U.S. Wants to Share Border Stations

(Montreal Gazette – David Johnston)

American reaction wasn’t favourable when the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) said in August that it was going to close down operations next spring at three land-border crossings with the U. S, including two south of Montreal. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security didn’t like the prospect of one-way border crossings, where people can get into the U.S., but not into Canada.

Complicating the issue was the fact that at two of the three border stations, including one of the two south of Montreal, the corresponding American stations had been undergoing expensive modernization. Ever since the CBSA announcement, those upgrades have been put on hold and the U.S. has asked Canada to consider sharing the two U.S. facilities being upgraded.

That request, though, has sparked a more wide-ranging discussion between the two countries about the future of separate border stations at small crossings in general. [...] Last month, Raphael Lemaitre, an official with the Department of Homeland Security, told The Gazette the U.S. wanted “to explore alternatives with CBSA to enable the continued facilitation of two-way traffic.” Those exploratory talks have now begun, said Sabrina Mehes, a CBSA official. In fact, she said, the future of “all smaller crossings” between the two countries are up for talks. Read more here.

CBSA: Port Closures and Reduced Hours of Operation

(CBSA)

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) provides service at over 1200 locations across Canada.

All government programs are reviewed on a regular basis to ensure they are effective and efficient and that they respond to the priorities of Canadians. This ensures that funding is allocated to programs that are a high priority for Canadians and produce results.

Last year, as part of the Strategic Review process, the CBSA reviewed its services at smaller Ports of Entry (POE) across the country to ensure they are operating as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. As a result, the CBSA decided to close three underused POEs and to reduce hours at four POEs. These changes will take effect April 1, 2011.

These changes will allow the CBSA to focus on its core role and to focus more resources on areas that promote the health, security and safety of Canadians. The CBSA does not anticipate any job losses to result from these changes.

The three POEs identified for closure are:

Jamieson’s Line, Quebec
This POE sees an average of 12 travellers a day and no commercial vehicles. There is a 24/7 POE 10 km away (Herdman).

Franklin Centre, Quebec
This POE sees an average of 56 travellers a day and three commercial vehicles. There is a 24/7 POE 16 km away (Herdman).

Big Beaver, Saskatchewan
This POE sees an average of five travellers a day and no commercial vehicles. Coronach, which has the same hours of service as Big Beaver, is 28 km distant. There is also a 24/7 POE 55 km away (Regway).

The four POEs identified for reduced hours of operation are:

Morses Line, Quebec
This POE sees an average of 84 travellers a day. The hours of service will be reduced to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. from the current 8 a.m. to midnight. There is a 24/7 POE 13 km away (St-Armand/Philipsburg).

East Pinnacle, Quebec
This POE sees an average of 58 travellers a day. The hours of service will be reduced to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. from the current 8 a.m. to midnight. There is a 24/7 POE 34 km away (St-Armand/Philipsburg).

Glen Sutton, Quebec
This POE sees an average of 37 travellers a day. The hours of service will be reduced to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. from the current 24/7. There is a 24/7 POE 11.5 km away (Abercorn).

Kenora, Ontario
This inland POE sees an average of 4 travellers a day. Specific reduced hours have not yet been established.

Planned Border Closings Rankle Communities

(The Gazette)

Opposition is growing to the Canadian Border Security Agency’s (CBSA’s) recent decision to close two Canadian border stations south of Montreal next spring.

The mayor of Franklin, Suzanne Blair, will be holding a news conference next week to launch a petition drive. And the largest employer in the region, Les Vergers Leahy, has written federal authorities a strong letter of protest.

News of the proposed closings has also been greeted negatively south of the border.

Gary Douglas, president of the Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Commerce, told Plattsburgh’s Press-Republican that the unilateral decision by Canada to close the two border stations violates the 2002 U.S.-Canada Smart Border Accord.

“The failure of the Canadian government to co-ordinate with the U.S. government is absolutely mind-boggling,” he said. Read more here.

Heavy Border Traffic Expected for Labor Day Weekend

(Debbie Townsend — The Bellingham Herald)

Expect heavy traffic at all border crossings throughout this weekend as both the U.S. and Canada have national holidays Monday, Sept. 6.

Canadians also celebrate Labor Day, called Labour Day there. Like in the U.S., it’s considered the last hoorah of summer, and many services and businesses are closed, though lots of restaurants and retail shopping remain open. Call ahead if you’re unsure about a business’ status.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a reminder to travelers to have all their documents needed to cross the border and to plan extra time for border backups. Crossings usually are busiest from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

For updates on border traffic, go to wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/border/.

Customs Staying Put, For Now

(Michael Peeling — Standard Freeholder)

Any bets the Canada Border Services Agency will settle on a permanent location for the port of entry anytime soon are off.

Following a meeting with Cornwall Mayor Bob Kilger and Akwesasne Grand Chief Mike Mitchell on Tuesday, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has said it’s looking at another 365 days stationed in Cornwall at the foot of the Seaway International Bridge.

“We expect to remain at the current interim location for at least another year,” wrote Sabrina Mehes, a spokesperson for the CBSA, in an e-mail. Read more here.

Border Guards’ Firearms Trainer Fired; Union Calls Move ‘Vindictive’

(Chris Cobb — Ottawa Citizen)

The firearms expert chosen to supervise the weapons training of Canada’s border guards has been dismissed by the Canadian Border Service Agency in what his lawyer says is “vindictive and unfair” treatment.

RCMP Sgt. Richard Groulx, one of Canada’s leading firearms trainers, appears to have been unwittingly caught in a bitter dispute between the border guards’ union and senior agency managers in Ottawa.

Groulx remains employed by the RCMP but is now fighting to continue the secondment to CBSA, which began almost four years ago when he was hand-picked to lead the firearms training of the country’s 4,800 border guards.

The union-management dispute is over the arming of customs officers who are asked to take part in joint search operations with the RCMP and other police forces. Read more here.

Customs Should Remain in Cornwall: Coalition

(Michael Peeling — Standard-Freeholder)

The reasons why a coalition is calling to keep the port of entry in the Seaway City ring false for the Cornwall Regional Task Force.

In light of this week’s announcement that the construction of a new north span Seaway International Bridge will begin in the next year, the National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco (NCACT) has said again that “it is critical the permanent location for the border point of entry remain in Cornwall, and not shift back to Cornwall Island or to the U.S. side of the border.”

The NCACT claims moving the border entry point from Akwesasne’s Cornwall Island district to Cornwall “made it more difficult for smugglers to move illegal cigarettes from the Akwesasne reserve across the international border into Ontario and from there across Canada.

“Prior to this move, illegal cigarettes skirted the border point of entry on Cornwall Island and flowed unchecked into Canada,” said the NCACT in a statement. Read more here.

Canada to Fund New Bridge at U.S. Border Crossing

(Reuters)

The Canadian government said on Tuesday it will fund the building of a new bridge at a key border crossing between Ontario and New York state, which was the venue of a tense stand-off between area Mohawks and border guards last summer.

The C$75 million ($72 million) North Channel bridge in eastern Ontario will replace an older bridge and is designed to ease traffic congestion and create jobs, a government statement said.

The bridge will connect the city of Cornwall with Cornwall Island in the St. Lawrence River. The island is the home of the Akwesasne Mohawk native tribe and is linked to Massena, New York, via the South Channel bridge.

Together the two bridges form the Seaway International Crossing, a major transportation route for commercial and passenger vehicles. Read more here.

Related: Federal Government Must Keep Border Point of Entry in Cornwall... (Digital Journal)

Windsor Airport Freight Hub Confirmed; Landstar Says It’s Not Involved

(Truck News)

Landstar System released a statement yesterday indicating it is not involved in the construction of a major multi-modal transportation and logistics facility at the Windsor Airport.

However, up to 10 freight services and logistics companies are committing to the project, which is being spearheaded by an independent Landstar agency, Carlin Enterprises.

“Neither Landstar System, Inc. nor any of its subsidiary companies, including Landstar Canada, Inc., are involved in the proposed project,” the company said on its Web site in response to media reports. “Landstar understands that discussions regarding this project have involved representatives of the City of Windsor and Carlin Enterprises, a Hamilton, Ontario-based business. Carlin Enterprises is an independently owned and operated agency for Landstar but is not acting as Landstar’s agent or representative in this project.”

Regardless, the project was formally confirmed by local officials yesterday, who described the project as a “state-of-the-art multi-modal cargo facility.” Read more here.

Return to Island Least Favoured Customs Option

(Michael Peeling — Standard-Freeholder)

The Canada Border Services Agency says it continues to consider all four options for a permanent border crossing -favouring one notably less than the others -while Akwesasne is leaning strongly towards approving a new agreement that will push construction of a new bridge ahead.

CBSA spokesperson Sabrina Mehes explained that the four options -reopening the Cornwall Island facility, making the temporary port of entry in Cornwall permanent, building a new port in New York State beside the U.S. customs port, or closing the border crossing altogether -are all still viable options under consideration.

However, Mehes told the Standard-Freeholder, “we are focused on options other than the Island.” Read more here.

US Backs Off Plan To Take Vt. Farm For Border Port

(Associated Press)

Score one for David. Goliath decided it just wasn’t worth the fight.

The federal government has decided to close a tiny U.S.-Canada border station rather than push ahead with a controversial plan to expand it by seizing a dairy farmer’s land, officials announced Thursday.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection had sought to renovate the sleepy Morses Line port of entry in Franklin — which gets about 2 1/2 vehicles an hour — by seizing a 2.2-acre parcel from the Rainville family dairy farm, which adjoins the station. […]

By any measure, the Depression-era border station — a small brick building surrounded by pastures and hayfields — was a better candidate for closure than a big-ticket renovation.

Sitting on a half-acre of land, its agents sometimes get so bored waiting for business that they hit golf balls or shoot skeet out back. Read more here.

Billionaire’s Planned Bridge a Potential Target: Baird

(Brent Jang — Globe & Mail)

Transport Minister – who supports public option – says close proximity to Ambassador Bridge puts both private spans at risk of terrorist attack

In the battle of the bridge, federal Transport Minister John Baird is playing the terrorism card.

Plans by Michigan billionaire Manuel (Matty) Moroun to build a new span next to his Ambassador Bridge would make the continent’s busiest commercial crossing a juicy target for terrorists who could block billions of dollars in Canada-U.S. trade for months, Mr. Baird says.

Mr. Moroun, 82, wants to build a new Detroit-Windsor span only 30 metres west of the Ambassador Bridge, but Ottawa is supporting a rival proposal for a new government-backed crossing three kilometres down the Detroit River.

Mr. Baird said if Mr. Moroun succeeds in adding a new span so close to his privately owned Ambassador Bridge, police will face a major security threat. “If those bridges ever went down, the Ontario and Michigan economies within a matter of days would be on their knees,” the minister said in an interview Monday. Read more here.

Related information from Transport Canada:

• Minister Issues Statement Regarding a New Windsor-Detroit Crossing

• Fact Sheet – Detroit River International Crossing

Canada Offers $550 Million Toward New Bridge

(Journal of Commerce Online – Courtney Tower)

Additional funding for Detroit River International Crossing

Canada offered the state of Michigan up to $550 million as a sweetener to get the legislature to give final approval to the building of a controversial new bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. The Canadian government is willing to increase its share of the cost of the proposed Detroit River International Crossing by that amount, Federal Transport Minister John Baird said Thursday.

The total cost of the project is expected to be $5.3 billion, by far the largest part on the Canadian side because it will cost more than $1 billion to build an extensive new approach road through Windsor. The approach would be partly underground to buffer noise for residents and would replace the present route, which follows city streets past 16 stoplights.

Michigan Governor Granholm went before the state House of Representatives Transportation Committee to read into the record a letter from Baird offering the additional $550 million to bankroll Michigan’s costs of the project.

Baird in Ottawa said Canada “is committed to build a new bridge crossing at the Windsor-Detroit border, and this funding commitment is another step we are taking to accelerate the start of its construction.” The “increased financial participation would be for project components in Michigan, and will be repaid to Canada over time,” the Canadian government said. Baird told reporters the repaying over time would be through tolls collected.

Read more here and here.

Business, Political, Labor Leaders Support New Detroit River Bridge

(Bill Shea — Crain’s Detroit Business)

A group of state and local political, labor and business leaders gathered this morning [Friday] to express their solidarity for a new public Detroit River bridge, and to lobby for passage of legislation that they call the final hurdle to its creation.

Specifically, the group that included Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and Canadian Ambassador Gary Doer advocated for passage of HB 4961, which would allow Michigan to enter into public-private partnership for its portion of the $5.3 billion Detroit River International Crossing project.

The bill is in the House Transportation Committee and is expected to be taken up this month, DRIC’s backers said in a statement today. If the bill is passed, work on the crossing could begin this year. […]

Backers say the bridge is needed to create 10,000 Michigan construction jobs over five years and 25,000 additional full-time, permanent Michigan jobs created or retained once the bridge is built. It’s also said to be needed to bolster trade capacity and to provide redundancy in case of accident or terrorist attack on the current border infrastructure.

Opponents, who include Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel Moroun and a bloc of state Legislators led by Sen. Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt, say the new bridge is unneeded because border traffic has declined since 1999.

DRIC is a joint effort by the Michigan Department of Transportation, Transport Canada, Ontario’s Transportation Ministry and the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, and it would link Detroit’s Delray neighborhood and Windsor’s Brighton Beach area with a new bridge to connect I-75 and Highway 401.

It’s expected to take 48 to 52 months to finish and the entire project has a $5.3 billion price tag, with the bridge itself at up to $1 billion. The remainder would be highway, ramp and plaza work, including the Windsor-Essex Parkway that is separate from DRIC and is purely a Canadian effort. Read more here.

US Scraps Plans for Big Port in Little Maine Town

(WGME-Bangor Daily News-AP)

The federal agency that oversees people entering the United States from Canada is scrapping plans to build a new, larger port of entry in the Maine border town of Forest City.

Instead, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is planning to build a smaller facility on federal land across the border from the New Brunswick community that is also called Forest City. Read more here.

Work on U.S. Customs Starts April 12

(Dave Battagello — Windsor Star)

Customs plaza improvements on the U.S. side of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel are scheduled to begin April 12.

The multimillion-dollar construction work will last several months and includes two phases -- the first to add another inspection booth, plus modifications to lanes 1 and 2. That work should be completed by June. A second phase will see creation of a bus processing area, expansion of the secondary inspection plaza and improvements to the U.S. customs office space. Read more here.

Windsor MP Brian Masse Calls for Enhanced Meat Inspections at Canada-U.S. Border

(Windsor Star)

Inspection of meat products coming into Canada from the United States has been cut back and Canadians could suffer for it, MP Brian Masse (NDP – Windsor West) said Friday. Masse held a news conference at his constituency office flanked by representatives of Windsor’s two locations where meat inspections are conducted.

“There have been changes to border policy and food inspection policy that are putting Canadians at greater risk than before and we’ve been fortunate enough to have some individuals come forward to bring that concern to me,” said Masse, who wrote a letter to Gerry Ritz, the minister of agriculture.

New government policy that went into effect on January 4 sees inspections conducted at Windsor Freezer and Border City Storage from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday, a reduction of two hours a day from previous levels.

Masse wants to see Canada adopt many of the same stricter policies and penalties as the U.S. when it comes to food inspection. Since the new policy went into effect there have been 70 trucks that have been guided to inspection in Windsor, but ignored the order and continued on to their destination without penalty.

“The problem we have and we see here is, if that truck doesn’t report for inspection, it’s just basically let go, a slap on the hand, there’s basically no penalty,” said Phil Marchuk, president of Windsor Freezer Services Ltd. “In the States if you miss going to an inspection, your fine is three times the load you’re carrying. Nobody skips inspections in the States because it’s too risky and too much of a bother.” Read more here.

This Secretive Billionaire Family Owns the Ambassador Bridge

(Mitch Potter — Toronto Star)

The Moroun family seldom steps out of the shadows to show itself to the world. They may be billionaires. They may own the most important bridge Canada has ever known. But they are just shy that way.

Yet when the local media takes to calling you “crabgrass,” when Forbes magazine slams you as “the troll under the bridge,” when you are on the verge of all-out war with Ottawa, exceptions must be made.

So here we are, inside the American family’s astonishingly private corporate headquarters in suburban Detroit, with Matthew Moroun sitting across the table like the proverbial deer in the headlights.

To call the conversation exclusive doesn’t quite do it justice. At 37, the younger Moroun is in the process of taking over the company reins from his rags-to-riches father, 83-year-old Manuel “Matty” Moroun. The heir apparent has never given an interview. Until now. Read more here.

Ottawa Mulls Buying Windsor-Detroit Ambassador Bridge

(John Ivison/Dave Battagello, Canwest News Service)

Stephen Harper has instructed his ministers to explore the prospect of buying the Windsor-Detroit bridge — the busiest international border crossing in North America — from its American owner.

The Ambassador Bridge is owned by billionaire Manuel “Matty” Moroun and carries one quarter of all merchandise trade between Canada and the United States.

Lawrence Cannon, the Foreign Minister, said buying the bridge from the private sector is one option being examined. “My understanding is that the file is progressing and there are options being looked at,” he said.

He added the government’s first choice would be to pursue development of a new publicly owned bridge, the Detroit River International Crossing, down river from the Ambassador Bridge. But he said that deal is complicated by the involvement of state governments in the United States. “No decision has been taken on what specific option to take,” he said. Read more here.

Four-Year Delay Seen for New Detroit Bridge

(Journal of Commerce – Courtney Tower)

Canada approves environmental study but lawsuits delay cross-border span

Canada last week achieved a critical milestone toward building the $3 billion Detroit River International Crossing. But the final opening still faces at least four years of delay by the most hopeful calculation from 2013 to 2017.

Canadian authorities gave their final approval in an exhaustive environmental process which has lasted several years since federal and local governments decided to build a new bridge two miles upriver from the 80-year-old Ambassador Bridge. The same U.S. process ended in approval early this year. The two environmental approvals would normally allow the project to go ahead.

Even four extra years can become more if there are further delays from a huge tangle of lawsuits in U.S. courts or from renewed opposition in the Michigan legislature, where the private owner of the venerable Ambassador Bridge, Manual Moroun, has several supporters. Moroun wants to build his own new span and stop the public DRIC. Read more here.