Progressive Labour Party! By the way, give credit where credit is due you two…
You are a fool. Plus you’re not that smart. I read some of the trash you post on these forums.
I have no problem signing my name like certain other
Why is it an empty can makes the most noise?
But you are the trashcan because whenever you open your lid garbage comes out.
LOL
The previous government was crap. The best evidence of that can be seen every day when driving past the Grand Atlantic. Lots of other examples, but it is too early (and I haven’t had enough coffee yet) for me to bother to type them out.
WOW. Double shot of Kool Aid for d. smith!
Right they truly on the defence… And aint none of them deny what I said… Hahahaha… Truth hurts. For the record I’m apolitical…. This govt is a sell out to the people of this country!
A sell out to the people of this country means that it is meeting the needs of the people of this country through thick and thin resistance from PLP henchmen.
Doing what it takes for all of Bermuda.
That is good for Bermuda and you.
Your questions are too sensible and lacking of any obvious political affiliation for the diehards on this thread.
What happened? No questions?
Just watched the whole thing watching the first video. Put it on the tv and the whole thing was sideways on the screen for nearly 2 hours! Very informative although somewhat ambushed by the plp/people’s campaign during the question period. Poor Tweed is so used to doing a 3 hour sermon the 2 minute time for his question was a good exercise for him to practice not speak as much and get to the point. The young lady that tried to suggest that referring to building the new airport would create a buzz, by a govt minister, trying to infer that they were saying it would increase air arrivals was off the mark. That conclusion was purely fabricated in her head. Buzz is buzz. Keep moving forward Bob and all the team involved in this project. Bermudians need the jobs.
What is the purpose of the buzz?
Do you really believe throwing the airport in with all those other projects is going to disguise what essentially is a bad idea financially in the long run.If you can’t see at least this one project for what it is I have to ask who is really talking to hear themselves.To sell out years of revenue for a few short term construction jobs makes no sense I also wonder if a name change goes with it.
If it walks,looks and sounds like a duck it’s not a swan.
PS………don’t sue me wink wink.
You can tell here who lives in a box and does not use the piece of crap we call an airport!
After listening g to the whole video, it is obvious that the Minister is most reluctant to quote any real numbers at all. He only refers to the $249m construction cost, the 30 year concession period, and the $2.5m that AECON has supposedly paid out up to the end of ‘phase 1′ in this 4 phase thing.
Giving away 30 years of revenue is a bad idea, with or without actual dollar numbers.
Give us numbers.
Giving away years of costs too.
Remember though, Government will retain the expenses of Air Traffic Control, Fire Service support, runway and electronics maintenance. Together these amount to over $10 million a year. AECON gets all of the Departure Tax revenue and all the landing fees and rentals from the Terminal that it will run. AECON only has to run and maintain the terminal that is planned to be built.
Listen to the video. Get the facts.
AECON will most importantly have to build the airport too and don’t forget that profit share agreement.
What do you propose as an alternative with no way of borrowing $250 million, like was done for the hospital? If you say let’s not bother building a new airport, then how are you going to create jobs, for desperate Bermudians out of work? Yes, it is a critical point and the OBA said they would create 2000 jobs. This is part of that PLAN and this is how it will happen, even with the headwinds. I think even those against this now understand and accept that it is going to happen anyway. A talk show host recently interviewing the Governor went strangely silent, when in answering a question, about how or if the Govt could be stopped from proceeding with the airport. He said they could not be stopped, as the elected Govt. btw I watched the entire video.
Can you tell me why a completely new airport is required? Do you rebuild a new house if it has leaks? NO, what you do is repair and update as required. You have really drank and covered yourself in the OBA Koolaid. Poor you. Think critically, why don’t you? Just dumb.
Do you buy a new car when the old one costs $10,000 a year to maintain?
What is the yearly budget to repair the existing airport? I understand it to be somewhere around 4.5 mil. Do the math and it is only getting worse. Oh and it was built in 1947. With today’s building methods we’ll end up with an airport paid for that would give use years more revenue at no cost to us.
Maybe someone could explain the revenue lost or gained with this project?
Where would we get the money to build this airport without CCC and Aecon?
Your questions are too sensible and lacking of any political affiliation for the rest of the die hards on these threads.
@Widget. Is CCC and Aecon the only companies on planet earth that offer this type of arrangement? Did they build every single airport in every single city and country around the globe ? Or perhaps, just perhaps there may be other similar companies that may just perhaps offer a more competitive bid that also build airports?
But this Govt doesn’t wish to engage in best practices or good governance with this issue and refuses to explain why. They just want to push on through with this senseless no bid arrangement at the expense of the people of Bermuda. They only wish for us to believe that CCC and Aecon are the only true ‘gods’ who exist in airport construction.
That is the convenient issue missing here amidst all the distractions about the bad PLP, etc etc… Again there are far more priorities in this country to deal with. I have yet to determine my travel plans based on what the airport looked like. And I bet if you took a survey of tourists about our airport (another conveniently missing issue as far as I am aware), they probably won’t care two hoots about it. Once they land, they just want to get to the hotel to enjoy our island. We had a far smaller airport that still accommodated more flights and much more tourists a couple of decades ago. Now millions of our revenue are to be given up based on an OBA hell bent idea to make this a priority. Creating knee jerk and unsustainable short term jobs is not the answer. Dealing with our faulty revenue formula of uneven taxation and the high reliance on our outdated tourism product and IB is.
The arrogance of the preacher is astounding. Everyone else, including Chris Furbert & Aunt Peggy, were most respectful. Tweed knew the time limit, went over it, and then argued with the moderator.
The religious entitlement of this man is disgusting. People have been told to leave for less.
Unfortunately democracy is messy and allows anybody to vote so we do end up for the most part with persons who could not get a real job at the salary they get, making decisions about our tax money that impact our lives. Most of the comments on this thread are made either tongue-in-cheek or by persons who have no real understanding of why a firm invests in a project and what the expectations of return is acceptable, or what motivates a Government to make choices.
We have an opportunity to not spend millions of dollars on the unemployment benefit programmes (call them what you will) and have persons pay payroll taxes and rents etc. Yet we squabble over the tiniest of issues to pretend we know something to say of worth.
The only clear fact that emerges in all this noise of this project is that there are those that will NEVER see the benefits of this project no matter how you present them and there are those that will NEVER understand the mistrust and resentment by the opposed to this project.
Being creative is a risk, there are ways to mitigate that risk to a point that is acceptable to those making the decisions. The other side of the coin is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result( definition of insanity). We have no means of financing any project at this time. We need to generate new foreign investment and get Bermudians employed. Whilst it would be nice to think we can get it right every time ( regardless of which side ), only time will determine who was more right as in Grand Atlantic, Dockyard wharfs, creating two senior schools, creating middle school structure, closing the Tech.
Unprecedented times in Bermuda over the next 5 years. The island has never seen this level of inward investment, with all the development that going to take place. Transformational.