BLOGEXCLUSIVE: The Tunnel Secret Is Out

Who needs Councillor Budget anyway to find out the big news about the Detroit Windsor Tunnel. Chances are that he probably does not know anything about it anyway. He's only a City Councillor.

You need to come to this BLOGsite if you want inside info about City Hall. Too bad Councillor Budget never comes here so he too could be in the know.

As I have been telling you over the past few weeks there has been a lot of whispering going on about the big changes at the Tunnel.

Through digging, with the help of a variety of overseas sources, I was able to discover that back in May, 2006, it looks like there was some kind of refinancing/restructuring going on in the Macquarie Group since the Bank acted as "Adviser on the acquisition and refinancing of the second busiest US-Canada border crossing." There was a US$70M deal involving the Macquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG).

My inside moles tell me that there were top-secret meetings over the last year involving the Tunnel with the Mayor being involved in many of them. They took place in several different capitals. As you will remember, Eddie was desperate to do a deal with Detroit. The Joint Councils meeting about a year ago was his attempt to do a sales pitch on Detroit.

He needed a deal so that he could lease out the Tunnel on a long-term basis or securitize toll revenues so that he could make a ton of money as his fellow Mayor did in Chicago. Eddie claimed that the Tunnel was worth $2-300M. Imagine if he brought in that kind of cash in to pay down the debt or fix up sewers or build roads or even do a border crossing bridge deal. What a hero he would be. What a great section it would make on his CV for his new career as an infrastructure guru either as a politician or as a 7 figure salaried lawyer or deal-maker in Toronto or New York.

Unfortunately Eddie's management skills were such that he knows now that, during his watch, the Tunnel is worth only a tiny fraction of that amount as traffic volumes plummetted downwards drastically. He has a unique security risk that needs fixing too that he has to pay for.

Then the big announcement!

Well, actually, there has not been one yet. Fortunately, I read an Alabama newspaper as part of my morning news coverage to find out interesting stories for you (Yes, I have eclectic tastes!) There it was:

• "Toll to grow on Foley Beach Express
  February 20, 2007By RYAN DEZEMBERStaff Reporter
  
  Alinda Roads LLC, a private Michigan firm that recently acquired the Foley Beach Express toll bridge, announced Monday that as of March 1, it is raising the fee to cross the span from $1 to $1.50 for Orange Beach residents and from $2 to $3 for others.
  
  Alinda Roads, which operates the Detroit Windsor Tunnel, also owns Alabama's three other private toll bridges...
  
  Alinda Roads is owned by the Alinda Infrastructure Fund. The multibillion-dollar fund invests in North American and European infrastructure -- roads, power, gas distribution and ports -- and is managed by Alinda Capital Partners, a company run primarily by former Citigroup bankers."

Alinda Roads' CEO is Gordon Jarvis. You may know him as president and chief executive officer of the Detroit & Canada Tunnel Corp (DCTC).

Now I have several very simple questions to pose. What did our Mayor know about this deal, when did he find out about it and why didn't he tell us about it? What is the impact on the Tunnel since it seems that Macquarie has sold out its interest to Alinda. What is the relationship between Alinda and Windsor? Did the City or WTC consent to the change in the Tunnel operator or in the ownership change? Is Alinda happy about Tunnel volumes decreasing so much in so short a period of time so that they were able to pay less for the Tunnel operating agreement?

The Mayor/Chair of the Windsor Tunnel Commission needs to come clean and tell us what is going on. After all, this is a prize asset of the City of Windsor! I also would like to know what the members of the Commission knew and when! What about Councillors?

Frankly, why do I have to read about a deal that impacts Windsor so significantly in an Alabama media outlet and not the Windsor Star? Did the Star know about this given its close connection to the Mayor and Councillor Budget? If it did and did not report it, should we take the Star seriously as a newspaper any more?

With Bill C-3 passing, the other interesting question to ask is what role the Federal Government played in this. Did they consent to the deal and if so on what basis? Did they even know about it?

This is getting disgusting. Councillor Budget whispers to Star columnists about problems and gives out tidbits at Council meetings. Council's legal role under the Municipal Act is to "represent the public and to consider the well-being and interests of the municipality." It is time that Councillors started to act this way and stopped being so secretive and selective in information distribution.

I and my one or two other friends out of 200,000 citizens are getting more and more annoyed. And when we get annoyed, watch out.