Seeing Straight at the Border

(Lou Smyrlis — CTL)

Although the border is not making headlines the way it used to a few years ago when long lineups were the norm, the reality is there are some funny things going on. It would be fair to say things are not as they seem. For example, as Robert Murray of MSM Transportation pointed out, the transborder business has been on the decline since about the fourth quarter of 2006. Yet the statistics don’t bear that out. The rising value of energy exports from Western Canada for much of 2007 and 2008 served to mask the consistently declining volumes of exports from the manufacturing sector in Central Canada. While to many politicians an export is an export, the reality for motor carriers, and those based in Central Canada in particular, is that the demise of manufacturing exports is a serious issue that requires addressing.

The other mirage at the border is that more than 7 years after 9/11 and the myriad of security programs that were spawned, it is actually getting easier to cross it. Certainly the extended border delays that frazzled the nerves of transborder truckers for years have eased. But, as the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) pointed out when it recently appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade, this should not be taken as any indication that all is now running smoothly…

Read more here.

Note: Lou Smyrlis is the Editorial Director of Canadian Transportation & Logistics and the Transportation Group of Magazines.