Ont.-Mich borders play the ACE card

WINDSOR, Ont. (Aug. 11, 2005) — Canada’s two busiest land border crossings will open electronic filing of truck manifests next month.

The Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ont. and two tunnels will launch the Automated Commercial Environment e-manifest system in late Sept. The Blue Water Bridge spanning between Port Huron, Mich., and Sarnia, Ont. and the Sault Ste. Marie crossing will have the trade processing system operational by early October.

U.S. Customs also plans to deploy ACE at Pembina, N.D., before expanding to a series of other crossings across the Western provinces. Some Vermont-Quebec locations also could start up by the end of this year.

Participation in ACE is voluntary until sometime after 2006. However, CBP is enticing carriers to sign up by offering them crossing priority.

The agency plans to have ACE in place at all Canada-US border crossings by the end of 2006.