Ottawa, ON – Shuvaloy Majumdar, Conservative Shadow Minister for Canada-United States Relations, released the following statement on the continued unanswered questions about Carney’s Gordie Howe Bridge agreement:
“For over a decade, Canadians have planned, paid for, taken on the risk of, and built the Gordie Howe International Bridge under a simple principle: we pay 100 per cent of the cost, and we get 100 per cent of the tolls until the cost is repaid. Yet after construction had been completed, Prime Minister Mark Carney capitulated to American demands for half the tolls while contributing nothing to construction.
“Liberals still refuse to release the deal negotiated, with the Prime Minister’s Office saying now that it’s not an actual agreement but rather an ‘agreement in principle.’
“That’s despite Carney’s Infrastructure Minister seeming confident in the details, saying that ‘half of net profits’ will go to the Americans ‘for 15 years,’ comments the Prime Minister echoed on Sunday.
“But every dollar that goes to the Americans, instead of Canada, is a dollar that is not paying back the $6.4 billion Canadians were promised. Under the 2012 agreement, Canada would collect the toll revenue and use it to pay operating costs and interest. The remaining net profit would then be used to pay down the cost of construction, and only after the bridge had been paid for would revenues be split.
“We have absolutely no transparency, no clarity, no accounting for what this deal actually constitutes, how much was conceded, what the financing is, what was surrendered in pricing tolls, let alone what the plan is for our economic and security interests in North America.
“What is Canada getting in return? While the Americans haven’t contributed to the cost of construction, they get to enjoy a free lunch of toll profits in a vague ‘economic development fund.’ That’s despite Canada already paying for new infrastructure on the American side, including a connection to Michigan’s Interstate 75 and the bridge, stimulating economic development with strengthened trade, shorter travel times, and a connection for workers and businesses on both sides of the border.
“The Liberal’s ‘wait-and-see’ approach to North American economic and security relations has resulted in vulnerability and capitulation to a string of concessions. Until the Carney Liberals get serious about building Canadian strength and concluding a comprehensive deal, Canadian workers are exposed to tariffs and uncertainty, and Canadian families are exposed to a recessionary and flatlining economy.
“Carney’s capitulations and failure to negotiate the wins he promised are having a devastating impact on Canadian workers, with 37,800 manufacturing workers out of their jobs in 2026. That’s as 57 per cent of manufacturing companies report pausing, scaling back, or outright cancelling capital investment and 42 per cent say they have already or are planning to move their production to the United States.
“For a year and a half, Carney has conceded to every one of the American President’s demands – reversing course on the Digital Services Tax and retaliatory tariffs – while gallivanting to Beijing and Europe without using our bargaining chips to bring certainty to Canadians. Instead, tariffs have doubled without a clear negotiating strategy or plan to get tariffs removed.
“Carney said that ‘no deal is better than a bad deal,’ now he’s negotiated a deal to give the Americans half the toll profits. It’s time for him to come clean and release the full agreement so Canadians can see what was given away to the Americans.”