U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to block the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge unless the U.S. is compensated first.
Trump said in a social media post Monday that the U.S. should own "at least one half of this asset" and the U.S. will "immediately" start negotiations.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens told AM800 News that he feels Trump is trying to leverage the opening of the bridge to his advantage.
"And it just is his style. He seems comfortable lying to the general public about how we got to where we got to with this particular project that should be celebrated in normal times," Dilkens said.
"It's the type of project that you would have a prime minister and president meet in the middle and shake hands in normal times, but, he's chosen a different approach."
In his post, Trump said Canada has treated the United States "very unfairly" for decades.
He said Canada owns both the Canadian and American sides of the bridge, which he said was built with "virtually no U.S. content."
Dilkens said Trump's post is riddled with misinformation.
"Of course U.S. steel was used in the U.S. half of the bridge. Thousands of men and women, U.S. citizens, helped build their half of the bridge," he said.
"Canada funded construction, but, this was built jointly by U.S. and Canadian hands with North American content."
Planning for a new Windsor-Detroit crossing dates to the early 2000s.
Under the 2012 Canada-Michigan Crossing Agreement, Canada agreed to finance, build and operate the new crossing, including portions on the American side, to move the long-delayed project forward.
Dilkens said at that time the U.S. asked for specific requirements to participate in the project and Canada agreed by sourcing steel and other components from both countries.
"It really speaks to the complexity that our federal government, our prime minister and leadership have to deal with when negotiating with the U.S. side with a president who probably isn't too interested in negotiating a wholesale comprehensive trade agreement, but wants to cherry pick issues one by one. Today just happens to be the issue related to the Gordie Howe Bridge," he said.
The project’s cost is now pegged at about $6.4 billion, with Canada fronting the money and recouping it through tolls before sharing revenue with Michigan.
Former Windsor West NDP MP Brian Masse told CTV Windsor that he wasn't surprised we reached this stage.
"I've been warning about this for a while," Masse said.
"In particular some the work that needed to be done is to work with senators, congress at the stateside levels, as well as the federal levels over in the U.S. to make sure that there was a big robust pushback against any of this even being considered. Unfortunately that work hasn't been done."
Masse said in choosing to proceed with a public-private partnership (P3), the project has been delayed multiple times including as recently as 2024.
"We did nothing to press the P3 about that. In fact, we didn't follow up and get proper reparations for them being late," he said.
"So they still are suppose to actually have delivered a bridge on time. They never have, and so we've let time go by, and we haven't been pushing for the competition of the project. Had we actually got it completed on time we wouldn't even be in this situation."
Masse called for all levels of government to take immediate action.
"We're the frontline for all of Canada, so my initial response would be to make sure that there's some reparations for the city here with the highest unemployment rate in Canada, struggling with all the problems that we have, not finishing Ojibway where we have millions of dollars sitting in a bank account that could be good jobs for young people," he said.
"Get those projects going right away."
Construction on the Gordie Howe Bridge began in 2018, and was originally slated to open Nov. 2024.
The opening was pushed back to fall 2025, and delayed again to early 2026.
The Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA) said construction on the bridge was complete and officials were in the testing phase, commissioning bridge features and workflow.
-With files from The Canadian Press and CTV Windsor's Robert Lothian