{"id":731397,"date":"2026-06-12T06:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731397\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T06:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:21:10","slug":"trump-administration-delays-opening-of-gordie-howe-bridge-on-eve-of-ribbon-cutting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731397\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration delays opening of Gordie Howe bridge on eve of ribbon cutting"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Gordie Howe International Bridge between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit is pictured Thursday.Dax Melmer\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

The opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit was postponed indefinitely at the behest of the Trump administration, one U.S. and one Canadian industry source said, just a day before the long-delayed span\u2019s planned Friday ribbon cutting. <\/p>\n

The U.S. industry source said the American government slammed the brakes on the opening because Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Pete Hoekstra, Washington\u2019s ambassador to Canada, want to first negotiate a deal to help Michigan\u2019s Moroun family, the billionaire owners of the existing Ambassador Bridge, mitigate their losses from competition by the new, publicly owned bridge.<\/p>\n

The Globe and Mail agreed not to name the sources because they were not authorized to disclose the information.<\/p>\n

The Canadian federal government agreed to pay the full $6.4-billion price tag for the structure in 2012 after the Michigan legislature refused to chip in under lobbying from the Morouns. Ottawa will be repaid with toll revenue from the bridge, which is jointly owned by Canada and Michigan.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to stop the bridge from opening and said Canada should give the U.S. government \u201cat least one half\u201d of the asset. Mr. Trump\u2019s threat came shortly after Matthew Moroun, chairman of the company that owns the Ambassador Bridge, donated US$1-million to a pro-Trump campaign group and reportedly met with Mr. Lutnick.<\/p>\n

The Gordie Howe is meant to speed traffic over the busy international crossing and trade route, providing direct access between highways \u2013 avoiding the current route through Windsor streets on the approach to the Ambassador, which opened in 1929 \u2013 and offering more extensive cargo screening facilities. <\/p>\n

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Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday that the Canadian government had agreed to delay the opening of the bridge \u201cat the request of the United States\u201d to \u201cresolve outstanding issues.\u201d He would not say what the issues were.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some things that have been raised, a series of technical aspects, which we\u2019ll work through with the United States,\u201d he told reporters in Toronto. <\/p>\n

Mr. Carney said the delay was unrelated to broader negotiations with the U.S. over Mr. Trump\u2019s trade war and the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. He said he had not spoken with the President about the bridge. \u201cThere\u2019s not great drama here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. industry source said the opening of the Gordie Howe was scheduled after Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer spoke with Susie Wiles, Mr. Trump\u2019s chief of staff, and believed she had the White House\u2019s sign-off. Mr. Lutnick, who learned of the planned ribbon-cutting on Monday night while attending a New York Knicks game with Mr. Trump at Madison Square Garden, was caught off-guard by the news, the source said.<\/p>\n

The source, who was briefed by the Trump administration, said someone from the administration contacted Canadian Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc to demand the bridge not open.<\/p>\n

Mr. Lutnick and Mr. Hoekstra have been working on a deal with the Morouns to ensure the Ambassador doesn\u2019t lose all of its toll revenue to the Gordie Howe, the person said, and they want to conclude the agreement before the rival bridge opens. Some potential ways to do this would be to fix tolls at particular levels to avoid Gordie Howe outcompeting the Ambassador, or divert specific types of traffic \u2013 like Nexus travellers, for instance \u2013 to the Ambassador, the source said.<\/p>\n

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U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick watches President Donald Trump speak in the Oval Office on Thursday.KENT NISHIMURA\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Canadian source, who works in the private sector, was briefed by a top official in the Ontario government. They confirmed that Canada had acquiesced to a Trump administration demand in delaying the bridge.<\/p>\n

One White House official denied that anyone in the building had either authorized the opening of the Gordie Howe or tried to stop it. The Globe granted the official anonymity to learn the White House\u2019s perspective on the issue.<\/p>\n

Mr. Lutnick\u2019s Commerce Department did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Stacey LaRouche, a spokesperson for Ms. Whitmer, did not address the reasons for the delay or the Governor\u2019s conversation with Ms. Wiles. \u201cThe governor looks forward to attending the ribbon\u2011cutting ceremony when it happens,\u201d she wrote in an e-mail.<\/p>\n

Those who cross the border regularly, or who live in the city of Windsor, meanwhile, said they were enduring the consequences of the repeated delays.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wish they\u2019d get it over with and Trump would leave us alone,\u201d said Diane Wright, a Canadian long-haul truck driver buying energy drinks at an Esso off Highway 401 on Thursday afternoon. <\/p>\n

Ms. Wright, who was en route to El Paso, Tex., has driven trucks over the Ambassador Bridge, sometimes up to three times a week, for 26 years. She called the 97-year-old span a \u201cpiece of junk.\u201d The duty free road is littered with pot holes that damage her vehicle. Most weeks she spends hours in delays.<\/p>\n

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Diane Wright sits in the cab of her truck in Windsor, Ont., on Thursday.Dax Melmer\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Cutting down on congestion and reduced waiting time at customs, which the Gordie Howe promises, will have an immediate impact on her livelihood, she said. \u201cDonald Trump seems to think we owe him a living \u2026 It\u2019s rough on us. We just wanna deliver our goods and we wanna get home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inderjeet Singh, a trucker taking a brief break at a park bench outside the Esso, said he waited over eight hours at the Ambassador Bridge on Wednesday. There was a problem with the load, and the lineup for inspections was backed up. <\/p>\n

Mr. Singh also wants to pay cheaper rates to cross into Detroit. The Gordie Howe has set its tolls at about half those of the Ambassador. <\/p>\n

Nicole Sekela owns a restaurant in Sandwich, a Windsor community along the shores of the Detroit River between the Ambassador and the Gordie Howe. For years she has driven to work every day and looked up at the growing towers of the new bridge. \u201cThat bridge grew up along with my kids,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms. Sekela was on a committee to organize a celebration for when the bridge opened. They\u2019d booked a band and she envisioned a huge party that might take over city streets. She has also pushed for more bike lanes on the streets that lead to the bridge and hopes the span will bring more American tourists to her neighbourhood. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it actually opens I think my excitement will return. But why does somebody else have to put a damper on it?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mr. Trump first took an interest in the Gordie Howe in February, complaining on his Truth Social platform that Canada owns the bridge and will collect its toll revenue, even though Ottawa paid to build the span and the ownership is shared with Michigan.<\/p>\n

The New York Times, citing unnamed government officials, reported that Mr. Moroun had lobbied Mr. Lutnick just hours before Mr. Trump\u2019s post. Campaign finance disclosures show that Mr. Moroun gave US$1-million to the MAGA Inc. political action committee the previous month.<\/p>\n

Brian Masse, the former long-time NDP member of Parliament for Windsor West, said it was a \u201cbetrayal of the community\u201d not to open the bridge \u2013 and to be secretive about the reasons why.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have basically been under the thumb of the Ambassador Bridge and Moroun family my whole life,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cHow ridiculous is this? One of the most expensive, iconic projects in all of Canadian history, and we\u2019re waiting around to find out when it\u2019s going to open.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The Gordie Howe International Bridge between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit is pictured Thursday.Dax…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-731397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}