Feds disclose more details on Trump admin request to delay Gordie Howe bridge opening

Mark Carney delivers remarks at the Gordie Howe bridge in Windsor, Ont., in February 2025. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters)

Emma Loop (new window) · CBC News

The Canadian government has disclosed a handful of fresh details around the delays in opening the Gordie Howe International Bridge (new window), as well as some information related to the cost to build the sprawling span connecting Ontario and Michigan.

But the MP whose questions (new window) triggered the disclosure says he’s not satisfied at all with the responses, accusing Ottawa of still hiding key information about the $6.4-billion bridge that became mired in cross-border political controversy earlier this year.

The truth is going to come out eventually, and the more you beat around the bush, the more suspicious people get, says Harb Gill, the Conservative MP for Windsor West.

In particular, federal authorities declined to provide details about some of the extra costs to get the bridge open.

Still, some of the responses shed additional light on a major infrastructure project that was swept up in broader cross-border tensions (new window) when U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to block the bridge’s opening in February.

That threat followed intense lobbying and hefty donations to Republicans (new window) from the owners of the nearby Ambassador Bridge.

In June, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the U.S. (new window) had requested to delay opening the new bridge, citing technical aspects that had been raised. He declined to explain those technical issues at the time, saying, I don’t think it’s productive to work through those in public.

Earlier this week, the federal government responded to Gill's questions from June, (new window) saying that the request from the U.S. came on or about June 10, and that those technical issues were related to the governance and financial framework associated with the bridge.

That same day, top government officials and ministerial staff from the infrastructure department, Privy Council Office, Prime Minister’s Office, and Global Affairs Canada were collectively briefed on the U.S. request to push back the opening, per the response from Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada.

The description of the issues appears to track with the provisions of the eventual deal (new window) between the two countries to open the bridge in late July. The agreement introduced a revenue-sharing arrangement with the U.S. and rules around toll rate changes, among other things.

PM needed to be more forthcoming: MP

Gill says Carney’s explanation of the issues in June was misleading, however, because the word technical implied something that was technically wrong with the bridge itself.

Obviously, it was nothing technical, Gill said this week. It was the governance and financial framework. So if that's the case, then just say so. Why hide behind these other lines of ‘it's a technical issue’?

Neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor the infrastructure department responded to questions before publication time. The White House also did not respond.

According to the responses to Gill's questions, though, a wide range of government entities were involved in identifying, assessing, or addressing the outstanding issues that led to the June delay: the infrastructure department; the Windsor Detroit Bridge Authority, the Crown corporation that runs the new bridge; Privy Council Office; Global Affairs Canada; Michigan’s Department of Transportation; and both countries’ border agencies and embassies.

That wasn’t the only delay in getting the bridge across the finish line, though. In separate responses to Gill's questions, the WDBA said its original contract with Bridging North America, the consortium of private firms tasked with designing and building the new span, set out a substantial completion date of November 2024.

But in January of that year, the deal was amended to make September 2025 the deadline, with the opening occurring in fall 2025.

The opening was pushed back again in October 2025, when the WDBA stated that the bridge would open as soon as early 2026, and later to the targeted timeline of spring 2026.

The bridge eventually opened on July 27, 2026.

Factors contributing to delivery timelines included unprecedented disruptions as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic, testing and commissioning as part of strong quality management, and some construction activities, the bridge authority wrote in response to Gill’s questions.

The opening delay requested by the U.S. in the spring did not increase the bridge’s price tag, the infrastructure department wrote.

The project costs had jumped from $5.7 billion in 2018 to $6.4 billion in 2024, however. Gill says he asked the government for the value of change orders to the construction contract in order to get a detailed accounting of the $700 million difference.

But the WDBA didn’t provide answers in their response to Gill.

Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority has concluded that producing and validating a comprehensive response to this question would require a manual collection of information that is not possible in the time allotted and could lead to the disclosure of incomplete and misleading information,the authority wrote (new window).

Gill argues that if the price jump was due to the pandemic, they should be able to tell us exactly where the $700 million went. That's not chump change.

In a written statement Thursday, Heather Grondin, the WDBA's chief relations officer, said the authority "shares information transparently and in accordance with government requirements.

The responses provided to MP Gill reflect available information and we will work directly with the MP to further understand his concerns.

Gill says he’ll keep pursuing more fulsome answers to his questions, both in the House of Commons and through his membership on the chamber’s industry committee.