Have Canada And Ontario Split

What a bizarre story that came out of Toronto that involves the Windsor border crossing.

It was innocuous enough. It's the usual Province trying to grab money from the Federal Government -- type story with the Feds saying NO.

It seems kind of unfair to be honest about it. The Provincial Liberals have just won an election by throwing taxpayer money at taxpayers. Now that they have been re-elected, the Premier can act statesmanlike. You can hardly expect the Federal Conservatives to be interested in anything that he has to say when they need to throw taxpayer money at taxpayers in order to get a majority government.

A summary of the story as reported by Canadian Press is:

• "Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn't seem interested in using the projected $11.6-billion federal surplus to help struggling cities and towns pay for badly-needed infrastructure renewal projects, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said Thursday."

That would not be worthwhile blogging but for the fact of this paragraph that directly impacts us in Windsor

• "The two leaders did agree to "drive hard" on creating a new international border crossing at Windsor, Ont., something that both levels of government have promised for years, but instead of working together, the province and Ottawa will each push the project on their own."

I have no idea what the last part of the sentence means. Was that an error by the reporter? Did he misunderstand something?

Several hours later the media eg. CTV news, CKLW started attributing the comment to the Premier. The initial CP story did say that the Prime Minister did not meet with reporters but did not attribute the remark to the Premier initially.

One possible explanation is that there is nothing really new and nothing of significance was said. What is meant is that the Feds are interested in the bridge and Plaza only while the Province's responsibility is the road to the border (although the Feds will contribute 50% of the cost). Thus, each will push that part of the project that they are interested in.

Or perhaps maybe there is a split. Perhaps the Feds have finally said to Ontario that all that they are going to get in infrastructure sharing is 50% of the amount, not 60% not 70%, not 80%... 50% period! The Feds can't give more money to Ontario since they would have to give the same higher split to all the other provinces for all of their Gateway projects.

After all, you remember in the Federal budget that monies were set aside for the road with the comments being made that it was for 50% of the cost while in the Ontario budget that came a few days later there was no reference to money for the border at all.

The Globe and Mail in an Editorial today said:

• "Finally, Mr. Harper should make the border a priority, earmarking more resources for the Windsor-Detroit crossing, which handles more than one quarter of Canadian-U.S. trade."

The Globe should realize, after their 2 1/2 page spread on the Ambassador Bridge that politicians are trying to ignore the obvious. Someone has to talk with the Bridge Company and negotiate a resolution with them for their issues or there will not be a border solution in the near term. Yes, there was a meeting in Ottawa between Transport Canada and the Bridge Company recently. And yes, based on the comments in the radio interview by Dan Stamper, the relationship seems to have improved. Nevertheless, we need serious conversations immediately to resolve this matter. Are they happening?

Lord help us if there's a rift between Senior Level Governments as well. As if we don't have enough problems. Perhaps the Governor's hubby could be retained to assist the parties in reconciling. After all, look what he did in Windsor.

By the way, I would not read much into the comment about driving hard on the Windsor crossing. As the Toronto Star columnist stated about the border and several other matters that McGuinty discussed with reporters:

• "But one wonders how much of an impression McGuinty really made since none of these topics was mentioned in Harper's subsequent speech. Indeed, Harper did not even mention that he had met McGuinty earlier in the day."

Moreover the Prime Minister needed to talk positively about doing something on the border in Windsor since Transport Canada Minister Cannon is speaking on the subject at a P3 conference shortly and the Deputy Minister and Executive Director of the Windsor Gateway project are participants as well on a panel. How could the PM undercut him at this time? Cannon's speechwriters would have to do a whole new speech in so little time.