On June 15, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder announced that that the United States and Canada have reached an agreement that will allow the Detroit International River Crossing project to proceed.

Prime Minister Harper described the Agreement as follows: “Our Government is taking the measures necessary to facilitate trade and investment between Canada and the United States in order to generate jobs, economic growth and long term prosperity.”
He added: “The new Detroit River International Crossing will facilitate the movement of people and goods between Canada and the U.S. by ensuring that there is sufficient border crossing capacity to handle projected growth in cross border trade and traffic in the Windsor-Detroit trade corridor.  It will also provide a much-needed crossing alternative at the busiest Canada-U.S. commercial border crossing and create thousands of jobs and opportunities on both sides of the border.”  In response to a media question, he described this as the “most important infrastructure project in North America.”
With the signing of the agreement, Canada and Michigan can now proceed with the next steps of the project, which include further design work and property acquisition on the U.S. side before construction can begin. Under the agreement, Canada will be responsible for constructing, financing and operating the new crossing with likely private sector involvement.
Inevitably, there will be more obstacles along the way.  The owners of the Ambassador Bridge spent millions last year in their effort to ensure that their 83-year-old bridge faces no competition.  This year, they are trying to amend the Michigan Constitution, effectively to prohibit any new crossings from being built.
Friday’s announcement, however, was a big step forward.  The Prime Minister and the Governor are mindful of how importany this project is to trade and jobs across the industrial heartland of the USA and Canada.  I know they have been very appreciative of the unanimous resolutions supporting the bridge passed in each of the Indiana House and Senate and the Ohio House and Senate, as well as indications of support from Chambers of Commerce, labor unions, and others in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and other states in the region.  With everyone’s continued support, we’re going to get this done!

For more information, consult the press release issued by the Government of Canada: http://pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?id=4865.