Canada to pay entire cost of Detroit-Windsor U.S. Customs plaza

[Newsjock]

Source: The Globe and Mail

The Canadian government has failed to get Washington to pay the roughly $250-million (U.S.) needed to build a U.S. Customs plaza on the Michigan side of a new Detroit-Windsor bridge.

Ottawa will be responsible for financing the entire cost of the $2.1-billion bridge, including access roads on both sides of the Detroit River as well as U.S. border installations, under a deal announced Wednesday.

... Ottawa has long argued that the U.S. government should pay for its own infrastructure, given that Canada is already covering virtually the entire cost of the bridge as well as access roads on both sides of the border. The project, which spans the busiest trade crossing between the two countries, is slated to be completed in 2020. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office suggested in a 2012 press release that the plaza would be “the responsibility of the U.S. government.”

In the end, Washington agreed only to staff, operate and maintain the Customs plaza in Detroit.

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/canada-to-pay-entire-cost-of-detroit-windsor-us-customs-plaza/article23062321/

[grasswire]

1. why?nt

[Monk06]

2. Because Harper is an ass licking Republican errand boy and the US powers that be

to not want to be seen investing one US dollar restoring the economy of Detroit.

Freepers think of Detroit as a poster child for a city that failed because it is a black city run by black people.

Now it's a a city where black people live and the white people that run it don't. Kinda like a foreign country.

[thatgemguy]

3. Our government

Protecting the private owner of the Detroit Winsor Toll Bridge.

The more time passes, them more I wish that I were younger, or were wealthier, so I could emigrate to Canada. At least there's a good chance for the liberals to win control of the Canadian government again. Stephen Harper needs to go...

[FrodosPet]

4. Wrong bridge

You must be thinking of "Matty" Moroun's plan to build a bridge. That one is not happening. This is a different deal.

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2015/02/canada_agrees_to_fund_us_custo.html

~ snip ~

A Canadian public-private partnership planned to cover the cost of building the $2.1 billion bridge, and now will add the cost of the $250 million customs plaza to its burden.

Toll revenues collected on the U.S. side of the bridge will go toward repayment for the American share of the project.

"A new Windsor-Detroit crossing remains one of Canada's top infrastructure priorities for Canada," said Canadian Minister of Transport Lisa Raitt in a statement announcing the agreement.

"... It will facilitate the movement of people, goods and services 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. As well, it will provide a much-needed crossing alternative at one of the busiest commercial border crossings in North America and support national security and public safety priorities in Canada and the U.S. It will also bring new jobs, opportunities and continued prosperity to communities in both countries."

~ snip ~