We missed an opportunity to extend the runway of the T.B Lettsome International Airport about 8 years ago when the NDP government stopped to argue about position and positioning of its members and dropped the ball. The public rewarded them with expulsion from office.
That travesty was compounded when the green tide created a spurious argument over a loan guarantee that should have fixed our infrastructure including the airport.
Since then, we were fortunate enough to entice American Airlines to make direct flights from Miami with a zero-dollar public investment although, in the past $7.2 million vanished on a similar initiative.
Incidentally, we created, by an outlay of millions, an arbitration centre that was dependent upon air access to get the discordant parties around the BVI arbitration table. We are not aware that anything was ever arbitrated there but they have a fine conference room to show for their efforts and the significant outlay of public funds.
It is not the first white elephant to walk the roads of the Territory.
We also laid plans for medical tourism to utilize the vacant floor of the Dr D. Orlando Smith Hospital but that, too, was dependent upon air access that never materialized.
The initiative by the Minister for Communications and Works (the Airport Minister) to conduct a visioning exercise today for the airport expansion project is a master stroke. He must be congratulated.
In the end, such initiatives bear fruit. He has been ticking the boxes in a methodical fashion to arrive at the desired outcome, the extension of the runway, that would see others, besides American Airlines coming to our shores.
And American Airlines, all must agree, is a game changer.
How can anyone claim to have a country if its neighbours, by closing their borders for their own national security purposes, put that country under siege? That was the BVI experience in Irma and in Covid.
But the Territory’s self-respect has surfaced, reflected by the meeting today. It brought together stakeholders from across the public and private sectors.
The Premier noted that “the expansion of the runway is urgent and that our children and great grandchildren will thank us for it.”
The Airport Minister, if he hopes to be successful, must keep his eyes on the judiciary. They are in the middle of everything (they were absent today) and by accounts, they are slowly bringing the Territory to a standstill.
They are in the Cabinet; the Executive. They sit in the House of Assembly; the Legislative. And, of course, they run the judiciary.
It is easy to see that the lawyers are in charge. In Government, they must comment on every cabinet paper otherwise those papers can never be placed on the cabinet agenda. They cannot be hurried and they are in no hurry. They accept neither advice nor guidance because they know all and know best.
What, from them, should be a legal opinion is turning out to be a legal mandate.
Effectively, the judiciary runs the system and unless the Executive wakes up to its powers and responsibilities, the Territory will never progress.
So, the Airport Minister must be careful that his initiative does not follow the story of ‘The Sick Lion’ and fail on the shores of legalities.
He must be as wise as Fox who stood by the entrance of the lion’s den to inquire into the Lion’s health while lion laid in bed pretending to be ill but waiting for his meal to walk in. And like Fox, the Airport Minister must recognize that the footprints of all the animals showed them only entering the Lion’s den but never leaving.
The Lion, unfortunately, overpowered the trusting animals and laid waste to the animal kingdom.
And Fridays is mortified that we have a BVI from which the goddess of reason is banished. And we wonder who, if anyone, will be first to awake from the sleep of Rip Van Winkle.
Happy Friday!