Background

For many decades there have been discussions to increase the number of bridges across the river seprating Ontario and Quebec.  Over time the proposed justifications slightly change but today the main argument is to increase the connections from Quebec to the 417, primarily for trucks from Quebec.  Every five years or so the federal government gets excited about the idea again, commences a new study, proposed sites are declared, opposition occurs and the government forgets about it again for another five years. Almost every study going back decades has identified the Kettle Island route, "corridor 5" on the left hand side of the above image, i.e. the western most of the three proposed routes, as the optimal route.  This would bring a bridge over from the area of Gatineau with the most truck traffic originating locations to meet the Aviation Parkway so this traffic could go directly to the 417.  The other two proposed routes, on the right hand side near Orleans, were deemed to be inferior options as they not only connect parts of Quebec with significantly less truck traffic but do so in an indirect way to the 417.

In 2020 the NCC released their latest study which once again declared Kettle Island the optimal location and once again, community groups pushed back. As well, Kettle Island was declared a provincially protected natural area in 2013...and somehow the 2020 NCC study that cost millions missed this. Then an endangered frog was suddenly found on the Quebec side of where the bridge would go...a frog that apparently only lives exactly where the bridge would go, nowhere else on the riverfront, definitely not a few kilometers down the river where the bridge will now go in Orleans...

So due to all of the above, the government is now targeting Orleans. They are also serious this time since funding for construction, for around $2B dollars, was declared in Budget 2019, moving construction forward was put in the 2021 mandate letter for the minisister responsible for government contracting, including large construction projects, and the government initiated another faux public consultation process as is required before construction can begin. Think survey questions like "Would you like a bridge in your area a little or a lot?" with no "I hate bridges" option, they will always get the survey responses they want.

Currently trucks use the bridges downtown which, before COVID anyway, were routinely jammed with traffic full of heavy diesel trucks and civil servants that live in Quebec coming and going to their jobs in Ontario, primarily in downtown Ottawa.  Of course these days, "post" COVID, entire segments of the regions economy work from home either full or part time ("hybrid") and the traffic patterns have substantially changed.  The bridges are no longer in constant grid lock and no one can say with any level of certainty what the future traffic patterns will look like.

A major issue with the rush to build a bridge now is the government is using pre-COVID traffic studies that in no way are useful for infrastructure planning today and they know that but don't care, they want this bridge!