Dear Sir,

In this chapter of our life, it is concerning that the Government of Bermuda is willing to hang the people of this country out on a limb with the potential of financial disaster hanging around our necks for 30 years.

What makes it so eerie is that there exists a non-destructive option of attaining the resources needed to build a new airport in St George’s Parish. That, of course, is the Environment Charter that was signed into existence in September 2001 by Dame Jennifer Smith and the British Government’s Baroness Valerie Amos.

This covenant was created as a measure to protect the 14 Overseas Territories of the United Kingdom. They each had relevant edits that would ensure that Britain would fulfil its international responsibilities as a member state of the United Nations.

One of the commitments on behalf of the UK would ensure that Bermuda could: “use the existing Environmental Fund for Overseas Territories, and promote access to other sources of public funding, for projects of lasting benefit to Bermuda’s environment”.

In this regard there is absolutely no way the Bermuda Government should be seeking to cause a long period of malnourishment to the citizens, present and future, of this island.

There is the presence of uncontrollable shifting in reference to our existence as home to the international business realm here; even more intuitive is that the UK could clothe itself in the same suit as a so-called, low tax haven domicile.

In an IFC Economic Report in 2015, finance minister Bob Richards, writing about Bermuda a world-class financial centre, was adamant to voice his concern of the threat of US taxes on Bermuda reinsurers. The key question was: will it receive traction in the future? Understanding that the momentum of attack is coming from both sides of the Atlantic, why would the finance minister, who brags of his merit of having his finger on the world pulse, risk our thin balance with a lengthy contract with Canada rather than request the available funds from the UK?

It is apparent that, for a reason unknown, this sitting government would rather put us in the same position that occurred in 2008-09 when the world experienced a meltdown that we, the average citizens, paid for. The question is: do we have the fortitude to stop them? One note of value is, should we get this money from the British Government, the airport would be ours and it would never be in the hands of a foreign country; nor will we be in debt to Canada for the coming 30 to 40 years.

JOHN H. HOLDIPP III