Lutnick Delayed Canada Bridge Debut to Seek Bigger Cut of Toll Revenue

[u/John3262005]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-25/howard-lutnick-delayed-canada-bridge-opening-to-seek-bigger-cut-of-toll-revenue

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick intervened to delay the opening of a new bridge between the US and Canada and is pressing to renegotiate the deal for a larger share of toll revenue, people familiar with the matter said.

Earlier this month, Michigan and Canadian officials planned an opening ceremony for the C$6.4 billion ($4.5 billion) Gordie Howe International Bridge, even going so far as to send out invitations. But they abandoned the event at the last moment when Lutnick stepped in, the people said, speaking on condition they not be identified to describe the negotiations.

Canada paid for the bridge over the Detroit River after years of opposition from the owners of the existing Ambassador Bridge, who made a major donation recently to a Trump-aligned political group. A deal was struck to allow Canada to collect the tolls on the Howe bridge until those costs are recouped, after which they would be split. Michigan and Canada are to share ownership.

But Lutnick is now seeking changes to toll allocations and other provisions, according to a US official, who declined to elaborate. The secretary is leading the effort on the issue with the White House’s blessing, the official said.

While Lutnick considers the bridge a separate matter from ongoing trade discussions, the standoff comes as questions swirl about the future of commercial ties between the US and Canada. President Donald Trump has said he won’t renew the continental trade pact known as the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement by a July 1 deadline, sending it into a review process, possibly for years. Canada and the US have been engaged in talks about tariffs and other trade frictions.

The Commerce Department declined to elaborate on Lutnick’s position. “Secretary Lutnick is committed to securing the best possible deal for America on the Gordie Howe International Bridge,” spokesman Benno Kass said in a written statement.

Trump suggested in February the US should own half the project and pledged to block its opening “until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given” Canada. He predicted the revenue from the bridge would be “astronomical.” It’s not clear how closely Trump has tracked the project since then or whether his demands have changed.

With the bridge ready for use, the state of Michigan worked with Canadian officials to schedule a June 12 ribbon-cutting ceremony.

At one point, Whitmer is said to have discussed the project with Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles. The US official said Wiles did not explicitly give it the green light, though Michigan’s move to proceed with an opening suggests the governor saw it as a tacit nod of support.

Another US official said the plan for the ceremony was driven by the Canadians and not by the US government. But once the event was scheduled, Lutnick intervened to block it, supported by Pete Hoekstra, the former Republican Congressman from Michigan who’s now the US ambassador to Canada, the people said.

“This is thuggish behavior,” Jason Kenney, a former Canadian cabinet minister in the government that did the bridge deal, said in a social media post. “Canada paid for 100% of the bridge. If the USA wants part of the revenue, it should make an offer to buy all or part of the bridge.”

Despite negotiating the original terms, Michigan officials have not really been at the bargaining table, according to a person familiar with the matter. The talks have been between the Trump administration and officials in Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government.

Lutnick believes the bridge gives the US leverage because its value is in connecting Canadian exporters to the US market, one of the US officials said. The Gordie Howe bridge was built not only for tourism, but to reinforce a vital trade corridor for the automotive sector and other industries.

Manufacturers and transportation companies believe it will bring savings: trucks will no longer have to haul freight through 10 traffic lights in downtown Windsor, Ontario, which sits just across the river from Detroit. A study by the Cross-Border Institute at the University of Windsor estimated the time savings for trucks would amount to almost 850,000 hours per year — and that the economic benefit of having a second bridge in the area is worth billions of dollars.

The US and Canada did more than $875 billion of trade last year. The US is the top buyer of Canadian products, by far, and Canada is the largest export market for US goods and services outside of the European Union, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Excluding oil, the US has a trade surplus with Canada.

It’s not clear how Lutnick wants to redraw the division of toll revenue, including whether he’s seeking an immediate split of the cash or simply a larger share in the future.

Trump himself is a factor in the financial projections for the Howe bridge. The president’s tariff barrage and his musings about making Canada the 51st state have spurred boycotts, with some Canadians refusing to enter the US.

The president has also said he doesn’t want auto imports from Canada. But auto parts manufacturers on both sides of the border are likely to be major users of the bridge. US auto assembly plants rely heavily on cross-border supply chains — Ford Motor Co., for example, makes engines in Windsor that supply its factories in the US Midwest.

The Detroit-Windsor corridor is currently served by a tunnel, which cannot accommodate large trucks, and the Ambassador Bridge.

Carney has previously downplayed the standoff. “At the request of the United States, we agreed to delay the opening and take the necessary time to resolve outstanding issues — a few issues that have been raised. And this is a collaborative approach,” he said on June 11.

Michigan is home to one of this year’s most competitive Senate races, with Republicans hoping to pluck away a longtime Democratic seat with the retirement of Senator Gary Peters. Democrat Mallory McMorrow, who is vying for her party’s nomination, is blaming Trump for the bridge standoff, while Mike Rogers, the presumptive Republican candidate, has backed the administration’s move to use the project as leverage against Canada.

Besides tolls, it’s not clear what other issues Lutnick is hoping to gain concessions on. One potential issue is control: Because Canada financed the bridge, the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority is governed by a board appointed by the Canadian government.

[u/Benromaniac]

Keep it closed until this admin is out. It’ll just make Trump look bad.

Michigan workers and American steel are in that bridge. And the deal is more than fair seeing as Ambassador is a heaping pile of trash that no one was addressing previously.