The following article is excerpted from the 7 June 2004 edition of “globeandmail.com”.

Chronic delays for trucks using Ontario border crossings to get in and out of the United States are costing Canada's economy $8.3-billion a year, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce
warned Monday [7 June].

A new study by the chamber also warns that the figure stands to more than double over the course of the next 25 years to nearly $18-billion if Ottawa and the province don't start
taking the problem seriously.

“Border crossings are the choke point of our economy,” chamber president Len Crispino told a news conference in front of the Ontario legislature.

“We know that if the border is clogged, the economy suffers immediate and dramatic damage.” 

The provincial share of the cost is $5.25-billion a year, much of it coming from the congested Detroit-Windsor corridor — a bustling trade route that moves nearly half of the more than $1-billion in trade that crosses the border each day.

The U.S. market absorbs more than 93 per cent of Ontario's exports and nearly three-quarters of all exports from Canada every year, and 70 per cent of that is moved by truck, Mr. Crispino said.

Ontario's export industry supports more than 1.6 million jobs in Ontario and 52 per cent of the province's gross domestic product.

But despite plenty of encouraging rhetoric, no one seems willing to actually tackle the problem, said Harold Heffernan, general manager of Celadon Canada Inc., a trucking
company….

“Foreign investment as well as domestic investment is going to slow down. That means your friends, my friends, maybe us — we are going to lose jobs.”

Delays vary depending on the crossing in question and other factors such as traffic and time of day, but they range between 10 minutes and four hours, the study said.

Chamber members reported an average delay of between one and two hours every day, with Friday afternoons being the slowest period, it said.

The problem is for both countries to fix, said Liberal Leader Paul Martin, who has made both U.S. President George W. Bush and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge aware of
Canada's concerns.

“We've got to make sure that there's confidence in both sides in what we're dealing with, and I think that is one thing we have established,” Mr. Martin said.

“I think there is now great confidence.”

A proposed Liberal plan to shore up Canada's crumbling infrastructure would also go a long way towards easing the pressure, he added.

The study attributes the delays to a shortage of border staff and too few customs booths for vehicles to travel through, as well as and warns that post 9/11 security improvements are sure to slow the process even more.

Ontario Finance Minister Greg Sorbara said the problem is a combination of tighter security and a physical infrastructure that simply can't handle the volume.

“We are living in a different world and the Americans are taking a different approach,” Mr. Sorbara said.

The province and Ottawa need to sit down with border state governments and federal U.S. officials “and make it a top priority,” he added.

In Windsor, the Ambassador Bridge crossing — the busiest in the world — is operating at 78 per cent capacity for commercial trucks and 95 per cent capacity for passenger cars, the study said.

But much of the delay comes before vehicles are even on the bridge, since the main artery runs right through Windsor itself. Some drivers have been known to look for alternate routes to the bridge through residential areas.

Because of the integrated economies of the two countries — parts and raw materials flow back and forth to manufacturing plants on either side of the border — the delays, and subsequent costs, are amplified, Mr. Crispino said.

“It is a very advanced and sophisticated economic model ... but it is also a model that requires maintenance and attention to operate effectively.”