Yellowknife, N.W.T. - The initial bill for the repair of power lines following the military chopper accident earlier this year is in.

The NWT Power Corporation has estimated a cost of $2.4 million to replace and fix the lines which were by a Griffon helicopter during the Arctic RAM exercise in February.

The power corporation's president and CEO, Emanuel DaRosa, said the tally takes into account everything that was needed to make full repairs.

"Those include salaries, our contractor costs, materials, the chopper, and the helicopter costs to fly our employees in and out ever day, as well as the diesel fuel," he said.

Of all the costs, DaRosa says the diesel fuel is the one which makes up a large chunk of the bill at $1 million or $100,000 per day for 10 days.

DaRosa also said the final costs are being reviewed before sending the bill to the Department of National Defence.

"Last thing we want is to have something come back from the Department of National Defence questing a portion of the costs and have that become excluded,” he said. “We want to make sure that we've been fair in terms of our assessment of these costs, but we certainly have to protect the customers."

DND is also conducting its own investigation into the matter.

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