Orchestrated faux rage and a sign of how desperate the Combined Opposition are, faced with a bold national infrastructure project, that creates many jobs, at a time when the coffers are dry, with no longer any ability to borrow to fund such a project.

Fight it all the way PC. It will be built as planned, because it is a plan that “ticks a lot of boxes” and is a good idea for the times we currently live in.

Well I happen work at the airport frequently, have family & friends who work there as well so I guess I do know why and I bet you don’t!! Nuff said.

(Rings school bell to let class out)

1. Get a better deal.
- how do you know, nobody has presented one, only one company made a presentation in to response to the Minister very public announcement about his plan for seeking a PPP that would not burden the public books
2. Does not need to be done right now.
- if you have seen the current one, in its glorious truth, you would know that we do need one, the current one is falling apart, it’s infrastucture sytems are old, some 50/60yrs
3. We can finance ourselves.
- seriously… no we can’t
4. Denies us an avenue of income for 35 years.
- if we financed this ourselves, we wouldn’t have access to those revenues anyway, as they (and more from the government coffers) would be going to the loan and its interest and the garantees cost overruns, that would be required for us to do so.
5. Those making this deal will be dead and gone with future generations left holding the bag.
- same would be said about if they got the loan to finance it, we would still be holding the bag after they are gone.
6. A new airport is not going to turn around tourism.
- it isn’t necessarily about that, but it would present better than peeling paint, exposed wiring, rusting pipes and having to get off a plane into the rain.
7. This government feels they are not obliged to follow standards
- actually, the new airport will have to meet with international standards, Andes it has been shown, they have been doing their due diligence
8. We can find $70 million for an event but we can not raise/find $200 million for an airport.
- we aren’t putting up $70m, much of that is expected to be recouped or covered with sponsorship and it is expected that while government will not see a ROI for what they put in directly, it is the economy that will see a ROI of more than 3 fold to your $70m
9. Puts control of our airport in another person’s hands
- only really as far as the airport operations, as we are in the process of taking control of our airspace and Aecon/CCC will still be responsible to meet the airport regulation set by government, in the same way the airport would if it was governement run, regulations that will still be in governemnt’s control and responsibility. As a side note, until the mid/late nineties the US controlled our airport, and we currently do not control our own airspace
10. Proves Our Government is DUMB and CLUELESS when it comes to being TRANSPARENT
- to a degree, course that fact that this deal is being done to the review of an independent review for value that is being vetted by the FCO, this is being done with greater transparency than an other government contract before it. An RFP does not garantee value or transparency, look at the last 30 years for that. And we cannot expect transparency on contract negotiations of any kind to be transparent, as any negotiation of these nature are always subject to NDA’s

Thus that $750mn was raised to pay basic operating costs of the Govt incurred by the PLP due to their drunken sailor spending. That monies is not inclusive of capital project spending.

The fact that you think we can just simply add another $250mn of debt on top of the $300mn annual deficit shows how you are not the mist financially inclined individual.

$70mn of which $25mn is a simple sponsorship guarantee while the rest is comprised of capital projects which will be used post-AC to house Marine and Ports and the like. But without the AC it wouldn’t have happened.

All the projects ‘self-financed’ over the last 10 years resulted in hundreds of millions of so called ‘overruns’ which is paid for by the taxpayer.

This Richards deal as stated hundreds of times over eliminates any threats of overruns as the CCC will be responsible for absorbing them.

So again, much like your beloved PLP, you have no clue on finances or how PLP mismanagement has led to the need for austerity and creative financing for capital projects.

Now write another dumb comment and add your even dumber smiley face after as it still doesn’t negate the fact that you don’t have a clue:)

Swizzel Air.

Build a hotel on part on the area and have cruises and Castle Harbor will be alive again.

Um gonna go and get a PPP and draft it.

(My idea so don’t steal it OBA).

Fly High-Swizzel Low will be the new name of the hotel.

I need a rum.

But then lets face it, they never should have been in power. They pulled the race card to get elected, pulled the race card for 14 years and lost for the very same reason. They have zero substance, and all they ever did was pull the race card.

At some point you have to actually get on and do something – and that is what OBA is doing.

But please everyone, spare a thought for this party in decline – the once great PLP.

They now have resorted to having a foreign preacher do their pleading with the public. Pleading is what it is – a final attempt at getting support – via religious guilt and intimidation.

Thank goodness only a few a falling for it.

RIP-PLP

The longer we dilly dally the slower recovery and the larger the debt.

The main questions to be asked are:
Why did Aecon think they had to use CCC letterhead as a cover for their visit to Bermuda?

Does CCC and Aecon think that such a ‘cover’ represents a good business tactic?

How do they respond to some Bermudian beliefs that such a tactic ‘using CCC as a cover’ engenders a lack of trust?

Did CCC and Aecon keep Minsiter Richards in the dark about the Aecon involvement at the outset? If so, why?

And it is amazing that in less than 2 minutes of me looking at your comment that it went from a dozen likes to 175. Autobots are in full use!

At some point the repairs will eat up that 3 million a year and there will be a deficit. Many seem to count the 3 million as it is a guaranteed number every year for the next 35 years. What was the total for the last 35 years? When I see that, then lets have an intelligent chat on the financial impact.

Reality is that the airport is on government land and they will collect some form of rent (or maybe you think they will give that away too).

It’s shocking that we are all going to be welfare recipients and people are happy about it. Just a few years ago people were very critical about the number of people on the island that were getting “hand outs” now all 60,000 of us will be on welfare.

If there are 60,000 people here the 200 million dollar payout from AECON works out to be just over $3300 each which then turns out to be just over $95 each over the next 35 years. That’s without overruns.

We raise all types of money on this island for all types of things…..a lot of our money supports places and problems all over the world and now we are the ones taking charity from others.

Will this further decrease our financial ratings? Will we still be considered first world while accepting this type of third world solution to a “problem” that doesn’t really seem as big as it’s being made out to be?

Well if they did say that the people of Bermuda are stupid; for proof they would only have to show them the previous Govts track record & the subsequent election results, well until 17th Dec 2012 that is. Thankfully we smartened up for that one.

They could also show them some of your comments on these sites just to add clarity.

So does rohnda, make it a double. lol

Wow that is pure gibberish & you have a degree?!

‘… whose got the interest of the Bermudian people”.

Certainly not the PLP despite their protestations over this project.

I hope that helps.