Ottawa, ON – Shuvaloy Majumdar, Conservative Shadow Minister for Canada-United States Relations, sent the following letter to the Minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, Dominic LeBlanc, on the “United States-Canada Economic Development Fund” in the Gordie Howe International Bridge Agreement: 

Dear Minister LeBlanc,

The release of the Gordie Howe International Bridge Agreement late Tuesday night revealed that the Prime Minister had once again conceded by giving the Americans half of the bridge’s revenue before we’re paid back. But the agreement also raises new questions about who is going to profit from the new “United States-Canada Economic Development Fund” and whether the Ambassador Bridge will get any part of the revenue split.

It’s clear that the agreement directly contradicts what the Prime Minister told Canadians after announcing the bridge, where he said “any sharing of the toll revenue won’t happen until all the debt, all of the debt, is repaid.” The agreement makes clear that the Americans will get 50 per cent of revenue for 15 years after only operating costs, not debt repayment, and further concedes that the United States will define what the Gordie Howe toll rates will be. 

While Canadians now have clarity on how much of the bridge’s revenue the Prime Minister has conceded to the Americans, we still don’t know what exactly their split will be used for. While the Prime Minister said their cut will be used for “regional economic development in the area,” under the agreement, the 50 per cent goes into a fund “established and solely controlled by the Government of the United States.”

It begs the question, what exactly will the money Canadian taxpayers were supposed to be paid back be used for? Reports from within the United States indicate the owners of the alternative Ambassador Bridge have close proximity to the US Administration, including by making a $1 million donation to a Trump-aligned political action committee.

Minister, Canadians deserve to know: will America’s 50 per cent of bridge revenue be used to subsidize, fund, invest in or benefit the Ambassador Bridge and its owner?

We paid for the Gordie Howe International Bridge. 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.