The Bermuda Government should not proceed with the new $250 million airport deal it has struck with the Canadian Commercial Corporation, according to more than half of the island’s voters.

A survey commissioned by The Royal Gazette asked respondents if the Government should go ahead with the public-private partnership and 53 per cent said no, compared with 37 per cent in favour and 10 per cent who did not know.

The proposed sole-source deal with CCC was announced by finance minister Bob Richards in November 2014. It includes a government-to-government commercial agreement between Bermuda and the Canadian Government, through the crown corporation.

The arrangement would have Aecon, on behalf of CCC, heading a project company that would be responsible for the financing, designing and building of a new terminal at the LF Wade International Airport.

The deal also provides for the project company to maintain and operate the facility for 30 years, during which revenues will be used to cover the expenses of operation and maintenance of the facility and pay back the lenders. Passenger revenues will be shared with the Bermuda Government if they exceed a minimum level needed to finance the project.

Mr Richards has insisted the agreement will create hundreds of jobs and “guarantee the delivery of a state-of-the-art terminal building on-spec, on-time and on-budget”.

But critics claim the project should have been tendered and should not go ahead.

Our telephone poll, conducted by Global Research between March 7 and 14, involved interviews with 400 registered voters who said they were likely to vote in a General Election.

We asked the question: “The Government has signed letters of agreement with the Canadian Commercial Corporation to build the new airport. Do you think the Bermuda Government should proceed with its public-private partnership with the Canadian Commercial Corporation for the airport?”

A breakdown of the results by gender shows that 58 per cent of women we asked were against the plan, compared with 47 per cent of men.

Blacks were more opposed to the deal than whites: 66 per cent said the Government should not proceed compared with 27 per cent of whites.

Support for the plan came from 61 per cent of whites and 24 per cent of blacks. Ten per cent of black people and 12 per cent of white people answered that they did not know.

A breakdown by age shows strong opposition to the development among the 35 to 44 age group, with 70 per cent against, 25 per cent in favour and 5 per cent who did not know.

More support was found in the 55 to 64 age group, with 46 per cent responding that the partnership should proceed, although a majority were against (48 per cent). Progressive Labour Party supporters were against the deal in the main, with 73 per cent answering no to our question and 19 per cent saying yes.

One Bermuda Alliance backers responded more favourably, with 65 per cent replying yes and 24 per cent saying no.

• The margin of error for the poll was +/- 5 per cent at the 95 per cent confidence level, meaning if it was run 100 times — asking a different sample of people each time — the overall percentage of people who responded the same way would remain within 5 per cent of the original result in at least 95 of those 100 polls