LANSING, Mich. — Canada must want a new bridge to the U.S. pretty bad.

In an interesting twist to the ongoing saga at the Windsor Detroit border, Ottawa has offered $550 million toward cash-strapped Michigan’s portion of the proposed Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC).

Jennifer Granholm confirmed the offer from Canadian Transport Minister John Baird this morning at a House Transportation Committee meeting.

"Canada would be prepared to offer to increase its financial participation up to a maximum of $550 million for project components in Michigan that would not be funded by the public/private partnership or the United States government," Baird wrote.

The money would eventually be paid back to Canada through bridge tolls, the letter stated.

State legislators were slated to vote on whether to continue funding the DRIC project by June 1.

The study team had barely survived state budget cuts over the last couple of years. But despite pressure from some senators close to rival private bridge owner Matty Moroun to shut down the project, DRIC has been permitted to continue on a very short leash.

With the 2010 budget vote likely coming down to the wire, it appears the Canadian government didn’t want to take any chances.

"This is obviously a significant offer from the Canadian government," Granholm said. "It removes the risk from the state of Michigan for all of this."

In response, the president of the Ambassador Bridge accused the state of taking a "bribe" from Canada.

"Michigan Gov. Granholm, who is both a Canadian and an American citizen, has offered to sell the Michigan border to Canada," Dan Stamper said in a statement. "Meanwhile, the governor has consistently caused red tape from the state of Michigan to prohibit an American company — Detroit International Bridge — from building a second span to replace its 80-year-old Ambassador Bridge. Instead, she wants to tear down hundreds of homes, businesses and churches in Southwest Detroit to obtain money from Canada.

"Michigan is not and should not be for sale."

In his testimony before the House Transportation Committee, Ontario Trucking Association David Bradley applauded the news of Canada’s offer and said "DRIC is the only actionable project."

He said the Ambassador Bridge would continue to play a major role but cautioned that even if the bridge owners were to get the required approvals from the governments on both sides of the border — "which seems unlikely at least anytime soon" — to twin the current span, it would not "fix the problems that have and continue to plague the Detroit-Windsor crossing."

He said that the recent recession and lack of crossing border traffic has seemed to eclipse the argument to build more crossing capacity, but stressed that things won’t stay this way.

"Sure the last couple of years have been bad — first we had 9/11 then the worst recession since the 1930s — but one thing Canadians admire about Americans is your ability to get going when things get tough. I know you are not prepared to accept that things will always be the way the have been the last few years; nor are Canadians.”

And, from a security perspective he said that "continuing to rely on one bridge would not provide the redundancy needed to ensure that breaches of security would not result in the border being shut down."