Tag: economy

Border ‘thinning’ called U.S. goal | The Windsor Star

Canada and the U.S. must work together as a cohesive economic unit to fight global challenges over the next 50 years, a senior U.S. Homeland Security official said Thursday.

Alan Bersin, the current assistant secretary of international affairs and chief diplomatic officer of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, met with Matt Marchand, president and CEO of the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce, during the lunch hour Thursday.

“The story of the next 50 years, as we get this right and the president and the prime minister see it, we will be able to compete with East Asia, with the Indian subcontinent, with Brazil, and that will be to the benefit of the Canadian and American peoples together,” said Bersin, a former commissioner of customs and border protection who is attending a Canada-U.S. border conference in Detroit.

“Specifically we need to knock down the transaction costs. We need to specifically be able to make it more economical to move goods back and forth across our border. Finished goods, and goods in process. Those are the kinds of issues I took up with the chamber and I look forward to continuing to work on the issues that affect the quality of life of our two nations.”

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If Detroit Tunnel Goes on the Block, Windsor Wants It | Wall Street Journal

If Detroit Tunnel Goes on the Block, Windsor Wants It – Canada Real Time – WSJ.

Debt-laden Detroit, which filed for bankruptcy last week, isn’t planning to sell off assets to pay back its creditors. But if any Detroit assets do go on the market, a Canadian mayor says there’s one his city wants.

It’s not landmark sites like the world-class Detroit Institute of Arts, the 982-acre island park of Belle Isle, or the 125-acre Detroit Zoo that Windsor, Ontario Mayor Eddie Francis has his eye on. Rather, the neighboring Canadian city wants full ownership of the busy underwater Canada-U.S. tunnel that runs between the cities.

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Federal budget cuts could hurt border agency’s fight against gun smuggling, MP says | Toronto Star

In the news: Federal budget cuts could hurt border agency’s fight against gun smuggling, MP says | Toronto Star.

OTTAWA—Front-line border officers are confiscating fewer guns than they did a decade ago and ongoing budget cuts could make it even harder to stem the tide of illegal firearms onto Toronto streets, a New Democrat MP says.

The Conservative government, which has made law-and-order the central plank of its agenda, is being pressed to do more to combat the smuggling of handguns to Canada from the United States.

“The proliferation is enormous . . . they’re used in crimes. They’re used by youth,” NDP MP Mike Sullivan said Friday.

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Homeland Security’s proposed new Canada-U.S. border fee prompts alarm in New York

In the news: Homeland Security’s proposed new Canada-U.S. border fee prompts alarm in New York. | Canada.com

The U.S. government is proposing to charge a new fee for every vehicle or pedestrian crossing the U.S.-Canada border — an idea that has prompted fierce objections from New York lawmakers who claim the levy would stifle transboundary commerce and undermine recent efforts to ease the flow of people and goods between the two countries.

The Canadian government, too, is raising alarms about the proposal, with an embassy spokesman in Washington telling the Buffalo News that “we’re confident that any study would conclude that the considerable economic damage any fee would do would greatly outweigh any revenue generated.”

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