So, no one is talking about the Prime Minister site visit to the international airport project. It tells me a few things about our people. We should be blowing trumpets and discussing it like the hottest beff, the kind of gossip that runs from Roseau to Wesley before lunchtime. We love to talk, it’s our national pastime after a good day break, sewo. Yet here we are, staring at one of the largest projects in our history, and many would rather pretend it is not happening.
The sheer scale of this project is monumental in every conceivable way. This is not a patch-up, not a coat of paint, not a ribbon-cutting on a small building. This is a full international gateway being carved out of land, rock, concrete and vision. A runway almost three kilometres long. A control tower rising five storeys into the skyline. Tunnels, access roads, terminals, cargo areas, fire and rescue facilities, and aviation systems that will connect Dominica to the world. You do not build something like this by accident. You build it because you have decided your country deserves more than smallness.
And that is where Roosevelt Skerrit’s visit mattered. Not because of cameras or hard hats, but because it showed leadership standing inside the work, not pointing at it from a distance. Skerrit was not guessing; he was walking through what was already built. He was showing Dominicans that this is real, not a promise.
I heard that there are over a thousand people working on that site right now. More than four hundred of them are Dominican. That means wages in pockets, food on tables, rent being paid, taxis running, and shops moving stock. Wesley, Woodford Hill, Marigot, Calibishie, and Portsmouth are already feeling the ripple. This is not future talk. It is happening at this present moment.
Yet the nay-sayers are still running their mouths. They complain about funding but never explain how else Dominica was supposed to raise hundreds of millions of dollars without burying future generations under debt. No international bank was lining up to build this for us. The government made a hard choice and used the Citizenship by Investment Programme to build something permanent rather than taking on loans that would haunt our children. Political opportunists call it recklessness. Together with the World Bank, I call that strategy.
What also seems to escape the critics is what comes after. Airports are not just buildings. They are engines. This one will need air traffic controllers, engineers, immigration officers, security teams, cleaners, caterers, farmers supplying hotels, taxi drivers, tour guides, car rental companies, and businesses we have not even thought of yet. Twenty air traffic controllers are already being trained. That alone tells you this is being planned properly.
Tourism is already rising. Stay-over arrivals jumped strongly in 2025. Airlines are increasing flights. Interest in Dominica is growing. Without this airport, all of that hits a ceiling. With it, Dominica finally steps into a different league.
So while some people choose silence or sarcasm, the country is quietly being transformed. The Prime Minister’s site visit was not about politics. It was about proof, proof that Dominica is not standing still, and Proof that we are no longer satisfied with small dreams.
We should be talking about this. Loudly. Proudly. Many of us, however, will attack it openly. But guess what, when the first wide-body jet lands on that runway, nobody will be able to pretend this was just another project. It will be the moment Dominica crosses into its future.
This article is copyright © 2026 DOM767
You must be one of the most Bias Editorial Fools out there,,,
Just because Skerrit go walking some area that appears to be in a develoment faze doesn’t make the development or the wolk by it’s foolish facilitator Valid,,,
So yes people have more to think about like sustanable living anf where their next meal will be coming from and how they going to pay Bills,,,
So lets say the airport is built and functional then what??? can the Dominica infrastructure sustain that influx of people???
Did you know that for about 2 nights in a Row there were scheduled Blackouts at Glanvillia???
Maybe you should check out this resport before you jump up like it’s Carnival to celebrate something that is NAUGHT!!!
Calling people “fools” for wanting a better future is the ultimate sign of a defeated mind.
You’re complaining about blackouts in Glanvillia while trying to sabotage the very project that will generate the revenue to modernize our grid.
If we followed your logic of fixing every lightbulb before we build a runway, we’d still be traveling by canoe.
You ask then what? Once the airport is built, the answer is that your grandchildren won’t have to sit in the dark worrying about bills because they’ll have high-paying jobs in a thriving aviation hub instead of begging for scraps in a stagnant economy.
Stop trying to drag the rest of the country down into your bucket of crabs.
The “True Scle” of a project like Dominica’s airport is far more than what you see with your eyes on a runway or terminal under construction. It’s a multi-layered reality that includes:
Economic Impact:
Not just jobs during construction, but long-term benefits vs. costs.
Who profits — local small businesses, foreign contractors, or political programs?
How much public money was spent on land, contracts, and infrastructure?
Environmental Footprint:
Rivers, forests, wildlife, and soil erosion.
Sustainability measures and whether proper mitigation is actually enforced.
Long-term ecological consequences, not just immediate disruption.
Social and Human Costs:
Displacement of communities or landowners.
Cultural or heritage sites affected.
How much input affected people had in planning and decisions.
Governance and Transparency:
Budget transparency, procurement fairness, and independent audits.
Bias in reporting or political grandstanding — i.e., “look at the PM walking the site” doesn’t equate to accountability.
How much of the portrayal is PR vs. real, verifiable progress.
Broader Context:
Opportunity costs — what else could the government have invested in instead?
Integration with tourism, trade, and regional infrastructure.
Risks that may not appear visible now but unfold over decades.
So when an article or press release claims a site visit shows the “true scale”, it’s usually only talking about the visible, physical construction, and often in a way that supports a narrative.
The actual “True Scale” is holistic — it’s the sum of economic, environmental, social, and political realities, many of which are invisible in a photo op!!!
It’s easy to dismiss a site visit as a photo op, but you can’t PR your way into 83% completion of excavation or 2,616 meters of runway formation. These aren’t just visible things; they are the literal foundation of the holistic change you’re asking for. You mention risks that unfold over decades, but the greatest risk Dominica faces is the stagnation of our tourism and trade sectors. The True Scale is that for the first time in our history, the voodoo economics and shallow noise of the past have been replaced by steel, concrete, and a clear 2027 completion date. At some point, the sum of realities has to include the fact that the work is actually getting done.