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Address to Windsor City Council by the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association: "The Need for Urgent Action."

Windsor, ON – 2004-01-06

The Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association (CVMA) has represented Canada's largest manufacturers of cars and trucks since 1926. Its members include: DaimlerChrysler Canada, Ford Motor Company of Canada (and its wholly owned affiliates, Jaguar, LandRover and Volvo Cars), General Motors of Canada, and International Truck and Engine Corporation. Together these companies annually produce over 75% of all vehicles in Canada.

Being born and raised in Windsor myself, I understand and I empathize with the citizens that are frustrated by the endless lines of trucks on city streets, resulting from a dysfunctional border crossing. Our industry is frustrated too.

As you are all well aware Windsor has the highest auto industry concentration in Canada, with DaimlerChrysler, Ford and General Motors being among the largest single employers in the city. In fact, CVMA members directly employ over 14,000 people in their manufacturing facilities in Windsor. It is widely accepted that the multiplier for motor vehicle assembly jobs is at least three and some U.S. studies have suggested that it may be closer to seven. This means that for every motor vehicle assembly job there are three to seven additional jobs directly or indirectly resulting in the community from that one assembly job. You can easily do the math yourselves; the health of the auto industry in Canada may be felt more acutely here than anywhere. So we support the City of Windsor in creating an environment that welcomes future growth in the automotive industry.

With the integrated nature of the North American auto industry and the just-in-time delivery systems, our members alone account for roughly 4,200 border crossings each day in and out of Canada. At the Ambassador Bridge automotive shipments represent roughly 35% of all commercial border crossings. The carriers that haul parts inventories back and forth across the border to feed the vehicle assembly plants are also frustrated. It is an absolute certainty that the thousands of automotive-related trucks that cross the Ambassador Bridge on any given day do not want to be idling for hours on Huron Church Road any more than the citizens of Windsor – some of whom are represented here tonight – want to have them there.

When I made a presentation before this Council in July of 2002 I stated that "We share the concerns and frustrations of Windsorites regarding the lack of material action on this matter and we agree – the time for action is now."

As we are all aware, in September of 2002 the federal and provincial governments committed $300 million to improve the infrastructure at the Windsor gateway, which resulted in the release of the "nine point plan" in May 2003. However, we are all still waiting for concrete action despite our pleas, the pleas of other industries, as well as the pleas of the citizens of Windsor with all parties still concerned and frustrated.

Today I will repeat our plea: Action must be taken immediately to alleviate the frustrations that we all face in the Windsor region with border congestion, and we must all work together to accomplish these shared objectives.

Despite these continued frustrations and lack of concrete actions I must state that I am somewhat optimistic as I appear before you today. I am here today, before a new mayor, and a number of new city councilors. We have new federal ministers of transport and industry, and a new government in Ontario with two pivotal ministers from the Windsor area. This affords us an unprecedented opportunity to move quickly and aggressively by taking a fresh look at the challenges and towards finding solutions that work for all parties involved.

There are five key elements that affect the efficiency of cross border transportation and clearance, and as a result, impact border congestion. They are:

1.		Access Roads
2.		Toll Collection
3.		Border Crossing Infrastructure
4.		Border Processing
5.		Egress Roads

To date it seems that most of the attention has been focused on the physical infrastructure shortfalls. However, the ongoing challenge with all physical infrastructure improvements is the time needed for real improvements to occur. We all agree that a new border crossing is needed in the region and that a new crossing would potentially remove much of the strain from the city infrastructure, however, to be realistic, any new crossing is many years away.

In the short term other steps can, and to some degree, have been taken to alleviate congestion, but much more needs to be done by all parties. Canadian and US governments have implemented joint pre-clearance programs that move the majority of processing for travelers and commercial shipments away from the border crossing, these are called NEXUS and Free and Secure Trade (FAST). The bridge and tunnel operators have begun processes that will reorganize, and in some cases dramatically change, the flow of traffic in and out of their facilities. CVMA members have begun participation in the FAST and NEXUS programs to speed up the process of getting vehicles across the border. The City of Windsor has helped in this process by facilitating the movement of FAST vehicles in non-truck lanes on Huron Church road. These changes are having a positive impact on border crossing delays, however, much more can and must be done to reduce congestion in the short term.

The nine-point plan would be a great start towards a solution for both the short and medium term, but work must begin immediately. I want to express to you what we have told the new leaders at the other levels of government involved, our members fully support the nine point plan and want to work with all levels of government to see that it is implemented. And yes, we understand there are concerns with a couple of points of the plan. However, a significant amount of time, consultation and energy went into its development. In my view, it is much more constructive and productive and less time consuming to work within the existing process and build on existing plans to offer up suggestions for improvement. Fundamentally, the most important thing is to get started because already over a year of "short term" has expired!

I am aware that a report has been presented to Council calling for an "Immediate Relief Truck Containment Strategy" that would be implemented as early as spring 2004 that would not prevent trucks from traveling into Windsor, nor would it prevent them from passing through the city enroute to the United States. I admit that I do not fully appreciate nor understand how this containment of traffic would take place. From the CVMA's perspective, pre-processing and staging areas make sense only for those that do not have their paperwork in place or have not pre-cleared their shipments. But for companies who have been leaders in investing millions of dollars into programs like FAST for expedited movement across the border, pre-processing and staging areas are redundant and counterproductive.

This is but one suggestion, my point being that we need to look at all five elements that impact border congestion, not just new border crossings, in order to bring a more comprehensive approach to the short term and see real improvements.

Our industry is at a critical juncture and companies such as DaimlerChrysler, Ford and General Motors are striving to maintain strong competitive positions in a global marketplace. New and ongoing investment decisions are not made in Canada, but are dependent on the ability of plants in Canada to remain globally competitive. To not push aggressively forward with improved border crossing strategies puts at risk the certainty that manufacturing facilities will be able to meet production schedules - certainty that they will be able to confidently transport parts and finished product without delay across the border. Uncertainty in border processing contributes negatively to investment decisions for vehicle assemblers and parts manufacturers. Together, I believe we can work to address the challenges before us and I pledge the commitment of the CVMA membership to do just that.

Thank you for your time.

Contacts:

Mark Nantais
Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association
416.364.9333

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