Improving flow quality is on the minds of many firms trying to take goods back and forth across

Ottawa Capitalizes Even as homegrown Nortel continues its woes, the nation's capital city is seeing investment in both its private and public sectors. Coca-Cola is investing US$7.2 million in a new sales, warehouse and distribution center. MBNA Canada Bank has purchased a 122,000-sq.-ft. (11,334-sq.-m.) facility in order to expand next to its existing headquarters. And in May 2004, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and federal officials made the largest intergovernmental infrastructure announcement in Ottawa's history when they pledged US$477 million towards further development of light rail transit from downtown Ottawa to the metro's far south side.

the U.S.-Canada border. Various projects are under review and study, but actual implementation is plodding at best on both sides. Heading the project list is the Detroit-Windsor Jobs Tunnel project, but the environmental review for it will not be completed until 2007. Can companies wait that long?
      "What we're working on is the infrastructure and impediments on our side," says Cordiano, to the tune of CA$629 million worth of projects, while also connecting exporters with the FAST program for electronic pre-processing.
      Most companies, says Wassmansdorf, would appraise progress on border congestion thus far as "inadequate on both sides." But there is a silver lining for some firms.
      "I've heard some businesses say that in the aftermath of 9/11, and the move toward more electronic pre-processing of customs documents for shipments, they're more efficient than ever," he says. "The crisis caused an unplanned investment in technology to improve the border crossing situation, but it's actually made them more efficient throughout their whole inventory management systems. The companies that haven't tried to change the way they deal with the border are the ones suffering the most."