What Is Going To Happen At The Border Now

It has been quite an exciting week hasn't it!  Given what has happened, the dispute over building the bridge between Windsor, Canada and Detroit, USA should now be considered over! 

Finally, about half a year after the time when I thought the Feds would make their decision, the Canadian Federal Government has now allowed the Ambassador Bridge Company to build its new bridge. Obviously, the Bridge Company is thrilled:

"Statement of Matthew Moroun, for Detroit International Bridge Co., regarding the International Bridges and Tunnels Act (IBTA) permit for the Ambassador Bridge Enhancement Project from Canada being issued: 

NEW BRIDGE ON ITS WAY TO DETROIT/WINDSOR CORRIDOR  

The Ambassador Bridge will now build North America’s longest cable stayed bridge next to the original span of the privately funded Ambassador Bridge which was the longest suspension bridge when it opened in 1929.

“We especially thank Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada for issuance of the final permit supporting our Company to make this major investment in international infrastructure. There have been many challenges our company has faced over the years in pursuit of this moment. We are now tasked with the duty to construct a privately funded bridge with the hard work of thousands of engineers, steel workers, construction experts that will be employed to deliver this once in a lifetime project” said Matthew Moroun.

Matthew continued:  “We know there are those who never thought our permit would be approved. Hopefully, now we can all come together and take pride in watching a new bridge rise across the shared border between our great nations”.

I have not written very much about this subject since that decision had been made because I was interested to see what the reaction would be. I wanted to take a look at what the opponents would say and do before I made any comments. I must admit that their reaction has been quite interesting. It is almost nonexistent for some strange reason!

What it tells me is very obvious. I first got involved in the border matter almost a decade ago when I joined the STOP DRTP movement.  I must admit that, after meeting a representative from the Bridge Company for the first time in the Company's Windsor office back then, I was quite sure that they would get permission to build their 2nd bridge.  What should have happened a long time ago has finally taken place now.  They now have permission to move forward.

I am not going to get into a long discussion about it. In my analysis of this file, I believe that the reason why the Federal Government has not acted before was that they were expecting that the Moroun Family would sell out its interest in the Ambassador Bridge to the Government sooner rather than never as it seems to be now! They thought that the Family would be concerned about how little money they were going to receive if there was federal competition and so were going to sell out quickly at a low price. That just didn't happen no matter how tough the competition was and no matter how long it took. The Bridge Company was prepared to fight them in order to preserve its interests.

To be direct about it, I think the Feds have finally realized that a new bridge must be built now in order to preserve cross-border traffic and are prepared to at least allow the Moroun Family to build it. In other words, at least a short-term victory for the Morouns.

Let's deal with a key issue. Does anyone really believe that the Feds are going to build their own bridge a mile or so downriver from the New Ambassador Bridge? Obviously not! The New Ambassador Bridge will cost about another $500 million to build. A Federal Bridge will cost somewhere between $4 and $5 billion to build. Seriously, does that make any sense at all to spend that kind of money? I hardly think so when the cross-border traffic is not doing all that well these days and has reduced significantly.

Of course, the conversation in the media seems to be suggesting these days that the Government Bridge will be started relatively shortly notwithstanding another further delay that has just been reported. Get real everyone. That is not going to happen at all! 

We ought to know that, if required, the Ambassador Bridge Company can start a lawsuit, probably both in Canada and United States to mess things up really badly, making the argument that a Government bridge can never be built. It will take some time, probably a decade or so, for the matter to go through the Court systems to the highest levels in both countries before a decision is reached. Won't it be fun if the Supreme Courts in both countries make decisions on the opposite sides! What would happen then?

What is your guess now, dear reader, in answer to this most difficult question: who could be a very desperate politician out there right now respecting the border matter. The answer seems obvious to me: MP Brian Masse. What is he going to do now so that he can be re-elected? Is he desperate now to take some action, regardless of what it is, to make it appear as if he is still important to his constituents? I will let you make your own decision on that one. 

Just remember that it seems to me that he had no idea of what was going to happen now. It appears that he was not informed in advance at all about the announcement recently. He had to do something subsequently and quickly in order to preserve his "importance" image. I am sure that he expected to gain some good publicity by what he proposed by his action to have a meeting set out last week.  Unfortunately for him, that did not happen. I am sure that he expected to gain a lot of publicity for himself by having important people in attendance to deal with the matter including reps from the Ambassador Bridge Company and various governmental levels. None of them showed up.  

There is a lot more that I could write about but why bother. If you want to find out what some of the big issues are these days and what is going to happen to them, take a look at the Gord Henderson column in the Windsor Star on September 16, 2070: "Approval of a new Ambassador Bridge span is a political sellout"

No, I don't believe that Gord is really being anti-Ambassador Bridge Company in his column. Rather, he is setting out some of the big issues and showing how the Bridge Company will be successful. Take a look at this for example:

"Does anyone, other than a naïve or self-deceiving bureaucrat, seriously believe the existing bridge, which has seen big money spent on new decking and other improvements, will be torn down while still serviceable and capable of providing redundancy?

By the way, bridge officials told this columnist years ago that the structure cannot be demolished because it qualifies for protected status under Michigan’s heritage laws. So what’s changed?"

I could write a lot more about what has happened and why but I choose not to do so. Rather, I expect that we will all see rather dramatic action being taken by the Ambassador Bridge Company over the next little while to get construction of its new bridge started as quickly as possible. I doubt that we are going to see any opposition by any level of government in either country to prevent it.

Any suggestion that all the traffic to the new bridge will go along Huron Church Road is absurd. Just go back and take a look at what was proposed over a decade ago for how traffic would cross the border. To be realistic, the construction of the new Highway to the border built now is a good part of what the federal system was supposed to be under the old plan.

I expect that, after the old Ambassador Bridge is updated, it will be used for the automobile traffic only while the trucks will use the new bridge. The auto traffic will probably still use Huron Church Road but the truck traffic will not be allowed to do so but will have to use the new road. Alternatively, and I don't agree that it will happen, all of the border traffic will have to cross over on the new bridge and the old bridge will just be there in case of emergencies.

I am very happy as it appears that this matter has now finally been resolved. Of course, I expect some silly actions to be taken by certain people to try to cause problems again but I don't take anything that they will propose seriously. The new Ambassador Bridge is a huge advantage to our area especially because our border crossing is so important to the economy. It should create lots of new jobs here in a variety of different industries if we finally figure out how to use it to our huge advantage and take the actual steps to do so.

Have you seen all of this new publicity on a completely different subject over the past little while? Now I understand why the Moroun Family is able to spend so much time these days to develop its ownership of the Michigan Central Station. 

Congratulations in their bridge success!