The Time for Action is Now

The people of Western New York have had close relationships with our Canadian neighbors for hundreds of years.  Our communities are woven together and our economies are interdependent.  Eighty-one years ago this cooperative spirit resulted in the construction of the Peace Bridge between Buffalo, New York and Fort Erie, Ontario. 

The Peace Bridge is the second busiest passenger vehicle crossing and the third busiest commercial crossing between the United States and Canada.  The commerce facilitated by this bridge is absolutely critical to the vulnerable Western New York economy.  In 2006, 468,760 New York jobs depended on trade with Canada, our top export market.  Further, the majority of Canada’s population lives over the Peace Bridge in Southern Ontario.  The area from Toronto to Buffalo alone is expected to grow in population by 3.7 million to 11.5 million in the next two decades. 

Access to this market is absolutely vital for Western New York.  Today, one third of travelers at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport are Canadian; combining our region with Southern Ontario’s allows BNIA to attract low cost airlines.  Canadian patronage of our sports franchises allow us to keep the teams in the region, as 18% of Bills tickets and 12% of Sabres tickets are purchased by Canadians.  Patronage from this region is also important for our cultural, retail and higher education institutions.  And manufacturers depend on this link; for example the Buffalo Ford Stamping Plant, which employs 3,000 Western New Yorkers, depends on just-in-time delivery to its assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario.  If the Peace Bridge remains congested, it erodes the Buffalo plant’s advantage relative to other locations. 

This vital piece of infrastructure has been in dire need of enhanced capacity for some time.  Yet the project has experienced several setbacks in recent years, most notably delays caused by a proposal called “shared border management” concerning the location of the American customs plaza, and the design of the new span itself.   

Shared Border Management

Brian was a strong supporter of shared border management, a proposal in which the American customs plaza would have been located on the Canadian side of the bridge.  The idea behind the proposal was that in areas where more land was available on the Canadian side of a border crossing, both countries’ customs facilities would be located in Canada, and vice versa.  The Peace Bridge was to be the first such facility, with the Buffalo customs plaza moved to Fort Erie. 

Unfortunately, during years of negotiations it became apparent that the standard practices of U.S. law enforcement officials are inconsistent with some of the civil liberty protections enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  Consequently, locating American Customs and Border Protection agents in Fort Erie would have required either violating Canadian civil liberty law, or operating the Peace Bridge at a lower level of security than any other port-of-entry into the United States.  Neither option being acceptable, shared border management was declared dead by the Department of Homeland Security in April 2007. 

Today, some argue that with a new Administration in the White House, we should revisit shared border management negotiations.  But the fact is that while the Administration has changed, the obstacles to reaching agreement – summarized in a Government Accountability Office report here – have not.  To reopen negotiations now, when there is no realistic chance that the outcome would be any different, would be a devastating blow to progress on the construction of the new bridge.  With this in mind, Congressman Higgins has urged the Department of Homeland Security to promptly advise the public of the final decision on the feasibility of shared border management. 

Bridge Design

A second obstacle to the expeditious construction of the project is the design of the new bridge itself.  In 2006 a bi-national jury chose a 567 foot, two-tower cable-stayed bridge for the new span, a design proponents called a “signature span”.  During the course of the environmental review process, however, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and environmental advocacy groups raised concerns that the height of the proposed bridge was so great that it endangered migratory birds, specifically the common tern, that live on and around the Niagara River.  Canadian environmental agencies expressed similar concerns. 

Federal environmental law requires that a project of this magnitude must examine whether such negative environmental impacts can be avoided or minimized while still meeting the project’s need, and to choose a design accordingly.  To that end federal, state and Canadian officials have commissioned a new design that will take into account the common tern and other environmental issues, while still giving Western New York the signature span it deserves.

Delay on this project has, regrettably, become all too familiar.  But Western New York cannot afford another multi-year delay on the construction of a new Peace Bridge. For our region to regain its full economic potential, efficient, predictable and on-time access to and from Canada must be vastly improved now.  Brian is currently urging the Western New York business community and the public to support his efforts to get construction of a new Peace Bridge underway as soon as possible.

Below you will find the latest on Brian's efforts to advance the much needed and long awaited Peace Bridge expansion project. 

GAO Report on Shared Border Management (PDF)

News on the Peace Bridge Project