OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney is doubling down on Canada’s deal with the United States to open the delayed Gordie Howe International Bridge and insists toll revenue will not be shared “until all the debt is repaid.”
“It’s not splitting the tolls of the bridge. It is an agreement for 15 years to split net revenues,” Carney said when speaking to reporters at an announcement in London, Ont. on Thursday.
“Splitting of tolls, any sharing of the toll revenue won’t happen until all of the debt is repaid. We will split net revenues over the course of the first 15 years, and those net revenues are after operational costs.”
According to the prime minister, operational costs include maintenance, snow removal and toll booth staffing.
“The word ‘net’ does a lot of work in this. We are sharing after Canada is paid back,” Carney said on Sunday when asked about the agreement for the first time.
Speaking on Thursday, the prime minister also said he expects “net revenues will be modest” from the bridge during the first few years, even saying they will likely “be negative.”
Since the deal was announced late last week, the federal government has been facing pressure to unveil more official details about the deal. So far, no written agreement has been made public.
In a statement to CTV News on Wednesday, when asked if the deal will be published, the Prime Minister’s Office said “both countries are finalising the legal and administrative details, and we will continue to provide updates as this work proceeds.”
CTV News has also reached out to the White House and the U.S. Department of Commerce for clarification on the agreement.
Conservative Alberta MP Shuvaloy Majumdar said Canadians are owed details on the terms of the deal.
“We need to understand what the prime minister has sold that deal out with, and to provide the actual specifics around the deals that he’s made on this particular bridge, and explain why he’s in such a position of weakness when it comes to this relationship,” Majumdar said in an interview with CTV News.
Bridge set to open July 27
The federal government announced late Friday that the bridge, which will connect Windsor, Ont. and Detroit, Mich., will open on July 27, after an agreement was struck following weeks of delays and public criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump.
The new crossing is expected to significantly ease congestion at the nearby Ambassador Bridge and streamline cross-border trade.
According to a senior government source on Friday, Canada will get 50 per cent of the bridge’s net profits in the first 15 years, with the other 50 per cent going into an economic development fund that will be reinvested in the U.S. side of the region.
The source also tells CTV News that the U.S. will need to agree if Canada wants to increase bridge tolls by more than 10 per cent or lower them below compared regional averages.
Those changes are a significant shift in the agreement first signed in 2012 as part of the Canada-Michigan Crossing Agreement. In that deal, Canada agreed to front the full construction costs, which grew to $6.4 billion, and later collect 100 per cent of toll profits until it recouped its investment. The agreement estimated that recoupment would take at least 50 years after which Canada and Michigan would equally split toll revenues.
The deal has sparked some criticism for being another concession to the Trump administration. Amid trade tensions with the U.S. over the last 18 months, Canada has rescinded the Digital Services Tax and ordered the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to review its decision to triple streamers’ financial contributions to Canadian content — two policies that U.S. officials have publicly criticized.
Plans to open bridge postponed in June
The bridge has been ready since last month, and there was expectation it would open in June after Carney appeared to confirm reporting from U.S. media outlets.
But days later, a ribbon-cutting ceremony and the opening was put on hold with Carney insisting at the time that there was “no big drama.”
Earlier this year, CTV News reported that both sides were trying to quietly negotiate an opening date after Trump complained in February that Canada was not treating the U.S. fairly on trade. Trump went on a lengthy tirade on social media that included the construction of the bridge as part of his grievance.
The New York Times had also previously reported that Matthew Moroun, who is the owner of the nearby Ambassador Bridge and a Trump donor, met with Lutnick hours before Trump’s social media post in February.
But in an interview with Global News last week, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra denied that donations from the Moroun family were behind the delayed opening of the bridge.
In a post to Truth Social on Saturday, Trump took credit for the deal, which he described as a “MUCH BETTER DEAL for America.”
He also called the original agreement “unacceptable” and said he hopes both countries will have “many years of success with this wonderful new development!!!”
Construction on the bridge began in 2018. The cable-stayed bridge will have three Canadian-bound and three U.S.-bound lanes and will be among the top five longest bridges in North America.
With files from CTV News senior political correspondent Mike Le Couteur
