The construction of the Dawson City bridge has been delayed indefinitely due to the rising costs of steel, concrete, oil and the competition for skilled labour, Highways and Public Works Minister Glenn Hart announced Thursday.

'All along, we have been saying that the estimates were unrealistic,' Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell said in an interview.

The Liberals had estimated the cost of the bridge would be in the $50-million to $60-million price range, he said.

Hart told reporters Thursday the two companies permitted to bid on the bridge project, the Dawson City Bridge Alliance and Ledcor Projects Inc., submitted price tags over the $50-million mark.

The department was unable to release the exact price quote because of the procurement process used for the bridge.

'In the current construction market, we cannot make a business case for building this bridge over the Yukon River at Dawson,' said Hart. 'It's too expensive at this time.'

The costs of construction projects have been on the rise in western Canada throughout the spring, said Hart, with both materials and labour experiencing substantial cost increases.

The higher demand for construction throughout western Canada is part of the reason for the rising prices, he said. The cost of the bridge had increased by up to 50 per cent of the government's original estimates.

In 1995, Klondike MLA Peter Jenkins was estimating the bridge would cost between $14 million and $20 million.

The request for proposals (RFP) for the bridge told contractors that the project should be in the $30-million to $35-million range.

Pat Brooks, president of the Dawson City Chamber of Commerce, said the government should have known the cost of materials and labour was on the rise and would have an impact on building the bridge.

'Economists and people such as that are sitting in offices grinding these numbers knowing what's going on,' said Brooks. 'You have to be able to forecast into the future what's going to happen. I find it very, very difficult to understand how this comes as a big surprise to (the government).'

Brooks said he is disappointed that the bridge is now delayed indefinitely.

'I think all along the process there was a fairly strong feeling that the bridge was going to be built,' he said.

'I find it a little hard to understand how we could come this far in the process and they would cite the rising cost of fuel, the rising cost of construction material, the rising cost of construction labour as adding to it and someone didn't see this somewhere along the line a lot earlier than this.'

Mitchell agreed saying the Yukon Party government should have known the cost of the bridge would be affected by the price of steel which started to rise about a year and half ago.

Building a bridge on the scale needed in Dawson it was hard to believe it could have ever been built in the price range the government was quoting, said Brooks. He doesn't understand how no one saw the cost of $50 million happening.

The government was in such a hurry to try to keep its 2002 election promise and to create a legacy project for Jenkins that it didn't properly do its research, said Mitchell.

'It's unfortunate they spent so much money without doing research.'

Jenkins did not return telephone calls from the Star regarding his constituency's loss of the bridge.

Work on the bridge has cost approximately $1.6 million so far. That includes the preliminary engineering studies and design work, as well as the advising costs associated with the government's use of Partnerships BC.

The YTG has been using Partnerships BC to help develop a public-private partnership (P3) policy for the territory. The organization is a Crown-owned corporation in British Columbia and has been involved in securing P3 projects for that government in the past.

P3s are agreements between the government and a private sector organization usually for the purpose of providing public infrastructure.

The Dawson bridge was being used as a pilot project to look at the possibility of using P3s in the Yukon in the future. In the spring the legislature heard many questions about how the use of a P3 on the bridge may affect its cost.

The advising cost for the use of Partnerships BC put a $275,000-price tag on the procurement process for the bridge.

The procurement has now been cancelled. Should the bridge be looked at again some time, the entire process will have to begin again.

'We've just been led on,' Dawson resident Jorn Meier said in an interview yesterday.

The residents of Dawson had repeatedly been told that 'yes, yes, yes,' there would be a bridge, he said.

'A government is supposed to research properly before they make announcements like that.'

It now feels like the bridge was just a government pipe dream from the start, he said.

'The price tag shows they didn't properly assess all the problems that come with a bridge,' said Meier.

'It's more than twice as much as the government has estimated and it clearly shows they didn't do their homework.'

The government will continue to work on the bridge, said Hart. It will move forward with the environmental assessment and the ferry across the river will continue its refurbishment and will still run.

'This announcement does not mean there will not be a bridge in Dawson. It means the construction of the bridge will be delayed,' Hart said.

Alex Furlong, president of the Yukon Federation of Labour, said he doesn't think the high costs have much to do with the delay of the bridge.

The cost of steel and oil could be even higher five years down the road, he noted.

But, there's been no concrete statement on when the bridge will now be built, if ever, said Brooks.

'I'm pretty upset they put the community through this,' said Meier.

Opposition Leader Todd Hardy said Thursday the government owes the public an apology.

'This whole thing is indicative of massive mismanagement and poor judgment of the Yukon Party,' he said.

The NDP has also been predicting the high costs of the bridge and opposing the use of a P3 for the project.

Beyond the rising cost of materials, P3s have historically created high costs for projects in Canada.

The Auditor General of Canada found that the Confederation Bridge in Prince Edward Island, which was built as a P3 project, cost $45 million more than it would have if built publicly.

'They are looking for a scapegoat in all of this and are not recognizing that the problem probably lies with them and their planning and the direction they went in,' said Hardy.

Furlong said he's pleased that the bridge won't be going forward as a P3 project. He hopes the government will use the traditional procurement method in the future.

However, even though the Dawson bridge won't now be used as the government's P3 pilot project, Hart said, the government will look at another project to work on for developing its policy.

'Turning attention to another P3 initiative is simply ridiculous,' said Furlong.

Mitchell added it was unwise of the government to take on such a large and prominent project in the Yukon for developing its policy.

'There's lots of information out there already,' he said. The government could have easily done research and developed a policy by looking at other jurisdictions across Canada.'

Hardy said the only surprise in the situation was that the government isn't building the bridge through despite the cost.

'The bridge project, definitely without a doubt, was one of (Jenkins') pet projects that he was going to ram through no matter what,' said Hardy.

'No matter what the cost, and he made that very clear the last couple years that this project was going to get built no matter what.

'I think the costs just came in so unbelievably high that even he could not force it past his cabinet.'

Hardy said he hopes the government will now disclose the actual cost of the bridge and a complete breakdown of how money has been spent on the project so far. He would also like to see the RFPs that were submitted for the bridge project.

In the past, the government had said P3 procurement processes do not allow for the release of the bid estimate and proposals to maintain competitive tension between the companies vying for the contract.

'The public deserves disclosure,' said Hardy. 'This is public money, not Yukon Party money.

'This government has had a very difficult time understanding this. This is public money, therefore there should be public accountability.

'I'm hoping the public won't give (the Yukon Party) another mandate to run the territory's affairs the way they have been today.'