’We need support’: Truck ferry operator seeks financial help from Michigan and Ottawa

The owner of the Detroit Windsor Truck Ferry is asking for $160,000 a month to keep afloat.

“For 33 years, we've been self sufficient. But the last years have been very difficult,” President Gregg Ward told CTV News. “I think Detroit-Windsor is the only location where you have private border crossings. It's a very anomalous situation. And then we need support. That's just the way it is.”

The truck ferry moves hazardous materials and over-sized loads across the border.

Explosives, and flammable solids and gases are not permitted to cross on the Ambassador Bridge.

The ferry can also accommodate bigger loads, according to Ward.

“Equipment and machinery can't cross the Ambassador Bridge if it's over 12 feet wide. We take trucks up to 20 feet wide,” said Ward.

When the Gordie Howe International Bridge opens, it will be equipped to handle hazardous goods.

Ward wants both sides of the border to share the $160,000 needed per month to keep the ferry operating until the bridge opens at the very least, and possibly, even after it opens to traffic.

“It's really odd that you're [Canada] spending billions of dollars to build a new bridge because you don't think there's adequate redundancy today,” said Ward. “And then you're going to allow one of the only crossings for hazmat, the only crossing for oversized trucks and critical freight during emergencies to close.”

Ward said more than 13,000 transports - many of them local - use the ferry in any given year, and if it closes, will have no choice but to add four hours onto their route and cross in Sarnia at the Bluewater Bridge.

Ward said Transport Canada has yet to reach out to him to discuss the future of the ferry.

Windsor-West MP Brian Masse has sent a letter to Transport Canada and Infrastructure Canada, warning of possible delays in the building of the Gordie Howe bridge and the battery plant in Windsor if the ferry is idled.

In a statement to CTV News, a spokesperson for Transport Canada confirmed the receipt of Masse’s letter and said they would respond to it “in due course”.