After months of delay, the Gordie Howe International Bridge is set to open to traffic on Monday even as the U.S. trade war on Canada continues.
While Canadian officials marked the opening ceremony for the bridge on Friday, the public will be able to drive on the newly constructed bridge starting at noon eastern on Monday.
“We are preparing to welcome travellers across the Gordie Howe International Bridge. Opening TODAY at 12 p.m,” a message on the Gordie Howe International Bridge Authority website read on Monday morning.
The opening of the bridge, which will provide a second road link connecting Michigan and Ontario, comes as the Canada-U.S. trade war has been intensifying with U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of fresh 50 per cent tariffs on Canada next month.
Travellers will have to pay a toll of $8 per personal vehicle, in addition to $8 per trailer if they are driving a personal vehicle with a trailer.
Anyone taking a large commercial or passenger vehicle or a hazardous or oversized vehicle will have to pay $12 per axle.
The bridge is named after Canadian hockey icon Gordie Howe, who played much of his professional career with the Detroit Red Wings. Howe’s family was also in attendance at the opening ceremony.
The massive infrastructure project is “more than just a bridge,” Housing and Infrastructure Minister Greg Robertson said on Friday.
“This bridge is a testament of what we can build when we work together,” he said.
In February, Trump threatened to block the opening of the bridge.
“I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve. We will start negotiations, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on social media.
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Canada paid entirely for the construction of the bridge, but it is jointly owned by Canada and Michigan.
On July 10, after months of negotiations, Robertson and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced that the bridge would be opening on July 27, following a new revenue-sharing agreement.
The federal government on Tuesday released the text of what it called an agreement in principle with the United States for the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which outlines how revenues could be collected — and shared — for a project entirely financed by Canadian taxpayers.
Portions of it appear to contradict what Prime Minister Mark Carney has said about how money will be split and how much the U.S. will get before Canadians are repaid for the debt of the bridge.
Carney said last week that Canada will not share any tolls collected from the bridge until Canada’s $6.4-billion debt from building it is repaid, but he also said that “net revenues” will be split over 15 years.
“Splitting of tolls, any sharing of the toll, won’t happen until all of the debt is repaid,” Carney told reporters on July 16.
However, the text of the agreement in principle states that Canada will make payments to the U.S. totalling 50 per cent of “net bridge and crossing related revenues” for 15 years and doesn’t clearly define what counts as operating costs or make mention of Canada’s debt.
But Canada sharing any portion of the bridge’s revenues, including from tolls, means it may take longer for Canada to make back the money paid to build the bridge in the first place.
The House of Commons government operations committee is expected to meet on Wednesday to discuss a call from opposition members to investigate Carney’s handling of the bridge deal.
– with files from Global’s Ari Rabinovitch
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