Davies urges action on stalled Peace Bridge scanner

Fred Davies says a project at the Peace Bridge that started about two years ago involving state-of-the-art screening technology needs to be completed so it can play a number of roles at the border, one of them relieving congestion at the crossing.

He also said the same technology, the first of its kind in Canada, should be used at ports in other parts of the country to make a dent in an “epidemic” of stolen vehicles being shipped globally.

Elected earlier this year as MP for the new Niagara South riding, Davies has penned a letter to several ministers urging them to move ahead with the Peace Bridge Pre-Arrival Readiness Evaluation (PARE) project, technology he says would immediately provide the Canada Border Services Agency with 100 per cent inspection on containers arriving at Canadian ports for export.

He recently toured the new facility and was “disappointed to learn that the project had been stuck in neutral because of prolonged bureaucratic delays,” he wrote.

“The U.S. is fully able to provide its role in deploying this scanning technology, yet they are waiting for Canada to provide the green light to finish the installation of scanning equipment,” he added.

Many months have passed waiting for the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) to green-light the operational phase of this project, Davies, a Conservative MP, writes in his letter.

The previous Liberal federal government committed $5 million to the project.

The same amount has also been committed by the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority (PBA) according to Davies’ letter, which states the U.S. government is pitching in more than $30 million.

Davies says this technology is widely used in the southern U.S. border areas and has been approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

It is also used on the U.S. side of Gordie Howe International Bridge in Detroit.

Davies says he understands the need for the CNSC to complete its due diligence but the project needs to move forward.

Despite the Buffalo plaza being just 14 acres–too small to handle the project–the U.S. has dedicated the bulk of funding for this project to be completed on the Canadian side of the Peace Bridge, with the scanning equipment “sitting in a warehouse,” ready to be shipped and installed in Fort Erie, said Davies.

He reiterated that this project is an example of what can be done elsewhere in the country as well.

“If the government is serious about stopping the theft and export of stolen Canadian vehicles and related criminal activity, this project should be completed immediately,” said Davies.

“We know vehicle theft is out of control and Canadians are losing cars right out of their driveways,” he added.

In December 2023, the Canadian government said the project would create non-intrusive inspection technologies for commercial vehicles that will facilitate more efficient processing and reduced wait times for trucks entering the U.S.

In an interview with Fort Erie Radio, Davies said the facility is “ready to be put in operation,” but needs a green light from the CNSC, who he claims “has never encountered” this type of technology before, which is what he attributes to the delay in getting it up and running.

Davies said the project would “completely improve the timelines of traffic” and reduce congestion of commercial vehicles by 80 per cent.

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