{"id":147898,"date":"2026-07-29T10:24:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T10:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/147898\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T10:24:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T10:24:06","slug":"gordie-howe-international-bridge-report-shows-how-ottawa-shirks-accountability-for-major-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/147898\/","title":{"rendered":"Gordie Howe International Bridge report shows how Ottawa shirks accountability for major projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A drone view shows a vehicle crossing the $4.7-billion Gordie Howe International Bridge, connecting Windsor, Ont., and Detroit on Tuesday.Carlos Osorio\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The federal government destroyed some cost records for the Gordie Howe International Bridge long before it opened to traffic<\/a> this week \u2013 a purge that was entirely legal but raises questions about Ottawa\u2019s accountability for major projects.<\/p>\n

A footnote in the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority\u2018s 2024-25 annual report<\/a> reveals there are \u201cexcluded costs\u201d for the $6.4-billion span connecting Windsor, Ont., and Detroit.<\/p>\n

The disclosure, which cites the federal government\u2019s data destruction practices, evokes the possibility that other pertinent records for this bridge may have been destroyed in Ottawa\u2019s most recently completed and current fiscal years.<\/p>\n

That the government thought it was appropriate to discard documents that shed light on the bridge\u2019s costs before its official inauguration exposes a serious flaw in its records-retention policies. This is yet another stain on Ottawa\u2019s troubled track record on transparency<\/a>, serving as a cautionary tale as it funds more strategic projects of national importance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government of Canada\u2019s record retention policy requires that records be retained for a period of seven years; disposal of records is allowed after the retention requirement has been met,\u201d the bridge authority\u2019s annual report states in reference to the excluded costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result of this policy, some records from 2005 to 2009 were not retained.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordie Howe bridge opens to traffic after months of delays<\/a><\/p>\n

Ottawa began paying for the bridge starting in its 2005-06 fiscal year, suggesting the deleted documents contained details about its initial outlays for the infrastructure project.<\/p>\n

The footnote goes on to state that \u201cCanadian contributions\u201d \u2013 which \u201creflect\u201d the costs that Ottawa has paid for the project \u2013 outlined in the destroyed documents were nearly $1-million. (For readers desiring precision, the exact amount cited is $982,000.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThese costs have been excluded from the Statement of Canadian Contributions,\u201d the footnote adds.<\/p>\n

Sure, a million bucks is a pittance when considering the bridge\u2019s multibillion-dollar price tag. <\/p>\n

But Ottawa\u2019s fastidiousness when it comes to razing records makes one wonder what other information was included in the now-pulverized papers and whether other project documents have also been destroyed.<\/p>\n

The answers matter because the federal government was the sole funder for the 2.5-kilometre span, and the bridge authority, the Crown corporation in charge of the project, plans to reimburse Ottawa through future toll revenues.<\/p>\n

Aggregate \u201cCanadian contributions\u201d paid as of March 31, 2025, were $5.69-billion, up from $4.53-billion in the previous year, according to the report. (The government\u2019s fiscal year-end is March 31.) <\/p>\n

As I stated in my column last week<\/a>, the project debt that must be repaid to the government \u2013 or \u201ctotal unrecouped Canadian contributions\u201d \u2013 was more than $6.3-billion on March 31, 2025, according to the WDBA\u2019s annual report. <\/p>\n

Rita Trichur: Will Canadian taxpayers be repaid for the Gordie Howe International Bridge? Don\u2019t hold your breath<\/a><\/p>\n

The report, however, excludes other financial details associated with the project. <\/p>\n

Its fine print spells out that neither its statement of \u201cCanadian contributions\u201d nor its statement of \u201cunrecouped Canadian contributions\u201d include revenues or expenditures related to work performed on behalf of entities that are not a part of the Canadian government. So those amounts are anyone\u2019s guess.<\/p>\n

The bridge authority\u2019s non-Canadian governmental partners include Bridging North America, the State of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Transportation, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Federal Highway Administration and the U.S. General Services Administration, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Ottawa obviously doesn\u2019t have enough resources to archive every meaningless scrap of paper. Nor should it.<\/p>\n

Still, it is outrageous that federal officials saw fit to destroy documents outlining costs for a strategic infrastructure project, funded by taxpayers, before its completion.<\/p>\n

This perverse notion that public information should only be shared with Canadians on a need-to-know basis \u2013 as determined by politicians and bureaucrats, of course \u2013 is anathema to responsible government. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the reflex of both the current<\/a> and previous governments<\/a> has been to opt for secrecy<\/a> rather than transparency on key public-policy issues, except when a public outcry forces them to change course. <\/p>\n

That is exactly what happened with Ottawa\u2019s bridge revenue-sharing agreement with Washington<\/a>, which reads like a hastily crafted press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This \u201cSecret Canada<\/a>\u201d mentality is unbecoming of a G7 country that is trying to diversify trade and generate future growth through major infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

It is also equally concerning that provincial governments \u2013 here\u2019s looking at you, Ontario<\/a> \u2013 are showing contempt for freedom of information laws.<\/p>\n

Co-operation between federal and provincial governments will be essential to getting some of these initiatives, including Alberta\u2019s proposed West Coast oil pipeline, designated as projects of national interest and, ultimately, built.<\/p>\n

Canadians deserve to know the plans for these strategic projects and their ultimate cost. <\/p>\n

Ottawa must modernize its records-retention strategy<\/a> for major projects. After all, they can take longer than seven years to be built. <\/p>\n

Its meticulous shredding of cost documents for the Gordie Howe International Bridge certainly doesn\u2019t engender trust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A drone view shows a vehicle crossing the $4.7-billion Gordie Howe International Bridge,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[135,61],"class_list":["post-147898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-dei","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}