While the opening date of the Gordie Howe International Bridge remains a mystery for travellers, it also does for the people who’ll patrol the third border crossing linking Windsor, Ont., and Detroit, Mich.

The opening has been delayed multiple times — most recently from the fall of 2025 to early in 2026. In the summer, Windsor West MP Harb Gill said the public deserved answers on when it would open calling it a “vital economic lifeline for Windsor and Canada.”

More than 200 front-line Canadian border staff are being hired, however, exact numbers aren’t yet known, according to Stephanie Robichaud. 

She’s a superintendent for the span with Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), and says the hiring process is nearly done.

“We are almost completely at max for what our roster is going to be,” Robichaud told CBC News.

New Canadian hires for the bridge have been training and working at other crossings.

“They were able to train at both the existing Ambassador Bridge as well as the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel locations. So they got to work on the job. They got to work in the booths. They got to be parts of enforcement actions and interceptions.”

While they wait, some took assignments across the region in places like Sarnia and Niagara.

“When we open, every single one of them has had that frontline experience. Every single one of them is ready to go and know exactly what to expect.”

According to Robichaud, once it does open in 2026, they’ll be immediately transferred from their existing positions — which are extra for those other locations.

“It’s a plus one [situation] right now, but there’s always gonna be turnover. There’s always going to attrition. There’s always gonna be people who are looking to deploy to go back to wherever it is that they lived originally.”

Shovels hit the ground on the six-lane bridge in 2018. Canada is footing the entire multi-billion dollar bill for the project — a cost that rose from an original estimate of $5.7 billion to $6.4 billion as of a January 2024 figure.

Robichaud also serves as the CBSA’s head of recruitment for southern Ontario. She says there are many misconceptions about what border workers do.

“A lot of them see us as kind of as the grocery police. You get sent in, you pay your taxes and you’re on your way. Nobody really sees the behind the scenes stuff that we do with enforcement because most of these people [potential recruits] are not smugglers.”

She says staff are “tingling with excitement” as they wait for an opening date to be nailed down.