Trump says original Gordie Howe bridge deal is dead, contradicting Carney

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that the original deal on the disbursement of revenues from the Gordie Howe International Bridge “no longer stands” after his administration struck a new agreement, raising more questions about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s own claims about the arrangement.

Trump’s post on Truth Social came during a ribbon-cutting ceremony being held by Canadian officials in Windsor to mark the opening of the new bridge to Detroit, which is officially set for Monday.

“Canada disinvited the United States of America to the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge, which is fine, considering they are paying substantial TARIFFS to the United States,” Trump wrote.

“The original Deal on the Bridge, which was terribly negotiated by a previous Administration, no longer stands. We changed the terms of the Deal so that the United States of America now gets 50% of the Profit.”

A day earlier, Carney said the opposite.

“The underlying agreement between Canada and Michigan remains in place,” Carney told reporters in Prince Edward Island, where he was meeting with Canada’s premiers.

2:12 Gordie Howe bridge deal appears to contradict Carney

That original agreement, signed in 2012 and later approved by Trump during his first term, envisioned that Canada would collect the full toll revenues until the debt accrued from shouldering the full $6.4 billion cost of building the bridge is paid off, plus interest. After that, revenues would be split evenly between Canada and the U.S.

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However, the text of the new 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 the first 15 years, and doesn’t clearly define what counts as operating costs or make mention of Canada’s debt.

The document also states the following, under Section 4: “Nothing in this Agreement in Principle shall be interpreted as amending, modifying or superseding the 2012 Canada–Michigan Crossing Agreement or the ownership, governance and financial framework established thereunder.”

Carney said Thursday the new deal was “in parallel with” the original 2012 agreement.

“There’s an alignment of incentives, the combination of that (2012) agreement and the sharing under that,” he added.

Asked by Global News about Trump’s post at Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson backed up Carney’s position.

“The Canada-Michigan Crossing Agreement and the recently negotiated agreement in principle between Canada and the United States remain unchanged from Canada’s perspective,” Robertson told reporters.

He called the new deal a “short-term collaboration around sharing the net revenue,” while the “long-term payback” of Canada’s debt over roughly 50 years will still be achieved.

“Canada will be paid back for this bridge,” Robertson said.

“That’s part of the deal. But in these initial years there will be sharing of the net revenue. We don’t anticipate that being very much given all of the costs at the front end with this bridge in the initial years of operating it.”

4:11 Carney ‘absolutely’ misled Canadians on Gordie Howe International Bridge revenue deal: Scheer

The House of Commons government operations committee is set to meet next week regarding a request from opposition members to investigate the terms of the agreement.

Asked by reporters Thursday if he believes Carney has misled Canadians over the terms of the bridge revenue-sharing deal, Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer said “absolutely.”

“He told Canadians that Canadians would be paid back first, that the construction and debt servicing costs would be factored into this,” he said. “Now we know that just wasn’t true.”

On Friday, Shuvaloy Majumdar, the Conservative critic on Canada-U.S. trade, posted a letter on social media he says he sent to Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc demanding to know if the revenues collected by the U.S. will go toward supporting the competing Ambassador Bridge.

Billionaire Matthew Moroun, whose family owns the older bridge and lobbied for years to stop the Gordie Howe crossing, has donated over US$1 million to Trump’s political action committee and campaigns, according to U.S. campaign finance records.

“We paid for the Gordie Howe International Bridge,” Majumdar wrote. “We took on all the risk and built it on both sides of the border. Canadians should be getting paid back for what they spent, and there definitely should be transparency on whether the revenue from our bridge is being used to subsidize and advantage the Ambassador Bridge.

“It’s time to come clean and tell Canadians where our money is actually going.”

—With files from Global’s Uday Rana, Ariel Rabinovitch and Mackenzie Gray