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VICTORIA — B.C. taxpayers are on the hook for a $22-million, 35 per cent overrun on the first contract awarded under the NDP government’s union-favouring policies for transportation projects.

The contract is for four-laning and other improvements to a two-kilometre section of the Trans-Canada Highway along the Illecillewaet River, east of Revelstoke.

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Though the federal and provincial governments are committed to upgrading the Trans-Canada through the Interior, the province will have to cover the entire overrun.

Ottawa wisely capped its share of the project at $15.5 million long before the New Democrats took power and began changing the bidding rules on infrastructure construction.

In calling tenders for the main construction contract on Feb. 11, the B.C. Transportation Ministry estimated the total project cost at $62.9 million. But in announcing the award on May 16, the ministry issued a revised estimate of $85.2 million, an increase of $22.3 million in three months.