On May 13, 2003, British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell announced that the government would sell the operations of the railway (including all of the assets other than the rail right-of-way). During the previous election, he had specifically promised not to sell the railway and he maintained that he was keeping this promise, by retaining ownership of the right-of-way and only leasing the land to the operator. On November 25, 2003, it was announced that Canadian National's (CN) bid of $1 billion would be accepted over those of several other companies, including the Canadian Pacific Railway, the BNSF Railway, and OmniTRAX. The transaction was closed on July 15, 2004. The original lease of the rail right of way was for 60 years with a 30-year option to renew. However, it has been reported that there are another fifteen 60 year options to renew the lease in the contract documents and CN would not have to pay anything additional to keep operating for 990 years. At each of these renew dates, the BC government would have the option of buying back all of the assets from CN. Conversely, as of July 15, 2009, the fifth anniversary of the contract, CN has the right to decommission any part of the line it wishes but upon doing so the land reverts to the Crown though the Crown can sell it back to CN for one dollar if it wants to.