Detroit-Windsor bid for Amazon HQ2 emphasized tax, labor, immigration visa and real estate options in Windsor

Windsor's tunnel bus could be used ferry Amazon employees between both cities

Officials tight-lipped about tax incentives offered by Detroit, Windsor, Michigan and Ontario

Detroit's partnership with Windsor in pursuing Amazon's second headquarters was pitched as a way for the online retailer behemoth to save money on taxes and labor in Canada while drawing from a deeper international talent pool than any other U.S. city could offer.

In an interview with Crain's, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said his city's joint bid with Detroit presented Amazon with options for taking advantage of Canada's lower currency exchange, less restrictive immigration visa system and lower corporate tax rates on profits generated from research and development.

"They may for strategic reasons or tax reasons say, 'You know, Canada has a better R&D tax credit system than Michigan or the United States, therefore we'll locate the R&D team on the Windsor side,'" Dilkens said. "This completely opens up another world for Amazon."

Windsor and Detroit officials emphasized the flexibility Amazon could get in positioning employees in office buildings on both sides of the Detroit River — and the relative ease of using Windsor's tunnel buses for connecting two campuses.

"Our message to Amazon (was) on a tax basis, on a real estate basis, on a talent acquisition basis, there are options here for you that you just can't get at any other place," said Jed Howbert, group executive for planning, housing and development for Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.

Special report: The quest for Amazon HQ2

Business and political leaders on both sides of the border were tight-lipped last week about specific details about tax incentives from governments in both Michigan and Ontario that were included in the confidential proposal submitted to Amazon.com Inc. on Thursday.

Detroit and Windsor are among dozens of U.S. and Canadian cities vying for Amazon's planned 50,000-employee second headquarters outside of its home base in Seattle.

"I think it's important to respect what Amazon has asked us to do and not talk about the proposal publicly," said U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, a Dearborn Democrat and member of the 60-person regional Amazon bid committee.

Dilkens and Howbert laid out the general reasons why officials in Ontario and Michigan think Windsor could be the linch pin to Detroit landing the highly coveted Amazon HQ2.

Amazon could realize a wage savings in Ontario, where one U.S. dollar is currently worth $1.26 in Canadian dollars. "That is always a decision in the eyes of business, where they think it makes sense to locate for tax reasons, for exchange rate reasons," Dilkens said.

Situating employees in Windsor also could let Amazon draw employees from outside of North America without the restrictions of U.S. caps on H1B visas for workers with specialized skills, Dilkens said.

"Not everyone who's in Canada can work in the United States – and vice versa," Dilkens said. "There may be talent in Canada or Ontario that Amazon can take advantage of and employ and have them in a campus very close to the Detroit campus."

When the North America Free Trade Agreement was drafted, a special visa category, TN Visa, was created to allow citizens of Canada and Mexico to work in the U.S. in prearranged business activities for U.S. employers.

"There's no cap on free trade visas, but they don't have categories currently for all the different kinds of specialties that a company like Amazon would need," the Windsor mayor said.

Canada's CBC News reports there are as many as 40,000 Canadians working in the U.S. on TN visas. While there's currently no cap on those visas — as Dilkens noted — there are limitations.

Specifically, when the agreement was drafted in the early 1990s, a list of job categories was included for certain industries, including health care and automotive. However, rapid technology advancements have changed labor needs, and NAFTA has not adjusted to the advent of companies like Amazon that the trade pact predates.

Amazon's ability to gain access to Canadian workers crossing the border may hinge on whether new categories are added during the ongoing NAFTA renegotiations.

The Detroit-Windsor bid includes office space options for Amazon in both cities, according to Howbert and Dilkens. Amazon has said it needs 500,000 to 1 million square feet of office space by 2019 and that it plans to grow to 8 million within 15 years to handle the additional 50,000 employees.

As part of the real estate pitch, Dilkens said the proposal details how Transit Windsor runs an international bus service through the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, which both cities jointly own. More than 8,000 workers cross the border daily for work, Dilkens said.

Expansion of the tunnel bus service could be done "seamlessly" to accommodate two Amazon campuses, Dilkens said.

"It would be nothing for us to have a direct connection from an Amazon headquarter building in Windsor to an Amazon headquarter building in Detroit — and back again," he said.

If Amazon picks Detroit and Windsor for the second round of its selection process, officials hope to show Amazon executives during a site visit how workers travel across the border with relatively ease each day.

"For people who don't live on the U.S. and Canada border ... they don't get the fact that we function as one community," Howbert said. "Six thousand Canadians commute into Detroit every day for work or for school. … People come over for Tigers games like they were driving in from the suburbs to go to Tigers games."