Yesterday, we learned that the Hibernia megaproject was swallowing up even more money.
The developers are now projecting cost overruns of almost $1 billion on top of the original $5.2 billion price tag. This represents an increase in costs of close to 20 per cent. An additional $85 million in federal input and $175 millions more in loans may be required. A lot of pressure is being put on the government to pump more money into this white elephant of the nineties.
Given the sad state of our public finances, is the Deputy Prime Minister prepared to make a commitment that the government will not invest a penny more in Hibernia and that this massive drain on public funds will stop, since the potential profitability of this megaproject, which the Globe and Mail has called a real tragedy, is being challenged?