The Confederation Bridge opened 10 years ago Thursday, and while it has been a success in many ways, as a business venture it is having difficulties.

The billion-dollar investment is not performing as well as hoped.
(CBC)

A group of four companies owns the bridge: OMERS, a pension fund controlled by Ontario public servants; Vinci Concessions, a French company with worldwide interests in roads and bridges; Ballast Needam, a Dutch construction company; and Alberta-based Strait Crossing.

The bridge joining P.E.I. and New Brunswick got off to a bad start, with 30 per cent cost overruns in construction. But things began looking up when it opened. Tourism jumped 40 per cent that first year, and along with that came a huge increase in traffic across the Northumberland Strait.

Increases continued for the next three years, but have been falling since.

The drop in traffic is significant, because the group cannot make up the losses at the toll gate. An agreement with the federal government means the maximum increase in tolls in any given year is three-quarters the inflation rate. So the group is reliant on volume, which has been in decline since 2001.

The other source of revenue for the bridge is a $42-million-a-year subsidy from the federal government, but the group has never seen a penny of that. That money goes to the pension funds and insurance companies in Ontario that bought the bonds in the early 1990s to create a fund to build the bridge. The bondholders also collect 80 per cent of the tolls: $25 million to $30 million.

The ferry MV Abegweit sailed under the Confederation Bridge during its last crossing, just before the bridge opened.
(CBC)

In 1998, when traffic was looking good, the bridge owners had a second bond issue of about $330 million to cover the construction cost overruns. Operating costs are also going up, in particular insurance, which took a big hike following the terrorism attacks of 2001.

The group generally doesn't release financial information, but it is known that at the end of 2003 the owners got a dividend payment of $2.6 million, not very much on a billion-dollar bridge.

In 2032, ownership of the Confederation Bridge will transfer to the federal government. Representatives of OMERS told CBC News they hope their investment will begin performing better before then.