Thank you, Chair.
I am against this motion for many reasons, which I'll get into. The primary reason is that the motion fails to discuss the significant economic benefit to Windsor, the province of Ontario and the country more broadly.
The fact of the matter is that Canada and the United States have the largest trading relationship in the world. Approximately $1.3 trillion in goods and services cross our border every year. The Windsor-Detroit gateway is the busiest commercial land border crossing between Canada and the United States, carrying approximately 30% of all Canada-U.S. trade. The corridor is one of North America's most critical trade routes, and it is essential to continental supply chains.
The Gordie Howe International Bridge will improve the movement of people, goods and services by providing additional border capacity, a new crossing alternative, modern border processing capabilities and, for the first time, a direct highway-to-highway connection. Canadians who live in Windsor know full well that those who travel across the Ambassador Bridge have to travel through residential areas, impacting hundreds of residents every single day. The bridge will improve the reliability of cross-border supply chains, particularly for the automotive and advanced manufacturing sectors, where goods and components may cross the border multiple times during production. Reliable border crossings, as we all know, are critical for just-in-time manufacturing, where delays can disrupt production, increase costs and put Canadian jobs at risk.
What's interesting is that Conservative Premier Doug Ford supports our government's decisive action to open this bridge. Clearly, he knows what the Conservative opposition does not: The total trade between Ontario and Michigan was valued at $81 billion back in 2022 and is critical for Ontario's economy—