No BLOGs Until Monday

For personal family reasons, I will not be able to write a BLOG until Monday.

May I ask the politicians, both local and at the Senior Levels, to hold all important news events until I return!

Thank you for your consideration

Will Ontario Infrastructure Finance Detroit

I am glad that Eddie took a day off to go to Chicago to speak at the Annual Richard J. Daley Urban Forum on the subject of "The New Urban Dwellers: Addressing the Challenge and Opportunity of Urbanization."

He must be really dedicated to get up so early, 4 AM I heard, to fly YQG to Toronto and then back to Chicago. Most others would have gone to Detroit Metro to fly to Chicago non-stop. Ms Nazzani will be pleased. You know I am kidding right. Perhaps he drove there.

Actually, Eddie was in Chicago to promote Windsor's newest entrepreneurial business: financing American and other foreign cities with budget problems using Ontario Government Infrastructure money. It's a sure thing too!

I was quite amused that our Infrastructure Ontario Loan Fund could be used to help pay off the Detroit budget debt as an example. I wonder if other US cities are aware of our cheap financing program to help them with their operating budget issues. We can be their banker borrowing at one rate and loaning out money at a profit. We are so wealthy here in Ontari-ari-arioooo.

I noted with interest the comment made by Steve Dyck, a spokesman for the agency, who said

• “the tunnel deal would qualify under the loan program."

I wondered how this could be:

• "All Ontario municipalities are eligible to apply for a loan from Infrastructure Ontario. For more information on eligibility requirements please see the Program Guidelines.
  
  Eligible Projects
  
  The OSIFA Loan Program provides affordable financing for all capital investments, including but not limited to:
  
  Water, wastewater and sewage infrastructure
  Roads and bridges
  Culture, tourism, administration and recreation infrastructure
  Energy efficiency projects (windows, doors, lighting, etc.)
  Water, hydro, HVAC and communications systems
  Ambulances, fire trucks, snow ploughs, garbage trucks and rolling stock
  Ferries and docks
  Local police and fire stations
  Asset management tools and systems
  Accessibility improvements"

Hmmmm nothing about American City loans here nor to get an interest in a US-owned Tunnel encumbered by an operating agreement that lasts about another dozen years.

I do note that the City will need to get an interim bridge financing loan (now that's a funny pun) since

• "NOTE: Proceeds of the loan can only flow after a financing agreement has been executed and expenditures have been incurred." and that
  
  "Infrastructure Ontario has the right, at its discretion, to terminate the agreement if a borrower is in default of its obligations. In addition, Infrastructure Ontario is authorized to request the Minister of Finance to intercept certain provincial grants to the borrower in the case of default."

I tried under Municipal Corporations since the new Tunnel Corporation would be one I assume:

• "Municipal Corporations
  
  Since 2006, the OSIFA Loan Program has helped to make a difference in communities across Ontario by providing affordable loans to municipal corporations. Municipal corporations can include: local distribution companies, gas utilities, municipal Long-term care homes, local housing corporations, utility telecoms, transit corporations or social housing corporations."
  
  Eligible Projects
  
  Infrastructure Ontario loans can be used for any capital investments, including but not limited to:
  
  Facility expansion, renovation and retrofits
  Energy conservation retrofits
  Overhead wiring and underground cabling, gas lines, pipe work
  Any development or asset classified as a capital expenditure
  Switchgear and pole structures
  Smart Meter installation
  Alternative energy generation facilities
  Transportation infrastructure
  Vehicles and maintenance equipment

Hmmmm maybe "Transportation infrastructure" could be the excuse if we ignore that the money is for American Infrastructure, not for a project in Ontario.

Take a look at the kind of projects being examined today by the Government Department: http://www.infrastructureontario.ca/en/projects/index.asp and check out what has been done for Windsor already: http://www.infrastructureontario.ca/en/projects/gallery.asp

No disrespect intended for my Detroit scolder but we frankly have our own concerns to deal with before the Province should try and make Eddie a hero.

And who says that the amount of the loan is only for $75M. We have made that assumption haven't we without knowing what the facts are. Is there a greater sum being asked for?

Go and check out the press releases to see what kind of projects generally receive loans: medical ones primarily for hospitals as in Windsor. No wonder "More than 90 per cent of loan applications, end up getting approved" http://www.infrastructureontario.ca/en/news/index.asp

• "The Ontario Strategic Infrastructure Financing Authority will continue to develop and implement an infrastructure renewal loan program that provides efficient and affordable financing to meet critical municipal, health and housing infrastructure priorities."

The only thing "critical" or a priority in the Tunnel project is Eddie's future, not ours! Time to end this newest boondoggle.

Surely Eddie will be back home soon since it is only a one day conference. On the other hand, there is also at the same time the first-ever 3-day U.S.-Arab Cities Forum hosted also by Chicago's Mayor. I wonder if Eddie is attending that too. Perhaps he is looking for oil money as a last resort!

I am sure that Eddie will return in time for the DRIC road unveiling and to comment on the really important issue: the Spitfire's contract. It is due to be released this week too. Hmmm I wonder which will make the bigger story.

What The DRIC Announcement Means

The Sheriff did it again. Slamming Eddie although to the uninitiated, ie non-readers of this BLOG, they would not recognize that. After all, who told us 3 times about the real cost of the Greenlink road a long time ago. (Oh don't you like how Greenlink is no longer a "highway" but a "tunnel" with no specs!)

I think that I had better mark this day on the calendar. I finally agreed with something that Gord Henderson wrote in his column. Of course, as is typical with the Star, one had to read to the last line in his Column in order to find this gem:

• "It's appalling to think that Windsor's future, and the health of future generations, could be sacrificed on the grubby altar of personal ambition."

Truer words were never spoken except those words were directed right at our Mayor.

What I am terribly afraid of is that his stalling and threatening will mean that the Senior Levels will have enough and pull completely out of Windsor. There would go the thousands of infrastructure jobs needed until we can diversify our economy. Up would go the sign "Windsor Closed For Business." There would go our future and that of our children for reasons that only our Mayor knows.

Fortunately for us, that may not be a practical step that the Senior Levels can take now after all of their comments about how important the Windsor border is to the economies of Canada and the United States. However, it does not mean that they need to spend billions of dollars for a road to the border. That would be the real loss for which the Mayor would be responsible and whom we should blame.

When DRIC makes its announcement this week there is more at stake than just the road to the border. Let me talk about a number of matters that are involved.

The first one, and this is important both to taxpayers in Windsor and Detroit, is the likelihood of a Tunnel deal being brought to fruition has to be minimal. Who is going to invest in a declining asset when a DRIC road to a new border crossing is going to be built. Traffic will decline in the Tunnel even more than now. The Star Editorial today denouncing the Minister of Finance is not a smart idea when you are looking to the Province for funding in order to pay $75 million to Detroit.

Will Eddie be in town for the announcement this week? He flew off to Germany when Dwight had his pre-budget meeting. At Council last night, Eddie left early and based on a remark by Councillor Hatfield, it appeared that he might not be in attendance at the meeting next week. Moreover, he was not on the radio this morning. That is highly unusual.

I also believe that Windsor will be lucky if we get the DRIC road. I saw a story the other day that suggested that the Federal surplus may disappear and we already know the problems that the Province has with respect to money due to the downturn in manufacturing. Note well that the Province has not committed to any specific sum of money yet while the Federal Government has seemingly committed to $400 million.

The Mayor's Press Release in which he talked about the road and bridge together in one breath and the Transport Canada comment about a levy to use the speedy lane to the border suggest to me strongly that there is no money for a DRIC border road.

US DRIC has pretty much said and confirmed that traffic volumes are not growing and that the only way that the DRIC bridge will be successful is by cannibalizing traffic from the other Southwest Ontario crossings. If that is the case, there will be enough difficulty in building a DRIC bridge never mind paying for a DRIC road that is 10 times more expensive than any other road in Ontario. Interestingly DRIC has made the obvious argument that if Governments built the Greenlink road in Windsor they would have to build a similar road everywhere else. That is never going to be happen.

Once Wilbur Smith does their investment grade traffic analysis, it is clear that the traffic volume reduction will have to be disclosed by the Senior Levels. That means in my opinion that a Border Infrastructure Fund "intermediate" road will be built and a new DRIC bridge postponed until traffic picks up. Monies have been set aside for an intermediate road and the Governments will be able to get away with an at grade solution as a "temporary solution." It also means that the Governments are going to have to make a deal with the Bridge Company to allow them to move forward on their Enhancement Project or this region will absolutely suffer. The DRIC bridge again will not be built until the traffic volumes can justify it.

Just as an aside think of the financing. The Governments cannot afford to build a bridge and that is why they want to do a P3 deal. In order to do so, they have to take away traffic from the Ambassador Bridge, the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel and the Blue Watcher Bridge. Those crossings will suffer financially and in order to keep them open the Governments will have to subsidize the crossings or the tolls will have to increase so dramatically that tourists won't use them as much and the truckers' cost will have to be passed on to consumers. It is a no-win position to be in.

Of course, only one person will be blamed for all of this... our Mayor who stalled the process for years. Obviously, he is aware of that and that is why he needs this ad blitz. He has to divert attention from himself by, in my opinion, not only threatening a lawsuit against the Senior Levels but starting one. That would be catastrophic for us and would force the Senior Levels' hand. I'm sure you read this comment by David Estrin:

• "The mayor said he's made his opinion known on the DRIC positions on GreenLink to local MPPs Dwight Duncan and Sandra Pupatello, who are provincial cabinet ministers.
  
  "My comments were that this is disappointing DRIC has chosen to go this way. It's unfortunate that this information is part of their decision making."
  
  A letter was sent Monday by the city's Toronto lawyer David Estrin to Wake, expressing "significant concern" that DRIC's "unprecedented and belated attack" on Greenlink "disrespects" the city's rights under the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act (EAA).
  
  DRIC must carefully consider alternatives presented and objectively and fairly review them, he said.
  
  DRIC is raising issues on its website and making statements about GreenLink without first raising them with Windsor indicates "bad faith" and conduct contrary to what's required under the Ontario EAA, Estrin states.
  
  "Baseless content of this criticism raises a significant concern that DRIC is being pressured to reject GreenLink."
  
  Asked whether the city may legally challenge the DRIC process, Francis responded he will wait until all the information has been presented by government officials."

You know things are getting desperate for the Mayor when the Star Editorial goes right after Dwight Duncan. He has been generally left out of the discussion until now. Oh he would get the odd swipe but primarily the target was Sandra. Not now:

• "But Duncan only seemed to heed that letter's advice when it came to commenting on the city's GreenLink plan...
  
  It is hard to fathom how Duncan could have reached that firm conclusion in such a short span unless his office was involved in a process that is supposed to be free of political taint. It is also hard to see how those comments could not be perceived as Duncan taking sides on an issue he claimed he couldn't weigh in on...
  
  The finance minister was at it again Friday, defending DRIC and critiquing GreenLink after DRIC quietly issued a release offering technical criticisms of GreenLink."

It's not a very smart tactic to use with the guy who holds the purse strings. Eddie is again biting the hand that feeds to Windsor's detriment

In the end though the biggest loser will be Eddie Francis. No matter what anyone says, for all this time he's been underestimating the costs of the Greenlink road. He knew better. Can anyone take seriously anything that this Mayor has to say about the border now? What other matters is he hiding from us? His comments about quality of life ring hollow when he couldn't come clean with taxpayers.

The "grubby altar of personal ambition." The question that I've never been able to figure out is what Eddie wants out of the border matter. I can tell you from personal experience, the border was never an important matter for the Mayor when he first ran for office.

Is the Estrin lawsuit or a threat to one nothing more than an attempt to get money out of the Senior Levels to finance the Tunnel? Is this Eddie's way to get money out of the Senior Levels for Windsor for "hosting" the border road? Is this Eddie's way of trying to be successful for his next career? Is there some other objective? I wish I knew.

To be direct about it, getting money for the Tunnel deal if it made sense or getting money for Windsor or some other objective may well be commendable. If the Mayor could accomplish it, then he ought to be praised for. Why can't he come clean and tell us what his objectives are so that we can support him? As the Senior Levels learned previously with the STOPDRTP movement, there is nothing so strong as united Windsor. Why is he so afraid of citizens? I just don't get it. The ends do not justify the means as far as I'm concerned.

The tragedy with Eddie Francis when he finally leaves office and we look back at his two terms is how he squandered the support of the people of Windsor and how he failed on the border crossing. Open and transparent government... does he really understand that concept? To his dismay I am afraid, the saviours for Windsor will be his "enemies," the Bridge Company and the Senior Levels.

They will finally get it done in spite of him.

PS. For the ultimate in irony, and a 100-1 longshot, watch for the DRIC road to be killed and E C Row uploaded by the Province and upgraded with connections to Highway 401 if Eddie sues! Once that is started, the BIF road comes next. We are then back to 2002 as if all of this has been a bad dream and a total waste of effort.

Credibility

Eddie's Press Release was titled: "DRIC Changes Rules Again." Why is he complaining? They did as he asked. They changed the conversation!

Poor Eddie. It really wasn't necessary for DRIC to hire outside engineers. Eddie did it to himself. He destroyed his own credibility as no one else could on the costing issue. I wonder how he will blame himself.

How does it feel, dear reader, to be used, to be played by the Mayor and City Council for so long? How does it feel to be treated as a pawn in a game and see, what, $1 million, being spent on ad blitzes for Greenlink that will accomplish absolutely nothing. How many Library books would that amount have purchased?

I posted the DRIC response to Greenlink. The City posted its response Monday afternoon. They should have waited a little bit longer and thought about what they said. It was pathetic. Take a look at it at http://www.citywindsor.ca/NewsReleaseFinalDRICRuleChange.pdf

It looks like we Bloggers were pretty accurate in our comments about costing right from the beginning. Did Eddie really believe that he could hide about $1 billion of extra cost? In fact, my own belief is that the DRIC projections are too low considering that the shoulders have to be widened on both sides of the Schwunnels. But what is a few hundred million more between friends.

You know when someone is desperate when the first page of the City's press release does not deal with the topic. That page was just filler including the brief resumes of two experts who were not given the full information in the first place by the Greenlink team it would appear. When you go and take a look at their peer review, it does not appear that they were given the information that the Greenlink road was not the full-length to the border.

Oh by the way, to be dazzled by the experts' skills, go and read their qualifications, the pages and pages of them. Are you impressed? Their opinion is only as good however as the information that they are given in the first place.

The press release continues on an irrelevancy when it stated:

• "We note that despite repeated requests, DRIC has not provided any breakdown of their cost estimate of the Parkway, in spite of an agreement to do so. Unfortunately a detailed examination of their costing cannot be completed as they have chosen to not release this information for public scrutiny."

What has that got to do with the costing done by Eddie's experts? I am sure that the DRIC road costs are just as inaccurate as the Greenlink ones will be in the end. That is generally what happens according to our Danish professor who wrote about Megaprojects.

If Eddie and Gord are to be fair they do have to admit that the DRIC team was correct:

• "DRIC questioned the GreenLink cost estimate, suggesting the cost would be substantially higher than claimed by the GreenLink team."

The DRIC estimated number for Greenlink turned out to be $2.3 billion to $2.5 billion. That amount is up to $800 million higher than Eddie wanted us to believe. And almost exactly what Gord wrote about months ago! Such a co-incidence. The Sheriff strikes again!

The major reason for the discrepancy is that Eddie had his consultants stop right at EC Row and not go to the border. The excuse is a lame one:

• "the GreenLink team, given no information to the contrary by DRIC, and no information released by DRIC in the form of a cost estimate for the Parkway, relied on the Parkway limits that were presented in their August 2007 open house material and conceptual graphics."

Oh please, if DRIC's road costs went right to the border, then Greenlink's road costs could have given some kind of estimate so that apples could be compared with apples. But of course, that could never be done because then Greenlink would have been kicked out months ago and how could Eddie have stalled the process.

Then there is the little issue about which dollars should be used, 2007 dollars as Greenlink did to keep the costs artificially down or those of 2011 as DRIC used, the time when the project would probably start. In fact, the 15% rate used by DRIC could be too low given the experience that we've had with construction projects in Windsor rising dramatically from the date of initial estimate to the date of construction starting.

The shoulder width issue arose again in the press release. Now I don't really know who's right but if there is a need for a wider shoulder, then the costs have to increase dramatically. I decided to find out what an expert said in this matter dealing with a situation involving a tunnel in the Windsor area previously. That expert is none other than the City's expert Sam Schwartz:

• "The consultant (SCHWARTZ) criticized the DRTP for its planned feeder roads taking traffic through neighbourhoods and the safety of shoving big rigs into the tight confines of 95-year-old two-lane rail tunnel.
  
  "The biggest issue was the rail tunnel itself being used for trucks given that if a truck is perfectly centred it would only have 0.7 metre on either side," he said. "There is an unforgiving wall on either side."
  
  He described it as a "cattle-chute design."
  
  "I hate that for the crash potential," Schwartz said. "Then the only way to get a truck out is to approach from head on. It may start up again and be approaching you at 80 km/h."
  
  He said any accident or disabled vehicle in the rail tunnel would take 15 to 30 minutes to clear. In that time, 200 to 400 trucks could back up behind a stalled rig and "you never could recover the rest of the day from that."
  
  He said the DRTP offers no median or shoulders in the tunnel, while the feeder routes would cause chaos on local streets, especially in the already overburdened Dougall Avenue-E.C. Row Expressway intersection, listed as the main access point.
  
  "It would be trying to do too much at Dougall and E.C. Row -- even if they had a direct link to Highway 401," Schwartz said. "It really fails there from a safety point of view."

Gee, it looks like he wants a wider shoulder too. Just take a look at the movie that I had posted previously about the Russian tunnel that had no shoulders.

The interesting a part of the Press Release though had nothing really to do with costing. Read these two comments:

1. "it is envisioned that an international border crossing including a new bridge would include a control centre, which would act as a control centre for both the crossing and the approach road."
   
2. "Reiterating the above, an international border crossing including a new bridge location would include an operating and maintenance plan."

Those two statements seem to say as clearly as possible that the Senior Levels do not have the money to pay for the road to the Bridge. The road and bridge are lumped together. Now I know why the Province has never said how much money they would pay while the Feds have only talked about $400 million.

I assume that it is expected that the P3 investor is supposed to finance the road as well. Is that why Mark Butler talked about the Nexus/FAST Levy i.e. if you want to go across the border quickly, then you have to pay extra to do so. The investor would need to generate additional income!

That makes the investment virtually one of bankruptcy for any investor unless the Ambassador Bridge is put out of business right away.

It just gets uglier and uglier and stupider and stupider each day. The Bridge Co. people must be laughing themselves silly as the bureaucrats scramble since they are afraid to talk to them about a reasonable resolution of the border issue.

Our Mayor has completely lost his credibility as far as I'm concerned. His Greenlink proposal, like the Schwartz Report #1 and full tunneling, can be seen for what it is... nothing more than a stall tactic to put pressure on the Senior Levels to accomplish some agenda that only Eddie he knows about. Why he had to try to pull the wool over our eyes, I will never understand.

Volunteer Fights Back

If you read this Press Release closely, John Middleton is angry! He has just been removed as Chair of his Committee and he has no intention of taking it quietly.

Was he removed because he was outspoken or was there some other reason? Was he ever given a warning? Why was he not told the facts even though he has asked or was he?

Is this how unpaid volunteers on City committees are to be treated? Ask the Library Board members how they feel after the Joint meeting the other week!

As background, John has had issues with the City over his sign business and he has run unsuccessfully for Council in Ward 4.

Effectively, he accuses the City of taking away the Windsor Citizen Crime Prevention Committee's money and co-ordinator thereby jeopardizing their existence and perhaps leading to the closing down of a number of programs for citizens.

What is the truth? Follow this story closely to find out what is going on. We need to hear the City's side.

• Press Release
  
  To all media

From: John Middleton
Chair Person
Windsor Citizen Crime Prevention Committee

On April 23, 2008 at 2:30 pm I went to a meeting with John Skorobohacz, with the impression of receiving an update on a review that was taking place on The Friends of Windsor Crime Prevention, when I arrived at the meeting, I was given a letter that stated I had been removed as Chair and a member of the committee because of my actions towards city employees, I asked to see the information against me, I was told to put my request in writing, which I did and forwarded it to Mr. Skorobohacz, the Mayor and all councilors on April 23, 2008 at 7:23 pm to which I haven't received any reply as of this release.

Administration through City Council is attempting to remove me without warning, no chance to hear or defend any information brought against me. I am not an employee of the Corporation, haven't had any training on their policies. I believe they are in violation of our Terms of reference and Mandate which our committee passed and council approved, I believe only the committee can remove me as Chair and a member, and if that is their wish I will go with no problem.

The committees issues with adminastration began with council report (live link 12864) and the passing of CR 279/2007 Council passed this with the intention of seeing W.C.C.P.C.'s programs have the resources needed to provide the Citizens of Windsor with programs like, Neighborhood Watch, Block Parent, S.T.E.P. Wipe out Graffiti, Park Watch and Adopt a Mail box. Great insight on councils part.

The license department on the other hand, seen it as an opportunity to fill a vacant position in their department and use funds that were intended to help the Citizens of Windsor to prevent CRIME, Through active participation and education. E.I. Earn a bike, Safety Squad / Pride players. Since the coordinators position / Supervisor of Compliance and Enforcement has moved to licensing we the committee have had to cancel or postpone indefinitely many functions we would have normally done with our coordinator. E.I. Volunteer appreciation event @ Safety Village, Boxing Fundraiser & P.R. event, and for the first time in 15 years our Safety Squad / Pride players will likely not performing for our kids.

I have raised issues with Clerks and Finance about monies that were taken from our 2007 budget, and answers have not been reasonable in my opinion. I have raised issues with Clerks about our Terms of referance and Mandate and them removing members. In my opinion they havn't followed procedure.

I Have been a volunteer on this Committee for nearly 5 years, and I can tell you I don't like what I see, I believe it is the intention of administration to put up so many roads blocks, that we can't provide the services council has asked us to do. I will be attending the Windsor Crime Prevention meeting at city hall May 1, 2008 at 3:30 pm I will be available for questions from the media.

John Middleton
Chair Person
Windsor Citizen Crime Prevention Committee
April 28, 2008

BLOG Breakingnews: DRIC Estimates Greenlink at $2.3-2.5B

Latest shot in the DRIC/City war over Greenlink.

Isn't it remarkable that the costing number is so close to the $2.6B that Gord mentioned in his column several times about Greenlink when the City claimed Greenlink would cost $1.566 - 1.676 and then increased it to $1.77B!

Of course, we all know that the costs are not real ones since they are estimates only and given that MegaProjects run amok as the Big Dig did, the real cost will probably be much higher I am sure.

As I wrote before:

• "Eddie wants to exact a price, a big price for that consent, for being the host. How much is our Mayor looking for? Oh how about $1 billion as a starter. You think I'm kidding. How else do you explain the use of the number $2.6 billion by Gord Henderson three times in his column as to the cost of Greenlink? Just an error? I don't think so. Neither he nor his editors are that forgetful that Greenlink was priced at $1.6B. That was the the starting maximum number. Eddie intends to negotiate down from there obviously."

DRIC STUDY TEAM’S REVIEW OF GREENLINK COST ESTIMATES

The Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) study team continues to assess the City of Windsor’s GreenLink proposal using information provided by the city. Focusing on the cost estimate for GreenLink, the DRIC study team has determined that the cost for GreenLink presented in October 2007 and the revised cost presented in March 2008 do not include all expenses that are needed to deliver a safe and efficient access road to a new border crossing. When all the essential safety features and other elements are added into the GreenLink proposal, the cost for taxpayers rises significantly.

In October 2007, the GreenLink cost as presented by the City of Windsor, ranged from $1.56 to $1.67 billion. The cost presented for GreenLink in March 2008 rose to $1.77 billion. The DRIC study team assessed the October cost estimate, using available information, and found that it did not include some crucial safety features, engineering criteria and other realities that need to be factored into the development of an accurate cost estimate for the roadway. In particular, the GreenLink estimate:

• Is based on a 7.3 km highway, not the 9 to 12 km highway needed to fully connect Highway 401 to a new bridge inspection plaza. Impact on cost estimate: High;
• Does not account for inflation and is presented in 2007 dollars. A more accurate representation would have been for GreenLink costs to be inflated using a standard rate to 2011 dollars, when construction will be fully underway. Impact on cost estimate: Increases total costs by approximately 15%;
• Does not include engineering and contract administration – both necessary elements in the delivery of the roadway. Impact on cost estimate: Increases cost by 10%;
• Specifies substandard shoulder widths and a 20-year storm drainage system. These design and road safety standards are not acceptable for this important international border system and additional costs would be incurred to bring them up to Ontario standard. Potential impact on cost estimate: Medium;
• Riskier approach to construction methods that could lead to extensive delays and substantial cost overruns, particularly in regard to excavating under the Grand Marais Drain. Potential impact on cost estimate: High;
• Does not include the costs of having a tunnel control centre, which would be required to operate the additional fire, life safety and mechanical ventilations systems necessary for the GreenLink tunnels. Impact on cost estimate: Medium;
• Does not include the ongoing operating and maintenance costs associated with additional mechanical, fire and life safety requirements for GreenLink. Impact on cost estimate: Medium.

The DRIC study team prepared a cost estimate for GreenLink that includes building a full length facility, with full shoulders, appropriate drainage design, a tunnel control centre, contract administration, and with costs adjusted to 2011 dollars. The DRIC study team cost estimates of the GreenLink concept range between $2.3 and $2.5 billion.

Long And Winding Road

Sensationalist photo? Absolutely. However, it really happened in a tunnel in California 6 months ago. Imagine all of those tunnels from Highway 401 to the border with both the DRIC and Greenlink roads. Has anyone figured out the risks from going into and out of tunnels so many times in so short a distance?

20 year storms, 100 year storms...that California highway had problems when it rained! And the picture shows the consequences. Big tunnel shoulders, narrow ones...who cares what the emergency services say about that! Wouldn't it be easier for Eddie's Tunnel if it had wide shoulders in case of an emergency!

Now that we know that Greenlink is really dead---oh sure more press releases are coming to demonstrate why and a counter-offensive to reply---how does the Mayor huff and puff now and will he bring an end to the ad blitz to at least save a few taxpayer bucks? Probably not. He needs the postcards as the basis of a lawsuit. He has no other choice unless he accepts what is done and declares a victory when the DRIC road is released.

"They added Shunnels because of me," he can claim as the Star and Henderson can praise and congratulate him for standing up for Windsor. If only he could have delayed the process a bit longer, he could have used this "victory" to propel him into his third term as Mayor.

He has to have a Plan; Eddie always has a Plan. We'll see it unfolding soon.

At least DRIC was gentle on Eddie this time around. They did not put a stake right into his heart as the Feds did before. Sandra and Dwight must have told them to be more gentle with the Mayor.

DRIC at least did not retain an expert do a public report in the same manner that the Federal Government had Cansult do one on the Schwartz Horseshoe road. You remember that one... it effectively ended the Schwartz Report by demonstrating that Schwartz's proposal was not acceptable.

There is no doubt that this first press release by DRIC is the first of several, gradually escalating in intensity. This one was rather mild I thought with the issues being very technical. I'm still waiting for Sam and Eddie to send me a note on my "October 29, 2007 The 69 Questions Sam & Eddie Must Answer." They must have been too busy.

I wonder what the subject matter of the next press releases will be. I hope there is one on the terrorism threat of Sam's Schwunnels. The number and size of the Schwunnels are the real risk to the border crossing if someone wanted to disrupt traffic, not the bridge itself, as was made clear in Port Huron.

You see Eddie is going to have to form a private corporation with him as the CEO for each of the Greenlink Schwunnels. Can you imagine the Directors fees for Eddie and all the Councillors who are on the Boards.

There is no doubt but that Cliff Sutts will be concerned again:

• "For example, if there should be a terrorist act that causes extensive damage and injury to parties, it wouldn't be a burden on the taxpayers of the City of Windsor," he said."

Of course, Eddie as Mayor, based on his experience as the Chair of the Tunnel Commission, or is it the new Tunnel Corporation, will have to do is as he is told by outside counsel in this matter. Whew, he and his colleagues would be exhausted in attending so many Schwunnel meetings in one day at several hundred dollars a meeting.

I am not going to get into the technical side of this. It's the he said/she said type of war the really bores me and accomplishes little.

I was amused at how quickly Gord Henderson was able to get out his column since it was posted on Friday night. It came out almost as quickly as his column after the Mayor's State of the City speech. Obviously, it is designed to get us to think one way and to get us to react before we can think it through. It did not work before on Eddie's speech and I doubt it will work now.

I'm sure that we are supposed to take some comfort from Gord's description of the Parsons Brinckerhoff senior vice-president with all of his degrees. And to be quite concerned about the DRIC expertise. Perhaps Gord should have asked some questions of Mr. Munfah as well to give a balanced perspective to his company concerning the following:

• "$458m Big Dig settlement exempts firms from criminal charges in tunnel collapse
  January 23, 2008 By BostonGlobe Staff
  
  State and federal authorities announced a settlement of $458.2 million with the firms that designed and managed the Big Dig to avoid criminal charges and civil liability stemming from leaks, the fatal ceiling collapse, and other flaws that have plagued the project.
  
  Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, the consortium that oversaw the Big Dig design and construction, will pay $407 million, and 24 other companies will pay about $51 million, US Attorney Michael Sullivan said this afternoon at a press conference.
  
  "Massachusetts Highway and the citizens of Massachusetts entrusted Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff to act as their eyes and ears on the Central Artery Project," Sullivan said. "They grossly failed to meet their obligations and responsibilities to the citizens of Massachusetts and the United States."
  
  Approximately $415 million of the settlement money will be placed in a special trust fund and used to pay for future Big Dig costs and repairs. The settlement allows authorities to seek additional damages from Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff in the event of a major failure in the project in the future causes more than $50 million in damage.
  
  The agreement, which the Globe first reported in today’s paper, will allow Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff to avoid state criminal charges in the Interstate 90 connector tunnel collapse that killed Milena Del Valle. She died on July 10, 2006, after concrete panels weighing 26 tons fell and partially crushed the car she and her husband were riding to Logan Airport."

And do not forget how much the Big Dig was to cost at the beginning--about $3B-- and how it escalated to about $15B. Did Gord ask about that? We know that Greenlink's number is too low for a number of reasons already.

Gord's tendency of name calling is getting tedious already. Sticks and stones work better. The crack about the "former librarian" may help explain why the Library System is in such a mess due to the actions of the Mayor and Council. If one wants to talk about "petty vindictiveness," this is a prime example that is resulting in the destruction of our Library System. I cannot believe that a grudge is being held that long against the institution itself because of one man. Absolutely asinine if true.

I did like this line though:

• "Nasri Munfah ... sounded like a irritated professor going over an incompetent pupil's term paper"

The picture I had in my mind as I read this was Eddie scolding and lecturing down to his Councillors at the Council meetings. You know "Spit it Out" and all that.

Wow, we're up to 10,000 residents who have sent in postcards. The postal system has become extremely efficient if postcards can be sent out last week, returned to City Hall and counted, all to meet Gord's Friday column deadline. Have you ever seen the Postal Service and our City act that quickly before?

I guess that 10,000 responses after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in total is better than just 3,000. I wonder if the 3,000 were included in the 10,000 number. No matter, Eddie's target of 20 to 30,000 postcards received will clearly be met so that there will be political justification for the lawsuit to be started soon.

I expect when the DRIC announcement is made that it will be a very big show with lots of high priced politicos mulling around. Of course the Mayor and Council will snub it, again. On the other hand, if they had any sense of theatrics, and they don't given what is happened to the Capitol, it would be lots of fun to have them holding picket signs and marching around chanting "DRIC MUST GO" and "2-4-6-8, DRIC WE DON'T APPRECIATE." I wonder if Dwight and Sandra would shout back along with MTO's Dave Wake "THE MAYOR IS WRONG. THE MAYOR IS WRONG."

Imagine if the police were called out to keep separate the two warring chant lines. Now that is real drama for the 6 o'clock National news and the political talk shows for the weekend. That's better than the Believe Windsor-Essex project for getting Windsor in the news and cheaper too!

I was very interested in reading Eddie's remark:

• "It's really embarrassing and unfortunate that DRIC has really become a political process," Francis said. "They have really arrived at their conclusion, and they have sold the city out.
  
  "They should just come out and tell people what their final conclusions are."

It's very much like hiring a world renowned, independent expert who is going to look at the situation and come up with what makes the most sense and then finding out the following:

• "Toronto lawyer David Estrin, the city's border traffic expert, outlined a $2.2-million legal game plan for himself...
  
  A document obtained by The Star in which Estrin outlined his border "work plan and budget" shows how he originally planned to tackle the province and federal governments' "nine-point plan" -- which focused on making E.C. Row Expressway a border truck route -- and fight off proposals by the Ambassador Bridge and DRTP.
  
  He told council his hiring of a transportation planner and govern- ment/media relations expert were vital to help council achieve its objectives.
  
  The transportation expert would come up with a traffic bypass plan, he told them, while the media expert was needed to ensure council's position was well presented locally, provincially and federally, according to the document...
  
  But to fight the DRTP, Ambassador Bridge and the city's rail land use bylaw before the Ontario Municipal Board, the lawyer's fee schedule was much more elaborate...
  
  The total to fight DRTP, Ambassador Bridge and the railway lands use bylaw was $1.87 million plus GST, he told council -- bringing the overall proposed sum to $2.2 million."

To be fair, Sam at his presentation at the Cleary said that no one could force him to do anything to jeopardize his good-name and I am certain that he meant it and acted professionally. However, we read what it appears someone wanted him to be hired to do which was to arrive at a pre-determined solution. That makes the City's actions political too doesn't it?

Anyway the road fight is over except to hope that the road is actually built. I have my doubts whether this will really happen or whether we get the at-grade solution since money is drying up with both Senior Levels.

Now all we need is for the Governments to throw in the towel when they recognize that the Bridge Company has won and negotiate something proper with them so that we can get this border matter off of our table.

One last small point. Do you think that Eddie's favourite movie is "The American President" with Mike Douglas or that he just rented the video from Blockbuster. Eddie said:

• "This is a serious project that requires serious consideration"

That reminded me of what President Andrew Shepherd said in the movie:

• "We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them."

Oh well, movies/real life, who can tell the difference these days.

Blogmeister's "WE DID" Advertising Campaign

Jim, Jim, Jim...I got so teary eyed when I read your Publisher's message in the Star on Saturday.

I wanted to get your message out to my friends across the country. I wanted to send it out to them by e-mail as soon as possible. The only trouble was I couldn't find it on the Star online or on the Windsor Star Digital Edition. Frankly, I had no intention of wasting a good part of my weekend typing it all out.

Not much of a commitment there, Jim. Hard to get the message out when the message is invisible even on your own websites.

Those were tears of laughter by the way. I could not believe you were really serious.

In reading through everything that you wrote, I got goosebumps. Well actually to be honest, when I pulled out the wrapper and saw that it was tied into Eddie's full-page, coloured, taxpayer-paid Greenlink ad, I knew I had been goosed.

You see Jim you forfeited your right to tell me and others in Windsor what to do as publisher of the leading media outlet due to your newspaper acting as a cheerleader and enforcer for the failed Mayor of this City. You have not lived up to your responsibility to us, your readers.

It is all because of the Bridge Company, Jim. I know it now and so do most others. Your main Columnist gave it away, in obvious desperation, a few weeks ago by telling us what this is really all about. Just like the time when your newspaper supported DRTP. When it was clear that they had no chance, your paper dropped its support of that project. Your newspaper is now prepared no matter what to support a Mayor who promises to help beat that Bridge Company too and calls it the "enemy."

The Star changed horses in mid-stream but will still lose its bet. More importantly, you are losing your credibility with your readers. Just look at your own Forums to have that demonstrated clearly. Here's what we learned from Gord:

• "Gray understood what was at stake. An economic nationalist, he recognized that having the nation's most critical border crossing owned and operated by a private company, a foreign controlled one at that, would not be in Canada's best interests. He knew that real countries, serious countries, don't let private companies run their borders."

You have let the Mayor get away with just about everything, with the odd time to give him a slap on the wrist to pretend that you are doing your job as a newspaper, just to accomplish your newspaper's agenda.

But really, Jim, do you believe that under the leadership of this Mayor the City has gone anywhere? Was it really worth it to let this City die just so that you could achieve your agenda for a public Bridge. I would not think so since you now see the need for a "Believe Windsor Essex" project.

No, Jim, you and the others thought that you could intimidate and threaten the Bridge Company Owner into selling out cheaply and that all you needed was a bright young man to help achieve this task.

It is out and out plain Xenophobia. There is no other word to describe it. He was never going to run away. The Star of all institutions should have known that. He fought the Canadian Government and got a settlement of the lawsuits which some believe that the Government is trying to reopen using Bill C-3 rather than FIRA. It is pretty clear after the SPP meeting that the Bridge Company has won since the DRIC project was virtually ignored. Did you report that in your paper?

Isn't that the reason Jim that you have never done a major story on the Ambassador Gateway project with plenty of photographs too? The Americans can close down I-75 for 18 months and this City can't afford to have a temporary road closing at the Ambassador Bridge for repairs. Once people see what is actually being done on the other side of the river they will fully understand that no Government is so dumb as to duplicate all of that only a half a mile down the road.

You should have been promoting cooperation between the City and the Bridge Company and forcing the Mayor to do so as well, especially early on in his Mayoral career. Imagine what would have been accomplished over the last few years. Instead of stalling, wasting millions on lawyers and consultants, and threatening lawsuits, we would have had progress. The Senior Levels could never have beaten a combination of the City and the Bridge Company. I know that and so do you and that is to your newspaper's shame.

You stopped doing your job as a responsible critic and for that, you do not deserve the thanks of Windsorites nor credit for your self-promotion now.

You need a feel-good campaign Jim because the City is in the doldrums; this city is sinking fast. Your Advertising department knows it best of all. Can you imagine their bottom line but for Eddie's massive ad campaigns and those of the Development Commission. I'm sorry that you feel guilty and believe that it is necessary to repent. But it is too late to do that.

Instead of trying to do things to improve the situation, all that our City and Economic Development Commission can do is waste money on advertising blitzes. Mind you, that's pretty good for your newspaper too at a time when the economy is pretty bad and people are finding it difficult to pay for advertising. Your paper provides "the only daily venue for local, regional, and national advertising" as it so proudly points out on the Canwest newspaper website.

It's funny Jim, I spoke to one of your competitors recently in the advertising game and he said that this is the first time when the economy has turned sour that his income hasn't increased. As the economy gets worse, normally business people spend more to get customers into their business establishments. Not this time around. He said that all you need to do is to look at all the closed down buildings to understand why there is little advertising money around. But it's okay for you Jim, you got your full-page, taxpayer paid ads!

I'm troubled by your campaign Jim. I'm troubled because there is a disconnect with the reality of this region. We don't need more cheerleading and more feel-good campaigns. We need positive action to accomplish results. Do you remember Jim only a few years ago when this region had a per capita income that was the second or third highest in Canada. We did not need ad blitzes to tell us how to make us feel. We felt good about ourselves because we had money in our pockets to spend.

Don't tell us about all the good things in Windsor, Jim. We already know about them. Our problems are the lack of money since the monument to ego, the East end arena, has sucked it out of our budget, the highest unemployment rate in Canada, a high property tax rate, 86% water levy increases, low house pricing, mortgage foreclosures, no economic diversification campaign other than taking a train to Toronto, a Mayor and Council playing entrepreneur with my money without the skills required to achieve success and on and on and on until it gets too depressing to continue.

As is typical with the Star, one needs to read to the end of the story or of a message to understand the issues. You said it in exactly the same manner that I have been saying it for so long on this BLOG. Except when I say it Jim, I'm accused of being a whiner and a naysayer. But you will win awards and the thanks of the City Establishment as you promote yourself as the City's and the Region's big booster.

• "We need to get our message out that Windsor is open from business. We need to let Canada, our American neighbors and the world know that we are hungry for new business and new investment."

Open for business!!! Windsor???

Sure, Jim, thanks to our Mayor trying to chase our smartest and youngest out of town in his Jobs Today joke and making it difficult for any investor to put his money into this City, we have become the laughing stock across Canada. Tell me, and be honest about it, which other City is fighting to prevent investment of over $2 billion in Government and private enterprise infrastructure projects that would create 10 to 15,000 highpaying jobs that are desperately needed. You don't threaten lawsuits; you work with the parties to achieve a solution.

You know what Jim... if you want to help, join my campaign. It is time that your newspaper started acting like the leading media outlet and started doing its job as a responsible newspaper. It is time that you do your job as Publisher as well to clean out some of the baggage that your paper has been carrying for years. Baggage that has hurt this City.

I'm going to call my campaign the "WE DID" campaign. Here's how it goes:

• WE DID work with the County, not fight them
• WE DID work with Detroit to make our region stronger not just throw money to barge into their events to pretend it means co-operation or hold out hopes of a Tunnel deal
• WE DID work with our University to make its new Engineering Complex, regardless of where it is located, the intellectual R&D centre of the automotive industry in North America
• WE DID work with the Bridge Company to build its Enhancement Project now
• WE DID work with the Senior Levels to build a road to the Ambassador Bridge that makes sense now
• WE DID work with investors who brought us new and exciting innovative ideas in the emerging technologies while helping our existing companies new ways to prosper
• WE DID set up an Economic Development Commission that did more than just look for new brochures but actually found jobs and brought new industry to the region
• WE DID work with Governments and private enterprise to create 10 to 15,000 new jobs to tide us over until the time that we have diversified our economy
• WE DID fix our potholes and our sewers and our watermains and stopped wasting taxpayer money
• WE DID reduce taxes rather than find new ways to spend tax money on entrepreneurial dreams
• WE DID encourage people to revitalize our downtown and not just allow sprawl in the suburbs
• WE DID create trust with our citizens by ending secret, in camera meetings and create an open and transparent City government
• WE DID allow a garage to be built in Sandwich
• WE JUST DID

Do you get my drift, Jim? You see my campaign is a "past tense" campaign. It is a campaign of achievements and accomplishment of what we can easily do and can do now to make our lives better in Windsor. I want us to build on our solid foundation and stop constructing castles in the air. I want something achieved that is practical and doable and am tired of artistic renderings and theatrical performances by imported superstars who tell us to what we are "entitled."

You see Jim I like results not THINK BIG DREAMS. I guess I am kind of funny that way. If you think you might want to help out, then you know where to reach me.

Digging For A Tunnel Answer

I may as well be uncharacteristically blunt. The Tunnel deal stinks. Or maybe it does not. Who knows.

I have no idea what Detroit Council knows about the transaction but from the comments made from the other side of the river I don't think they know much.

I have no idea what the Windsor Council knows about the transaction nor the members of the Windsor Tunnel Commission.

What I do know is that the taxpayers of Windsor and Detroit have very little idea about what this transaction is. After all, it is only an asset worth several hundred million dollars if we are to believe our Mayor and an important international border crossing point that is vital to the economy of our region.

One would have thought that, if the transaction made some sense and that our politicians would become heroes over it, they would want us to know what is going on to show us how smart they were. We would be fully made aware of everything. Instead it is wrapped in secrecy and confidentiality. That makes me nervous given Eddie's deal-making ability as we have seen before! I can hardly wait to see the Spits contract.

I won't speak about the other side of the river because I don't know what is going on there but their Council seems upset. I do have a better idea what is going on on this side of the river. And I am upset as you, dear reader, should be as well.

What I do know is that this transaction was supposed to have been completed about a year ago but for whatever reason it was not. I have no real idea what the transaction was a year ago and why it could not be concluded. I assume that it has to do with financing but I would suspect that there is a lot more to it than that.

I don't know why our Mayor has to hide things from taxpayers. As you know, I have filed a complaint with respect to the March 27 Joint Windsor Council/Windsor Tunnel Commission meeting. If you look back at the BLOG I wrote, there is no doubt in my mind that the Mayor did not want people speaking at the public session with respect to the rollover. It is never mentioned in the press at all before the event and was not mentioned the day after either.

The only conclusion I can reach is that the whole process was designed to hide the transaction from the public. Why, what's to hide if the deal is a good one?

You want to see something curious? Take a look at the Council Minutes page on the City website. Try and find the Minutes for the March 27 meeting. You cannot. They are not posted. Why not, what are they hiding? They posted the Minutes for March 25 and for March 31 but they did not post the Minutes for March 27. Well, that is not quite true NOW. They were posted AFTER I asked for them.

I asked for and received a copy of the March 27 Minutes. Want to see something strange again:

Don't you find it interesting that the only two people who did not attend the meeting were non-Councillors. In other words the only truly independent members of the Windsor Tunnel Commission were not there. I know that one of them was out of town and I believe that the other one was as well.

Oh I am sure that the excuse will be given that is so hard to coordinate so many schedules that a date had to be set no matter what. If they were out of town on that date, tough luck. Yet, our Council at a Council meeting can defer matters because Councillor Jones was unable to attend at a Council meeting because of a personal emergency. I am rather surprised that the Council and Commission could not so arrange their approvals such that the outside members could be present and ask questions.

Now this is a very complicated transaction, or it could be depending on how it is structured, involving cities on both sides of the river, incorporating new companies, dealing with laws that cover both sides, sophisticated financial transactions. How much time did the meeting take: Around an hour and a half. Council spent more time on feral cats!

Oh I forgot, Councillor Gignac does not need to look at agreements in order to approve million-dollar legal and consulting bills. Councillors do not need to read agreements or are willing to do major deals without agreements as with the Arena. Did Councillors read and understand Canderel, Mady Garage, MFP? Haven't we learned anything in this City.

I have asked the Councillor to provide me with information to give me the same kind of comfort that she has but I have not yet even received the courtesy of an answer from her. I have asked the City Clerk to provide certain information and again no documentation received.

Is the reason for the denial because I know how to read these documents and can understand the transactions. Is someone afraid that I might blow the whistle on a dumb deal? That is my conclusion; you may have your own.

I do not trust this Mayor and Council to do the right thing for Windsor on this deal. It is simple as that. The secrecy makes me extremely nervous.

While I'm thrilled that the City of Detroit may do very well on this transaction and have their Budget hole plugged, what bothers me is that Windsor may well be taking unacceptable risks that we just don't know about. If that happens then who will plug Windsor's Budget hole?

More On The 400 Building Audit

It may be spring but there is a real chill in the air at City Hall these days with a number of Councillors wearing heavy sweaters, especially when audits are discussed.

Here is the note sent out by the Chair of the Audit Committee to explain what is going on. Note the key comment that I have put in bold and you will now understand former auditor Mike Dunbar's comment in the Star much better:

• "Members of City Council
  
  At its last meeting the Audit Committee requested Administration provide their final comments to the Lead Internal Auditor with respect to the 400 Building Audit Report as part of the usual audit protocols.
  
  Administration provided information last week to the Lead Internal Auditor and she immediately met with Administration. The new information provided is material and significant in nature. The City Auditors Office now needs to review and analyze this information before proceeding with the release of a final report. The Report tabled at the December 2007 Audit Committee in-camera meeting is likely to change in content considerably after the City Auditors Office completes it work plan.
  
  As a result of this finding the Audit Committee made a decision at its meeting today to defer issuing the 400 Report at this time due to the new information received from Administration by the City Auditors Office last week. There is a significant amount of audit work required to ensure the 400 Building Audit Report can be finalized. In order for the Report to be issued the City Auditors Office needs to follow normal/usual auditing protocol to ensure what is presented in the Report can be supported by fact.
  
  The Committee has not received or reviewed the new information and will not receive it until it is in Report form. This practice is usual auditing protocol.
  
  The City Auditors Office will prepare a report for the May meeting outlining the work plan and expected delivery dates.
  
  Maxwell Zalev
  
  Chair
  Audit Committee"

Interestingly, Zalev failed to mention in his note that the CAO had the initial report in his hands in December, 2006 and the Audit Committee had it in their hands in April 2007 AND NOTHING HAPPENED FOR A YEAR! I do not understand his reluctance to comment on this fact or to explain the delay. This to me is a very serious concern.

Dunbar's comment was:

• "The complete report tells the whole story -- including questions we could not get answers to -- and the public deserves to see that."

I am surprised that no one asked the question why answers were not provided in a timely fashion nor why the Chair did not provide the reason. The CAO gave the "staff changes" defence to help explain the delay but why didn't he say this before. That was part of the defence used in Fleet Operations audit too in case you forgot:

• "With respect to the statement that "the tone at the top" is not strong, I certainly concur, in that since the corporate restructuring in 2003, there have been 3 Chief Administrative Officers, 5 General Managers of Public Works, 2 Executive Directors, 3 Fleet Managers, and vacancies at the supervisory level. It is only since August 2007, that the Division has finally had a full management complement."

Previously though Councillor Marra had said:

• "We don't have a good explanation for the delay.
  
  There is no good excuse, no good response to why this has been delayed, but the reality is it has been. I think a lot of people are anxious to see the results of this."

I would ask a Councillor on the Audit Committee as an elected representative of the people to answer some questions but they have been told not to speak. Anyway, I probably could not understand them with their teeth chattering from the chill.

Obviously now, we will never see the questions not answered and we will never know if Administration acted properly or not since as Mr. Zalev said:

• "The Report tabled at the December 2007 Audit Committee in-camera meeting is likely to change in content considerably after the City Auditors Office completes it work plan."

The earlier report with the dirty linen in it that Mr. Dunbar wants us to see will never see the light of day. It will be superseded by the new one UNLESS Ms. Berry points out specifically where the problems were. I wonder if she would do that.

What the key issue is becoming is not what is in the report but what I see as the attitude of an Administration that believes that it is not subject to review unless they so allow it. Rememeber some of the observations I made with Fleet Operations:

1. "The counter-offensive is interesting however:
   
   "Mike Palanacki, executive director of operations, maintained Wednesday there remains no evidence of fraud involving the city's fuel pumps.
   
   He said the department had more documentation that was never considered regarding the city's fuel than was indicated in the audit report.
   
   "I do have issues in the way the audit was done and the report," Palanacki said."
   
   DUH, Mike, if you had all of this information, and you had the opportunity to give it to the audit group, why didn't you do so. An incorrect report would not have been issued and we would have had no headlines. Did Mike think so little of the audit group of the City that he felt that he could ignore them? Sure he had issues about the audit, so much so that he did a whole two-page letter as I referred to above."
   


2. "It is pretty clear that the City Audit department is treated as a joke, especially since it took two years for them to complete their investigation on one department covering a three-year period:
   
   "Fleet management initially restricted the information it supplied to the auditor," the report said. "In all stages we were required to request information multiple times before obtaining adequate documentation from fleet management."
   
   And even then, if what is said by Mr. Palanacki is true, they did not get complete information.
   
   
3. I'm sure that by now you would have expected that I would of taken a shot at the Mayor and his lack of management skills. Why should I, it's obvious. He is such an easy target.
   
   As the only full-time Member of Council and the chief executive officer of the municipality, it is his responsibility and duty to ensure that the organization is managed properly.

Go back a bit in time now when the 400 audit issue first burst out. There was a very strong email written by the CAO that was leaked to the media:

• "Alan Halberstadt joined his council counterpart Bill Marra Thursday to say he was unhappy with an internal e-mail issued by CAO John Skorobohacz...
  
  He said administration was being unfairly blamed by the councillors."

In that email as well, the CAO tossed in a comment about the RFP for the Integrity Commissioner as "a separate but related matter." I did not understand at the time why it was put in since it seemed so out of place. I must admit though it seemed pretty scary to me.

I thought about that email again today. I suspect that with a City Code of Conduct in place and an Integrity Commissioner around, a Councillor would have to be pretty brave to dare open his/her mouth against a staff member since it might violate the Code and could lead to significant penalties.

The Facilities group at City Hall better check if the heating and air conditioning systems are working properly at City Hall. I would hate for our elected officials to catch a bad cold.

PS. In case anyone is wondering, Dev Tyagi was the lead person who has been gathering up Management comments for the last 1 1/2 months I was told.

News, Fast And Furious

Here are more news items that you may find interesting

BUSINESS SCHOOL EXAM RESULTS

Some readers have asked what the correct answer was for the exam question that I presented the other day.

Interestingly, I am told that only one student in the entire business class got an A+ on the question. The perfect answer was to reject all of the suggested answers and to say that the entire process should be scrapped and started all over again. The conflict of interest made it impossible for the organization to demonstrate that there was no bias in the selection process.

That is called out-of-the-box thinking by that student that seems so popular in this area after the City's Strategic Planning Session of several weeks ago. Except that in our City, to think outside-of-the-box, one has to create a box first.

Irony of ironies, unfortunately for that student, while at the top of the class, no one wants to hire him/her. Apparently that person is much too ethical.

STRAIGHT AND NARROW

I guess some ad genius thought he/she was being cute. I guess the ad was designed so that border crossers would think that the Tunnel was so easy to use now with the Ambassador Gateway project being started that it was just like being on the "Highway to Heaven."

The only problem is that the "narrow" part defines the Tunnel's major problem, for commuters especially. It is only one lane in each direction. Thus if one is a Nexus commuter, if one is stuck behind a bunch of non-Nexus vehicles in the Tunnel, then one is stuck with nothing that can be done about it. That's a main reason why the Bridge Co. wants to add a lane in each direction so Nexus users will be able to go through the border more quickly.

Of course that means that the Tunnel will lose traffic won't it? No wonder Eddie is not too unhappy if nothing happens with the DRIC or Enhancement Project bridges for years, or at least until someone is foolish enough to finance his Tunnel deal!

NO MORE NEWS TIPS FOR THE LOCAL MEDIA

I am really annoyed.

I wrote this wonderful BLOG including a copy of Dan Stamper's letter that was buried in the City's Order of Business and explained its significance both with the respect to Canadian constitutional law and how it could impact personally on the Mayor and Councillors.

Did the media pick up on it? Did anyone wonder why no one mentioned it at Council during the agenda item that dealt with Sandwich? Did anyone ask the Mayor or Councillors whether they felt at risk personally? Did anyone wonder what the impact of that issue was with respect to the homes on Indian Road?

Hrrrump. Hardly a ripple. The best that I saw was the last line of the Battagello story posted online that was written right after the Council Meeting. He wrote:

• "But company president Dan Stamper has sent the city a letter indicating it is a federal entity and should be exempt from municipal rules."

I must admit when I saw this late at night I was quite excited. It was in the key spot in Star articles, right at the end so that most people wouldn't see it. I expected a massive exposé to come.

Imagine my disgust when I opened up the newspaper and saw that this line had been cut, eliminated, removed, taken away! What was the reason for this? Surely it could not have been for lack of space. Wasn't this huge challenge by the Bridge Company worth at least a mention?

Oh well, at least you, dear reader, know something that may in fact impact the border issue significantly in the future that most of the Star readers don't know. They will be surprised but you won't be.

WOW TIME PASSES QUICKLY WHEN YOU HAVE $75 MILLION TO BORROW

Now this is a BIG aside:

• "Lawyer Cliff Sutts, who is representing the city, said Tuesday that aside from financing, completion of the deal hinges on how quickly Detroit moves in responding to the most recent revisions to the draft agreement."

However, look how quickly time flies on this deal or does it mean that a cast of thousands have been working around the clock even now. Only a short time ago Mr. Sutts said:

• "Sutts said the transaction should be complete within 60 days, pending certain surveys "that are holding things up at the moment."

Now he can say:

• "I have been waiting to receive revisions they are making to a draft agreement I prepared,” he said. He described the deal as “virtually complete.”

But is this the reason for the 60 days:

• "There has been some discussion about an application with the City of Windsor and Infrastructure Ontario,” said Steve Dyck, a spokesman for the agency. “It’s at the due diligence stage — looking at information that will be required in terms of processing the application.”
  
  He said the tunnel deal would qualify under the loan program, but Windsor has not yet indicated when the application will be made."

The guidelines state:

• "The application process is estimated to take six to eight weeks from Infrastructure Ontario’s receipt of a complete application including all supporting documentation."

Poor City of Detroit....they just have wait some more to find out if Windsor and the Province will solve their Budget problems.

THE BUREAUCRATIC MIND

Here is what industry does to make the border work better:

• "(From Perrin Beatty is president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce....A small number of companies representing a significant portion of trans-border volume have voluntarily undertaken hefty costs to be designated as low-risk shippers and receive expedited crossings."

As their reward for doing so and so that their trucks can cross the border more quickly, here is how the Government proposes to thank them and incentivize others:

• "Ownership would be with the government of Canada, but you need to know how much traffic will be on the new bridge, how much tolls will be and so forth,” Butler said. The surveys given to trucking firms will gauge interest in paying an extra fee to travel in a dedicated Nexus or FAST lane that will start along the highway to the next bridge."

The Ontario Trucking Association should be thrilled with these additional costs that the Governments may be proposing. It's a nice trial balloon to see if the Association will shout and scream. If so, the proposal might be dropped since OTA is a very powerful industry group.

Obviously though, the Governments need money desperately from private investors to pay for the DRIC road...."Cheap" solution here we come. Thanks Eddie for the stalling! Now we can get the worst of all worlds and the Senior Levels will point the finger of blame right at you!

SPEAKING OF BLAME

What was the purpose of the Joint Council/Library meeting:

• "Mayor Eddie Francis and some councillors objected to being blamed for cutting funds leading to the closure."

VACATION HOME

• "Hemingway: I am getting to know the rich.
  
  Colum: I think you’ll find the only difference between the rich and other people is that the rich have more money.

What else can one say about the $14M vacation home in Arizona.

The National Post actually ran the story first. http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/234369

Here is the Arizona story http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/234369

Is Windsor Out Of Control

Tell me the truth. Do you feel as I do?

This City is out of control and there is nothing I can do about. The sad part is that there is another 2 1/2 years to go with this Mayor and Council. Thanks Dalton.

When reading the Star this morning, I did not know whether I should laugh or cry. First we have Councillor Bill Marra being told that he could not open up his mouth with respect to the Tunnel transaction and now Counselor Halberstadt:

• "Halberstadt said he could not comment since Zalev was designated as sole spokesman on the issue."

I guess these gentlemen have a very difficult dilemma as do all of their colleagues on Council. They do have a legal responsibility under the Municipal Act and yet they are being told to keep quiet because of their position on a Board or Commission. I think that Councillors have a very serious conflicts problem that they need to talk to a lawyer about immediately.

More delays for reasons that we are not given, more in camera conversations... what are we to believe? The obvious is that there's a horrific mess that took place on the 400 building that is being covered up for some reason. The CAO seems to shrug it off when he said:

• "Skorobohacz insisted city administration has nothing to hide.
  
  "People will have the perception they have," he said."

If there is nothing to hide, then why won't someone let us in on the good news. The reason for my concern is the comments attributed to the former auditor. I am very shocked that he spoke out frankly. That is not something that I would have expected. It suggests to me that there is something going on, whatever it is, that we poor taxpayers are not entitled to know about it. Why not?

It seems to me that Mr. Zalev has an obligation to tell us what is happening in much more detail or if he refuses to do so then it is the duty of the Councillors to act. They don't have the right to keep their mouths shut given their legal responsibilities.

Here's what is very interesting to me:

• "The latest delay, after the hour-long audit committee discussion Wednesday behind closed doors, is due to "substantial" new information being handed over last week by city administrators to the city's lead internal auditor...
  
  The types of information (provided by administration) are significant in terms of depth and scope...
  
  Zalev said he didn't feel the presentation of this new information was an attempt by administration to derail or delay release of the report. But he also could not answer why the new information only came forward last week."

Isn't that very similar to what happened with the Fleet Operations and was one of the complaints of the auditors? Is Administration in effect really telling the audit function to mind their own business and to stay out of their affairs? Why couldn't Administration act in a timely fashion. The initial Audit report has been out for about a year.

Is this sentence from Mr. Dunbar what this is all about"

• "The complete report tells the whole story -- including questions we could not get answers to -- and the public deserves to see that."

Do we in fact have an Administration that cannot be controlled by elected officials in Windsor? Is that what Dunbar is really telling us? Where's the Mayor in all of this since he was not shy in getting directly involved in the WUC matter by speaking directly with Provincial officials:

• "Mayor Eddie Francis said it was inappropriate for him to comment on the latest delay, given how audits and the audit committee are supposed to be independent and left alone to conduct their work."

What he should be commenting on and for which he is directly responsible since Administration reports to him is the fact that Administration only now gave out information that is "significant in terms of depth and scope." Why wasn't this done before? Why is Administration allowed with impunity to not provide relevant information to the audit function? Does he control Administration or doesn't he?

To be direct about it I would like to see the report that was issued. I would like to know what Administration has not provided. I see no reason why the Audit Committee should be allowed to continue to hide the initial report. I would expect that the two Councillors have a copy of that report and they should be forced to release it immediately by their Councillor colleagues.

Here is what is even more troubling about all of this. The Report that was presented to Council about the project claimed:

• "City council hired in 2006 its own independent consultant, who reported the building was constructed under budget and meets the city's objective of consolidating many government services under one roof."

I expect that this report was a justification for the City going alone on the East End Arena and being responsible for the project. If the Fleet Operations and 400 building audits give rise to concerns then who knows what is going on with respect to the Arena and whether it is being managed properly or not. I just do not know the answer.

Then we have the second audit story with the headline "Francis accused of political meddling." To be direct, I'm not sure that the story justifies that kind of a headline. The word "meddling" is a very highly charged one.

The complaint by Councillor Halberstadt is:

• "Halberstadt said audit-related news releases should be cleared by the committee members, with no influence from the mayor's office.
  
  "I think he was involved in the press release. I think it was based on reports in the media and a desire to clarify what was thought to be inaccurate reports.
  
  "I feel before the auditor gives out a press release where the mayor's office is involved, it should come back to the audit committee -- that's the protocol I'm looking for."

Interestingly, the Mayor's response does not specifically deal with his involvement. If he was not involved, then why didn't he say so:

• "Francis said his office had no influence over the news release. "I don't know what he is saying. The audit is independent. The lead auditor in this case reports to the audit committee and they do what they have to do. It's free of political interference."

Not influencing or interfering does not mean that he was not involved. What is the truth and who will find it out for us?

When one adds in this audit fiasco to so many things that are wrong in the City that I have no intention of outlining in this BLOG since I will just depress myself, it makes one wonder what remedy a citizen has other than being forced to pay out his/her own personal funds to start a lawsuit to get any kind of satisfaction. That is not right to ask one citizen to do that.

It really is time for the Provincial Ministry to take a look at putting in better checks and balances in the affairs of municipal governments since they are not just dealing with putting up stop signs and closing down laneways anymore. If one looks at the City of Windsor, this City with a budget of a half a billion dollars will be involved in spending billions of dollars in infrastructure alone as just one example. It is involved in significant, high-priced entrepreneurial transactions which, if they go wrong, could be disastrous for taxpayers.

I wish I knew what to do.

Investigating DRIC

One day when this is all over, with all of the investigations into the DRIC affair and the waste of $60 million of taxpayer money on both sides of the river have been completed by the proper authorities, we may find out what really has happened over the last five or six years, or perhaps even longer as I suspect, surrounding the border file.

We will find out who the players are, the real decision makers, and what their agenda actually was. It will be demonstrated that it had little to do with the Ambassador Bridge other than the Owner of the Bridge was a stumbling block who had to be eliminated for their goals to be achieved. We will discover the truth, and also the lies and the deliberate misinformation that in my opinion has categorized this file for so long.

What we will find out to our disgust is the loss of time for this region that we will never be able to recover without a great deal of difficulty and the real crime, the hardships and worry caused to so many people. And how we have become the laughing-stock of two countries.

Can you imagine how better off this region would have been, and I mean Windsor/ Essex County and Detroit, if work on the border had started years ago. We would now be near completion, we would have had the benefit of 15,000 jobs to tide us over during our economic diversification period and our region would be proclaiming that we are open for business.

The SPP Joint Statement of the Three Leaders and the NACC Report signify to me almost the end of the unhappy DRIC saga that has cost us so dearly as I Blogged. There is no doubt in my mind that certain elements of the Government of Canada, Transport Canada in particular, must have hoped that the Amigos meeting would culminate into the endorsement of their new, publicly owned, P3 bridge. Instead, Windsor was barely mentioned and lumped in with Tijuana.

Looking back over time, this is the latest of a number of events that have altered the course of this file. These events include:

• the victory of STOPDRTP and the realization by politicians at all levels that Windsorites cannot be taken for granted (It is a shame that local politicians even now seem to have forgotten that lesson)
• the 2 1/2 page Globe and Mail spread on the Ambassador Bridge that signified that the assumptions made by the bureaucrats that the Bridge Company Owner would be scared by the DRIC process and would sell out at almost any price was a gross miscalculation
• Dwight Duncan stating that "THE MAYOR IS WRONG. THE MAYOR IS WRONG" which to me meant that the gloves were off as the Senior Levels finally had had enough
• the start of the Ambassador Gateway project settled any doubts about whether the Bridge Company was going to build their Enhancement Project while the sheer scope of it made ludicrous any thought that the American Governments would duplicate it less than a mile down the road.

So the future is now rosy, correct. Windsor/Detroit will be getting a new bridge, the one that was being constructed over the last decade as the Bridge Company did what it said it was going to do. We are going to get a new road to the Bridge. And everyone will live happily ever after.

Except I'm not so sure about all that.

We will get the bridge and the Americans will be all right. Sure they still have 18 months of disruption by the Ambassador Gateway project to the Interstate system but when it is done, they will have a superb road system connecting to the border. I believe that the American side has already backed off on the new DRIC bridge because it makes no sense for them to even think about spending more money on the border crossing and disrupting the community of Delray when there is no need to do so. As the Michigan Legislators will make clear, they can spend the money for other more important purposes.

On the Canadian side, I think the situation will be very tense. As was absolutely clear from the SPP meeting, Canada is desperate to protect its position in NAFTA. I wonder if it was Ambassador Wilson who gave Prime Minister Harper the foolish advice to threaten the Americans on oil supplies if they try to renegotiate the Agreement. If it was the Ambassador, not only has he made an enemy of the Democrats by trying to influence the selection of their nominee but he has now antagonized the Republicans who aren't going to be threatened by Canada over oil embargoes.

To me, the very meek statement by Harper about Windsor means that someone made the decision to back off on our border crossing, of course stating the platitudes about it that have been made so many times over the last few years by so many politicians, because the big fight is going to be over NAFTA. The issue has now become Canada's access to the United States markets. It makes little sense for Canada to get into a fight with the US about the Ambassador Bridge, especially when the Bridge Company Owner runs the operation so well.

If the new DRIC Bridge will be tabled and the Enhancement Project put forward as the intermediate solution so that everyone can save face, what happens to the road to the border?

THIS IS WHERE EDDIE'S STALLING MAY HAVE DAMAGED WINDSOR SEVERELY!

My real fear as I have expressed for some time now is that the Senior Levels will walk away from Windsor and not do anything for the road to the border. That means that thousands of jobs that we could have had in this City will never happen because of the silly games that have been played for the last few years from the Schwartz Report #1 to full tunnelling to Greenlink. They have never had a chance of being adopted and yet we are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money and wasting years in pretending that they have a chance of success. More than that, we threatened lawsuits and may even foolishly start one.

One stall after another for what reason I still not yet been able to figure out unless it was all to do with preserving the competitive position of the Tunnel so it can be financed.

Why would the Senior Levels help out a small and unimportant town in a forgotten part of Ontario with a Mayor who shows no gratitude and who feels free to snub them publicly when they come to town? How many slaps in the face are they going to tolerate before they say enough? They have the constitutional power to do what they want as the City has already admitted. They will act if they want to.

Why would the Province build a road that is 10 times more expensive than any other road built in Ontario? It makes no sense I am sure to other members of the Government who would rather the money go to their constituencies. To be direct about it, as a Windsorite, I would rather that the Province build the at-grade road and give to the City the difference in cost between that amount and the DRIC road cost. That would total about $1 billion. I am sure that we can spend a billion in Windsor in a much better fashion than wasting it on a DRIC highway. The money given to us could be justified as our fee for being the host Community for an international road.

What about this scenario: if there is no Government bridge to be built, then why build a road at all. Let the trucks keep on going down Huron Church Road because there is no unanimity on what should be done locally. I expect that the Province would still be willing to upgrade EC Row but even that may not happen unless the County put some pressure on the Province.

The speech given by the Premier of New Brunswick put the $400 million to Windsor in the national spotlight. Just watch every other jurisdiction try and take that money away from us now, especially before a Federal Election when Harper will definitely need all the help he can get if he is to be re-elected, even with a minority Government. The comment made by Transport Canada's Mark Butler about a levy for vehicles and truckers to use Nexus/FAST lanes suggests to me that the Federal Government may not have the cash to spend more than $400 million and also suggests to me that the Province may not even have the money to spend on its initial $400 million. The days of big Government surpluses are over for the foreseeable future.

The Bridge Company has always made the border work. If in fact more truckers go on the speedy system to cross the border and the chokepoints as described in the NACC report and in the Brookings Institute report are eliminated then the border becomes virtually invisible as in Europe. No one needs another bridge if that happens and then who needs to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on another road that one can argue is no longer needed?

Do you see what I mean... we may now have in Windsor the worst of all worlds. And it would all be due to the brilliance of people who designed a business model of how the world should be and cannot react to the reality of what the world is, especially when there are changes.

There is only one solution for everyone to save face and to pretend that everybody likes each other and wants to work together. By that, I mean every level of Government on both sides of the river and the Ambassador Bridge Company.

First, everyone needs to acknowledge that traffic volumes have decreased significantly and the likelihood of them increasing dramatically as in the past is very remote. That should be easy to be accomplished because in fact US DRIC has said that in order for the new bridge to survive it must cannibalize all of the other Southwest Ontario/Southeast Michigan crossings. That then means that the Governments have to spend millions of dollars per year to subsidize those other crossings. That makes no sense.

Second, the parties must acknowledge that a new DRIC bridge is not needed at this time but that the Enhancement Project must move forward and replace the old bridge and allow the new one to add a lane of traffic so that the preapproved traffic can move through the border more quickly using the new third lane.

Third, what is being done should be called the intermediate solution so that the DRIC report can be tabled and be pulled out some time in the future when traffic volumes have grown.

Fourth, and this is the difficult part, how will traffic to get to the Enhancement Project. I have my doubts frankly that the DRIC road will be built because it is just too expensive. Assuming that it is NOT going to be built, then the at-grade road should be built and be called the "intermediate" road and be paid for using the Border Infrastructure Fund money. That is a face saving way out for everyone.

However, let's assume that the Senior Levels are still prepared to pay $1.6 billion for a road to the Enhancement Project. Eddie's only way out is on the day of the announcement of the DRIC road to declare a victory and say that DRIC has finally listened to the people of Windsor and has built a road such that he can approve what has been done. He can justify the spending of all the money on lawyers and consultants by saying that he stood strong for Windsor and the Senior Levels folded. If he wants to know how to do that properly, he should ask Jr. to set up a meeting with his father for Eddie so that he can show him how CAW does it all the time.

There is an incentive for everyone to sit down now and resolve this mess on a mutually acceptable basis and while everyone is still relatively friendly before some lose badly, especially the City of Windsor. There are heads on the block and necks on the line.

Windsor is viewed as the armpit of Ontario. Unless the border is fixed up and fixed up soon we will be given a new name. The name is what the Windsor Star photograph as the casino sign was being erected shows on the online Windsor Star. Another Jay Leno moment for this City: