In 2004, the operations (including a vast amount of land, buildings, and all rolling stock) were leased to Canadian National Railway (CN) for an initial period of 60 years for the price of $550 million. CN holds the sole right to renew the lease for up to 999 years through a series of options. The lease also allows for BC Rail to give CN title to any and all of the railway for the nominal price of $1. The lease was made despite the promise of Premier Gordon Campbell to not sell the railway in the preceding election, and was the subject of the biggest political scandal in BC history resulting in the British Columbia Legislature Raids. The BC Liberal Government had been accused of fabricated falsehoods about the state of its debts and viability in order to justify the deal with CN, claiming the railway was in disarray. Canadian Pacific, a rival bidder, privately stated in since-released communications that the bid was "rigged". CN has been one of the BC Liberal Party's biggest donors ever since, contributing over $320,000 to the party as of 2019.