THUNDER BAY — Lawyers were the biggest winners in the City of Thunder Bay's court battle with CN over repairs to the James Street birdge.
City officials had recently estimated that the municipality's legal costs would total nearly $2 million.
According to City Manager Norm Gale, the final figure will come out closer to $1.9 million.
However, the city's victory in court obligated CN to pay $300,000 of the city's legal costs, leaving taxpayers on the hook for about $1.6 million.
The city's costs were incurred between 2014 and 2019.
Gale said "It's substantial. $1.6 million is a lot of money. That has not been used for other purposes, including savings of other infrastructure operations. But this is what happens when you have a city. You incur costs to do what you want to do."
He said this was "one of the largest and most important files in my years as city manager."
Gale previously gave credit to city council for its "resolve and determination" to see the dispute with CN through to the end in order to get the bridge repaired and reopened.
CN will have incurred substantial legal bills of its own since the onset of the dispute with the city over the railway's obligations to maintain the bridge.
Its out-of-pocket costs, however, were presumably much higher than the city's.
The railway estimated at one point that it would cost between $4 million and $5 million to make the necessary repairs to reopen the bridge to vehicular traffic.
