August 8, 2003

The following article is excerpted from the 8 August 2003 edition of “The Globe and Mail”.

Labour leaders announced their support Thursday for a proposed project that would double the Detroit-Windsor border's capacity for trucks.

Union officials, led by Teamsters president James Hoffa, joined with officials from the Detroit River Tunnel Partnership to announce the signing of an agreement to use union labour to expand a current train tunnel to accommodate truck traffic.

Plans call for the existing train tunnel between Detroit and Windsor to be expanded to include two lanes for trucks as well as a train connection.

The project would double the lanes available to truckers, who are currently restricted to one lane in each direction on the Ambassador Bridge.

Mr. Hoffa said the new connection would go a long way to ensuring that good-paying jobs stay in the region and do not move to Mexico….

The Detroit-Windsor border, which has two main crossings, currently handles $92-billion in trade a year, or roughly 25 per cent of the total U.S.-Canadian trade….

Several groups have been considering the possibility of a third crossing for years. But the idea gained greater urgency after the Sept. 11 attacks slowed traffic at the border.

Tightening of border controls has reduced traffic across the bridge from 14,000 trucks per weekday to 12,000, according to U.S. Transportation Department data.