Bermuda Government Ministers have been accused of giving away control of LF Wade International Airport to foreign interests.

The grass roots community group the People’s Campaign has called a town-hall meeting for tomorrow night, urging “all Bermudians to make their voices heard” on Friday at 9am at the House of Assembly, where Parliament is due to resume at 10am.

It came as the Campaign made public e-mails hundreds of pages long documenting the inside discussions behind the Government’s deal to redevelop the airport. The documents, obtained by the group under Canada’s freedom of information act, were aired in part on ZBM on Monday night.

Campaign members Rev Nicholas Tweed, Bermuda Industrial Union president Chris Furbert and Bermuda Public Services Union president Jason Hayward called on the One Bermuda Alliance administration to give full disclosure on the proposal, saying the documents suggested malfeasance on the part of the Government. Yesterday the group accused Finance Minister Bob Richards and Tourism and Transport Minister Shawn Crockwell of potentially surrendering “hundreds of millions of dollars in government revenues”, as well as ceding control of the Island’s airport to the Canadian construction giant Aecon Concessions.

The series of e-mails was posted online at the site airportemails.tumblr.com.

Mr Richards, who returns today from overseas, insisted on Monday that suggestions of impropriety were false. The minister was not available for comment last night.

If approved, the plan to build a new terminal will rest on a public-private partnership with the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC).

CCC, which has kept a low profile during political wranglings over the proposal, last night issued a statement in response to the allegations. Mr Richards has said in Parliament that the decision to take on Aecon rested with CCC rather than the Government — a statement he reiterated as “100 per cent accurate” this week. In its statement, CCC said that Aecon had alerted the corporation to Bermuda’s need for a redeveloped airport, and defended subsequently taking on Aecon as a contractor.

The Government and Opposition have disagreed stridently over the deal with CCC since it was announced by Mr Richards in November 2014, when he signed a tentative agreement with Luc Allary, CCC’s regional director Caribbean and Central America.

The e-mails include a communication from CCC’s Andrew Shisko to Mr Allary in April 2014, in which he writes that the intention was to “privatise” the airport — something the Government has consistently denied.

It was also likened to a similar deal with Cayman, which was dropped after the British Government intervened due to concerns over the lack of open tendering.

Other communications have Mr Richards telling CCC representatives that he could use his ministerial power to “put aside the typical competitive procurement processes”. Premier Michael Dunkley has defended bypassing the open tendering process, emphasising the need to move swiftly.

In the CCC e-mails, the Bermuda deal was subsequently called a “rehabilitation” of the airport, similar to the corporation’s job in Quito, Ecuador.

Steve Nackan, president of Aecon Concessions, referred in a July 2014 e-mail to the importance of maintaining “CCC cover” during a visit to Bermuda for site diligence.

E-mails show Mr Richards keen to move ahead: airport general manager Aaron Adderley suggested to Mr Nackan that a draft memorandum of understanding be prepared by late July, followed by Mr Richards asking if “we will get something before Cup Match”.

During repeated clashes with the Progressive Labour Party over the deal, Mr Richards has maintained that the selection of Aecon rested with CCC, rather than Bermuda’s Government.

However, the position of local construction official Michael Butt on Aecon’s board aroused PLP suspicions. No request for proposal accompanied Aecon’s selection.

Mr Butt is the chairman and chief executive officer of Somers Construction Ltd and holds the same position for Toronto-based general contractor Buttcon Ltd. The released e-mails has CCC’s director of business development and sales, Don Olsen, querying the notion of the Aecon team using the CCC logo during their visit to the Island.

Other e-mails referred to generating favourable press once the deal went public, including a reference to “a script” and suggestion of getting questions “planted”.

CCC and Aecon travelled to the Island in August 2014 to meet with Mr Richards and others, including Stephen Poon of Somers Construction.

Communications later that month suggested that the proposal grew “problematic” for CCC, and included the following from Mr Nackan to Mr Olsen: “We are spending a ton of $$ daily on this. Going back to Bermuda with a message that we need an approach we tabled is going to be highly embarrassing, will erode trust and is risky.”

An October 31 e-mail from Mr Adderley references “overtures” by CCC to the British Government “in an effort to overcome the disinclination that has been shown thus far in authorising the Entrustment that Bermuda seeks”.

A November 8 e-mail from Mr Richards enclosing his ministerial statement announcing the deal, addressed to Mr Adderley and the Department of Communication and Information, includes the line: “I’ve fuzzied up the no new debt part in view of the funding gap”.

In the wake of the press conference, at which Mr Richards and Mr Allary signed a letter of agreement, Mr Adderley told Mr Allary: “By the way, the UK approved the Entrustment.”

“How did they do that?” Mr Allary responded. “We decided to push their hand by calling the press conference before the approval was granted,” Mr Adderley replied.

By December 2014, Mr Nackan was observing that the Government was “getting hammered over all kinds of issues, including lack of tender, back room deals and concerns about corruption”, after CCC’s past links to SNC-Lavalin, a company tainted by claims of corruption, emerged in the House of Assembly. “We have to find a way to support them,” he added.

Mr Nackan summed up a later PLP town hall meeting on the issue as largely attended by “PLP party faithful”, with “a barrage of mostly negative and misleading claims” — and recommending a “focused communications strategy” in response.

Meanwhile, an internal message among CCC staff notes attention from Cayman toward Bermuda’s airport deal, adding: “If we get this over the line then we could be on for that deal in Cayman after all.”