Deep Throat's Crossing Shockers

The room in Downtown Windsor was full of the aroma of the smoke from a very expensive Cuban cigar.

• "I thought that you cannot smoke even in a Private Club these days," I said. "you know, the No Smoking law and all that!"
  
• 
  "This spot is my 'home away from home.' And even in Ontario, a man's home is his castle where a man is free to smoke and do as he wishes!" chortled Deep Throat. Clearly, he had prepared his response if a Health Department functionary dared interupt his usual Havana! "Well my boy, have you figured out what has been going on over the past several years in Windsor with this border stuff?"

My blank stare immediately gave him the answer without me opening my mouth. I had the Bi-national, DRIC, Mich-Can, CTC, DRTP, DCTC, DWT, TC, MDOT, FHWA, MTO all clouding my brain. There was the JMC Report, the Schwartz Report, the Estrin-Schwartz Plan, the Nine Point Plan, the Made-in-Windsor solution, the Jobs Tunnel, Tradeway, the Green Solution and Greenlink. There was Bill C-44, Bill C-3 and the Rail Lands By-law never mind Presidential Permits.

There was that look of pity on his face as Deep Throat cleared his voice. What he then told me was so unbelieveable, I am not sure that I fully understood the significance of it. I will relate it as best as I can.

Quietly in a voice that I could barely hear he said,

• "Do you remember the Schwartz Report #1? What was the strangest thing that Sam said that just didn't make any sense whatsoever to mere mortals?"

He was laughing so hard now that I thought the buttons on his vest would pop.

• "That's easy" I replied. "It was that Socialistic Mumbo-Jumbo about one for all and all for one. I never did understand why he put that in. It just seemed so totally strange:
  
  Here's what he wrote:
  
  "Balanced Traffic between Blue Water Crossing and Windsor-Detroit Crossings
  
  Developing a balanced traffic network between the Sarnia-Port Huron and Detroit-Windsor Crossings would provide benefits without a new crossing but would be compatible with any of the new crossings. Essentially it means adopting acceptable levels of service guidelines at all facilities as a goal and maintaining the goal, as best possible, through Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) measures, policies, directing trucks after they are screened and pricing strategies. It sets aside the profit-motive, which means each facility is competing for the most traffic, with a utilitarian-motive: the greatest good for the greatest number. Such a scheme may require revenue sharing among participants."

I thought back to the time I first read that an eternity ago. My first reaction upon reading it was WOW!!! What is a political statement doing in an engineering document and this kind of political statement? Set aside the profit motive, greatest good for the greatest number... there was going to be governmental control of where a truck could or could not go. It reminded me of the expression I remember reading in University in a political philosophy course "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!"

The eyes of Deep Throat opened wider.

• "Well Grasshopper," he said in that mocking tone of his "you have learned something speaking with me all this time. "

I too took the remark very seriously even though I did not know its significance. Those were the days when Eddie and the Senior Levels had been in a relatively good relationship or so it seemed. I figured that Eddie and Sam were privy to some of the thinking of the Senior Level politicians and bureaucrats.

• "And naturally, our Mayor to show how brilliant he was had to reveal all but at much too early a stage. When it happened, he could take the credit for it and say it was all part of HIS Plan" I blurted out!
  
• "Exactly correct" said a voice coming out from a cloud of smoke. "But have you ever had confirmation of this or was it just mere speculation on your part?"

I hated when he did that. Calling my bluff when I started to feel superior. There is something that I had missed and I didn't know what it was. The problem for me was he was always giving me a hint while it always was staring me right in front of my face but I couldn't see it.

I look closely at him and by this time he picked up the Windsor Star and was reading it. He had folded it just like those people who know how to fold newspapers to read in a bus or subway car or if they were a rail commuter. I looked up and saw the page of the Star that was facing me. I knew the answer. There it was, I finally saw the forest after getting rid of the trees that the Governments were planting:

• "Feds hope to lure bridge firm
  Monica Wolfson, Windsor Star, Thursday, April 17, 2008
  
  Transport Canada is conducting surveys at Windsor and Sarnia border crossings to get information on future traffic and revenue that might convince a private company to help build and operate a new bridge.
  
  Border guards started giving out surveys to motorists coming into Canada at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday and will continue the process for several months, said Mark Butler, spokesman for Transport Canada. While mail-in surveys were handed out at the Detroit-Windsor tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge, 20-second face-to-face surveys were done at the tunnel only, after drivers cleared customs...
  
  Stamper said the Detroit River International Crossing bridge isn't going to draw more traffic to the region, but instead will steal away truck business from the Ambassador Bridge, tunnel and Bluewater Bridge.
  
  "A (U.S. environmental study document) said (the DRIC) expects to take 76 per cent of the Ambassador's traffic, 26 per cent from the tunnel and 19 per cent from Bluewater," Stamper said. "That tells me the DRIC bridge is not a solution to a transportation problem, but a cannibalization of other traffic."
  
  Transport Canada will start giving out surveys at the Bluewater Bridge in Sarnia soon."

Dammit....I was right. I had guessed the answer. The surveys were being given out at the Ambassador Bridge, the Tunnel and the Blue Water Bridge. They were very detailed as well:

• "The survey asks for the time of crossing, purpose of the visit, the origin of the licence plate, the number of passengers in the vehicle and the nearest intersection or landmark of where the trip began on the U.S. side of the border. It also asks how frequently the driver travels, how the toll was paid, whether the driver is a Nexus member, when the driver anticipates returning to the U.S. and which border crossing will the driver use."

It was designed to lure a private investor alright; it was designed to lure someone to control all of the crossings in South West Ontario and not just for the DRIC bridge! They needed the information as part of their financial package that Wilbur Smith was putting together. No wonder, the Tunnel deal in Detroit was only going to happen if the Feds invested. They wanted the ownership and control over everything. No wonder they were going after the Ambassador Bridge Company so strongly.

I laughed and said to Deep Throat:

• "While they didn't say it exactly the same way, both Stamper and Transport Canada's Butler said the same thing:
  
  "it's for an investment grade study to take our traffic away and create a financial proposal for investors" was Stamper's comment.
  
  Butler said the purpose of collecting the information -- especially from trucking firms -- is to create a revenue and traffic forecast to attract a private partner to help build and operate the next bridge."

It is all being done for the private investors on Wall Street, Bay Street and for the City in London, England. A package of border crossings gift-wrapped as only the Government could do. The creation of a huge monopoly that boggled my mind. It is virtually similar in concept to the amalgamation of "the British Columbia (B.C.) Lower Mainland port authorities" by the Government. It must be the model that is proposed to be followed in SW Ontario!

So that is that I thought. I finally figured it out, mind you with a bit of help from my friend. I sat there very smugly thinking that there was nothing more for him to say until he did it again. That right eyebrow arched up as he said...

• "well, what more?"

I was flabbergasted... how could there be more? I had guessed everything hadn't I? There was the Windsor Star up again and I looked at the article more closely. I turned white. I screamed out loud

• "Are they seriously trying to destroy Windsor? Do they want to kill this border crossing by making us uncompetitive? Do they want to put us out of business? What do they have against us?

There it was plain as the nose on Deep Throat's face:

• "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."

I stuttered now and fumed, flush with anger at the broken promise of a free road with no tolls:

• "They want to make the new DRIC road a toll road! Every other road to the border does not pay a toll but now if a truck wants to cross the border, they will have to pay one if they want to use the speedy lane. The other operators cannot run their crossing as well as the Ambassador Bridge Owner so Windsor has to be penalized for his success by putting an extra fee on a trucker. Just like government, protecting the disadvantaged and taking away any incentive to succeed" I sighed.
  

Deep Throat stared right at me with his strong, piercing, deep blue eyes. He was not smiling now

• "It is NOT a "toll" my young friend. Just like a levy in Windsor is not a tax. The Federal spokesperson was speaking. Why? The Province does the roadbuilding not the Feds. So it will be called a border levy so no one can complain: "It's not a toll but a levy. We kept our word. We did not break our promise!" Of course, the two Governments will split the levy. OR perhaps it will go to the P3 investor to allow them to build the road at no cost to the Government. "
  
  "The game is up," he said. "Why do you think Anne Arquette and her marshalling yard concept with truck control software suddenly made an appearance out of the blue. After the Premier of New Brunswick asked for almost $300 million of the Federal infrastructure money, there would be no money left to pay for the extra $400 million for the DRIC road after the first $400 million was spent. As for Ontario, with the economy falling apart, they will be lucky if they can even afford to pay $400 million. What you just read was a trial balloon to see if the Ontario Trucking Association would go ballistic. if not...." as his voice drifted.

I could just picture it all now in my mind ... as I closed my eyes... a package of all the border crossings being given to one investor. That investor or perhaps someone else would build a toll road to the border. The $1.6 billion DRIC or the multibillion dollar Greenlink farce... we'll be lucky if they build a proper at grade "cheap" roadway. The only one standing in the way of this master plan was the Owner of the Ambassador Bridge. No wonder he was under attack from all angles and on both sides of the border.

When I opened my eyes again, the chair across from me was empty as if no one had ever been there except for a puff of smoke and a properly folded Windsor Star. He was gone.