Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear the Member has a sense of humour and I certainly hopes he takes up the offer to come to the opening.
Mr. Speaker, I don't know what happened. I think the Member has convinced himself that there's some devious plan here and that the cost to consumers has gone up. Well, he's listening to himself too much.
---Laughter
Mr. Speaker, let me say again, let me say the cost to consumers, the cost to industry, is $6 a tonne based on 2002 dollars, or $6.75 per tonne. It doesn't matter what the total cost of the bridge is. That's how much it's going to cost those who use it. It's $6.75. It doesn't matter what the total cost is. Mr. Speaker, the balance is paid for by others. Let me explain that again. It's $6.75 a tonne to consumers. There was a report done by the co-op stores and others in 2002 saying this is a savings. That remains.
Mr. Speaker, the other money that goes into it, we, as a government, are putting the costs for operating the ferry and the costs for building and maintaining the ice road into the pool of money to pay for this bridge. That will go in annually. That is indexed, as is the $6.75.
Mr. Speaker, in addition to that, the federal government are putting a little bit of money right now through the Aboriginal Business Development Corporation. They are also considering the P3 money and we hope they provide that. In the event that they don't provide that, the government, out of our increased fiscal resources, are putting up to $2 million in to pay for our additional costs to balance it out. So this doesn't go directly on the backs of consumers. Mr. Speaker, how much is that $2 million worth? Well, if you took 25,000 people living north of the river, then that's roughly $80 a person per year, but you can't do it that simply because there's also the benefit to the mines. So that $2 million could be argued it costs somebody something, but it's going to be marginal, Mr. Speaker, but that's the only piece that's in addition to what was there in 2002. It's still the $6 in 2002 dollars, Mr. Speaker. It's very simple. It's easy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.