January 13, 2004

The following article is excerpted from the “Toronto Star” of 13 January 2004.
 

The domino effect is staggering.

Americans hit the Code Orange button to beef up border security, and the trucks come to a standstill at the Ambassador Bridge. That backs up traffic, at times, for 10 kilometres on Huron-Church Rd./Talbot Rd., which links Highway 401 to the bridge.

Truckers at the back of the line then turn on to local streets, trying to find a shortcut.

That in turn stops local traffic, and clouds the neighbourhood with diesel fumes from idling trucks. The sound keeps people awake, and workers in this industrial city must try to sleep at all hours, depending on which shift they're working at one of the auto parts or assembly plants.

All this angers residents and frustrates truckers. But it doesn't stop there. The companies with goods on those trucks get antsy — in a just-in-time economy, it doesn't serve anyone to be late. Word gets out to tourists that Windsor is in gridlock, even on days when it isn't, and the hotel and casino industry start hurting.

Companies that might have considered expanding or opening new business in southern Ontario, given the cheap dollar and easy access to the United States, now see a rising dollar and logjams at the border. Business leaders are worried, and the provincial and federal governments feel the heat.

"The single largest economic issue facing Canada is the border," says David Bradley, president of the Ontario Trucking Association. Auto industry consultant Dennis DesRosiers, of DesRosiers Automotive, says continuing delays put Canadian manufacturing jobs at risk.

"Most of our parts manufacturers will be building plants in the U.S., so they don't have this border problem," he warned. "Why would you deal with a border issue?"

The impact on jobs could be substantial

"The manufacturing side of the Canadian auto industry becomes very vulnerable. Everybody's worried about it," DesRosiers added. "The auto sector is desperate."

The Detroit-Windsor border is the world's busiest 1international crossing, with $128 billion (Cdn.) in annual trade crossing over. Some 10,000 trucks cross the bridge in both directions each day.

"We are a trading nation," Bradley said. "That is the world's largest trading corridor. We have to get on with a solution."

The problem is, nobody in Windsor seems to like the solutions proposed so far.

The company that owns the four-lane Ambassador Bridge wants to "twin" it.

A consortium called the Detroit River Tunnel Partnership wants to convert a CP rail line into a truck-only highway. To residents, that means more trucks on their streets.

Two years ago, the province and the federal government came up with a short-term plan — spending $300 million to alleviate traffic congestion — while a binational committee mulled over the best way to add a new border crossing.

The short-term idea was to expand Windsor's EC Row Expressway, upgrade the city's most important roads into superhighways, and turn vacant fields into truck "staging" areas, where vehicles could be parked until called to the border.

That's when Ottawa and Queen's Park ran into Debbie MacDonell, Ed Arditti and countless other regular folks horrified at what was about to happen to their city.

The MacDonells had just finished building their dream home, a three-bedroom ranch-style house on a quiet street….

Arditti, a former resident of Toronto, leads a residents' coalition against superhighways. …

So the residents rose up en masse in the recent municipal election. Mayor Mike Hurst, seen by some as too close to the Detroit River Tunnel Proposal, chose not to run. Ninety-seven
per cent of the votes cast went to candidates opposed to the proposal.

Eddie Francis, a 29-year-old lawyer and former councillor, swept into the mayor's office amid hope for a made-in-Windsor solution.

"I guess the first step in the entire process is recognizing what's at stake here," Francis said. "City council does recognize that we have all this to keep in mind: We have our city we have to protect, we have the provincial and national economy that's depending on trade flowing through our city."

And the pressure is on. The $300 million offered by Ottawa and Queen's Park for short-term solutions is still on the table, waiting to be spent. "We are ready to move," Ontario Transportation Minister Harinder Takhar said. "That was made very clear to the mayor of Windsor, the chamber of commerce — we even had a meeting with the Chrysler Corporation." …

The city has already suffered numerous layoffs, including 100 last week at Casino Windsor, attributed to a downturn in the number of Americans coming across the border.

"It's an issue in confidence for travelling," said Keith Andrews, director of corporate affairs for Casino Windsor, the third largest employer in the city.

"If I'm an American coming from Ohio to visit Casino Windsor, I don't want to find myself in lengthy delays going back to the States."

The mayor is promising action now that Windsor is considered a "partner" in the process, not just a proponent. The city is going to hold talks with residents and various proponents,
and hopes to present to the federal and provincial governments, in a month's time, a list of ideas it can live with and those it can't.

"Hopefully, by the end of the month we will have a good sense of what direction this process this is going to take," Francis says. …