The Food Professor Podcast<\/a>, Hoekstra argued that while Canada covered the project\u2019s upfront construction costs, the bridge is designed to be repaid over time through tolls collected from drivers.<\/p>\n\u201cThe bridge will actually be paid for by the folks who are using the bridge,\u201d said Hoekstra.<\/p>\n
Under the project\u2019s financing agreement, Canada paid for construction upfront. <\/p>\n
Those costs are expected to be recovered through future toll revenue generated by vehicles crossing the bridge.<\/p>\n
Hoekstra also questioned where that toll revenue will come from.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re diverting it from a tunnel, potentially, which is paid, which is owned, I think, between Windsor and the city of Detroit, run by a bridge authority. And you\u2019re diverting revenue from an American company that owns the Ambassador Bridge,\u201d Hoekstra said.<\/p>\n
The Detroit-Windsor Tunnel says it expects traffic to decline 5% to 7% initially after the Gordie Howe Bridge opens before stabilizing at about 1% below current levels. <\/p>\n
Tunnel officials say the crossing serves a different type of traveler. <\/p>\n
\u201cRecognizing the critical role the Michigan\u2013Ontario border plays in the movement of goods, services, and people, we believe transportation system redundancy is essential to supporting the region\u2019s economy,\u201d the tunnel said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The Ambassador Bridge did not respond to a request for comment. Its owner, the Moroun family, opposed the construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge.<\/p>\n
The bridge had been expected to open last month, but officials have not announced a new opening date.<\/p>\n
U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar has urged the White House to open the bridge.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Trump, open up the bridge because Michigan needs it,\u201d Thanedar said.<\/p>\n
Local 4 requested an interview with Hoekstra on Monday, but he was unavailable.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra says it\u2019s a \u201cmyth\u201d that Canada paid for the Gordie Howe International…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,103,321431,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-749421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-canada","tag-gordie-howe-bridge","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}