Yes, it's going to be a big cheque, but for a deep pocket suitor it should be manageable. The suitor (assuming it's Baosteel - bet it is since Baosteel has its knees deep in that swamp, unless of course there is a bidding war). Let's consider this scenario.

- The RR will be built for transporting the bulky stuff in and out of the RoF. There should be no dispute. At the end of the day, the choo choo will run on that "easement".

- The Ont Gov through the AG office wanted to have some say about the CLF Appeal, since CLF is coming in just like a big elephant in a china shop. It has no regard for fairness (treating a junior partner by trying to take the candy away) and our Canadian legal systems. The government will need to send a signal to others that this is not the way to do it, by moving weight around in the china shop (note this is not intended to mean China with a capital C, really)

- But behind the scene there would be all kinds of deals. Deal #1 is for the governments to play. The Fed would have no problem taking care of a major portion (at least 1/4 =$0.5 B) of this $2B project. The new Windsor bridge would cost them some $2B with the rest (another $2B) financed by others. Besides they will get back the contribution via many ways, tolls, taxes, etc...So big infrastructure projects in the range of $B are being finance by governments.

They can certainly do the same for the NS RR. In addition, with some creativity, there would be other money available say from the 3P matching scheme. The Prov can put in $0.6B (or rounded to 1/4 = $0.5B) the amount they promissed CLF for that private road.

Deal #2: The rest of the funds could come from a consortium (Port Authority, Devel Corp whatever they want to call it). This Port Authority could issue long-term bonds to finance the project.

- Deal #3: To save CLF's face the suitor would pay some reasonable sum for CLF's 16% holding of KWG and 41% of BD (leaving CLF with a minority position of 29%) so that CLF could go back to its shareholders waving some $1/4 B (I just made this amount up) plus a partial cash cow when BD is developed. Up-front money and future cash flow would bring peace to their BoD.

By the way, Baosteel would not expose itself too much (what's a 1/4 of a $B, it's only $250M) from this up front cash investment for 16% of KWG and 41% of BD. At the same time China would not intend to take over any Canadian company and have the headache for running it. They just want stable supply of resources and would leave it up to NOT and KWG to run the operation.

This scheme would make everybody happy in the end.

goldhunter