As "American the Beautiful" plays softly on a piano in the background, the company that owns the Ambassador Bridge is making a pitch to U.S. President Donald Trump to revoke the American permit to build the Gordie Howe International Bridge.
The Detroit International Bridge Company has released the plea in a new video featuring an American troop smiling with his family, and a photo of former President Obama scowling with the text "sided with Canada".
https://vimeo.com/275163327/e5aa7bfb7a
"Inexplicably, President Obama issued a presidential permit and granted a Buy American waiver, so their Canadian-owned bridge didn't have to use American steel," says the unseen narrator. "We have a simple request. Please review that presidential permit. And then, revoke that presidential permit and let the brand new span be American."
It raises questions about the construction of the new border crossing saying, "the other would be Canadian-made, Canadian-owned, Canadian workers. Who knows who would make the steel."
The spokesman for the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, which is overseeing construction on the Gordie Howe project, Mark Butler says it is pretty clear from where it will get its steel.
"All of the components of the project on the U.S. side and the international bridge, the iron and steel will be sourced from either Canada or the United States," he says. He describes the Buy American waiver as a "buy North American policy."
"It's going to be employing both Americans and Canadians," he adds. "Both during the construction and ultimately, during the operations of the bridge."
Construction on the Gordie Howe International Bridge is expected to start this year once a consortium is chosen to build it.
"We've already done a considerable amount of advanced construction," says Butler. "About $200-million worth on the Canadian side, and $150-million on the U.S. side, plus the cost of property acquisition."
Canada has given the Ambassador Bridge Company a permit to build a second span, but it is still waiting for Washington's permission to start building.
BlackburnNews.com has reached out to the Ambassador Bridge Company, but has yet to receive a response.