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Ambassador Bridge Reopens After Trucker Protests, Auto Industry Losses Near $1 Billion

The situation at the U.S.-Canadian border pertaining to the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan, was a crisis the North American auto industry couldn't afford to endure.
Ambassador Bridge 6 photos
Photo: Google Creative Commons (Fair Use)
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But the dust has finally settled from the week's long shutdown at the hands of Canadian trucker protestors. Furious at new global health crisis-related masks and vaccine mandates imposed by Canadian parliamentary authorities made some Canadian truckers scream about their civil liberties. Now, the damage can be put into numbers.

For those who may not be aware, a slew of different American and Japanese automakers use Southern Ontario as a means of accessing the American market, but with manufacturing at a competitive price thanks to Canadian labor. Ford, GM, Stellantis, Honda, Toyota, and others have a permanent presence in the Canadian province.

30% of $600 billion in annual two-way trade between the U.S. and Canada passes through the bridge in any given year. That said, even a temporary bridge shut down the likes of which we've seen over the last month or so was bound to be devastating not only for Canadian-American manufacturing but the entirety of the North American automotive sector. Owing to factories across the province sitting idle, waiting to be let into the United States.

As for the exact number of profits lost between all of the various manufacturers who call the area home? Well, it will be some time before the long-term ramifications of the Canadian trucker protest. But one short-term estimate pegs the total losses during the protests to be somewhere around $850 million across the industry.

This is due to lost profits stemming from the protests' partial shutdown of many Ontario production facilities. A time when factories and their workers sat idle, waiting for the go-ahead to get back to work. All the while, automakers across the spectrum began hemorrhaging money at an alarming rate.

It took hoards of police cars, armored trucks, and other personnel to get the remaining protestors to leave their post on the entrance to the American side of the Ambassador bridge. Had these measures not taken place, it's likely losses would have crept into the $1 billion range.
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