Transport committee  I was talking about financial expenses.

Transport committee  No, those are financial expenses. The private partner contributes to the cost of the project and advances the funds for the construction. Over the years to come, we will have to pay the amount the partner will have spent on the construction.

Transport committee  No. It's within the whole period, the 34-year period.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  That's a good question. Do you know the answer to that, André? Normally what we do for payments between departments is that we do them at the end of the fiscal year, so they would be coming up at the end. It's just like the Shared Services Canada one. You'll see that in there for services rendered throughout the year, but we settle the accounts normally at the end of the year.

Transport committee  Sure.

Transport committee  We don't pay the proponent. These are employees that we have. We have to pay their salaries to do the work and any travel that's required for them to conduct the review elements that are under Transport Canada's responsibility.

Transport committee  It's not travel, though. Much of it is salary dollars. There is some travel, but—

Transport committee  It's existing staff, but the funding expires every...it's a renewable program. It's one whose duration is usually for three years. We fund their salaries, we fund their benefits, we fund the accommodations for them and some travel, and sometimes legal support as well, because we have to look at the applicability of the law to the proposals.

Transport committee  Transport Canada is the owner of the Confederation Bridge that connects New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island. As part of the bridge operator—a private entity operates the bridge for us—we need to have policing services in case there is any accident or anything in which the police would need to be involved, such as regular traffic policing and response to traffic events.

Transport committee  That is the total cost.

Transport committee  It is the total cost, an annual cost.

Transport committee  We have made these numbers public. I'll give you the number. It's $3.9773 billion.

Transport committee  The project is more than the design. It's the design, the construction, and the operations and the maintenance of the bridge. It's a 30-year concession period for operations and a total of four years of construction. The construction payments will be made within the four years the project is constructed, and that total amount is about $2.2 billion for the construction.

Transport committee  As you know, there are several pieces of federal legislation that require the government to review these projects, such as the Canada Environmental Assessment Act , for example, the Fisheries Act, and the Navigation Protection Act. When projects have implications for transportation, we collaborate with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency in doing the assessment of those projects, because we are considered a technical expert on the transportation side.