Windsor-Detroit bridge costs rise on slumping dollar

OTTAWA — The federal Liberal government will need to find $3.5 billion more to pay for a new bridge at the bustling border crossing between Canada and the U.S.

Documents show Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been warned that the cost of building the new WindsorDetroit bridge has likely gone up by at least $2 billion, thanks to the declining value of the Canadian dollar.

Government officials told Trudeau the project would also need an extra $1.5 billion in a contingency fund to bear the shock of any interest rate increases should the loonie decline further against its American counterpart.

The government’s long-term fiscal framework has the price of the bridge, to be named after hockey legend Gordie Howe, pegged at $4.8 billion.

The details are laid out in a secret briefing note to Trudeau obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

The Windsor-Detroit crossing is the busiest commercial trade crossing between the U.S. and Canada. Almost one quarter of all goods moving between the two countries pass over the existing bridge and through the tunnel connecting Detroit and Windsor.

The long-sought new bridge built over the Detroit River spawned a hard-fought political battle among national, state, provincial and local politicians and the private owner of the existing Ambassador Bridge.

To make the project a reality, the Canadian government agreed last year to pay for all construction costs, including $250 million for the inspection plaza on the American side of the river, with a plan to recoup the costs through tolls.

The government expects to collect about $4 billion in tolls over 30 years — more than enough, Trudeau was told, to cover the $2-billion cost increase that consultants from Deloitte calculated in October.

Otherwise, the documents said, the costs could only be recovered “before the end of the useful life of the bridge,” adding in brackets, “100 years.”

Three select companies will be given the opportunity in “early 2016” to bid on the construction work, said a spokesman for the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, the Crown corporation overseeing the project.