From the Lansing State Journal, "FOIA must apply to bridge oversight /Snyder should address NITC transparency", June 21, 2012
There will be one, paid for by Canada and Federal Highway tax dollars. Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration is saying that Michigan is not obligated to pay any of the New International Trade Crossing (NITC) costs and that no state appropriation is required. But there will be years of continuing costs and assorted ongoing bridge and travel issues. Canada and Michigan will create an International Authority to oversee the letting of bids to design, develop, finance, construct and operate the NITC.What is unclear and what must be addressed is the transparency and accountability of the governing bodies that will build and manage the bridge and crossings. The commitment to open government required by Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act must be applied to the construction and management of NITC. It is not at all clear that this will happen.
The op/ed compares the new bridge to the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority, which as an international body is not subject to New York state FOIA laws. That authority, which operates the Peace Bridge, has had unpeaceful relations with neighborhoods at the approaches to the bridge. See for instance Bruce Jackson's Peace Bridge Chronicles which relates the struggle over expansion of that bridge and how New York state environmental laws were brought to bear on regulating an authority otherwise unwilling to answer to a higher power.
