The Gordie Howe International Bridge is seen the day after it opened, in Windsor, Ont., on Tuesday.Carlos Osorio/Reuters
It might have been the time zone. Perhaps it was the hat. It could have been Prime Minister Mark Carney’s punishing schedule. Or maybe it was an unwillingness to speak clearly to Canadians.
Whatever the explanation, Mr. Carney misled the Canadian public for days when describing the deal reached with the Trump administration to open the Gordie Howe International Bridge between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit.
The opacity started with the July 10 press release announcing a side deal that would allow for the opening of the bridge, which the Trump administration had been stalling. That press release was, generously speaking, somewhat light on details, announcing “a series of cooperative measures focused on toll governance and transparency, as well as investments in the region, including through the establishment of a 15-year economic development fund tied to a portion of profits from bridge operations.”
That was a change from the original arrangement in 2012, in which Ottawa would receive all toll revenues until it recouped the $6.4-billion it spent to build the bridge. (The Harper government had opted to pay the full cost of the bridge in order to get the project moving.) Only after the debt was cleared would Canada and Michigan start splitting toll revenues. The agreement noted that such payments to Michigan were not expected to begin for 50 years, at least.
Mr. Carney followed that up with a July 12 interview with CTV News in Calgary, in which he provided some more details on the side deal, the text of which had not yet been released. The deal he described seemed balanced: yes, there would be payments into an economic development fund, but only after Canada was “paid back.”
“We are sharing after Canada is paid back,” Mr. Carney said (while wearing a cowboy hat at Calgary Stampede on Sunday morning - more on that in a moment). “We get the revenues. Then the servicing of the costs of the bridge, and paying the debt of the bridge. And then what’s left over, there’s a split of that for 15 years.”
A statement from the federal government that same day said the U.S. would receive half of net profits from toll revenue, among other provisions.
Splitting Gordie Howe bridge profits with U.S. ‘good deal’ for both countries, minister says
Mr. Carney’s answer had evolved by July 16, when reporters again asked him about the terms of the deal, which had still not been made public. Mr. Carney was asked specifically as to whether debt repayment would be subtracted from toll revenues when calculating net profits, and payments to the United States.
That is a key question: if some amount of debt repayment were included in operating costs, then the spirit, if not the letter, of the 2012 agreement would survive.
Mr. Carney’s answer on July 16 was anything but clear. Nothing he said appears to be incorrect, when compared to the text of the agreement, which was finally made public on July 22. But what he avoided saying explicitly – debt repayment will not be included when calculating payouts under the side deal – was a significant omission.
House committee to discuss Gordie Howe bridge deal amid questions on revenue-sharing with U.S.
The text of the agreement makes no mention of debt repayment, instead defining net revenues as “all revenues collected with respect to the bridge, less all incurred operating costs of the bridge.”
On July 23, a reporter asked Mr. Carney whether he had lied on July 12, when he had said payments would be made only after debt repayment – when Canada was “paid back.” What followed was the mildest of mea culpas.
Prime Minister Mark Carney attends a Stampede breakfast in Calgary, on July 12.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
“Could I have explained it better on a Sunday morning, at Stampede, with a cowboy hat on? Yes, I could have explained it better,” he said, adding that he had provided a better explanation on July 16.
Mr. Carney would have Canadians believe that he had a verbal slip at an inopportune moment. But that implication, too, is at odds with the facts. His explanation four days later also avoided speaking the plain truth of the matter: Canada made concessions to get the Gordie Howe bridge opened, which will mean profits are diverted from debt repayment, and that the United States receives funds decades earlier than under the 2012 agreement.
It’s not hard to see why Mr. Carney does not want to say that plain truth out loud; Canadians might be angered by so blatant a shakedown. The only thing that might make them even angrier is a Prime Minister who refuses to speak plainly to the country about that deal.