U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to the White House on Oct. 7, 2025. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump about his threat to bar the opening of a new bridge linking Ontario and Michigan, and said he expects the situation will be remedied. “The situation will be resolved,” Carney told reporters in French in the House of Commons on Feb. 10.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform on Feb. 9 that he would not allow the Gordie Howe Bridge between the two countries to open unless the United States is compensated, saying the agreement on the bridge signed under former U.S. President Barack Obama did not benefit the United States. Trump said Canada would own both sides of the bridge, which would also not be built using U.S. steel.
“We will start negotiations, IMMEDIATELY. With all that we have given them, we should own, perhaps, at least one half of this asset. The revenues generated because of the U.S. Market will be astronomical,” Trump wrote.
Carney said he explained to Trump during a recent phone call that Canada paid $4 billion for the construction of the bridge, and that ownership is shared between the government of Canada and the state of Michigan. He added that while Canadian steel and workers are being used in the construction, the United States is also contributing on those fronts.
“This is a great example of cooperation between our countries. I look forward to it opening,” Carney said, adding that the bridge would lead to increased trade and tourism between Canada and the United States.
Carney said Trump also asked that U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, who is from Michigan, “play a role in smoothing the conversation in and around the bridge.” Carney said his conversation with Trump also included issues around the upcoming United States-Mexico-Canada Trade (USMCA) negotiations.
Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon told reporters on Feb. 10 that the bridge was built using both American and Canadian materials and workers. “I don’t know what motivated [Trump’s] statement yesterday, but what I do know is that bridge will stand the test of time,” he said.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview with Fox Business on Feb. 10 that Trump has a “valid concern” about the bridge’s construction, and there is also a “question as to the proceeds of tolls” from the bridge.
“So there’s going to be a negotiation on that front into how that bridge should be treated if it’s going to be going into the U.S.,” Greer said. “The United States needs to make sure that it has its fair share of any proceeds from that bridge and the economic activity that it generates.”
Under the current agreement agreement, tolls collected from bridge users will be used to reimburse the Canadian government for the funding provided for the bridge’s construction. Once the costs have been fully recouped, half of the toll revenue will be shared with the state of Michigan.
The $6.4 billion bridge project is funded by Canada’s federal government and owned by the Canadian Crown corporation Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA). The organization said in a Feb. 6 update that major construction has been completed and the bridge is now undergoing testing and commissioning.
When completed, the Gordie Howe International Bridge would be the second bridge after the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ont., with Detroit, Michigan. Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder reached an agreement on the project in 2012, and the Obama administration provided approval for the project in 2013.
Trump had supported the bridge during his first term, saying in a joint statement with former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2017 that the two leaders, “look forward to the expeditious completion of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which will serve as a vital economic link between our two countries.”