WASHINGTON —
Union leaders, opposition MPs and advocates for Canada’s steel producers say they are concerned that a portion of a $5.7-billion international bridge project between Detroit and Windsor, Ont., could be built using raw materials produced outside North America.
The Gordie Howe International Bridge, a bilateral effort to ease bottlenecks at the single busiest trade corridor across the Canada-U.S. border, is currently scheduled for completion in 2024, more than 20 years after the idea was first proposed.
Because the bridge is being financed almost entirely by Canada’s federal government, the Obama administration agreed in 2012 to exempt the project from Buy American procurement rules, and instead permit the use of either Canadian or American iron and steel.
Two components of the project on the Canadian side of the Detroit River — a sprawling customs plaza and an “approach bridge” to connect the crossing with the Rt. Hon. Herb Gray Parkway, a new extension of Highway 401 — are not subject to the 2012 waiver.
“The waiver applies specifically to the bridge and the U.S. project components; the waiver does not apply to the Canadian project components,” said Heather Grondin, vice-president of corporate affairs and external relations for the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority.
“Because Canada doesn’t have legislation like the Buy American Act, we don’t have those same requirements just to source locally within our own country. So there is the ability to source from outside of Canada for those two components.”
The authority says the 53-hectare Canadian port of entry, an area roughly the size of 130 football fields, will be the single largest port facility along the Canada-U.S. border and one of the largest in North America once it is completed.
It includes inbound and outbound border inspection facilities for both passenger and commercial vehicles and maintenance facilities, as well as an array of booths to allow for the collection of tolls — the project’s primary avenue for recouping the multibillion-dollar price tag.
Because it is being financed as a public-private partnership, or P3, detailed cost breakdowns of the various components of the project are not publicly available. But as a point of comparison, the cost to Michigan of building a new approach to the crossing on the U.S. side has been pegged at about US$230 million.
Jose Luis Mendez, the project manager on the Canadian side for Bridging North America, the authority’s private-sector partner, confirmed in a statement that North American iron and steel has already been procured for the main span as well as the customs facility on the U.S. side.
The procurement of steel for the Canadian port of entry and approach bridge, “for which (BNA) is considering both sources from within America and Canada and outside of those two countries, is still ongoing but should be complete in the near future,” Mendez said.
“BNA is unable to comment further at this time on remaining procurement activities due to commercially sensitive reasons.”
USW Canada national director Marty Warren, sworn in just Tuesday as the new leader of the Canadian wing of the United Steelworkers union, said he doesn’t understand why the federal government didn’t insist on the use of Canadian materials.
After all, he noted, Canada is being forced more and more to navigate the made-in-America procurement rules that seem to now be standard operating procedure for the country’s single largest trading partner.
“It’s disappointing to me that our Liberal government hasn’t stepped up and said, at least, ‘That portion of that project is going to be Canadian steel,'” Warren said in an interview.
“It’s about our North American image as well. I think that’s what’s most important, that if a bridge that comes into being would be using foreign steel, that would be just a shot in the belly to both of us.”
Brian Masse, the NDP MP who has represented the riding of Windsor West since 2002, was a city councillor back in 1998 when he first started making a public case for a new span to ease some of the chronic cross-border congestion plaguing the now-92-year-old Ambassador Bridge.
Masse remembers attending a Detroit Tigers game with former Minnesota congressman Jim Oberstar, a longtime member of the bilateral coalition of lawmakers known as the Canada-U.S. Inter-Parliamentary Group.
Then-president Barack Obama — whose vice-president at the time is now the U.S. commander-in-chief and a vocal champion of U.S. protectionism — was in the process of resurrecting the spectre of federal procurement rules designed to favour American suppliers and contractors.
“(Oberstar) said that we would need to have some type of constructive response,” Masse recalled.
“You know, we don’t want to get into more protectionism, but the reality is that until we create our own kind of point of conversation, there’s really nothing for us to go to the Americans with other than on bended knee.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 2, 2022.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
