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Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that the Gordie Howe International Bridge poised to connect Ontario and Michigan will open “at the end of the week,” despite threats from his U.S. counterpart earlier this year to block it.
Speaking briefly to reporters on his way into a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill, Carney said the planned opening of this multibillion-dollar bridge paid for entirely by Canadian taxpayers is “positive news.”
Carney called the opening “a symbol but also a fact of co-operation between our countries.”
“Great for Canadians going across the border, Americans coming across the border, and for commerce,” he said.
WATCH | Carney says Gordie Howe bridge will open this week:
Carney says Gordie Howe International Bridge will be open at ‘the end of the week’
Prime Minister Mark Carney said the Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Windsor, Ont., and Detroit will open this week, adding the project is ‘a symbol but also a fact of co-operation between our countries.’ This comes months after U.S. President Donald Trump publicly threatened to stop the opening of the bridge in February.
The bridge’s future was in question after U.S. President Donald Trump erupted on social media in February, posting a series of falsehoods about the artery and saying he wouldn’t allow it to open “until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them.”
The federal government paid some $4 billion to build the Windsor-Detroit bridge, and it was constructed by Canadian and American workers using steel from both countries, despite the president’s bogus claims that there was “virtually no U.S. content.”
Trump also said the federal government owns “both the Canada and the United States side,” when the bridge is, in fact, publicly owned by both Canada and Michigan.
The Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, which will be responsible for operating the bridge, is a Canadian Crown corporation. The International Authority, which is composed of an equal number of representatives from Canada and Michigan, has oversight over the bridge.
Canada is set to collect all of the toll money to recoup the costs of paying for a bridge without any U.S. financial assistance. After Canada has recovered the construction costs it shouldered alone, Michigan will be eligible to receive 50 per cent of net toll revenues.
According to Ontario government data, the project has supported 12,670 jobs in Michigan, with more than 8,800 American labourers and tradespeople doing work on U.S. components of the 2.5-kilometre bridge. It will allow for an uninterrupted flow of people and goods from Highway 401 on the Canadian side to Interstate 75 in the U.S., bypassing other congested crossings.
