Bermuda is Still Paying the Price for the Flawed Airport Deal

Five  years after that fateful day of December 2nd, 2016, where peaceful protesters were attacked as they called for transparency, we are still living with the effects of the flawed airport deal.

To date, Bermuda has paid out $41 million in minimum revenue guarantees to a bank account on Wall Street. That is money that could have been used to invest in Bermudians or invest in critical infrastructure like Tynes’ Bay. But, instead, 5 years later, we, the taxpayers, are still paying the price for the OBA’s poor decisions.

When you look at the actual impact of the airport deal, you can see that not only did we give away our airport for a generation – a revenue generating asset that was lost for some 30 years – but, it is also now costing us tens of millions in guarantees.

In light of just how bad that deal is, when we look back at that fateful day, we can certainly say that the fears and anger everyday Bermudians felt was very much justified. On December 2, 2016 the OBA Government wanted Bermuda’s Parliament to approve a deal that no one but the Cabinet of the day had seen.

In 2017, after the deal was shared with the public, and despite 75% of Bermudians being against the privatisation of the Airport, the OBA pushed forward and sold out a key national asset with the promise that, “It wouldn’t cost the taxpayers a dime”.
It has in fact cost us tens of millions…and counting…

As for those who were pepper sprayed – or, as OBA candidate Dwayne Robinson said, “pepper misted” – on that fateful day, there are still plenty of unanswered questions. We still don’t have the true story of the timeline of what happened that day. And, it is unfortunate that no one was held accountable.

The government is very much hamstrung in the investigation of matters involving law enforcement because we do not have operational control over the police, which lies with the Governor from the United Kingdom. We also remember the stonewalling that happened with the Parliamentary Committee to investigate the events of that day with full and complete evidence not being shared with former ministers not providing answers.

To those Bermudians who stood for transparency and good government on that fateful day and were met with inappropriate force by the police, please know that your effort was not in vain. You helped expose a bad deal and ultimately helped to dismiss a government that not only sold out a national asset to a foreign company but did so with such a rotten deal that we’re still paying the price today.
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