The opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge was postponed a day before the ribbon-cutting, reportedly due to pressure from the Trump administration seeking to protect the private Moroun family's Ambassador Bridge from competition.
The Gordie Howe International Bridge, seen from the American side, on Friday. The bridge's opening was postponed on Thursday just a day before the planned ribbon-cutting.
Friday was supposed to be a big day for the Canadians and Americans who live on either side of the Detroit River. A ribbon-cutting ceremony had been scheduled to mark the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge – a $6.4-billion crossing that was first announced by former prime minister Stephen Harper in 2012. The new span will be the only public bridge directly connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ont.
The existing century-old Ambassador Bridge is privately owned by the billionaire Michigan-based Moroun family, who charge vehicles at least double the rate paid at publicly owned crossings in other parts of Ontario.at the demand of the Trump administration. The Moroun family was behind the delay, The Globe and Mail reported this week.
United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra are trying to negotiate a deal that would save the Moroun family from losing too much money once they have to compete with the publicly owned Gordie Howe bridge, The Globe reported. Tony Keller: Donald Trump can’t open the Strait of Hormuz, so instead he’s blocking the Strait of Detroit The Moroun family, which also owns a trucking empire, has fought for years to shut down any competition to the Ambassador, pouring tens of millions of dollars into federal and state politics along the way.
That includes donating more than US$1-million to a campaign group supporting U.S. President Donald Trump. The family had also employed a lobbying firm – Ballard Partners – well-connected within the Trump administration, counting Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and his ex-attorney-general, Pam Bondi, among its former employees.
“Yes. The delay might just be a few days, a few weeks,” said Frazier Fathers, a Windsor city councillor.
“But it fits into a pattern that has happened over 25 years. And it impacts people’s lives on a daily basis. ” The Gordie Howe bridge is meant to speed traffic – including international goods trade – by clearing up the congestion that currently marks the Ambassador. The new bridge connects directly to Ontario’s highway network, avoiding the use of local roads in Windsor and Detroit that lead to the existing bridge, such as Vernor Highway.
Steve Boyle, left, and Chris Beto dine at Duly's Place Coney Island Mexicantown neighbourhood of Detroit, Mich. , on Friday. The road cuts through the Mexicantown neighbourhood of Detroit, where at lunch time on Friday, a gathering of baseball enthusiasts descended on a 24-hour diner called Duly’s Place Coney Island. Chris Beto is one of them, and he sits down at a table in the diner.
He is the director of a program that offers free sports clubs for kids in the summer. Throughout the program’s 48-year existence, children have played sports at Clark Park, a square sandwiched between two roads that feed the Ambassador Bridge. The trucks are loud, pollute the air and are dangerous for the children, said Mr. Beto. His friend Steve Boyle agrees.
Every summer, Mr. Boyle donates sports equipment to the organization. He has lived in Mexicantown his whole life, and he remembers being able to walk across the bridge . He’d have Sunday lunch in Windsor, then visit the racetrack and Chinatown. But he doesn’t go as much any more.
It is time-consuming to cross the bridge by car, he said, especially if there are backups. Vernor Highway, Manna Noyes, owner of Guero’s Barber Shop, says she has felt the impact of a drop in cross-border traffic. Manna Noyes, owner of Guero's Barber Shop, hopes the opening of the bridge could bring more visitors over the border.says she has lost around 40 per cent of her customers since Mr. Trump took office. It would be packed on Friday nights.
Canadians would cross to have dinner in Mexicantown, and then get a haircut. But now, “they’re scared to be here,” she said. The opening of a new crossing would cut down on the truck traffic outside her shop, she says, and she hopes it would bring more people back over the border. Mr. Beto says he’s tired of the constant lobbying of the Moroun family.
It has been a mainstay of his community since he can remember. After extensive Moroun lobbying and campaign contributions to Michigan legislators, the state legislature in 2011 and 2012 failed to advance legislation to help pay for the Gordie Howe bridge. Canada agreed to pay the full cost. In 2012, the Morouns spent US$33-million to back a referendum question that would have amended the state constitution to require a statewide referendum before any new international bridge could be built.
Michigan voters rejected the measure. Across the river, another group gathers at Rock Bottom Bar and Grill, a restaurant and bar located in Windsor’s Sandwich neighbourhood. The restaurant’s owner, Nicole Sekela, is deeply disappointed by the delay. It demonstrates the unfair influence of the Moroun family, she says.
The Moroun family purchased upward of 180 homes in Windsor from the mid-90s to mid-2010s, according to an investigation by the Toronto Star. It bought out many properties on Indian Road and Bloomfield Road next to the Ambassador. The company had plans to expand the bridge, a failed attempt to thwart the construction of a public crossing.
“We had families and students living in every one of those houses,” said Ms. Sekela, who is hoping a new bridge will bring more life back to the area. Michigan State Senators Stephanie Chang and Erika Geiss gathered at a table in Ms. Sekela’s restaurant. They’d crossed the border to meet with community leaders on the other side. The Moroun family needs to “back down,” said Ms. Geiss.
The new bridge “is good for both our countries. It makes economic sense. It makes common sense. ”
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