Prime Minister Mark Carney will face parliamentary scrutiny next week after a House of Commons committee called an emergency meeting to examine his conflicting statements about a toll-sharing agreement tied to the $6.4-billion Gordie Howe International Bridge.Blacklock's Reporter says Commons government operations committee chair Kelly McCauley announced Thursday that the committee will meet on Wednesday after opposition MPs requested an urgent investigation into what they describe as misinformation surrounding the bridge agreement.“I’ve been informed by opposition members of the committee that they are calling for an urgent investigation into details of the bridge deal and the misinformation provided to Canadians about it,” said McCauley, the Conservative MP for Edmonton West.“As their chair, I will convene a meeting on Wednesday, July 29 to allow the committee to get to the bottom of the matter.”Carney acknowledged Thursday that his previous public comments about the agreement were inaccurate, telling reporters he “should have been clear” when explaining the concessions Canada made to secure the bridge's July 27 opening.Asked directly whether he had lied to Canadians, Carney declined to answer, saying only that he had explained the arrangement “perhaps imperfectly.”Under the original 2012 Crossing Agreement, Canada agreed to pay the full $6.4-billion cost to design, build, finance and maintain the bridge in exchange for keeping all toll revenue to recover its costs.However, Carney later approved a confidential Agreement in Principle that leaves Canadian taxpayers responsible for the entire construction bill while requiring Canada to share 50% of the bridge's net toll revenue with the United States for 15 years.Before acknowledging the revised agreement, Carney repeatedly stated that toll revenue would not be shared until Canada had recovered the full cost of building the bridge.“We are sharing after Canada is paid back,” he told CTV Calgary on July 12.“Any sharing of the toll revenue won’t happen until all of the debt, all of the debt, is repaid,” he told reporters in London, Ont., on July 16.On Thursday, Carney conceded those statements were incorrect.“I should have been clear,” he said.“Yes, could I have explained it better on a Sunday morning at Stampede? Yes. With a cowboy hat on? Yes, I could have explained it better.”The federal government has not explained why Canada agreed to surrender half of the bridge's future toll revenue after initially securing the right to retain all of it under the original agreement.The revised arrangement first became public after U.S. President Donald Trump revealed it in a July 11 social media post.“I was able to cut a much better deal for America,” Trump wrote. “The original deal made was unacceptable to me. The new deal is great and fair. Thank you.”
