If all goes well, the “multi-modal” bridge, carrying vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians, could be complete in 2032 or 2034.
Construction could begin in 2029 on a sixth interprovincial bridge for the National Capital Region, linking Ottawa’s Aviation Parkway to Montée Paiement in Gatineau across Kettle Island. Such a bridge has been on the table for decades, but was officially announced in the federal government’s 2024 fall economic statement.
If all goes well, the “multi-modal” bridge, carrying vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians, could be complete in 2032 or 2034, Gatineau MP Steven MacKinnon, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, said at a splashy announcement Thursday at the Library and Archives Canada Preservation Centre in Gatineau.
While Gatineau commuters have long suffered traffic jams while crossing into Ontario, Ottawa has been trying for years to get truck traffic out of its downtown core. A National Capital Commission traffic study said 3,500 trucks cross the Ottawa River each day, with more than 70 per cent of them using King Edward Avenue and the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge. But previous calls for an east-end bridge have been furiously opposed by community groups.
MacKinnon acknowledged that large infrastructure projects like this would always encounter opposition.
“There will be people who think it shouldn’t go here or that it should go there, but we need to reassure people that it will solve many many more problems than it will create,” MacKinnon said, “that it will be done with the greatest possible sensitivity to neighbourhoods and it will have an incredibly positive impact on the economy of the region, the Gatineau economy and the Ottawa economy.”
An east-end bridge will ease the commute for Gatineau residents into Ottawa and link two important industrial parks in each city. If the municipalities choose to do so, it will also take heavy truck traffic off city streets, MacKinnon said.
Evening Update
“We’ve all seen the double-stacked logging trucks rumbling past the Shepherds of Good Hope and we’ve all recoiled at that,” he said. “For too long we’ve chosen to not solve that problem.”
MacKinnon was joined for the Jan. 30 announcement by NCC chairperson Maryse Gaudreault and Daniel Champagne, councillor for Gatineau’s Versant ward. Notably, no one from Ottawa city council was present although Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and Rideau-Vanier Coun. Stéphanie Plante were each told of the announcement.
Sutcliffe was meeting with the Invest Ottawa to talk about the impending U.S. tariffs. Plante said she could not attend, but issued a statement along with the Lowertown Community Association and Action Sandy Hill “welcoming” the east-end bridge plan.
“We’re just very happy that there’s positive movement on this issue,” said Betsy Schuurman of Action Sandy Hill, who was at the media conference.
“We’re happy to support it. Overall, all the communities in Ottawa and Gatineau need to work together to find a positive solution. It doesn’t just affect one community,” she said.
MacKinnon was asked by reporters about the lack of Ottawa political representation at the announcement.
“They understand that this is a problem that needs to be addressed. Well, here comes the federal government with a solution that will go a great way toward solving these very, very acute municipal problems,” he said.
“Let’s be candid. The impetus for a bridge has always come from this (Gatineau) side of the river. Why? Because there are more jobs on the Ottawa side and there are more residents, proportionally, on this side.”
The population of Ottawa-Gatineau region will soon reach two million, he said, and the infrastructure isn’t growing fast enough to support that growth.
“As long as we’re going to have a labour force in Gatineau that disproportionately works in Ottawa, then this is a problem that’s going to be felt more acutely in Gatineau than Ottawa,” he said.
Twenty people are already working in a project office for the bridge and a technical advisor is expected to be hired in February. Then the project will be registered for an environmental assessment and the process will begin to release tenders for its design and to begin land acquisition.
The NCC will be responsible for public consultations.
Three sites were proposed for the east-end bridge, with the others being near Lower Duck Island to connect a new Highway 174 interchange to Boulevard Lorrain or at a new interchange further east on Highway 50 near the Gatineau airport. The Aviation Parkway-Montée Paiement route was chosen as the simplest and most direct.
In 2013, public hearings on the east-end option drew hundreds of residents opposed to the proposal and the plan died when Ontario’s then Liberal government withdrew its support.
It’s the second major ongoing bridge project in the region. Last week, the NCC approved a concept design to replace the aging Alexandra Bridge, with construction to begin in 2028.
No new Ottawa River crossings have been built since the Portage Bridge in 1973.
