Ottawa, ON – Shuvaloy Majumdar, Conservative Shadow Minister for Canada-United States Relations, and Eric Duncan, Conservative Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, joined with fellow Conservative MPs to send the following letter to Minister Dominic LeBlanc calling on him to release the agreement Carney negotiated to open the Gordie Howe Bridge:
Dear Minister LeBlanc,
Canada paid 100% of the cost of building the Gordie Howe International Bridge in exchange for a promise that we would collect 100% of the tolls until the cost was repaid. We even paid for infrastructure on the American side of the border. We took on the risk and the cost. We deserve to recover our money. That is why we were shocked to learn that you have agreed to give half of the toll profits to the United States, at the expense of Canadian taxpayers.
Prime Minister Carney has negotiated a terrible deal for Canada.
Our people demand answers.
Before the bridge opens, Canadians deserve the full agreement, a complete accounting of its costs, and clear answers about what was given away.
The opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge should be a moment of national pride. This critical crossing will strengthen trade, shorten travel times, and support workers and businesses on both sides of the border. Canadians can take pride in the planners, builders, and taxpayers who delivered it.
Yet your government’s announcement of a July 27 opening raises serious questions about the deal struck with the United States. Canada financed the bridge, its approaches, ports of entry, and the Michigan connection to Interstate 75. Taxpayers assumed the cost and risk. Your announcement, however, speaks vaguely of “cooperative measures” on tolls, American concurrence for certain changes, and a 15-year economic development fund tied to bridge profits—without disclosing the full agreement or its costs to Canadians.
Media reports indicate that half of the bridge’s net profits will now flow to a regional fund, with the United States gaining new authority over toll decisions. If true, these are extraordinary concessions on an asset built and paid for by Canadians.
Canadians deserve straight answers:
- Will you immediately release the full agreement, including all amendments, side letters, financial arrangements, and commitments to the United States?
- What precisely will be divided: gross toll revenue, operating profit, net profit after expenses, or revenue after Canada has fully recovered its investment?
- Will any bridge revenue be transferred, shared, or placed in the economic development fund before Canadian taxpayers recoup the project’s full cost?
- What does the government project this 15-year fund will distribute, and how much will be spent in Canada versus the United States?
- What new authority has been granted to the United States over toll rates? Can American officials block increases, demand decreases, or otherwise slow Canada’s recovery of its investment?
- Did the agreement alter the bridge’s ownership, governance, liabilities, or the original timetable for recovering Canada’s contribution?
- What did Canada receive in return—beyond American agreement not to obstruct the opening of a bridge that Canada alone paid to build?
The original Crossing Agreement already provided for cooperation with Michigan after Canada recovered its costs, expected to take decades. Surplus revenues were then to be divided equally, with shared obligations for future shortfalls. Has your government now granted the United States access to profits decades early, without any corresponding contribution to the billions Canada spent?
This cannot be viewed in isolation. Prime Minister Carney was elected promising he could “handle” President Trump, negotiate wins, and secure the best deal for Canada.
Prime Minister Mark Carney promised he could “handle Trump,” “negotiate a win,” and get a deal by “July 21st” of last year. It was all an illusion. A year after his own deadline, what has he accomplished? He has conceded to every one of the President’s demands and gotten nothing in return, except double the tariffs on Canada now applying to more goods.
He has given away all our bargaining chips without even showing up at the negotiating table. He rightly reversed course on the DST, the Netflix Tax Hike, counter tariffs and defence spending, but failed to use these as bargaining chips to get U.S. tariffs removed in return. Now he appears to have given the U.S. half the toll profits on a bridge for which Canada paid 100% of the cost.
Most recently, in critical negotiations on forced-labour products (for example, from People’s Republic of China supply chains), he didn’t show up and filed incomplete paperwork.
He has squandered a year and a half and most of our leverage with the only result being double the U.S. tariffs on more of our goods and greater risks ahead. No one, including him, knows his strategy or even his goals.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre laid out a clear plan in February to make Canada strong at home with unbreakable leverage abroad. The Conservative Plan builds up our leverage to get tariffs removed. We will build up a strategic reserve of minerals available for the U.S. as positive incentive for the removal of tariffs. We would get to the bargaining table now rather than taking loss after loss with nothing in return. It is time to show up and fight for Canada.
In the meantime, Canadians want answers. Before the bridge opens on July 27, release the full agreement. Provide Canadians with a complete accounting of what was given away, what was received, and the true cost of this deal.
Prime Minister Carney promised Canadians he would negotiate a win with the United States. What, exactly, did Canada win?