Shawn Graham and Bernard Lord speak to reporters shortly after the Liberals won the 2006 election. Both men supported the AECL deal for the refurbishment of Point Lepreau. (CBC)

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.'s delays during its refurbishment of the Point Lepreau nuclear generating station mean that a competing bid by Ontario's Bruce Power would likely have been the less expensive choice for New Brunswick.

In 2005, the Conservative government of then-premier Bernard Lord chose the federal Crown corporation's bid because it was higher risk but at a lower cost.

Bruce Power's bid was $450-million more expensive than AECL's $1.4-billion price tag. But that deal would have seen the privately owned business assume more of the refurbishment risk in return for the right to sell electricity back to N.B. Power.

Now, with AECL's refurbishment running two years behind schedule and replacement power costing NB Power an estimated $1 million dollars a day, the math suggests Bruce's proposal would have been cheaper in the long run.

They were the only two bids to extend the life of Atlantic Canada's only nuclear generating station.

"We acknowledge that New Brunswick is taking on more financial risk than we had originally intended," Lord said at the time. "I think it's important for everyone to realize that."

Election time

The most recent delay comes just as the campaign gets underway for a provincial election Sept. 27. However, Premier Shawn Graham's Liberals supported the choice while in opposition and he reconfirmed that support last year.

The agreement on AECL's selection means that one of the biggest taxpayer-funded fiascoes in New Brunswick history might not even be a campaign issue for the two largest parties. The NDP, the Green Party, and the People's Alliance of New Brunswick are the other three parties, but they have no seats in the legislature and it's unlikely the three combined would win more than a handful of seats.

This is the first Candu-6 reactor refurbishment project, which is meant to extend the power plant by 25 to 30 years. AECL had hoped to market these refurbishment projects to other Candu-6 reactor facilities around the world.

The refurbishment was originally slated to be completed by September 2009, but now the best case scenario is October 2011