More Short News Stories

So much going on about the Tunnel deal and events surrounding it that you may have missed these stories

DISRESPECTING THE PROCESS

You must remember the excuse used by the politicians not to make a decision and let the bureaucrats waste time and money--- millions of taxpayers dollars and the years that our region could not afford to wait.

• Dwight and Sandra won't meet "MPPs have indicated they do not want to meet for fear of jeopardizing the work of the Detroit River International Crossing study, a binational government process to determine the location of the next Windsor-Detroit border crossing."
  
  The study process must be respected, said Duncan. "If we attempt to influence the project decision for political reasons, it will scupper the whole thing and set us back."
  
  
• "But the federal government remains behind the binational process, said a spokeswoman for Transport Minister Jean Lapierre.
  
  "Yes, there are a lot of alternatives," Irene Marcheterre said. "We have no choice -- otherwise there will be legal challenges. I know it may look like a lot. But it will only be a short time for (a narrowed list) of alternatives to be ready by December.
  
  "We have a process and we have to respect that. It's not only in Canada, but it involves both countries. We are going to stick to the process. The next couple of months we will see whether we can speed it up. We are following it closely."


• "Local MPP Dwight Duncan (L -- Windsor-St. Clair) also remains supportive of the binational process, but admitted it is dragging on too long.
  
  "Some of these alternatives presented are straw men," Duncan said. "Many of these in my view are undesirable and will be quickly ruled out.
  
  "There is a process we have to go through. It is too long and cumbersome, but at the end of the day we should have the best alternative."
  
  Former Mayor Mike Hurst, CEO for the Detroit River Tunnel Partnership (DRTP), said there is no choice but to abide by the snail's pace of the study.
  
  "The fact is these are the rules of the game," Hurst said."

How many times have people thought that the whole DRIC process was nothing more than a project designed to justify what certain people already wanted to achieve. My view of it frankly is that the process was designed to force the Owner of the Ambassador Bridge to sell out at a cheap price so the Government could have a P3 investor build a twin bridge right beside the existing bridge as they have done in Sarnia and proposing to do in Port Erie.

Now we have proof of it. It comes from the highest levels of the Governments of Canada and Ontario: their Ministers of Finance. In a statement written in the Toronto Star dealing with a Michigan tax (why it was not published in Michigan is beyond me), the two Ministers made the following comments about the DRIC bridge:

• "There is a significant and long-standing trade partnership between Ontario and Michigan, and Canada and the United States, representing a key source of prosperity for all sides...
  
  We recognize that both our economies depend on the efficient flow of cross-border traffic. This requires that we have modern border crossings, including the construction of a new one between Windsor and Detroit. Canada is thus actively participating along with the United States, Michigan and Ontario in the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) study.
  
  Significant planning work has been completed to date and we look forward to constructing the new crossing as quickly as possible."

Of course, since the DRIC study on both sides of the river has not yet been completed, the two Ministers have completely prejudiced the study. They have already made the decision without having all the facts that a new DRIC bridge should be built. It seems for example that they have not considered that the new bridge may be in financial difficulties if built requiring government subsidies and may be unnecessary if there is not sufficient traffic that goes over it or other technology allows more vehicles to cross over the existing bridge.

You see, as I have said before, it is not that the Bridge people are so smart; it is that their opposition makes so many mistakes it makes life easy for them.

An Administrative Law lawyer will have a field day with this!

SENATOR MICHAEL FORTIER DOES THE BRIDGE COMPANY A FAVOUR

I am sorry. This is one of those "insider" BLOGs. You have to be a regular commuter at the Ambassador Bridge to understand the significance of this story:

• "Collapse of WTO talks presents challenge for Canada
  Don Cayo, Vancouver Sun
  
  
  Nobody should be surprised at the collapse of the Doha Round of World Trade Organization talks this week. Everybody should be disappointed.
  
  Everybody, that is, except the greedy farm lobbies -- Canadian dairy and poultry farmers included -- who fight ceaselessly to maintain their cushy sinecures regardless of the cost to consumers in their own countries or the devastating loss of opportunity for people in poor parts of the world. And except for the legions of bureaucrats who jet around the world on expense accounts for endless rounds of talks that can be counted on to yield still more trips when they fail.
  
  Canada's reaction -- we'll now focus on new bilateral deals instead of a global pact, according to federal Trade Minister Michael Fortier -- may be the best that can be salvaged from this seven-year-long exercise in futility. But this is a weak second-best result compared to what a breakthrough would have meant."

AGREEING WITH GRIDLOCK SAM

If Sam had only said this in Windsor instead of talking about a Horseshoe road, full tunneling and Greenlink, we would have had a border solution, a new road to the Ambassador Bridge and the Enhancement Project almost completed! Instead, nothing has been accomplished.

Here is what Sam said:

• "...simplexity -- the idea that simple things can be surprisingly complex, and complex things can be deceptively simple. This growing field of study reveals that all manner of phenomena -- epidemics, traffic, even politics -- move through tiny choke points, seemingly inconsequential junction boxes that may shape the very direction of history...
  
  The most powerful of the simplexity concepts, however, is choke points -- the keyholes in complex systems that can sometimes shut them down entirely. The London cholera epidemic of 1854, which could have claimed thousands of lives, was stopped cold when physician John Snow traced the contagion to a single contaminated water pump on Broad Street. The complex epidemic collided with the simple fix of shutting down the pump, and the simple fix won.
  
  The streets of New York City are nothing if not a web of choke points. New York urban planner Sam Schwartz likes to point out that although about 1 million cars enter and leave Manhattan every day, only about 8,000 are in use in Midtown at any one moment. It takes just a few hundred extra cars to gridlock the 8,000, and the 8,000 in turn bring the 1 million to a halt."

In other words, problems at Customs which means truck clearance is slowed down results in backups on Huron Church Road. Putting it another way, all it takes is adding say, four new truck booths, and the backups on Huron Church Road disappear at the US Customs choke point.

There is no need to spend multi-billions of dollars on a new crossing.

SURVEY SAID

The Mayor did not have to spend all those months making up a questionnaire for commuters. Here is the answer he needed:

• "The Rhoads said they expect a few friends to follow their lead in the next few years.
  
  "I don't want to say anything bad about (Mayor) Eddie Francis," said Jayne. "But his plan to fly people back and forth who go out West for work is not very practical ... I know, my family has done it."
  
  Francis was not available for comment on how he plans to persuade people like the Rhoads to keep their roots in Windsor.
  
  It hurts to leave their hometown, but the Rhoads have seen the writing on the wall.
  
  "We have aspirations we can accomplish out west," said Jayne. "Long term we may end up back here. But we'll establish a home base out there and so will our sons -- so we'll have to wait and see what happens."

AN EVEN QUICKER GETAWAY

While Eddie is chasing onion deals in Frankfurt, his nearby airport competition is not standing still:

• "New $431-million terminal adds pizzazz to Detroit Metro Airport
  Bold design is far cry from shabby Berry and Smith
  BY ELLEN CREAGER • FREE PRESS TRAVEL WRITER • August 2, 2008
  
  The walls are bright blue and gray. The glass lets in lots of light.
  
  In a summer of bad news for travelers, there's one major bright spot for Detroit.
  
  The new $431-million North Terminal is expected to open Sept. 17, right on schedule, at Detroit Metro Airport, ending the era of the shabby Smith and Berry terminals.
  
  "With the McNamara and North terminals, we now have two beautiful front doors for anyone arriving in our region by air," Michael Conway, Metro Airport spokesman, said as the Free Press got a sneak-peek tour Friday. "