Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Friday he is declaring a state of emergency in response to ongoing blockades in Ottawa and Windsor as protesters reportedly began to allow traffic to cross on the bridge from Canada into the U.S.
Ford said he will use legal measures to enact orders making it “crystal clear” that it is illegal and punishable to block and impede the movement of goods, people and services along critical infrastructure. Ford said that includes protecting international border crossings, 400-series highways, airports, ports, bridges and railways.
Fines for non-compliance will be up to $100,000 and up to a year imprisonment, Ford said.
The CBC reported that protesters blocking traffic at the Ambassador Bridge border crossing between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, have opened one lane of traffic from the bridge into Canada. The moving of vehicles from the lane comes as a court is scheduled to hear a request for an injunction against the protest by the city and trade groups. That hearing is scheduled for noon EST.
The Windsor police, however, said in an email to Automotive News Canada that the bridge was still closed as of 11 a.m. EST.
“Even if you heard that there is a lane open doesn’t mean traffic is flowing,” a police spokeswoman said in the email.
The bridge blockade continued to cause nightmares for automakers and suppliers on Firday.
Honda Motor Co. said it will suspend output from one production line on Friday at its plant in Alliston, Ontario, joining Toyota Motor Corp. and the Detroit 3 automakers in announcing various production losses stemming from the weeklong bridge blockade by protesters at the U.S.-Canada border.
The Japanese automaker said late Thursday that the temporary halt comes as it monitors “the disruption of transportation between Canada and the U.S.”
Honda described the situation as “fluid” but that it has no plans to curtail output at any of its U.S. auto plants.
The company builds its Civic compact sedan and CR-V compact crossover at its plant in Alliston, Ontario. Honda earlier confirmed the plant also temporarily suspended manufacturing on Wednesday evening due to border delays.
Four trucks containing parts for General Motors’ Spring Hill Assembly in Tennessee crossed the Ambassador Bridge on Thursday, said Danny Taylor, shop chair for UAW Local 1853, representing Spring Hill. The parts will support production at the plant Friday.
“We’re in good shape,” he said.
Employees at Spring Hill worked an eight-hour shift Thursday compared with their typical 10-12 hour shift.
The plant, which builds the Cadillac XT5 and XT6 and the GMC Acadia crossovers, gets door handles and other small parts from suppliers in Canada, Taylor said.
Toyota on Friday said its North American plants continue to face “shortages affecting production.”
“Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia have recently been impacted by issues related to the Ambassador Bridge blockade. We expect disruptions through the weekend, and we’ll continue to make adjustments as needed. While the situation is fluid and changes frequently, we do not anticipate any impact to employment at this time.”
The automaker said its teams are “closely monitoring the situation and working diligently to minimize the impact on production.”
On Thursday, a Toyota spokesman told Reuters the automaker was suspending production through Saturday at plants on both sides of the border, in Ontario and Kentucky. The largest Japanese automaker said it was “experiencing multiple dropped logistics routes” and it is “not isolated to only one or two parts at this point.”
The shortages affected Toyota’s production of the RAV4 — the best-selling non-truck vehicle in the U.S., Camry, Avalon, Lexus RX and Lexus ES, the automaker said.
Chrysler parent Stellantis, in a Friday statement, said all its North America plants started production Friday morning, “but this remains an incredibly fluid situation. We continue to work closely with our carriers to get parts into the plants to mitigate further disruptions.”
Also Thursday, General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis said they had been forced to cancel or scale back some production at North American plants because of parts shortages stemming from Canadian trucker protests against pandemic mandates.
The demonstrators, who oppose, among other things, a vaccinate-or-quarantine requirement for cross-border truck drivers, have used big rigs and other vehicles to snarl traffic at the entrance of the Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit and Windsor — which accounts for about 25 percent of U.S.-Canadian trade.
Ford said it was running its plants in Windsor and Oakville, another Canadian city, at reduced capacity. It added that it hoped for a quick resolution “because it could have widespread impact on all automakers in the U.S. and Canada.”
Stellantis said some U.S. and Canadian plants cut short shifts on Thursday after many shortened shifts Wednesday night “due to parts shortages caused by the closure of the Detroit/Windsor bridge.”
GM said it was forced to halt production Thursday at a Michigan plant where it builds crossovers after the protests. The automaker said it had canceled a shift on Wednesday and two shifts Thursday at its Lansing Delta Township plant.
Shilpan Amin, GM’s vice president for global purchasing and supply chain, told suppliers on Thursday in a message seen by Reuters that “although we may have intermittent stoppages, we intend to keep production running and meet current schedules at all of our manufacturing operations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.”
The company added it was “encouraging suppliers to evaluate alternative options in order to sustain your operations to meet our production schedules.”
