Detroit Free Press - Pressure Still on U.S. to Help with Bridge Plaza

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By Todd Spangler

If media reports suggesting a deal is all but done for Canada to pay for a new customs plaza in Detroit are true, it hasn't turned down the pressure on the Obama administration to pitch in.

On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, told President Barack Obama's budget chief that the Canadian government has been "very, very supportive" of the efforts to build a New International Trade Crossing across the Detroit River and it's time for the Obama administration to step up and help.

"Could we ask that we do work with the White House and the appropriate agencies to look at the funding of the customs plaza that is so critical?" Dingell asked Shaun Donovan, director of the Office of Management and Budget, during a House Budget Committee hearing.

Donovan said administration officials have already been working closely with Canadian and Michigan officials on the $250-$300 million customs plaza -- the funding for which is considered one of the keys to getting the project moving -- despite it not being included, again, in the president's budget.

Donovan said he was ""optimistic it can move forward." But that was a far cry from media reports Tuesday that a deal to secure the customs plaza is all but done, with the Canadian government ready to pay for it up front.

While U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow's office told the Free Press on Tuesday night that she had heard reports to that effect, a spokesman also said she was repeating public reports and did not know of a definitive agreement between the two nations and the state of Michigan.

It has been known for more than a year that the U.S. government is unlikely to pay for the construction of the customs plaza, with a limited budget for new construction from Congress and a long list of border entry priorities around the country. As such, it has also been a given that it would probably fall to Canada to pick up the tab for a project it has pursued for years, though it could be reimbursed through tolls.

Canada has already proposed picking up practically all of the $2 billion cost of the bridge.

Even if Canada agrees to build the customs plaza, however, other details will still have to be worked out with the U.S. government, including staffing and whether the federal government would pay rent -- as it does at both the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel -- for the facility.

According to fedspending.org, a website that tracks federal contracts and is run by the Center for Effective Government, the U.S. government's Public Buildings Service paid some $1.5 million to the Ambassador Bridge's owners and $1.4 million to the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, in 2011 alone.

Although Stabenow, D-Mich., and the Globe and Mail in Toronto said an agreement on funding for the customs plaza could be announced as early as next month, Gov. Rick Snyder and the Canadian government have both declined to say any final deal has been reached.

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