Here is an interview with the Mayor on CTV. I had it transcribed because it annoyed me so much.
I thought you might be interested in it too, dear reader. Watch and listen to it or read the transcript for yourself and see how you feel about what he said. My comments are included.
ANNOUNCER: Windsor, Ontario suffered more than any other city, as we see in this latest report, losing more jobs than any other city in the country. And joining us now is the Mayor of Windsor, Eddie Francis. Mayor, pretty tough times. Can you give us kind of a thumbnail sketch of what’s going on in your city? What has happened? Have people lost hope? Are people leaving town? How’s everyone coping with all this?
[Not a very good image for our City when we are trying to attract people to come here. Lost hope, leaving, coping...it sounds like we are suicidal here!]
MAYOR FRANCIS: Well it’s good to be with you. I think it’s important to recognize that this is not something that just happened overnight. For the past several years, the city has been struggling to meet the challenge of the decline in manufacturing. And with manufacturing declining and with automotive plants and parts suppliers closing, it’s had a significant impact. So for the past several years, we’ve had to be dealing with a very high, if not the highest unemployment rate in Canada.
[It is not as if this just happened or was cyclical as Eddie once claimed. What bothers me so much is that we knew there were big problems coming and we did NOTHING to try to diverisfy when times were good. Now, we are desperate because of our dependence on the auto industry and yet we are fighting private enterprise and the Governments who want to invest billions here. And why, for what reason? Please, I do not want to hear the dying and health and kids BS that has been and will be spewed for months out of City Hall.]
And obviously we’ve undergone and begun to undergo our transition, diversifying our economy. Parts suppliers that were once a hundred percent supplying the automotive industry have now taken their products to the aerospace industry.
[Aerospace....is he kidding! I have written about this before. Go on the WEDC website and see who is involved in aerospace in Windsor.]
Workers that were on the lines producing minivans and producing cars for GM and Ford, are now back in the university, back in the college updating their skills.
[True. Enrolment at St. Clair is very high.
I thought you might be interested in it too, dear reader. Watch and listen to it or read the transcript for yourself and see how you feel about what he said. My comments are included.
ANNOUNCER: Windsor, Ontario suffered more than any other city, as we see in this latest report, losing more jobs than any other city in the country. And joining us now is the Mayor of Windsor, Eddie Francis. Mayor, pretty tough times. Can you give us kind of a thumbnail sketch of what’s going on in your city? What has happened? Have people lost hope? Are people leaving town? How’s everyone coping with all this?
[Not a very good image for our City when we are trying to attract people to come here. Lost hope, leaving, coping...it sounds like we are suicidal here!]
MAYOR FRANCIS: Well it’s good to be with you. I think it’s important to recognize that this is not something that just happened overnight. For the past several years, the city has been struggling to meet the challenge of the decline in manufacturing. And with manufacturing declining and with automotive plants and parts suppliers closing, it’s had a significant impact. So for the past several years, we’ve had to be dealing with a very high, if not the highest unemployment rate in Canada.
[It is not as if this just happened or was cyclical as Eddie once claimed. What bothers me so much is that we knew there were big problems coming and we did NOTHING to try to diverisfy when times were good. Now, we are desperate because of our dependence on the auto industry and yet we are fighting private enterprise and the Governments who want to invest billions here. And why, for what reason? Please, I do not want to hear the dying and health and kids BS that has been and will be spewed for months out of City Hall.]
And obviously we’ve undergone and begun to undergo our transition, diversifying our economy. Parts suppliers that were once a hundred percent supplying the automotive industry have now taken their products to the aerospace industry.
[Aerospace....is he kidding! I have written about this before. Go on the WEDC website and see who is involved in aerospace in Windsor.]
Workers that were on the lines producing minivans and producing cars for GM and Ford, are now back in the university, back in the college updating their skills.
[True. Enrolment at St. Clair is very high.
- "The economic downturn gets the credit for a huge increase in enrollment at St. Clair College. Student registration has jumped nearly 24% over last year. College spokesperson, Anne Hetherington, says many of those enrolled have been laid off and are re-training for a career in a different field.
Once they graduate though, where will the people work in Windsor]
Other sectors of our economy, the tourism sector, has tried to pick up with a new $500 million Caesars Casino Convention Centre and Entertainment Centre. Those new, those new facilities, a new engineering school, all of those new facilities were signs of a transition. However, despite the best efforts, the recent economic crisis has compounded the issue, and like every other city we’re trying to deal with it as best as we can.
[Tourist volumes are down by huge numbers given the gigantic drop in car traffic and bus numbers. The Engineering School....you know how critical I am of his role in that fiasco. He is taking credit now for a project that he tried to hurt.]
ANNOUNCER: Mm-hmm. As you say, your troubles began a long time ago with the downturn in the auto industry. Give us some idea of how big a hole the downturn blew in your city.
[Rub it in talking about how long we have been in trouble and our civic leaders have not dealt with the propblem]
MAYOR FRANCIS: Well historically, the City of Windsor, because of our dependence on manufacturing and because of our location as a border city and our deep roots to the big three, historically we’ve been known and described as the first city in and the first city out. So as a result, for the past three years we’ve lost a significant amount of jobs up to 20,000 jobs in the automotive manufacturing parts supplier industry. And to describe what that means to the rest of the economy it’s important to understand and accept the fact that each automotive job, each automotive pay cheque creates and has a direct benefit or indirect benefit to seven and a half other jobs. So when that automotive worker loses their pay cheque, it affects daycares, it affects the mom and pop operations, it affects retail and it creates this crisis of confidence and certainly made no easier with the past several months and the discussion with regards to loan guarantees for the big three. All of that I think is now shaping to, shaping the discussion both in Ontario and across Canada and that is that our economy is in trouble and it is affecting the behaviour of individuals and the spending power of individuals.
[It's ok though. Eddie sent a letter to the PM and got a personal 10 minute phone call back. Too bad that he had to miss the Premier's visit and did not appear at the pre-Budget meeting held by the Minister of Finance. We lost 20,000 jobs. Too bad that Eddie has to "irritate" the Senior Levels and the Bridge Company rather than negotiate with them because that is the number of jobs we would get back if the border projects are started. We would have a real safety net as we transitioned to our new economy.
Unfortunately, Eddie needs a few more weeks to harangue us over the health issues and stop homes being demolished on Indian Road. Those are his priorities.]
ANNOUNCER: Speak to us a little bit, when you say about the behavior of individuals. You know one of the great tragedies in the Atlantic Region for many years was that young people, if you wanted to get ahead, if you wanted a job, if you wanted to start a career, many people felt they had to leave their homes, go some place else to get established. Are you getting that sense now that maybe you’re about to lose your young people?
[Now we are compared with the Maritimes. It's to bad that the announcer did not ask if our young people were "Going down the road!"]
MAYOR FRANCIS: I think for the past couple of years when we were the only city going through the difficult challenge and the economic challenges that we were facing, that was a reality that we were facing. Fortunately for us we have a great university, a great college that has done and picked up the slack in terms of keeping them here and now when the young individuals in our community are looking to other opportunities across Canada and they find that other cities are experiencing the same thing that we’re experiencing, they’re realizing that the best place for them is here at home where the cost of living is affordable, cost of transportation’s affordable and there are more opportunities for them being located here as a border city.
[Pathetic.
Only recently, Eddie was taking credit for setting up the system to allow people to commute out West (even though his assistant said that they were just at the beginning after so many months of inaction). Clearly, Francis did nothing on this project, dumb as it was in the first place. Another example of our Mayor merely talking and burying his head in the sand and hoping it all works itself ut because he is incapable of dealing with the situation. Can you imagine if someone relied on him to set up this program how they would feel now.
Disgraceful.]
Having said all that, the crisis of confidence is something that you see across Canada and across the United States. And that’s why you have governments in Ottawa and Washington and across the world looking at ways to stimulate the economy. Looking at ways to put dollars into the economy so as to put more money into the hands of people so that they [silence]….
[Not even the CTV lines could take any more of this. I know exactly how the transmission lines felt after listening to Eddie.]
ANNOUNCER: Well, very sorry about that. That was the Mayor of Windsor, Eddie Francis. We just apparently lost the line. That was not tape, the line freezes up like that. Anyway, Mr. Mayor, Eddie Francis, good luck in Windsor Sir, and we appreciate your taking the time to speak to us today.
[Tourist volumes are down by huge numbers given the gigantic drop in car traffic and bus numbers. The Engineering School....you know how critical I am of his role in that fiasco. He is taking credit now for a project that he tried to hurt.]
ANNOUNCER: Mm-hmm. As you say, your troubles began a long time ago with the downturn in the auto industry. Give us some idea of how big a hole the downturn blew in your city.
[Rub it in talking about how long we have been in trouble and our civic leaders have not dealt with the propblem]
MAYOR FRANCIS: Well historically, the City of Windsor, because of our dependence on manufacturing and because of our location as a border city and our deep roots to the big three, historically we’ve been known and described as the first city in and the first city out. So as a result, for the past three years we’ve lost a significant amount of jobs up to 20,000 jobs in the automotive manufacturing parts supplier industry. And to describe what that means to the rest of the economy it’s important to understand and accept the fact that each automotive job, each automotive pay cheque creates and has a direct benefit or indirect benefit to seven and a half other jobs. So when that automotive worker loses their pay cheque, it affects daycares, it affects the mom and pop operations, it affects retail and it creates this crisis of confidence and certainly made no easier with the past several months and the discussion with regards to loan guarantees for the big three. All of that I think is now shaping to, shaping the discussion both in Ontario and across Canada and that is that our economy is in trouble and it is affecting the behaviour of individuals and the spending power of individuals.
[It's ok though. Eddie sent a letter to the PM and got a personal 10 minute phone call back. Too bad that he had to miss the Premier's visit and did not appear at the pre-Budget meeting held by the Minister of Finance. We lost 20,000 jobs. Too bad that Eddie has to "irritate" the Senior Levels and the Bridge Company rather than negotiate with them because that is the number of jobs we would get back if the border projects are started. We would have a real safety net as we transitioned to our new economy.
Unfortunately, Eddie needs a few more weeks to harangue us over the health issues and stop homes being demolished on Indian Road. Those are his priorities.]
ANNOUNCER: Speak to us a little bit, when you say about the behavior of individuals. You know one of the great tragedies in the Atlantic Region for many years was that young people, if you wanted to get ahead, if you wanted a job, if you wanted to start a career, many people felt they had to leave their homes, go some place else to get established. Are you getting that sense now that maybe you’re about to lose your young people?
[Now we are compared with the Maritimes. It's to bad that the announcer did not ask if our young people were "Going down the road!"]
MAYOR FRANCIS: I think for the past couple of years when we were the only city going through the difficult challenge and the economic challenges that we were facing, that was a reality that we were facing. Fortunately for us we have a great university, a great college that has done and picked up the slack in terms of keeping them here and now when the young individuals in our community are looking to other opportunities across Canada and they find that other cities are experiencing the same thing that we’re experiencing, they’re realizing that the best place for them is here at home where the cost of living is affordable, cost of transportation’s affordable and there are more opportunities for them being located here as a border city.
[Pathetic.
Only recently, Eddie was taking credit for setting up the system to allow people to commute out West (even though his assistant said that they were just at the beginning after so many months of inaction). Clearly, Francis did nothing on this project, dumb as it was in the first place. Another example of our Mayor merely talking and burying his head in the sand and hoping it all works itself ut because he is incapable of dealing with the situation. Can you imagine if someone relied on him to set up this program how they would feel now.
Disgraceful.]
Having said all that, the crisis of confidence is something that you see across Canada and across the United States. And that’s why you have governments in Ottawa and Washington and across the world looking at ways to stimulate the economy. Looking at ways to put dollars into the economy so as to put more money into the hands of people so that they [silence]….
[Not even the CTV lines could take any more of this. I know exactly how the transmission lines felt after listening to Eddie.]
ANNOUNCER: Well, very sorry about that. That was the Mayor of Windsor, Eddie Francis. We just apparently lost the line. That was not tape, the line freezes up like that. Anyway, Mr. Mayor, Eddie Francis, good luck in Windsor Sir, and we appreciate your taking the time to speak to us today.
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