The Canada-US border stretches a full 8,891 km (5,525 miles), touches three oceans and is a crossing point for a trading relationship worth C$1.6 billion ($1.4 billion) a day. But with much of the trade dependent on just a few key crossings linking the north-eastern United States to the manufacturing hub of Ontario.
Canadian producers say security-related delays and creaking infrastructure are costing both countries billions of dollars each year. Lines have long been a problem at Ontario crossings, particularly as trade has ballooned in the wake of the 1988 Canada-US free trade agreement.
But since the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, traffic has slowed even more, as US officials have toughened screening, pressuring a relationship that relies heavily on just-in-time deliveries to manufacturers.
"That border now has become more of a choke point, rather than a conduit for trade," said Len Crispino, chief executive of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, which estimates Canada loses as much as C$8 billion every year to border delays.
With the Great Lakes system separating Canada's main manufacturing centers in Ontario from neighbouring US states, heavy pressure is put on crossings such as the Ambassador Bridge, often called the busiest border crossing in the world.
Linking the southern Ontario city of Windsor with the auto hub of Detroit, the bridge carries about one quarter of the entire trade between the two countries, linking suppliers and customers whose production can be held hostage to slowdowns.
"The problem is that since we're so integrated, that somebody exporting from the Windsor area probably has 80 percent of the components build elsewhere in Canada. There's a kind of trickle effect," said Crispino.
The trade is also key to the US economy. But over the past five years, it has been obscured by worries that Canada could be used as a staging ground for extremists planning attacks on the United States.
These worries have been stoked by incidents such as the 1999 arrest of one-time Montreal resident Ahmed Ressam, who was later convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles airport, as well as the arrest 18 suspected terror cell members near Toronto last year.
Former US ambassador to Canada Paul Celluci said in 2003 that "security trumps trade", and truck drivers who make their living hauling cargo across the border say that is indeed the case, as scrutiny of both cargo and the drivers themselves can turn a short border crossing into a money-losing nightmare.
"It can be 7 hours, or it can be 3 minutes," said Eric Serre, a private trucker based in London, Ontario. "It can go pretty smoothly one time, and then the next time, it will be enough to convince you to never do it again."
The nature of the delays can range from the annoying to the humiliating, as a directive implemented last year led to food confiscation from truckers carrying certain meats and fruits, a hardship for drivers who live in their rigs during long trips.
Last month, Canadian Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day unveiled a C$431.6 million spending plan to help ease delays, with the centerpiece a system -- called e-manifest -- to allow drivers to send their cargo lists electronically to the border before they arrive.
A similar plan is in place in the United States, just the latest of a string of initiatives on both sides meant to relieve border congestion by forcing transporters to get pre-clearance on their cargo. The initiatives help to some degree, transporters say, but they aren't well co-ordinated with each other, and they also pose a new set of burdens on truckers, who must pay extra fees and often wade through red tape to get documents in order.
On a crisp February afternoon, the Ambassador Bridge is largely free of passenger traffic, yet the trucks are stacked closely together across its 2.3 km (1.4 mile) span, which shakes noticeably in the frigid breeze, high above the Detroit River. Before the day is out, about 10,000 will cross the span.
The heavier traffic is heading towards the United States, a fact some say is made worse by infrastructure on the Canadian side. Truckers point to a lack of a direct freeway link to the bridge, as Highway 401 -- Ontario's main east-west freeway -- ends several kilometres (miles) before the bridge, forcing truckers to enter city traffic that can jam them up for hours.
Plans are in the works to build a second span for the bridge, but that likely won't be in place until 2013. Lurking in everyone's mind is the fear of what would happen if a major security scare closed the border entirely, an event that, even if it was relatively brief, could cost billions.
Mary Anderson, head of the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters, was recently in Ottawa for pre-budget consultations with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to press the need for more spending on border infrastructure. A delegation from her group was also in Washington a few weeks a go to push their case with the new Democratically controlled US Congress.
"It's at least 39 of the 50 states that have Canada as their No 1 trading partner," she said. "The North American integrated trade relationship relies on having those borders open to those that need to do legitimate business."
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