The Parliamentary Budget Officer has agreed to examine the financial impact of Ottawa's revised toll-sharing agreement for the Gordie Howe International Bridge, marking the first independent review of a deal that has sparked accusations the prime minister misled Canadians.NDP MP Heather McPherson said she requested the review on July 21 after questions emerged over new concessions granting the United States a share of bridge toll revenues.Blacklock's Reporter said according to McPherson, the Budget Office will examine the project's financial costs compared with the government's original estimates, including contract changes, legal actions, cost overruns and accountability measures.The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer did not deny McPherson's account but said it could not comment on the review while it prepares formal requests for information from Infrastructure Canada and other departments."There is currently no information request related to the Gordie Howe International Bridge," said Sylvain Fleury, the office's chief financial officer.The review follows weeks of controversy over changes to the 2012 Crossing Agreement governing the bridge between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit.During a July 29 meeting of the House of Commons government operations committee, McPherson accused Prime Minister Mark Carney of providing inaccurate information about the toll-sharing arrangement."What is in the deal?" she asked. "How do we believe if we have on the one hand the Prime Minister telling us something that was clearly not true, and now telling us something else, how do we know?""Canadians deserve answers," McPherson said. "They deserve to know why the Prime Minister misled the media. It's actually a fact that the Prime Minister gave the wrong information.".Carney acknowledged on July 23 that he "should have been clear" when describing the revised agreement.Under the original 2012 Crossing Agreement with Michigan, Canada agreed to cover the full cost of designing, constructing, financing and maintaining the $6.4 billion bridge in exchange for receiving 100% of the toll revenue.Carney initially stated Canada would begin sharing toll revenue with the United States only after all project debt had been repaid. That statement was later shown to be incorrect, as the revised agreement does not defer toll sharing until the debt is eliminated.McPherson told the committee the conflicting explanations have undermined public confidence in the government's handling of the agreement.Despite opposition calls for greater transparency, Liberal members of the Commons government operations committee voted 5-4 against holding hearings into the toll-sharing concessions.Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson has also declined to estimate how much revenue Canada could forgo under the revised arrangement.Asked by reporters on July 24 how much Canada expects to transfer to the United States, Robertson said only that the recently signed agreement provides for any net revenues generated during the first 15 years to be shared and spent on community economic development projects on the U.S. side of the border.
