WINDSOR, — Windsor’s mayor is taking
issue with Canada’s trade minister Jim Peterson who
declared that the border ailments at the Windsor-Detroit gateway have been cured.

After a closed-door meeting with representatives of
agriculture, manufacturing, Ford, Chrysler, and the
Ambassador Bridge, Peterson said he would take the
good news to Ottawa. “The border problems of the past
have been solved,” he said.

According to the Windsor Star, Peterson was told at
the roundtable that the traffic congestion and long
truck queues on Huron Church Rd. have dwindled in
recent months thanks to an increase in US Customs
inspection booths at the Ambassador Bridge as well as
full-scale implementation of the FAST and NEXUS
programs.

The round table was organized by Susan Whelan, the
former Liberal cabinet minister who plans to run in
Essex in the next election, The Windsor Star reports.
Whelan later said that she doesn’t agree the border
has been “solved” and believes the crossing still
needs a new bridge across the Detroit River.

No one needs to convince Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis
and most of his council, which earlier this year
unanimously voted to implement the plan outlined in
the popular “Schwartz Report.”

That proposal, unveiled by N.Y. traffic expert Sam
Schwartz to the city, calls for a new “central
crossing” a few kilometers southwest of the Ambassador
and a new truck-only road that bypasses Huron Church
en route to the new bridge.

So far, the city, as well as the Ontario government,
have backed that plan. But the feds have refused to
give the green light.

Francis told the Star that just because traffic has
improved recently, doesn’t mean the long-term issues
at the border have been solved. “They’re still
crossing 17 traffic lights, they’re still going
through a community and industry has to adjust,”
Francis was quoted as saying.

The official view of the Ontario trucking community is
that a second span is the only long-term fix.

Peterson said he too agrees a new crossing will have
to be built eventually, but wanted to convey a message
to investors that things are improving.

In May, the company that owns the Ambassador Bridge
said that original reports stating that the bridge
will reach capacity by 2015 are overstated.

A separate study conducted by Sam Schwartz Engineering
PLLC for the City of Windsor suggests that the
Ambassador will not reach capacity until about 2024.
However, that study did claim that the bridge would
reach an “unstable” zone by 2017.

— with files from the Windsor Star