Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks for having me.
I represent Windsor West, which has 35% of Canada's daily trade. Pre-COVID, it was 40,000 vehicles, that being 10,000 trucks and 30,000 cars. We're down to about 5,000 to 6,000 trucks and just a few hundred cars, or a few thousand cars, depending on the day, because of COVID.
The effects on the border community are really paramount to me. For the last number of days, as one of the vice-chairs...and I'm joined by a number of colleagues here from different parties who are also part of that. There is Mr. McKay, and I see Mr. Hoback as well. We have been lobbying Congress for years.
I found, over the last number of days, that there isn't a sophistication level or enough information that has quite reached some of the congressional representatives about the issue. I found that presenting facts and information, as opposed to motivation of individuals, was more effective to get it done, but I'm also concerned about the effects on communities.
I want to ask this of Mr. McMichael, as the district labour council president.
I know that, in our community here, we actually had studies of kids going to school with backpacks to measure the toxins they got from the trucks we have in our community. We're finally building a brand new bridge. What would be the effect of shutting this down and altering the routes for trucks and that type of movement in traffic?