Taking a bicycle across the Gordie Howe International Bridge could be a free ride.
Federal Infrastructure Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne is in Windsor on Thursday to consult onthe community benefits aspect of the $5.7-billion project.
He spent more than an hour hearing from a number of stakeholders including the bicycling community, university, tourism and employment.
One of the items he brought up is a potential change in the toll structure.
"As part of our discussion we had this morning, was about the tolls with respect to bikes. What I said, this would be our intention that there be no tolls, but obviously we still need to finalize a number of things when it comes to tolling on the US and Canadian side." said Champagne.
Champagne added the message he got on community benefits is that they must be around as long as the bridge.
"What I heard form the people this morning is that we don't want a token, we want something that will be long lasting, ongoing, that would be transformative for the community, that would take care of the environment, that would take care of tourism, that would take care of better living," said Champagne. "Because one of the big attractions of Windsor is obviously the quality of life"
Champagne told AM800 News his own view on the community benefits is reflected in what he heard from Windsorites.
"I think what people want to see is long-term thinking, predictability, sustainability, and that is very core to the values that as minister of infrastructure I have and it's reflected in the comments we received from the people that were here this morning which took the good part of an hour and a half to share their passion"
Minister Champagne will meet with the board of the Windsor Detroit Bridge Authority on Thursday afternoon.
On Friday, he will be in Detroit to meet with various officials and to tour the Delray site.