Media Condemn Mayor's Handling of Strike

• "The stark facts are the city endured a strike that ate up half a summer in service of stated bargaining goals. The city failed to achieve those goals.
  
  The mayor wears that failure with just over a year to go before the serious part of the 2010 mayoralty campaign starts."

Oh you thought I meant the WINDSOR media.

Oh how can you be so silly. I was talking about Toronto's! Our media would never have the nerve to be critical!

Why take Gord as an example, Please. He was just gushing about how Windsorites beat CUPE:

• "Now that the dust has settled and the wailing and gnashing of teeth has subsided, please stand and take a bow for doing your part to help Windsor win a historic, ground-shifting victory over forces determined to keep city taxpayers forever in chains...
  
  But perhaps our finest hour came last week when CUPE members, acknowledging the inevitable, that they couldn't make Windsorites blink, let alone submit, agreed to suck it up and return to work with a consolation-prize contract after 101 paycheque-squandering days on the picket line...
  
  But CUPE offered only confrontation and intimidation. Alienated by the union's bullying tactic, city residents eagerly embraced the clear, common-sense contractual message delivered by Francis and a majority of councillors. They understood what this fight was about and they took it on."

Fascinating that Eddie's name was only mentioned at the end. No mention in the quoted part about the Protocol fiasco that resulted in what I believe to be a premature settlement once the City negotiating team was unshackled. It is almost as if Eddie now wants no part of the strike since he failed in that too. Just add another one to his list of losses. No wonder we should "move forward."

I decided to take up Marty Beneteau up on his thought:

• "One online commentator accused The Star of polarizing the community, saying, "Why do I bother, this will never be submitted! I need to move to Toronto where the media is non-biased." Think CUPE got a smoother ride in T.O.? Posters to the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and CBC websites on the weekend were visceral in their attacks on the union."

The Toronto media were visceral in their attacks on the Toronto Mayor at strike end. They actually reported on the strike results and the real effect on the Toronto Mayor. What is fascinating as you read these articles is how similar the strike situations in Toronto and Windsor are. The big difference is that Torontonians do not have a fawning newspaper who acts, as the Star's Editor confirms, as messengers:

GLOBE AND MAIL

• "Is Miller really finished?
  Adam Radwanski
  
  The overwhelming consensus is that David Miller comes out of Toronto's strike settlement looking terrible. Marcus Gee sums it up nicely in this paper: "If this is what he calls winning, it is frightening to think what losing would look like." Even the Star's editorialists - generally sympathetic to the Mayor - are inclined to agree.
  
  No argument here, either. I didn't think some of the criticism of Miller during the strike was fair; it seemed hypocritical for people who'd spent years calling for him to stand up to the unions to complain about the inevitable work stoppage when he did. But at that point, it looked like he was prepared to hold firm until he'd achieved meaningful concessions. By folding instead, he validated all those complaints that he put the city through a pointless stand-off that his heart was never in to begin with.
  
  What I'm still less certain of is whether, as pretty well every opinion writer is suggesting, this embarrassment will prove the beginning of the end of his mayoralty.
  
  If there were a referendum on whether to keep him as mayor, he'd undoubtedly lose it.
  ***
  
  Update: Miller's performance at this afternoon's press conference has verged on the ridiculous. In fairness, he's had a long summer, and is probably underslept. But his attacks on other councillors for having the temerity to criticize the settlement are way over the top.
  
  To suggest it's unconscionable to consider forcing Torontonians to go without daycare and garbage collection and the joys of Centre Island doesn't really hold up when you've been the one asking Torontonians to spend half their summer doing just that. Nor is "appalling" to oppose a contract that doesn't meet the goals that you publicly set out earlier in the dispute.
  
  It's an ugly side of their mayor Torontonians are seeing today. Strong opposition or not, he's not helping his cause."

TORONTO STAR EDITORIAL

• Miller's tactics raise questions
  
  Times of crisis can build political reputations – or shatter them – depending on how well a leader rises to the challenge. As mayor, David Miller has confronted no crisis greater than the strike by 30,000 Toronto municipal workers, now in its 39th day. If not shattered, his reputation as an effective leader is certainly cracked.
  
  At the outset of this labour dispute Miller served notice that he was determined to end a costly and outdated "sick bank" system giving workers cash for up to 130 unused sick days on retirement. Yesterday he declared victory and repeatedly claimed that the tentative agreements reached Monday had "eliminated" the sick bank provision...
  
  Pressed on this matter yesterday, Miller finally conceded it is more accurate to say the sick bank is being phased out rather than eliminated now. In truth, it is being phased out in slow motion. While that is a step forward, some Torontonians may see it as scant reward for enduring a strike that lasted almost six weeks, especially after Miller made progress on this issue a defining measure of his success.
  
  Even before the walkout, Miller didn't adequately prepare Torontonians for the struggle to come. There was never a real sense of looming crisis until the crisis actually hit. Miller's warnings about hard times facing the city, and pleas that "the world has changed," were contradicted by his defence of a 2.4 per cent, business-as-usual, pay raise pocketed by city councillors. Having made that mistake earlier in the year, Miller compounded it during the strike by refusing to support a determined effort by some councillors to roll back the salary hike.
  
  These missteps, and others, are grounds for Torontonians to wonder if Miller is the best person to lead this city when unionized workers are in a position to strike again three years from now.

GLOBE AND MAIL

• Did Miller give up too much to get a deal?
  Marcus Gee, Columnist
  Toronto's mayor puts a brave face on what may be only a partial victory
  
  Mayor David Miller is trying gamely to present his strike-ending deal with the unions as a big win for the city. If this is what he calls winning, it is frightening to think what losing would look like.
  
  The big issue in the strike was sick leave, specifically the city's attempt to take away workers' right to bank their unused sick leave and cash it in when they retire. The mayor boasts that the sick bank has been “eliminated,” a verb he used several times Wednesday.
  
  Eliminated, that is, for notional people who don't yet work for the city...
  
  In short, they get to keep this juicy treat – almost unheard of in the private sector and rarer and rarer in the public – exactly as is. As union leaders put it in a memo to members, “there will be no changes or reductions in your entitlements” under the sick plan...
  
  The city's new wage offer is better, too. Instead of a 7.2 per cent raise over four years, workers will get about 6 per cent over three – not bad at a time when many workers are seeing their wages frozen.
  
  In spite of it all, Mr. Miller says Torontonians should feel “very pleased” about the settlement. It is hard to fathom why.
  
  He says that the sick-leave deal is far better than the city would have achieved if an arbitrator had come in to end the dispute. True, but there was no sign of any arbitrator. The provincial government said all along it had no plans to order city employees back to work...
  
  Mr. Miller gives a final reason for settling with the unions on such unfavourable terms: to get the workers back on the job. “These people were on strike for five weeks, and we needed to find a way to reach an agreement,” he said.
  
  This was the weirdest one of all. The strike was a pain, but the city was functioning reasonably well, the unions' cause was unpopular and there was no pressure on the mayor from either citizens or city council to make a deal at any cost. To the contrary, councillors said they were being peppered with calls from residents telling the city to hang tough.
  
  Now those people feel betrayed, and with good reason. People were prepared to stand behind him as long as they thought he was standing up for them by holding the line on city costs and making sure an unrealistic perk for city workers was eliminated. It hasn't been. The mayor will pay a price.

INSIDE TORONTO

• Mayor's deal with city workers wasn't so sweet
  
  If anyone were thinking they might like to be the next mayor of Toronto, there's scarcely been a better time to start planning an attack.
  
  The current mayor, David Miller, is in trouble.
  
  Indeed, as the summer city workers' strike of '09 winds to a probable close, Miller has never been weaker.
  
  He's steered Toronto through a strike that lasted nearly six weeks, effectively shutting down the city for everyone from homeowners seeking building permits to children looking to enjoy a summer recreation program. And his promised outcome at the end of the ordeal - that the city would rid itself of a cumbersome and antiquated sick leave bank, and hold the line on union salary increases to help the city get through a punishing recession - never materialized.
  
  As much as Miller tried to pitch the five new tentative agreements as a win for the city this week, the details that emerged have shown it to be anything but.
  
  Miller tried to claim the sick bank, which lets employees accumulate 18 sick days a year and then take a payout based on any they haven't used, was eliminated.
  
  It was not. Employees with more than a decade at the city will be able to keep the sick bank and if they stay healthy, retire out with six months extra salary.
  
  Thirty years from now, it will be gone. But not until then.
  
  The salary package, meanwhile, sees a total compensation increase of 5.6 per cent over three years, with 1.75 per cent this year and two per cent next year. In most years, you'd call those modest pay increases. But, this year Miller and council set the bar at a very austere zero in 2009 and one per cent in 2010, when they set non-union compensation at that level.
  
  And Miller made, repeatedly, a powerful argument for that restraint: Toronto is going to be hit hard with growing social assistance costs as the recession takes its toll. The next two years at least will require austerity.
  
  The public bought that argument. The public understood it was important to deal with the sick bank. When on July 10 Miller unveiled the city's then-bargaining position, public reaction was supportive.
  
  Armed with widespread support, and facing two unions who had not managed to muster anything like that, it seemed as though the city couldn't lose.
  
  Yet all it took, in the end, was a threat by the smaller of the two unions, CUPE Local 416, to walk away from the bargaining table if a deal wasn't reached on the weekend.
  
  And the result?
  
  Capitulation.
  
  When Mark Ferguson, CUPE 416's president, said the city had removed all its concession demands from the table, he wasn't exaggerating. If there are any gains the city made in the short term, they are hidden in the shadow of those losses.
  
  Now, there may be good reason for capitulation. Miller maintained if the workers had been legislated back - a slim possibility now, but one he worried might expand along with H1N1 nervousness - the city would have done worse in arbitration. Better to come up with some kind of a negotiated phase-out now, rather than be saddled with a complete loss from a provincial arbitrator.
  
  That's all speculative, though. The stark facts are the city endured a strike that ate up half a summer in service of stated bargaining goals. The city failed to achieve those goals.
  
  The mayor wears that failure with just over a year to go before the serious part of the 2010 mayoralty campaign starts.
  
  Not an enviable position.

No wonder that Eddie on CKLW does not want Councillors or others starting to mount a campaign against him now. He knows he would lose badly to anyone with credibility. Heck, the Chicken Suit would give him a good fight.

CAW And CUPE

The CUPE strike fun has just begun.

There is no doubt that something is going on. After all, Sid Ryan was demonized and Senior was deified by the Star.

Frankly, that in itself should be the kiss of death about any possible takeover of CUPE Windsor by CAW! That and a very long strike by Windsor cab drivers should make CUPE members think twice if someone suggests joining up with them. And I am NOT going to even talk about the Senior FO theatrics or the Junior mayoral rift and Brister dramas.

Remember this as well. Would CUPE Windsor have lost out early on if CAW was in charge:

• "How critical is the CUPE cost issue to Windsor's municipal survival? A few days ago, I'm told, people from the upper reaches of the city's CAW leadership intervened in an attempt to convince their counterparts at CUPE's national headquarters that things really are different in 2009.
  
  The world has changed so much, even the much-maligned CAW gets it: it's about protecting jobs now, long-term. Sustainability."

If I was a CUPE member, I would wonder about how strong CAW would be to proterct my interests if mini-Gord praised them!

What a strange story:

• "CAW backs new City Hall union for managers"

I can hardly blame the Governments now for forcing CAW to make concessions in the auto talks. CAW is loaded with money! Imagine how much cash they must have in their bank account to be able to afford this:

• "We told them cost isn’t going to be an impediment,” said CAW national president Ken Lewenza. “The city’s paying a helluva lot of money to keep these people from becoming organized.”
  
  The CAW has offered PETU, the Professional Employees Trade Union, up to $1 million to help it in its efforts to organize.
  
  City hall has already lost the fight to have PETU certified, but is struggling to whittle down the new union’s membership to as few as 20."

WOW, money is no object to Kennie when it comes to adding 400 new dues paying members to CAW. 400! How much would their dues be and how long would it take for CAW to recoup a million dollars?

Of course, the prize is not those 400 people but the 1,800 people in CUPE Locals 543 and 82 along with other CUPE locals in town. First Windsor, then the world. CUPE is Canada's largest union with about 590,000 members.

A million dollars is a cheap investment to get that kind of return.

Of course, CAW is not that generous and the members of PETU may have unknowingly sold themselves out and will be forced to join CAW, like it or not. There are no free lunches:

• "While it’s “ultimately their choice,” Lewenza said he hopes PETU members will want to become part of his union.
  
  Miceli’s mind seems open to the idea when it comes to tiny PETU.
  
  “When you look at unions out there, how does the CAW look? Personally, I feel the CAW has done a lot of things … somebody who has the wherewithal,” he said.
  
  There’s a big financial incentive for such a move. Lewenza said there would have to be “some form of repayment” for the money going to PETU now, but not so if it decided to become part of the CAW. “Obviously, that would be an investment,” he said."

Who would be the ones to take the Windsor locals out of CUPE? How hard a fight would that be to decertify CUPE? What reward would those people expect to receive from CAW?

Will we see another labour war here as occurred a number of years ago:

• "The Canadian Labour Congress has imposed far-reaching sanctions on the Canadian Auto Workers, following accusations that the CAW had attempted to raid eight Ontario locals of the Service Employees International Union. The CLC stripped CAW delegates of the right to vote in district labor councils, provincial labor federations, and other CLC bodies."

From a taxpayers' perspective, we can thank one person for this potential mess if PETU and CUPE all form into one union together whether it is CAW or otherwise:

• "Miceli said the “main factor” that sparked the organization drive was city council’s decision in May 2006 to get rid of post-retirement benefits for new hires in the non-union category of employees. It became the main point of contention in the recent CUPE strike, and Miceli said the fear has been that the employer would eventually take the next step and get rid of those benefits for current employees...
  
  Lewenza, who describes as “ridiculous” the amounts of tax dollars the city spends fighting unions, argues those monies could have been saved simply by having the employees’ concerns addressed internally.
  
  “All they want is a voice at the workplace,” he said of PETU."

Senior is abolutely correct as my BLOG about the Pulic Library's dealings with CUPE clearly indicated.

Why should we be concerned:

• "Even without the potential clout of the CAW behind it, PETU would be a much more challenging adversary in any future labour dispute with the employer. It was largely that group of employees that kept Windsor running during the long, divisive contract battle with the city’s 1,800 CUPE workers.
  
  “If we have three to four hundred members, and we walk out, how are you going to manage? If that key group of managers and supervisors is not there, I don’t think this corporation could run,” said Miceli."

Managers and CUPE workers...All in one Union, united against the City, holding taxpayers hostage...thanks Eddie!

An Aesop Union Fable

Let's take a few Star stories during the CUPE strike and tie them into the CAW and PETU story and think about what could happen down the road. Of course, this would never happen. It is just a nice fable:

• 
  
  
  Whether PETU wants it or not, since they have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from CAW in their fight against the City, they now become a CAW local because they cannot afford to pay the money back



• 
  
  
  Their collective agreement bargaining date for the sake of argument will be before the date of CUPE 543 & 82's bargaining date. It must be this way or the City is held hostage by their unions



• 
  
  
  CUPE 543 & 82 join CAW too in a bitter decertification battle with CUPE and other Unions who wanted to represent the workers



• 
  
  
  The City's financial position is still horrible we are told and there is a need to cut down on liabilities even if they are years away in the future



• 
  
  
  PETU/CAW decides to go on strike with the main issue as John Miceli of PETU forecast was City Council’s decision to get rid of post-retirement benefits for current employees



• 
  
  
  Taxi drivers also represented by the CAW go on strike but settle quickly because members publicly state that they cannot afford a loss of wages after their last multi-weeks strike



• 
  
  
  CAW Casino Windsor workers settle and do not go on strike because the Casino revenues are still down supposedly because of the bad economy, swine flu virus scare, passports, strong dollar, border back-up concerns and more members have been laid off or are being put on part-time



• 
  
  
  Fiat and CAW are fighting again as Fiat needs more concessions to keep the third shift going



• 
  
  
  Windsor media provide their expected unbiased and even-handed civic workers strike coverage



• 
  
  
  Once again, and unexpectedly, the strike is long and bitter with little strike money since the CAW had to spend a million dollars to get the right to repreesent PETU in the first place



• 
  
  
  The Provincial Government will again not introduce back-to-work legislation because the local MPPs say the City does not want arbitration This time around, the MPPs offer theri nominal support to pitch in to help the City deal with the PETU work.



• 
  
  
  The eventual end came with National CAW getting directly involved: CAW leadership intervened in an attempt to convince their local union that things really are different: "The world has changed so much: it's about protecting jobs now, long-term. Sustainability."



• 
  
  
  National CAW leader told the Windsor Mayor to FO but said to justify the settlement that the Union has to live to fight another day



• 
  
  
  National CAW leader's son says after the strike ends that the rift between him and the Mayor on labour relations matters has grown even wider although he supports the Mayor generally on other issues. He wants to debate anyone who dares say that he did not try to get this strike resolved behind the scenes and will be scheduling Ward meetings to talk to his constituents about this and other City issues



• 
  
  
  Other former CUPE unions who have not yet recovered financially from their previous 101 day strike sign on the dotted line without a struggle and lose their PRBs as well notwithstanding their previous agreement with the City



• 
  
  
  Police, fire and nurses capitulate also



• 
  
  
  No Motion is made to remove PRBs from Members of Council



• 
  
  
  City Budget in serious shape since Council had expected to save millions on a 102 day strike, this time with no tax refunds.



• 
  
  
  The Eminence Greasie is heard cackling as the bank deposit is made for the consulting fees earned. A huge team of worker bees has been created for the upcoming elections for all of the clients.

Moral of the fable----for you, dear reader, to determine.

More Border Tales

Catching up time with more border stories. I suspect that you have missed several stories due to the City/CUPE labour dispute.

Here are a few that should tickle your fancy:

HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN

There were screams of joy and shouts of happiness from across the river in Delray when the Brighton beach deal in Canada was announced.

Remeber the past Star story

• "A Windsor Star report six weeks ago cited estimates of $50,000 per acre and up."

Actually, it was $50,000 and down since I was told that the biggest piece of property before sold by the City for less than that amount.

For $34M, the Feds bought 94 acres or about $362,000 per acre or over 7 times as much.

Well anything that Canada can do, the Americans can and now must do better. Delray residents can now ask for 7 times the amounts offered to date. And there will be a lot of them too:

• "On the American side, none of the 235 acres needed for the bridge structure, the plaza or the interchanges have been purchased, says MDOT spokesman Bill Schreck."

Not only did Canada sucker the Americans re the DRIC project and got them in the middle of several nasty lawsuits, now the costs for the project have gone sky-high. Michigan Republicans just have received an early election issue!

And for those Windsorites whining about their price, if they have not sold out yet, they have just hit the lottery jackpot and did not have to buy a ticket! The ones who sold out better get a lawyer to see if they can get more money somehow!

I know, they can call Brian Masse. He will argue anything since as a member of the NDP he will never be held accountable since they will never form a Government.

BIG PAYDAY

Wow, Eddie is a great negotiator after all. 7 times the value of any other land sold in the area by the City.

Now we know what Minister Baird meant when he said this:

• "The deadline has passed, but Windsor still has an opportunity to receive federal funding for a $48-million downtown canal project, Canada’s transportation and infrastructure minister said Wednesday...
  
  But John Baird suggested Wednesday the project could be included when Ottawa reveals its infrastructure allocation to the city.
  
  “The deadline was Friday, but we hope to come forward in short order on further economic stimulus for Windsor which badly needs it,” said the minister, in Windsor for a border transportation conference."

Nice neat way to use Federal cash

WHAT WILL BRIAN AND JOE DO

A good member of the Oppostion should be jumping all over this obvious overpayment. Brian should be doing the most screaming exactly because, if Eddie runs federally, it will be against him.

Brian is damned if he does and damned if he does not. Is it any wonder that he and Joe have done zero so far. But that is par for the course for the NDP even when they had the balance of power in Parliament.

Oh heck, why don't our NDP members write a nice letter to the Auditor General demanding a complete investigation in this.

I would have suggested writing as well to Louis Ranger, the former Deputy Minister at Transport, but he suddenly left Government service so he cannot be reached. I wonder if he approved the deal.

THERE WAS NO WAR

Senatore Kenny should be ashamed of himself. He was no different than Orson Welles telling us that the Martians were coming.

Remember what the Senator's Report said:

• "The type of cautious, step-by-step, approach currently underway is clearly the most intelligent approach for non-urgent projects. This is not one of them. Windsor-Detroit is of such strategic importance to both Canada and the United States that fixing it requires war-time urgency.
  
  What the process fails to take into account is the possibility that the Partnership’s timelines are unrealistic and likely to slip and that a crossing could be permanently disrupted between now and the completion of a new crossing."

Well several years later and the DRIC project has just slipped to 2015, at he least. He should be shocked and be demanding armed guards at the border shouldn't he. Instead, all he can say is:

• "I'm very concerned that it's been delayed past 2013 but if it's coming it's very good news for people in southern Ontario and Windsor in particular."

SENATOR KENNY PREJUDICES ENVIRONMENTAL HEARINGS

DUH Senator, what the heck does this mean since there are only 2 locations where a new bridge can go:

• "We think another bridge, not necessarily an Ambassador Bridge, we think another bridge is very important," said Kenny...
  
  Kenny would not identify his preferred location for the new crossing, citing the ongoing DRIC process."

Gee Senator, I think you did put your foot in the wrong place!

KENNY SHOULD SPEAK TO VAN LOAN

The Senator is a broken record. He completely fails to remember how the bad guys operate: they take down several targets miles apart:

• "I don't think it should be at this location," said Liberal Senator Colin Kenny, who toured the bridge plaza along with committee deputy chairwoman Conservative Senator Pamela Wallin.
  
  "The idea of twinning this facility makes no sense because if this facility went down, you'd lose both of them," he said.
  
  "So, let's have it at another location."

However, the easy answer is reverse customs. The Senator should be talking to the Conservative Minister about what he said before about the Ambassador Bridge but what now seems to have been dropped. As I Blogged before:

• "Clearly "security" is no longer an issue for Canada. Remember some months ago that Minister Van Loan suggested having a "reverse customs" pilot project at the Ambassador Bridge:
  
  "He also got a commitment from Napolitano that Washington will look again at the idea of what is called land pre-clearance, he said.
  
  Under a proposal favoured by Ottawa, American officials would check U.S.-bound trucks on the Canadian side of the border and vice versa, easing trade bottlenecks.
  
  Van Loan said he suggested a pilot project at the Windsor-Detroit border but nothing was settled."

I guess it was not raised when they met so it cannot be that much of an issue any more. Another reason for a DRIC bridge gone!

THE CUPBOARD WAS BAIRD

Jeff Watson instead of the Minister to hand out a big cheque. Why the Minister did not want to appear in Windsor so much that he went to China instead!

So much for this statement:

• "Unlike the city’s ongoing spat with the province over their divergent respective plans for the highway approach to the new border crossing, the city’s dealings with the federal government over the actual new bridge and customs plaza have been smooth."

ANOTHER STAR CORRECTION NEEDED

The Star had run two stories and an Editorial on the Brookings Institution Report and did not say a thing about their conclusion of the Ambassador Bridge being built first meaning there was no need for a DRIC Bridge because traffic volumes were so low.

My theory was they chose NOT to report that in the hopes that people would not even look at the Report. Only my readers would know the truth.

And then this, buried in this story:

• "No waivering in support of DRIC bridge
  
  Earlier this week, a study commissioned by the Brookings Institution questioned the need for a second span at the Ambassador Bridge and voiced its support for the DRIC project."

It is wrong and the Star knows it or ought to know it since presumably the Report was read! The Report said the following as I Blogged before:

• "There was no need for the DRIC bridge since Brookings said that the DIBC bridge would be built first!!!
  
  "However, the DRIC is expected to be completed later than the DIBC barring additional delays to either project, and concern over the auto industry and the potential for lower traffic volumes due to reduced automotive industry shipments casts doubt on the need to proceed with both the DIBC and DRIC..
  
  Declining traffic figures, if sustained into 2009, undermine the case for the investment of billions of dollars in new border infrastructure after years of contentious debate and planning has already taken place"
  
  It is the DRIC project that costs billions, not the Ambassador Bridge project!... As you know the DRIC project has been delayed for at least 2 more years until 2015 because of traffic declines and lack of P3 money."

TRAFFIC JUSTIFICATION IS DEAD

Brookings effectively killed that argument, the supposed reason for building the DRIC Bridge.

Now a big backer of DRIC did so as well:

• "We need two crossings, regardless of what the Ambassador Bridge plans to do, because we have to plan for future growth,” said Bradley [president of the Ontario Trucking Association]. “Not doing so is what got us into this mess in the first place.”
  
  While acknowledging that traffic levels have declined because of a slowdown in the automotive industry, Fedchun [executive director of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association] said he believes that the industry will slowly recover and “we have to be ready with the capacity when it does.
  
  “Crystal balls are always a little cloudy and, while I believe it will be a long recovery, we need to be ready when it happens,” said Fedchun. “And it’s never been very palatable to our members to use Huron Church Road and freeway-to-freeway access is far more efficient.”

Now we need to look at future growth through cloudy crystal balls. Oh please.

They have no problems in taxpayers spending billions to pay for these projects even though there is no traffic and who knows when it will come back.

It is a shame that no one asked them if their members will pay the sky-high toll prices necessary to support the DRIC bridge since it will be a P3 project or will they whine and cry and demand that the crossing be subsidized by taxpayers too in the public interest.

SANDRA READS MY BLOGS

What a shot at Spanky eh:

• "Pupatello gives economic pep talk to Rotary Club of Windsor (1918)
  'The darkest days are behind us'
  
  Designers of a new Windsor-Detroit border crossing have an opportunity to put this region on the global map and it's an opportunity which shouldn't be wasted, said MPP Sandra Pupatello.
  
  While acknowledging the province of Ontario will have no input into the final design of the region's third border crossing, Pupatello said she favours "an iconic design, something that will be recognizable around the world in an instant."
  
  I guess that Spanky forgot his constitutional law. Sandra did not!
  
  

Chicago Is NOT My Kind Of Town

Not the bloody canal. Again.

I was told just a few days ago that Eddie's mayoral campaign, assuming he did not run for some other office, would be based on the canal. I did not believe it. Boy, was I wrong!

It is almost as tedious as Gord supporting Greenlink. I wonder how Gord will support a "political" tweaking over the DRIC road. How will a so-called "inferior" solution be justified so that ignoring death and destruction and kids' health is no longer considered"unconscionable" any more. I wonder how Eddie (and probably Spanky but NOT Sandra) will be praised over the Compromise. OMG, the "C" word.

Does Gord Henderson ever do the slightest bit of research when he does a Column to mouth off to try to save another absurd idea of the Mayor? He writes a column on Saturday about Chicago and Monday is the day when Chicago is forced to close down!

Aren't there any fact-checkers at the Star. Oh I forgot, their parent company is in big financial trouble these days.

Take a look above at the Press release of Chicago. They are in serious financial difficulty with a budget deficit that makes Windsor's entire budget look puny!

"Live and learn from the folks in Chicago"

Gord, I think not!

• "Opened four years behind schedule and carrying a US $475 million price tag, triple the original budget, it's the kind of runaway project that gets labeled a debacle, and gets mayors run out of town.
  
  But not in Chicago where Richard M. Daley, the "greenest" mayor in America, a ruler with the powers of a Persian potentate, is aggressively building on a can-do dynasty established by his legendary late father. Millennium Park might have been an accountant's nightmare but today it's a must-see attraction drawing hordes of camera-toting visitors who fill the city's hotels and restaurants.
  
  Under Daley, downtown Chicago has become one big hunk of streetscaping eye candy."

Gord finally tells us the kind of Mayor that Eddie wants to be. Fortunately before the next election. After all, Eddie prides himself on being close to Mayor Daley: "Behind schedule," over-budget, a ruler, powers of a Persion potentate. All Eddie wants is "eye candy" like a canal

No wonder that Gord is still the Sheriff!

Eating too much candy causes painful cavities and tooth decay that results in days off for employees and inconvenience to taxpayers to save some money so the City does not have a financial melt-down. And this is after almost $2B was taken in by the City in a P3 deal on one of their toll roads.

Think about that when Gord try to tell us that P3ing Enwin shortly is a brilliant idea that will allow us to finance the canal and other Eddie visions. Just like Gord tried to tell us that Eddie was a financial genius for trying to do a deal on the Tunnel that would probably be in bankruptcy already with the fall in traffic volumes:

• "A solid investment
  
  How the heck did little old Windsor snatch a blue-chip infrastructure investment opportunity out from under the money- sniffing noses of Canada's major pension fund managers?
  
  You can bet your bottom dollar that the boards of these massive institutions, which have been pouring billions into a hot new field, longterm infrastructure investment, are asking themselves that awkward question following the revelation that Windsor has entered into a US $75-million agreement with Detroit to take full possession of the Detroit-Windsor tunnel.
  
  They'll be kicking themselves where the sun doesn't shine for not recognizing, as the City of Windsor did, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to purchase a safe and reliable revenue stream for the next century and beyond...
  
  If and when Detroit signs off, and we shouldn't take anything for granted, the City of Windsor will join the club of canny, longterm investors."

Yea right....canny Windsor! We would be in the equivalent of Chapter 11 if not worse after this dumb deal!

When I lived in Toronto, the media there always told us local yokels that we were the equivalent of New York City. Until one actually visited the Big Apple and figured out that we could never compare. We had been deceived about what we could ever hope to be.

Same here.

• Huron Church is going to be turned into the Champs-Élysées by the Big Apple's traffic guru, Sam Schwartz, as his Report gathers dust somewhere.
• An award-winning Greenlink that was used merely as a stall tool that will be compromised for political reasons into the "unconscionable" DRIC road.
• During the CUPE strike, we saw what our world-class Park on the Lid and Central Park equivalents would really look like with all of Eddie's Greenlink parks for which we had no money to maintain.
• We "host" world class sports events by spending millions of dollars for sponsorships that put us on the world's stage as our tourism figures plummet and even the Casino is in trouble with the Detroit competition.
• We have to build a canal so that we can compete with San Antonio and Venice as we ignore the miles of riverfront that we already have to create canal-front condo and apartment complexes that no one will be able to afford since there are no jobs.
• A huge muti-million dollar piece of pie in the skies cargo terminal at an airport that has one scheduled airline serving it and whose major cargo operator went broke. Please.

We do have a world-class border crossing owned by a private company. Do we take pride in it? Hardly, as our Mayor has to help destroy it for a Government-owned one.

Why can't we be happy that Windsor is Windsor and not be something we are not.

• Chicago's Metro population is 9,157,540. Ours in Essex County is about 400,000
  
• Chicago's Metro Area alone is 5,618.9 sq. mi. Windsor-Essex is 685 square miles
  
• Chicago's tallest building is 1,451 ft high. We have the scaled-down Canderel embarrassment.
  
• Chicago's Harold Washington Library Center, with more than 2 million books available, is the world's largest public library. Here we cut back our Library system.
  
• O'hare has 53 scheduled and charter airlines. We have Air Canada Jazz
  
• Chicago's estimated 2010 budget is $6.2 billion, with a $3.32 billion corporate fund. Chicago estimate a shortfall of $519.7 million in the 2010 corporate fund. In Windsor
  "1. That the 2009 Net Operating Budget for the City of Windsor and related Boards in the amount of $321,915,174 as recommended by the Operating Budget Committee BE ADOPTED.
  2. THAT the 2009 Capital Budget in the amount of $92,456,000, BE ADOPTED subject to
  a decision on the use of the $20.6 million Investing in Ontario Act provincial funding and any other stimulus funding requirements."

Get over it Gord, not even you can save Eddie from his failures. You still have not figured it out yet. Eddie is incapable of being a Mayor. The CUPE strike is proof of that. He has no interest in running a City whatsoever. It is too boring. He would rather play finance games at no risk to his cash but at my risk and those of other taxpayers.

Why be a Mayor when one can be a world-class union buster, land developer, sports jock, border operator, road and tunnel builder, P3 financier, entertainment impresario and onion marketer. And now a canal builder.

What is sad about this is that while we are looking to be on the world's stage and being compared with the world's great cities, we are dying. Highest unemployment rate in all of Canada and Eddie has still has a non-functioning Undevelopment Commission with no CEO hired yet!

Our Francis mayoral legacy: talk about eye candies, a College bridge that had to be shut down, roads full of potholes, sewers flooding and this:

• "While the mayor and council appear keen on the idea, the hard part seems convincing a reluctant administration to support a downtown bar's application to build Windsor's first curbside boardwalk...
  
  "Everybody thinks it's a great idea," Mayor Eddie Francis told Whibbs...
  
  When Francis told council the wooden boardwalk may be contrary to provincially mandated sidewalk standards, Coun. Percy Hatfield asked staff how much of Windsor's sidewalks are currently not up to those legal standards.
  
  Executive director of operations Mike Palanacki said about 28 per cent of the city's 900 kilometres of sidewalks are considered "deficient."

Heck, now we can understand Eddie. Athens and Germany are more fun that sidewalks aren't they!

Cease And Desist Already

Why couldn't the Star reporter or Columnist give us the information rather than make us wonder and guess? Or did some editor make the decision to not reveal it?

The Star first published the story on August 6:

• "Stop spreading rumours, Jones warned by bridge
  
  Cease and desist letter issued
  
  The Ambassador Bridge company has fired a warning shot across the bow of Ward 2 Coun. Ron Jones, threatening legal action if Jones persists in spreading what the company alleges is misinformation about its practices and intentions regarding homes in the city's west side...
  
  Jones said he was unruffled by the bridge's letter."

I wonder when that letter was sent. Dan Stamper was quoted as saying it was sent some time before. If so, why was the issue just publicized now? What is about to come next so that the Bridge Company can be demonized in advance?

Here is what I find to be fascinating about the story. At no time did it ever say what was in the Bridge Company letter. Presumably it was about the Indian Road homes. But what was their complaint?

I am sure that the reporter must have seen it. How could he write a story otherwise?

Wouldn't you like to know why the Bridge Company was so angry? What did Councillor Jones say that so upset them? Was it true or not? It would have to be in the letter I am sure.

What was the Councillor's position on each of the allegations made? I would have liked to have known.

Fast forward to the column of Anne Jarvis of August 14:

• "Jones won't be silenced
  
  People in the vulnerable west side neighbourhood of Sandwich elected Coun. Ron Jones to represent them, and the Ambassador Bridge, whose plan to twin its span and cement its monopoly would devastate Sandwich, is warning him to shut up.
  
  It's a billion-dollar business empire trying to muzzle an elected representative and his community, and it's offensive."

Ahhhhhhhhh the Columnist will tell us what is in the letter. She must have read it in order to write a column about it, right. She will inform us about the Indian Road homes issue.

She writes and quotes the Councillor in the following way:

• "At a rally at the foot of the bridge in southwest Detroit two months ago, Jones told the crowd that a twin span would cut Sandwich in half "and we're not going to allow it to happen."
  
  Pretty nefarious stuff, according to the bridge. Thankfully, for the residents of Sandwich and for Windsor, Jones is doing what he was elected to do: fight for the best interests of his ward and the city.
  
  That's what the bridge doesn't like.
  
  "I think there's probably an attempt to muzzle anybody who is not going to toe the line," said Jones."

Huh? What has that got to do with what the reporter's story was about: the Bridge company's "practices and intentions regarding homes in the city's west side?" She came up with something totally different.

Was that in the letter, is that what the Bridge was complaining about according to Ms Jarvis? I would be surprised if only that was the basis of a cease and desist letter. I would suspect that there was much more.

Again, I wonder why the Columnist did not set out specifically what the complaint was. Why didn't she inform her readers? Did she actually read the letter and if so, why didn't she quote from it?

What is wrong with the Star...why are they so afraid to give people the facts? Another reason why I am glad I cancelled my subscription.

Why don't the Councillor and the Star tell us what the complaint was about so we can judge for ourselves? Why is there this silence? I am sure that the Bridge Company would give permission for the letter to be released.

I can hardly wait for the Editorial that will be written next that won't tell us about the letter either.

Perhaps in this case, the Star could cease and desist as well if they refuse to set out the details of the complaint.

Oh, by the way, Brian Masse spoke at the Detroit session too. Did he get a letter as well?

Dwight Duncan: Minister of Honour

Matty Moroun can rest easy now, for once. Dwight Duncan as a true and honourable man has given him his Enhancement Project Bridge on a silver platter!

After all, Dwight's title is "The Honourable Dwight Duncan Minister of Finance and Chair of Treasury Board/Management Board of Cabinet."

Let's be real. It seems hard to find a person of honour amongst politicians these days. How many scandals have we seen around the world that just make one sick to one's stomach.

Oh they make big promises when they first run for office and may even try to carry out some of the things they offered up. However, as time passes, their memories fail as they get caught up in their own self-importance. So many of them seem to forget so quickly why they were elected.

You know, and this is off-topic, there may well be a virtue to term-limits as in the US in many jurisdictions including that of the US President.

How refreshing therefore to read the remarks of local MPP and Minister of Finance, Dwight Duncan, in the Star.

Sure Spanky is only a mere Provincial politician and has absolutely no jurisdiction over an international bridge. That falls completely within the power of the Federal Government. However that did not stop him from telling us the facts of life.

• "Senator Cropsey has an interesting point of view, but it conveniently overlooks the fact that the governments of the United States and the State of Michigan have signed agreements to proceed with this," Duncan said Wednesday. "The governor of Michigan and the current president of the United States, as well as the previous one, have all affirmed their commitment to this..."
  
  "At this point, there's no concern that I can see," said Duncan, the province's finance minister. "We remain committed to going forward, as they do."

I must admit that I as a mere citizen have no idea what he is talking about respecting "agreements to proceed with this" unless he just means the DRIC study.

Considering the snub of Prime Minister Harper by President Obama and the rejection of Harper's border push by President Bush, I am unaware of anything that the Presidents have done that has committed the US Government to allow the DRIC Bridge to be built. In fact, it seems highly unlikely based on what the US Department of State has said already that the DRIC bridge can ever get a Presidential Permit to do so!

Spanky knows that the US Governments and the Bridge Company have sunk almost a quarter of a billion dollars into the Ambassador Gateway project which was designed to accommodate a second bridge. Moreover, he must remember that what Senator Cropsey said on the record has never been denied by MDOT:

• "In talking with [MDOT] Director Steudle this morning, he very clearly stated to me that MDOT would not in any way impair the Ambassador Bridge project and stated to me that MDOT is on record that the Ambassador Bridge should be twinned."

As a man who keeps up to date on all border crossing Reports, Dwight knows as well that the Brookings Institution has written:

• "The Michigan Department of Transportation has undertaken a $230 million expansion of the Ambassador Bridge customs plaza to improve traffic flow and enhance access to Interstate 75 and Interstate 96, as well as to ease traffic problems affecting adjacent city neighborhoods. The DIBC has proposed a privately financed $1 billion second span for the Ambassador Bridge that is pending regulatory approvals...
  
  However, the DRIC is expected to be completed later than the DIBC barring additional delays to either project, and concern over the auto industry and the potential for lower traffic volumes due to reduced automotive industry shipments casts doubt on the need to proceed with both the DIBC and DRIC...
  
  Declining traffic figures, if sustained into 2009, undermine the case for the investment of billions of dollars in new border infrastructure after years of contentious debate and planning has already taken place..."

I will excuse Spanky. Maybe he really meant the building of the Enhancement Project Bridge and got confused. He must be giddy since he is rejoicing short-term because the Obama snub will certain help out IGGY federally in the next election and himself too if he decides to run federally in Joe Comartin's riding if Joe retires.

I digress.

What our Senior Minister is really saying is that he believes in parties living up to their obligations. He wants people to live up to their commitments. A true Man of Honour and a Man of His Word. A Gentleman!

And that is why the Bridge Company owner should be feeling so comfortable today.

He knows that the BIF money was meant to build a road to his bridge so now the money can finally be spent to do so even if it is now called the DRIC road for face-saving purposes. After all, the DRIC road follows the path that Windsor suggested in its WALTS Report and which the Bridge Company engineered years ago. Thanks to Dwight, he knows now that the Ontario Government will live up to its commitment.

But it is more than that. Spanky must know about Ontario's written support of the Enhancement Project. He must also be aware of the signed agreement to help improve the Bridge's border crossing, executed long before DRIC ever started. Heck, he is even obliged to help get the Feds off their rear-ends to get that Enhancement Bridge going already!

I did an Internet search and found out data about this. Spanky must have the originals of what I found and a lot more at his fingertips as a powerful Minister so he could make the statements that he did.

As a Minister of Honour, when will he meet with the Bridge Company to work out the details of co-ordinating their project with the DRIC road to get those thousands of jobs that Dwight as a Politician of Honour promised us.