Ontario Trucking Association Welcomes Chretien-Eves Windsor Border Funding Announcement

September 25, 2002

(Windsor) – Ontario truckers are giving a big thumbs up to today’s joint federal/provincial commitment from Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, and Ontario premier, Ernie Eves, of $300 million to improve the flow of truck traffic approaching the Windsor-Detroit border – the busiest in North America and key corridor for Canada’s export trade.

According to OTA president David Bradley, “the funding announcement is the first concrete step taken to date for solving the bridge area traffic problem that has been plaguing residents and truckers for years.”

“Right now, you can take a truck from Toronto to Miami and you’ll go through 15 stop lights - 14 of them are in Windsor. The situation has been bad for years. Since September 11, 2001, it has become intolerable. None of the current Canada-US efforts to streamline and automate border clearance procedures would mean much if all the truckers did was line up on Huron Church Road anyway,” he said from Windsor following the press conference where Chretien and Eves made the announcement, which includes a commitment of $150 million from the federal government and $150 million from the provincial government. “It’s great to see the two levels of government cooperating for a change.”

However, Bradley cautioned that “this is a terrific first step but decisions need to be made quickly about how the money is going to spent. There are two principal infrastructure proposals that we are aware of that are on the table now – the Ambassador Bridge has one and there is a consortium proposing to turn the old CP Rail tunnel into a truck-only route. From OTA’s perspective, we probably need both, but we would be happy which ever project proceeded. We need relief as soon as possible. They both appear to be excellent projects, but even they will take time to construct.”

He said it was increasingly clear that the bi-national studies currently underway to address long-term, future border crossing needs (including the so-called second bridge) should still be conducted, but cautioned that “the economy could not afford to wait the ten years it will take to complete the studies.”