‘Good deal for Canada:’ PM Carney insists not a lot of revenue to split with U.S. on Gordie Howe Bridge

PM Mark Carney speaks on the long-awaited opening of the Gordie Howe bridge.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is defending the deal brokered between Canada and the United States to open the delayed Gordie Howe International Bridge and insists the revenue split with the Americans will be minimal.

“The word ‘net’ does a lot of work in this. We are sharing after Canada is paid back,” Carney said in an interview with CTV Calgary’s Tara Nelson at the Calgary Stampede on Sunday when asked about the agreement.

“We get the revenues. Then the servicing of the costs of the bridge and paying the debt of the bridge, and then what’s left over, there’s a split of that for 15 years,” he said.

“There’s not going to be a lot of net to split,” the prime minister later added.

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, Canada will get 50 per cent of the bridge’s toll profits in the first 15 years, with the other 50 per cent going into an economic development fund.

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 major 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 fifty years after which Canada and Michigan would equally split toll revenues.

Despite those changes, Carney called it a “good deal for Canada.”

“I’m happy the bridge is going to be open. We need it. We need it because we’re expanding. We’re still expanding,” Carney said.

The prime minister also said the money in that economic development fund will be “invested back” in the U.S. side of the region, which he argues will “drive more traffic.”

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.

Conservative Alberta MP Shuvaloy Majumdar says while compromise is not a “bad thing” and negotiations are challenging with an “unpredictable administration,” many questions still remain.

“There’s many, many questions I think Canadians have about what the actual cost was for this,” Majumdar said in an interview with CTV News. “I think they’re right to ask it, and I hope that (Canada-U.S. Trade Minister) Dominic LeBlanc and Prime Minister Carney reveal that before they open the bridge.”

Plans to open bridge postponed in June

The bridge has been ready for months, and there was expectation it would open last month 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.”

When asked on Thursday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia if he’d be open to renegotiating the terms to open the bridge, Carney said “I think we’re willing to clarify aspects of the current arrangements.”

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 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 post in February.

But in an interview with Global News last week, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra denied 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 Calgary’s Tara Nelson and CTV News’ Jeremie Charron