It’s a long-shot, and critics say it’s little more than a publicity stunt, but two Quebec City area mayors have found a novel approach to repainting the city’s rusty, iconic Quebec Bridge: Ask Bill Gates to do it.

Why? CN Rail owns the bridge, and Gates, the world's richest man according to this year's Forbes list, is CN’s largest shareholder.

Quebec City Mayor Regis Lebeaume and Levis Mayor Gilles Lehouillier sent a letter to Gates last month asking him to get CN to paint the bridge that crosses the St. Lawrence River between Quebec’s capital and the town of Levis.

“We are appealing to your sense of civic responsibility in hopes that you will urge CN to assume its responsibility and finish its work to paint the structure of the Quebec Bridge,” the mayors wrote, as quoted at the National Post.

“Such a gesture will ensure that our historic world heritage city will once again have a historic bridge worthy of its name.”

Lebeaume even put out a video (see above) in which he unveils the hashtag #PaintYourBridgeBill, in hopes of pressuring Gates to take action. The video is in French, but ends with Lebeaume saying “paint your bridge, Bill,” in English.

The bridge is visibly rusty but not a threat to users’ safety, authorities say.