Poilievre demands more details about Gordie Howe bridge deal

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is demanding more information from Prime Minister Mark Carney about the deal made with the Trump administration to open the Gordie Howe International Bridge.

“It’s time for you to release the deal so Canadians can see for themselves what you negotiated away to the Americans,” Poilievre said in a letter to Carney released on social media Friday.

Carney spread confusion about the finer details of the deal on Thursday when he told reporters that any sharing of toll revenue wouldn’t happen until after all of the bridge’s construction debt was repaid.

But he also said Canada and the U.S. will split net revenues — after operational costs — over the course of the first 15 years. 

The Bloomberg news service reported Friday that there is no provision to cover debt servicing costs in that deal.

The U.S. portion will go into a regional economic development program in Michigan, while Canada can use its share to repay the construction debt. 

A senior Canadian government source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, confirmed the details of the Bloomberg report.

The 15-year agreement to open the bridge connecting Michigan and Ontario is separate from the deal Ottawa signed in 2012.

The original deal, signed with former Republican Michigan governor Rick Snyder, remains in place and after 15 years all toll revenues will go to Canada until the full construction cost is repaid. After that, the toll revenues will be split with Michigan.

The bridge’s ownership is shared between Michigan and the Government of Canada.

The deal with the Trump administration to open the bridge on July 27 was announced abruptly last Friday with differing accounts of what was actually agreed to coming from Ottawa, the White House and Michigan Republicans.

A ribbon-cutting event had been scheduled for June 12 to officially open the $6.4-billion bridge, but a White House source told The Canadian Press that U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick intervened.

In the weeks that followed, Lutnick and U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra led the negotiations on the new deal.

Lutnick had already thrown the bridge’s future into disarray in February. 

The New York Times reported that Lutnick met with a member of the billionaire Moroun family — longtime Republican donors and owners of the competing Ambassador Bridge — just before U.S. President Donald Trump issued a social media post threatening to block the bridge’s opening if the United States wasn’t compensated.

After the new agreement was announced, Trump claimed on social media that he was able to cut a “better deal” for the United States.

“I was able to cut a MUCH BETTER DEAL for America, and by so doing, will be allowing the new and spectacular Gordie Howe International Bridge, spanning Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, to open on July 27th, as scheduled,” Trump posted.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 17, 2026.

— By Kelly Geraldine Malone in Washington, with files from Dylan Robertson in Ottawa.

Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.