The Bluenose II rebuild cost a lot of dimes!

The official cosat of the Bluenose II rebuild is now known.

CBC reports the final bill is $24 million, $10 million more than the original estimate.

Included in the cost is over $21 million in capital funding.  Just over $2 million is to settle a lawsuit by the Lunenburg Ship Building Alliance against the government and over a million for the mess with the rudder.

Shannon Delbridge, the executive director of public works with the Transportation Department; says the government has learned its lessons, that future governments might tread more carefully and slowly in planning such projects after the Rodney MacDonald government fast-tracked the Bluenose II rebuild to try to get money from Ottawa for it.

Manitoba man lawn mower incident

A Manitoba man is facing an impaired driving charge he was stopped driving a lawn mower down a road leading to the Trans-Canada Highway.  The 41 year old was pulled over on his John Deere riding mower around 2:00 Saturday morning as he was headed to a gas station to get some cigarettes.  He told police he thought riding the mower was more reasonable than driving his car.