I lived in Windsor for four years to go to University and had the opportunity to get to know Windsor while completing my degree. To spend any time in Windsor, especially in the vicinity of the University, you are struck by the volume of traffic that comes along Huron Church Road and over the Ambassador Bridge. (which quite literally shadows the University of Windsor).
The traffic, even before 9-11 slowed border crossing, was heavy. Transport Trucks crossed back and forth day and night delivering products between auto plants on both sides of the border as well as to other key centres for which the Ambassador Bridge serves as the best route between the two countries. Unfortunately, the local infrastructure was never built adequately to deal with the traffic across the border.
To put it in perspective, there are some 17 traffic lights along the 401 corridor between the Ontario/Quebec Border and the Ambassador Bridge. All of the lights are within sight of the bridge as all traffic must make its way down Huron Church Road – a municipal street. Along that street you pass residential homes, strip malls and schools. We need to keep in mind that this municipal road carries one quarter of the annual merchandise trade between Canada and the United States – worth approximately $150 billion.
Governments in both Canada and the U.S. at municipal, provincial, state and federal levels – and of all political stripes – have sought to solve the problems associated with the Windsor Border Crossing for years (and was one of my the primary files I worked on while I was working for David Collenette in Transport Canada from 2000-2002). . Debate has swirled around what type of crossing made the most sense, how to obtain the land on both sides of the border, how to flow traffic from the 401 to the crossing, how to ensure proper environmental assessments were done. It has been an arduous process with many potential solutions discussed with many discarded along the way.
Minister Baird’s announcement on April 29 of a $550 million loan to the State of Michigan to help ensure the construction of a new bridge is an incredibly important step in ensuring the problems at the Detroit Windsor Border Crossing are solved. If this new construction can go ahead, it will ensure trade can continue to move easily across the border and not be reliant on a municipal piece of infrastructure on the Canadian side that was never intended to be the primary gateway for trade between the two countries.
The Michigan legislature must still approve construction but if this project goes ahead it will be an important element in ensuring this trade continues to flow unabated. It is something that all those who understand the importance of trade between Canada and the United States and the economic potential of south-western Ontario should be attuned to as solving this problem is something that has needed to be done for a long time.
I hope for Windsor’s sake – as well as Canada’s – that this is finally about to be solved.
