The first step is to know the cost, and the second step is to find out how you're going to pay for it. To me, getting to the first step is not a difficult task. I've been in business now for nearly 23 years, and if I have a project, I define my project, whether it's to build a new building or to buy a new piece of machinery. I define what I want and I go to the people who build it and ask them for a price.
In this case, what should happen is that studies should stop. Don't waste any more time and money on academic dissertations. Define the parameters of this project. It's not difficult. This area of the straits has been studied with seismic testing and boreholes, and we've had divers walk across the Strait of Belle Isle. It has been studied for 50 years, so we don't need any more studies. We don't need to waste any more money.
Define the project. Put the project out as a request for proposals, similar to what happened with the wonderful Confederation Bridge. First, we decided what type of bridge we wanted. Then we went out and asked the Canadian construction and engineering industry to tell us, on the basis of the design, what it would cost. Once we got that cost, then, of course, the people came forward and suggested how we might be able to finance it.
In the case of the Confederation Bridge, it was financed by the private sector and didn't cost the taxpayers of Canada or P.E.I. one extra cent.