Questions over whether Aecon or the Canadian Commercial Corporation brought the airport redevelopment plans to Government have been “glossed over”, the People’s Campaign said yesterday.

The group — led by Reverend Nicholas Tweed; Jason Hayward, president of the Bermuda Public Services Union; and Chris Furbert, president of the Bermuda Industrial Union — said attempts to provide clarity had failed to outline how the deal was put together. They spoke out after the key players in the plans — Aecon’s president, Steve Nackan; its executive chairman, John Beck; CCC’s president, Martin Zablocki; and Finance Minister Bob Richards — came together on Wednesday to outline their respective roles.

“To our great disappointment, instead of providing clarity and answering many of the questions surrounding this ‘deal’, the principals were silent on the question of how we have gotten to this point,” the People’s Campaign said in a statement.

The group said the four spoke “as if they were oblivious to some of the very serious questions that arise from the documents”.

“The first issue that seems to have been glossed over is that for over a year, Minister Richards has declared as an absolute, CCC brought Aecon to the project,” the group said.

“It is crystal clear that this opinion is not supported by any of the other parties, nor by the facts. Is the Honourable Finance Minister willing to finally acknowledge that it is Aecon who has been driving this deal, and in fact initiated contact and brought CCC to the table, and not CCC as he has been representing to the country?

“If he did not know this, then why didn’t he? What role and knowledge did the Minister of Transport have of these events, given that they are under his remit?” The group highlighted that Mr Zablocki said that “Aecon brought this project to CCC’s attention after conducting its own due diligence”.

The statement went on to call for more transparency regarding the deal.

“These practices do not reflect proper due diligence by either CCC nor by the Government, who seem to have adopted a ‘stick your head in the sand approach’ to this project’.”