Efforts to ease congestion at one of the busiest Canada-U.S. border crossings are being hampered by “woefully insufficient” American customs infrastructure and ill-considered budget cuts, a congressional panel heard Tuesday.
The problems at the Blue Water Bridge crossing, which links Sarnia, Ont., to Port Huron, Mich., are so acute that U.S. agents must conduct secondary inspections of commercial vehicles at off-site locations because the existing customs plaza lacks enough space to accommodate on-site searches. […]
A $583-million U.S. project that would have added seven “primary
inspection lanes” at the American customs plaza — and reduced average waiting
times from about 30 minutes to three — has fallen victim to cost-cutting. Read more: here.
