The 4.7 billion dollar Gordie Howe bridge opens without the US as the toll revenue dispute deepens

Canada marked the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan on Friday, 24 July 2026, without US officials present. A planned cross border ribbon cutting ceremony was cancelled and attendees were prevented from crossing to the US side. The 4.7 billion dollar bridge was paid for entirely by Canada and construction began in 2018.

The tension stems from a dispute over how toll revenues are split and from Donald Trump's fresh threat to impose 50 percent tariffs on a set of Canadian goods. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that the original deal on the bridge no longer stands and that the terms had been changed so that the United States now receives 50 percent of the profit. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has said his country would share toll revenues only after being paid back, but a draft agreement released on Wednesday, 22 July, provides for Canada to split net bridge and crossing related revenues with the US for the first 15 years, with no explicit provision that it be compensated first.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said relations with the US had been made more challenging by the tariffs. According to the Canadian government, 274 million Canadian dollars, equivalent to 194 million US dollars, of trade moves between Windsor and Detroit every day, and about 70 percent of Canada's exports go to the United States.