Wanted To Buy: Dunbar 400 Building Report

A creative member of the public posted this actual ad in the Windsor Star on Saturday!

Since the City's Audit Committee is stonewalling the release of the Report, even though the Mayor and Senior Administrators apparently have seen parts of it, it has come down to this with a Municipal Government that claims to be open and transparent.

If one cannot get the Dunbar Report as a citizen, then in Windsor, it appears that this is what one must do!

SHAME!

Star Protects Eddie's Sensibilities

How kind and generous of the Windsor Star not to publish anything in the Saturday Star about DRIC filing its Environmental Assessment report even though the information was distributed early in the morning on Friday, January 2 when I got it.

It might have ruined Eddie's weekend!

In this way it appears, since the Mayor as well as most people in Windsor get their news information from the Star, we are spared a few more days of angst about what is going on with the border file. Mind you, CKLW did post something about this on their website on Friday. I assume that was done to give Lisa Williams extra time to prepare her hard-hitting questions for the Mayor on the CKLW interview show on Tuesday morning.

The Mayor must be livid. I wonder if he expected the filing or thought that DRIC was going to negotiate more with him. There is a rumour that another Greenlink proposal was put forward by the Mayor, Greenlink: the Next Generation, but that it too was rejected. If true, it would be fascinating to see what was proposed this time around.

Effectively, DRIC called Eddie's bluff! Given what Eddie said about the Premier prejudicing the DRIC process, he does not have a year of options but rather must commence his lawsuit immediately.

Given how much our Mayor would love to be a witness in a lawsuit and is eager to be cross-examined, I doubt that will happen. Lots of talk from the City but little action. The Mayor and Councillors can read the polls and know that there is no stomach in this City for a lawsuit that will delay thousands of jobs being created and also could result in the Senior Levels leaving town.

I have also posted the DRIC backgrounder that you can view at the following site:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/9692004/DRIC-Backgrounder

Will Eddie Help The Bridge Company Next

Fair is fair after all. It is not only the Truck Ferry that is having problems with the Federal Government. The Ambassador Bridge Company is having their troubles as well although it has not yet reached the litigation state yet.

Shall we expect our Mayor, on their behalf, to send off a blistering letter to Transport Canada about all of the difficulties being imposed on the Bridge Company? How about a letter to the Prime Minister stating that, unless something is done to help them out, it could mean the death of our border crossing? Given his good relationship with the PM, I would expect Eddie to get another personal phone call from him providing more reassurance. If the Bridge Company is really lucky, Eddie’s letter might get them a favourable result such that litigation will not be necessary. Wouldn’t that be nice!

Who knows, if he is successful in these matters as he was with respect to getting the Governments of Ontario and Canada to pay billions for the automobile industry, Eddie might have a new career as a mediator opening up to him.

I truly cannot believe what I saw on the City’s website. A letter from our Mayor to the Justice Department on behalf of a private party, the Truck Ferry, dealing with their litigation. As you see, there was a reference to Alan Davis. Apparently, he is Director and General Counsel, Justice Canada, REGULATORY LAW. Presumably, a letter was written to him as well.

Doesn’t the Owner of the Truck Ferry have his own lawyer? If so, why isn’t the Owner pressuring his lawyer to get on with the litigation? Why does he need the Mayor involved as well? Is it appropriate for the Mayor to write to the lawyer for the other side? Has the Mayor studied this problem thoroughly so that it is appropriate for him to make the kind of comments that he did? Can this be viewed as an attempt to influence this litigation inappropriately? I am shocked about this.

I expect that the Mayor will now write other letters on behalf of the Truck Ferry with respect to other litigation in which they are involved. I expect him also to write to the owner of the small parcel of land over which there is a dispute and demand that he settle his case with the Truck Ferry as well immediately. It is nice to know that the Mayor has so much time that he can deal with matters extraneous to the running of the City on behalf of a private party.

Back to the Bridge Company. The Mayor now has no choice but to write letters on their behalf as well. After all, one would not want him to be accused of favouring one proponent, a private company as well, over another proponent with respect to the Border crossing.

Perhaps if Eddie called Dan Stamper, Dan could tell him to whom letters should be written. If Dan was very pleasant to him as well, I am sure that Eddie might even be able to get the Windsor Star to do a story and an Editorial about the Bridge Company’s issues. After all, the Star helped out the Truck Ferry by doing that too.

In any event, I liked the response from Justice Canada effectively telling the Mayor to buzz off and to mind his own business.

Tales From Two Cities

An easy way to get you back into reading BLOGs after the holidays. A couple of newspaper articles that have application in Windsor.

• Rust Belt realities: Pittsburgh needs new leaders, new ideas and new citizens
  
  The current recession provides a new opportunity for Pittsburgh's elite to feel good about itself. With other boom economies from Phoenix to Miami on the skids -- and other old Rust Belt cities like Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo even more down on their luck -- the slow-growth achievements of the Pittsburgh region may seem rather impressive.
  
  Yet at the same time, the downturn also poses longer-term challenges for which the local leadership is likely to have no answers.
  
  In large part, Pittsburgh's "success," such as it is, has been based on what may be called a "legacy economy," essentially funded by the residues of its rich entrepreneurial past. This includes the hospitals, universities and nonprofits whose endowments have underwritten the expansion of medical services and education, which have emerged as among the region's few growth sectors.
  
  The other great advantage Pittsburgh has -- as do potentially other shrinking Rust Belt burgs -- is lower housing prices. That's the good news. But the lack of a great surge in housing prices during the real estate "bubble" also testifies to the region's general lack of overall attractiveness and its languid job market.
  
  The current national economic meltdown now changes these realities, and in ways that may not allow Pittsburgh and other slow-growth burgs as much comfort as they might wish.
  
  For one thing, the "legacy" economy is almost certain to start shrinking as the portfolio investments of universities, hospitals and nonprofits begin to erode. After all, these institutions rode the boom elsewhere for a long time; they now will reap the consequences of that dependence.
  
  Perhaps even more important, the great housing advantage seems certain to weaken as a net positive. As prices in Florida, Arizona and even California begin to decline, Rust Belt residents who've been thinking of moving to warm weather, more dynamic economies and lively entrepreneurial environments will now have their chance.
  
  To thrive, Pittsburgh simply cannot rely on being somewhere that is a good place to go to school, get sick or die. It needs to offer restless, entrepreneurial people an opportunity to succeed and do something new.
  
  As local blogger Jim Russell notes, the real problem with his hometown is not that people leave, but that others do not come to replace them. People always leave places, but exciting locales -- Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Houston or San Francisco -- also attract large numbers of new people. The immigrants, many of them seeking the "main chance," are generally the people who shake things up and bring new energy to places.
  
  Who seeks their "main chance" in Pittsburgh? Certainly not foreign immigrants, who are staying away in droves. Metropolitan Pittsburgh has one of the lowest percentages of foreign-born residents in the nation. Even Detroit, with its sizable Arab population, has some sort of ethnic vibe.
  
  In the short run, some might argue, not having immigrants relieves the stress on schools and eases potential social tensions. Yet in the America that is emerging, these newcomers represent arguably the most dynamic new element and harbingers of the future. By 2000, one in five American children already were the progeny of immigrants, mostly Asian or Latino; by 2015 they will make up as much as one-third of American kids.
  
  Rather than compliment itself on not exhausting itself by running too fast, the Pittsburgh region should think about producing enough of a pulse to attract immigrants and aggressive young people. A place that reassures itself on the basis of its stable, homogeneous and rapidly aging population seems doomed to achieve little better than self-satisfied stagnation.
  
  City leaders may be proud to see Pittsburgh hailed in the media -- most recently by USA Today and the Cleveland Plain Dealer -- as a poster child for urban "renaissance," yet these glowing accounts are clearly not inspiring many people to settle there.
  
  Indeed, in a nation with the most vigorous demographics in the advanced industrial world, the City of Pittsburgh continues to suffer one of the most precipitous declines in population. Like the former East Germany, the town needs more coffins than cribs. Even the suburbs of Pittsburgh have been losing population.
  
  More worrisome, there seems no strategy -- or even an inclination of needing one -- to change this reality. Rather than stimulate the grassroots economy, the region for decades has sought to revive itself by spending billions on new stadia, arenas, convention centers and cultural facilities, sometimes in the process demolishing vibrant working-class neighborhoods or local business districts. Meanwhile, the roads and bridges of the city -- which continues to battle bankruptcy -- are in a constant state of disrepair.
  
  Every time I read about or visit Pittsburgh, the powers that be have a new project to prove to themselves that the city actually has a life. Most recently, it's a lame-brained scheme to create a 1.2-mile, $435 million (at least) transit tunnel under the Allegheny River to connect Downtown's heavily subsidized office towers to the North Shore's even more heavily taxpayer-funded pro sports stadiums and a future casino.
  
  Yet, in reality, Pittsburgh's "Tunnel to Nowhere" is simply part of the same old brain-dead development strategy that may impress visiting journalists or conventioneers but creates little in the way of good new jobs or long-term opportunities.
  
  You have to think about what the energetic people who come to a community really want -- things like economic opportunities, single-family houses and good schools for their kids. Who but speculators and city officials cares about luring the latest ESPN Zone or Planet Hollywood? These kinds of venues are simply commodities now, with no sense of place and available in any city of decent size willing to subsidize them.
  
  So what should the Pittsburgh region do differently?
  
  The first thing would be to consider using its scarce public funds to revive the old urban neighborhoods and leafy suburbs that constitute Pittsburgh's greatest competitive advantage. These are places that may attract students now, but to matter in the long term, some of these young people must stay after they graduate. This will be particularly critical as the current "echo boom" begins to fade and the now record-high number of students begins to drop.
  
  Second, the region should target growing small businesses. The era when Pittsburgh was a big-business town is all but over. In 1960, 22 Fortune 500 companies were headquartered there. Now it's roughly a third that number. High taxes, tiresome regulatory regimes and the enormous burden created by outsized city employee pensions have hit the small entrepreneur hardest. Addressing these issues is more important to them than new arts venues or jazz clubs.
  
  Finally, the city needs a shtick to call its own. It might look at its historic strengths as an innovative engineering city. Pittsburgh could look also to its hinterland, a region rich in beauty and resources, as part of its competitive advantage.
  
  All of these things could provide linchpins for a true renaissance -- one driven not by public relations and shiny new subsidized edifices, but by the energy of its people.
  
  That's what has always made for great cities -- and what will do so well after this current recession has passed into memory. Pittsburgh has the potential to catch the inevitable next wave that will emerge after the crisis, but only if it can get past its long-standing celebration of mediocrity."

Replace Toronto with Windsor

• City of lost opportunity
  Mediocre leadership, lack of vision, high costs have squandered Toronto's once-glittering prospects
  
  Twenty years ago Toronto was on the cusp of becoming a world class city. Since then it has squandered that potential. Today it's just another struggling North American city bracing for the onslaught of the worst recession in living memory.
  
  This lost chance at greatness didn't just slip away on its own. It is the result of accumulated underperformance on many fronts.
  
  First there is the mediocre political leadership that Torontonians have imposed on themselves since the mid-1980s. The last Metro chairman, Alan Tonks, was well-intentioned. But other than leading Metro toward amalgamation, he was ineffective in dealing with many of the core issues of his decade in power. He was followed by two terms of Mel Lastman (what were we thinking?) – eight years of confrontation, confusion and embarrassment.
  
  David Miller is probably the most competent mayor to lead Toronto in some time. He is burdened by the lack of vision, action and creativity of his predecessors, but his own track record is not much better. As a result, he is now desperately trying to rearrange the chairs on the deck of the Good Ship Toronto as it heads into an economic storm of major proportions.
  
  Toronto has a long history of over-promising and under-delivering. Grand announcements about megaprojects have usually ended in their implementation being stalled or shelved. The revitalization of the waterfront is a prime example. It has been promised in several forms – none of which has ever been delivered. Compare this with Chicago's experience. Its mayor took a political risk by pushing aside the city's waterfront airport and went on to create one of the most attractive waterfronts on the continent.
  
  How many major transit schemes have been announced and then abandoned over the last 20 years? Instead of a steady extension of the city's rapid transit network, Torontonians have settled for a couple of new subway stops, the Sheppard Line to nowhere and a few more streetcar lines. Real "world class" cities like Milan, Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York have found creative ways to make massive investments in expanding their subway systems that are lowering their congestion, pollution and energy consumption.
  
  This city has endured a long series of risk-averse and, therefore, results-averse councils. While other cities around the world have been experimenting with new ways to finance infrastructure, Miller and this council keep relying on the whims of other levels of government.
  
  In Paris, developers buried some of the roads along the Seine in return for air rights and density bonuses. (Could this work for portions of the Gardiner Expressway?) London's 118-kilometre east-west Crossrail Line is expected to bring $40 billion to the U.K.'s economy. It is being developed with private funds. Other great cities are already charging car owners who drive downtown. They invest that money in maintaining and expanding their transit systems. Miller's "Transit City Plan" is yet another watered-down version of what is really needed. Once again, this compromise depends for implementation on the largesse of other governments.
  
  Toronto has failed to obtain enough fiscal freedom from the province. Neither Tonks nor Lastman understood how to politically engage city ratepayers (who can be influential provincial and federal voters) in support of Toronto when it needed more attention and money from Queen's Park or Ottawa. They either went cap in hand or threatened financial catastrophe.
  
  Miller has been able to attract a portion of the federal gas tax, GST relief and to negotiate some limited additional taxing powers from the province. But this falls far short of the fiscal needs of Canada's largest city – particularly when it generates much more money every year in taxes for Ontario and Ottawa than it receives from them in services or funding.
  
  There is also the expensive and environmentally wasteful urban form that Metro and Toronto allowed to develop for decades. Much of the city is still low-density suburban sprawl. It is car dependant, and carries with it permanent high infrastructure, energy and servicing costs. This council's encouragement of high-density development where services already exists is a step in the right direction. But the planning mistakes of the past have put serious limitations on the city's future quality of life.
  
  Toronto was a big loser in the late '90s downloading fight with the province. When skilful city leadership was needed, it was largely missing. Mike Harris rammed a wide range of provincial programs down the city's throat without the money to fund them. The city failed to redirect its ratepayer outrage back at Harris. It relied instead on a failed battle of words. Toronto continues to stagger under this burden with little relief in sight from the province. After two years of study, Premier Dalton McGuinty's recently announced phased-in approach to uploading is a cruel joke.
  
  Like General Motors, Miller has allowed the city's cost structure to balloon out of control. The total compensation of many city workers (wages and fringe benefits) exceeds that of their counterparts in the private sector. Collective agreements have been negotiated that limit the use of best productivity practices. They discourage outsourcing where it's a cost-effective alternative. Toronto's unit costs are so high now that it is increasingly difficult to deliver services to ratepayers that are perceived as good value for their tax dollar.
  
  Miller's long-term waste management initiative – burying its garbage in a hole in the ground south of London instead of one in Michigan – is not the act of an environmentally responsible 21st-century city. He could have provided much-needed environmental leadership to other municipalities by supporting the processing of the city's garbage in its own backyard, using proven energy-from-waste technology.
  
  Some issues can only be tackled at the regional or GTA level. Transportation is one of them. The province's establishment of Metrolinx was needed. But Metrolinx will simply add another layer of bureaucracy without aggressive funding from the province. The promise of $50 billion over 25 years to implement its regional transportation plan is just another pipe dream unless Metrolinx also learns, as others have, how to attract significant private sector investment.
  
  There is no silver bullet to ease Toronto through the tough times that lie ahead. The last two decades have not prepared it for what is coming. One can only hope that the federal and Ontario governments understand the importance of investing heavily in Canada's biggest city, as part of their forthcoming economic recovery programs. But that will only constitute a short-term means of saving Toronto from itself.
  

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

BEST WISHES FOR THE NEW YEAR!!!

A Year Of Options

It is no wonder that Councillor Brister is afraid to go on John Fairley's Face-to-Face interview show. When John lifts his eyebrow, watch out. John would make minced meat out of him.

John has a different style for different people. Take a look at his interview with Councillor Postma and compare it with that of Mayor Francis and you will see what I mean. In both cases though, John gets the information out there through the mouths of the interviewees and in their own words. He just has the knack of asking the right question to put these people on the spot. Since they feel obliged to answer, we can watch them squirm and tell us what they wished they did not have to reveal.

If that happened with Councillor Brister, he would fold. At the least, the Councillor should be congratulated for knowing his own weaknesses and not going on television for the entire Community to see them being made apparent. I can just picture John raising his eyebrow as he asked the Councillor the first question about the Arena and its budget.

In John's year-end interview show with the Mayor, the Mayor’s bravado out of his own mouth destroyed his own credibility as a Mayor and as a Leader in relation to the border file as you shall see later.

If you can last until the end of the show, because there is such an information overload, you will find that the Mayor all of a sudden is not so definite that he is only a two-term mayor. Is that a signal that he’s going to run again? Of course, that could be nothing more than a technique to try to keep the Councillors in line. On the other hand, where could a person go and make over $200,000 a year when he has not been able to achieve very much in five years so far as Leader of a City!

You can watch how he attacks the Ambassador Bridge Company on the Indian Road homes, forgetting of course that he only gave them 10 minutes in front of Council on their billion dollar transaction. You can also see how he tries to fool them into coming back in front of Council again. He forgot that they learned their lesson after the turn-down by Council of the demolition of their fire damaged home.

You can again hear him talk about the Tunnel transaction with Detroit and how we have to save the 5,000 commuters from disaster. He makes it clear that the Tunnel competes with the Bridge for traffic. However, he refused to tell John how much Infrastructure Ontario was prepared to loan the City on the transaction and also refused to tell John how it was such a good deal for us. We learned how much money the Tunnel made for us in the past but there was no recognition that the Tunnel is not making any money for us now and may not in the future if the DRIC bridge takes way 25% of its traffic.

Of course, the Mayor has to attack the naysayers. However, he did not recognize that he wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on the booklets that the Windsor Star sent out to encourage people to invest here with his headline grabbing comments about the death of this City. He still has not realized that he is his own worst enemy.

The most interesting part was right at the beginning when he talked again about Greenlink and the DRIC Road. It is so tedious already… Greenlink good, DRIC bad. Why oh why didn’t they study Greenlink he moans. The answer is easy. His Schwunnels are too long. Since they do not meet the criteria that the DRIC set up, whether the criteria is right or wrong remains to be seen, there is no need to examine the project. It fails. What could be easier to understand than that?

He broke the news to John about Greenlink’s award but you and I, dear reader, know the truth about that now thanks to the effort of Blogger Chris Schnurr. More PR nonsense that the Mayor tries to use as justification for a project that will never get off the ground, or under it.

The most shocking comment was when the Mayor accused the Premier of, in effect, biasing the DRIC process because of comments made when the Premier was in Windsor a week before the December 12 closing of the submission period to DRIC.

He accused the Premier of compromising the integrity of the DRIC process. He said that his remarks were very prejudicial. He in effect stated that the Premier said “don’t even bother” making comments to DRIC.

To be direct about it, I would have expected our Mayor/lawyer to denounce the Province for this improper meddling. I would have expected him to tell us that no Minister of the Environment who wants to keep his job would dare turn down something that the Premier, Minister of Finance and MITI Minister all approved. I would have expected him to tell us that he was taking immediate legal action to right this horrific wrong that has been committed against the people of Windsor by the most senior Politician in the Province.

There was no longer a need to wait. The entire process was flawed. Black letter law, lawsuit, judicial review would be our battlecry. Who cares how much more in legal fees we would spend when the future of Windsor is at stake. Or at least, his vision of it.

After all, for the second time, David Estrin had been brought into town to harangue us for hours at Council about everything wrong with the DRIC process. We now know that Council approved legal action. The Mayor has told us that legal action was always a possibility.

Instead, the Mayor gave us his timetable about the process and that we should expect nothing for a year or two from DRIC rather than action being taken right away. The best that he said we might get would be some movement of utility lines perhaps in 2009.

All this lead up to the dramatic climax of the Mayor telling us that Council has a “year of options available to us.”

A year of options----Oh brother. Another year of this. Another year of manipulation. How many more Greenlinks are we to see? How many more Greenlinks will be turned down by the Province. Rumour has it that there was another submission by the City to the Province: Greenlink, the next generation. I wonder when the Mayor will share that with the community if in fact there was something submitted. If there was a third one, which one did Sam present to the awards body to get his prize? Nothing like the Mayor negotiating against himself and compromising.

Greenlink is a joke as we know now because of what Eddie said in a media scrum:

• "City council and the city of Windsor and myself would be the first to stand in support of this project if the province of Ontario guarantees 20,000 jobs will be in this community at the beginning of 2009."

It is nothing more than a negotiating tool.

A year of options----All of the Estrin pictures in the newspaper was bluff. The Estrin presentation at Council was bluff. The Henderson column about judicial review was bluff. The Gignac remark was bluff. Even Councillor Marra was used when he did not want the City to start a lawsuit. All bluff. The Councillor did not have to worry because the Mayor told us that he has “a year of options.”

A year of options----Everything that our Mayor does is bluff. Another year of options when the Premier has prejudiced the process and compromised its integrity. Unbelievable!

The problem for Eddie is does anyone believe him anymore. Does he have any credibility left? Has he squandered that too?

Do the Senior Levels? Does the Bridge Company? Do Windsorites? Honestly, how could anyone? He has threatened lawsuits so many times that it almost becomes predictable and then he backs off. That has become predictable too.

In fact, as I said before, Henderson called his bluff and is laughing at him too because he knows that Eddie will not act (except few understand how he did in his column):

• “Sadly, given the damning environmental evidence we heard this week, it would be unconscionable for the city to do anything less than fight for the health and safety of its constituents, even if it means seeking a judicial review.”

A year of options----If Eddie does not act now and using the tools of his profesion, then Henderson can denounce him for acting in an unconscionable manner when matters of health and safety are involved.

A year of options---- what a sign of weakness. What a sign of lack of guts. What a sign of lack of leadership. What a sign of bluffery.

Oh, and we learned why the Mayor was not at the Premier's lunch even though Eddie got word a month ahead about the date. It was his wife's birthday weekend. Perhaps CKLW's Lisa Williams could ask Eddie some of her "tough" lob questions on her interview show with the Mayor about what he did for her celebration. She may have some insight that she could share with her listeners about the event.

And all thanks to John Fairley's eyebrow!

Even More News

So much more to let you know about before the holidays. I'll try and get them all in.

ANOTHER WEDC MESS

Seems that emails are being sent around by whom I do not know since the ones I received are anonymous making all kinds of allegations around the hiring of a new CEO for the Development Commission. Some of the allegations are quite serious too. Who knows if they are true or not but they ought to be investigated immediately.

All that we do know is that the Commission has not had one since Mr. Fischer was let go quite some time ago!

Honestly, this Organization is a disgrace. Is anyone running it? What has it accomplished? Where has all of its money gone? Have they printed brochures yet?

It is time the 2 Councils that supposedly fund this group and for which taxpayer money is being used (and Credit Union funds too) find out what is going on.

NEW JAIL LOCATION

Don’t give me that holier than thou attitude. You like to hear gossip and rumour just as much as I do and I would not put it past some of you to spread it around too!

Well here is a story I have heard. I have, of course, no idea whether it has any substance or not. But perhaps if a reporter from a certain Radio Station in town decides to follow up and' I am right, then perhaps I might win the News Tip of the Month award.

If the jail is definitely not going to Brighton Beach as the Mayor wants and the Province wants it to go on the site that they have selected, there is a dispute. What next?

I have it! A compromise! Yes, dear reader, the Mayor who refused to budge one single inch on the border road but who is now compromising all over the place may want to compromise on the jail location as well.

In fact, given the way our Mayor negotiates, and since there was a specific term in the jail arrangement with the City respecting the DRIC bridge going to Brighton Beach, one might think that the Mayor’s brouhaha, ably supported by the Windsor Star, was designed to create a ruckus. Accordingly, the Mayor could then put forward a compromise solution which is really where he wanted the jail to go in the first place.

Now where could that location be? A friend of mine told me that he heard on the radio that the Mayor wanted to use $10 million of the $20 million that the City was to receive from the Province to help develop the airport lands.

What an amazing coincidence! Could it be true that the story going around that the Mayor is working on a project at the airport is the new jail? I doubt if it has anything to do with the onion importers.

It would be a terrific win for the area because the other story going around is that not only is the jail going to be built on 30 or 35 acres but that another Ontario Government Department is going to be located right beside the jail. Just like in London as I Blogged before.

Why don’t we try and get the Ministry of the Environment to locate there so they can resolve the war between a certain Councillor and a lawyer for a property owner near Howard and the Expressway.

IS THE CONFEDERATION BRIDGE IN WINDSOR

Of course not, it is in Prince Edward Island. Yet it seems that this bridge and our area seem to be linked together more and more. I know that Gord Henderson has mentioned this bridge about seven times in his column, most recently with respect to having a major contractor building the project rather than a local firm.

• “Think about it. When the feds built the $1-billion Confederation Bridge linking P.E.I. with New Brunswick in the 1990s, did they hand the assignment to local boy Bud The Spud and his trusty backhoe? No. They awarded the project to a major Calgary-based firm, Strait Crossing Inc., which provided outside expertise but employed thousands of local workers and completed this remarkable link in less than three years.”

Now the Minister of Finances is doing it. Here is part of a speech that he gave to the Canadian Council of Public-Private Partnerships:

Perhaps I am just overly suspicious but I believe that there may be some kind of a link between the PEI bridge and our border crossing. Exactly what that is I am not completely sure but I will find it out one day.

FORGETTING TECHNOLOGY

The Ambassador Bridge used to have a toll for cattle crossings if you recall. 80 years later, it handles more trucks than any other crossing in North America.

This Bridge and other border crossings have been able to adapt to handle the increased number of vehicles. One of the ways they do so is by speeding vehicles through the border crossing more quickly. One of the ways of doing so is through the use of technology.

While DRIC pays lip service to programs like the Ambassador Bridge’s pre- processing centres in the United States and Canada, FAST and NEXUS, they do not draw the obvious conclusion that an existing crossing can handle more vehicles i.e. capacity is increased without the need of building another bridge.

It is much cheaper building a new customs booth or installing new electronic technology that identifies the border crosser than spending a billion on a new bridge. Here’s a recent story that explains what I mean:

• “Crossing the Border
  
  Federal authorities tell us the cards will be one of only six forms of identification that will be accepted for Americans re-entering the country starting June 1, 2009. That's a major reduction from the nearly 8,000 forms of i-d currently accepted.
  
  It's estimated roughly 3,000 cars and trucks pass thru these tolls everyday. It's the same number at the nearby Windsor Tunnel.
  
  That can create long waits for people entering the US. The new equipment is expected to reduce the wait time by about six seconds. It may not sound like a lot, but, federal authorities disagree.
  
  Winkowski
  "Here in a place like Detroit, we deal with about five million vehicles a year. You do the math."

Here is another story:

• "ID upgrade to speed trips across border
  Border crossings for Americans entering Canada and Mexico are about to be a whole lot safer and efficient.
  
  U.S. Customs and Border Protection has completed technology upgrades at the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge that will use new radio frequency identification that will automatically read and recognize special U.S. "pocket" passports, the new enhanced Michigan driver's licenses and special tunnel/bridge NEXUS, SENTRI and FAST cards.
  
  The technology is in place at the tunnel and Ambassador Bridge and will be installed at the Blue Water and Sault Ste. Marie bridges in the spring."

DRIC MOVING FORWARD

I wonder how hard it will be for our Mayor to try and derail the DRIC process if they keep on expropriating properties. $17.9 million for slightly over 13 acres. I assume that this is a pretty good price but I have no idea.

The tactics are very interesting right now. Would the Mayor dare stop the process after the Province is spending this kind of money? On the other hand, is this a big club for the Mayor to use to force the Province to do what he wants them to do? If they will not listen, then he can disrupt what they are doing and cost them a considerable amount of money. Presumably if that happened, the Province would upload the road amd end the mess down here.

In such a case, when Queen’s Park cut off all funds to Windsor then Councillor Valentinis would know why.

One interesting element is that the lawyer who obtained the $17.9 million for the Church, Stephen Waque, also acted for the City. As an example:

• “Toronto lawyer Stephen Waque is the city's representative in Ontario Municipal Board hearings relating to the former Norwich Block expropriation claims.”

EDDIE'S DILEMMA

Fantastic, Greenlink is a prizewinner in some anonymous contest that cannot be revealed until April. It’s just like all of these people that the Mayor is talking to who want to invest in Windsor but he is not at liberty to tell us who they are.

Thank goodness though that Gord Henderson was able to give us a hint about another weapon Eddie can use if needed.

I say “if needed” because it seems now that our Mayor may have decided to litigate. Right at the bottom of one of Gord's column is the following:

• “Sadly, given the damning environmental evidence we heard this week, it would be unconscionable for the city to do anything less than fight for the health and safety of its constituents, even if it means seeking a judicial review.”

Those DRIC people may get a piece of coal in their stocking if Eddie does so.

However, this is not how the Sheriff has been operating. If you read the sentence properly, there is no doubt that someone has talked to him about “judicial review.” It may well have been Councillor Jones considering the legal education that he has been given over the past little while.

However, don’t you see what Gord has just done to Eddie…he is forcing him to start a lawsuit. Oh he can fight all he wants, but when the Premier says get on with it, that is pretty much the end. What other alternative does our Mayor have but to litigate? It would be “unconscionable” otherwise.

Gord has put Eddie on the horns of a dilemma. Sue and be condemned by almost every Windsorite for costing us thousands of jobs that are desperately needed. Don’t sue, and then Eddie is not fighting for us and is acting in an unconscionable manner. That will not do him much good. That is not something to have as a reputation in one's next career.

Oh the Sheriff is chuckling tonight.

MAKE A BOOK ON IT

Is it true that the Mayor is angry at what is going on at the Library?

Apparently, the Library workers just settled their 2006 contract for 2.6% increase. I was told that the Mayor wanted a Special Meeting to “discuss” this increase.

I wonder if that upset him because it undercuts his position with respect to the employees with whom the City will be negotiating a new contract soon.

If the Mayor wants a strategy for dealing with employees, he might want to try a variation of what the some companies have done with respect to new hires and existing employees. What the Mayor might do is divide the employees that work for the City into different groups e.g. ones that cannot be touched by budget cuts (police and fireman) and the arts, museums and libraries workers whose services are not essential and where budget cuts can be made without impacting the public very much. Cut the salaries and benefits of the latter. Let them strike, who cares.

I’m not suggesting at all that this is a strategy that should be followed but it is one that I have heard has been considered.

A NEW BORDER COMPETITOR

The DRIC process may be thrown into a tizzy because another Company I hear may be coming into Windsor to offer an alternative way to cross between Windsor and Detroit.

If successful, the project would certainly be competition to the new DRIC bridge and could put more pressure on the financial position of the Tunnel especially since it would likely be a downtown to downtown proposition.

Just remember, when you hear about gondolas, it does not necessarily mean what Dave Cooke is looking into.