And all this time I thought the Mayor and Council were concerned about the quality of life of Windsorites. Piffle!
It has absolutely nothing to do with whatever it is that Eddie's legal Dream Team was talking about at Council. It has nothing to do with the area of mass destruction around the DRIC Road. It has nothing to do with tunnels or Schwunnels.
If Eddie can say this at a media scrum, then someone needs to ask him what his multimillion dollar opposition to the DRIC Road is and why he is stalling. It is absolutely clear from his comment that he and Council are prepared to back off from their Greenlink position provided that they are given certain things now:
- "Let me be very clear as it relates to the local commentary that has been expressed as it relates to construction and jobs. City council and the city of Windsor and myself would be the first to stand in support of this project if the province of Ontario guarantees 20,000 jobs will be in this community at the beginning of 2009."
Wait a minute. There is no concern about air quality here. No concern about residents' health. No concern that the DRIC Road does not link communities. No concerns at all.
As the joke goes, DRIC now knows what Eddie and Council are. They are just negotiating over price.
If I offered you the opportunity to discuss business with our Young Entrepreneur of the Year, the Mayor of Windsor, or a person who is ranked #321 on the Forbes list of the 400 richest billionaires in America, which would you choose?
The answer I would have thought is self-evident.
If you were to follow the advice of these two people as to what you should do in this time of economic distress, which one would you choose?
Again, the answer I would have thought is obvious.
You probably thought that the person to whom I was referring was Matty Moroun of the Ambassador Bridge Company. While that was his ranking, he actually tied with another person in Detroit, Roger Penske.
Here is what Roger Penske did in Detroit:
- “Detroit Grand Prix group understands cancellation
A group of about 100 Detroit Grand Prix Association volunteers gathered Thursday night at Rumors on the River on East Jefferson for its annual Christmas party.
On everyone's lips was the cancelation of the 2009 Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, which had leaked out a few hours earlier.
No rumor -- just plain, cold facts. With the Motor City suffering from an economy in crisis, organizers of the race thought they could not, in good faith, stage the event scheduled for Labor Day weekend.
Roger Penske, the force behind the return of the GP to Belle Isle in 2007, pulled the plug -- with the understanding of the Detroit city officials, event sponsors and the Indy Racing League, the race's sanctioning body.
Merrill Cain attended the Christmas function. Cain, who has run the GP's public relations efforts from his office at the Renaissance Center, wasn't putting a spin on the night's mood. He was bitterly disappointed, like everyone, but he understood the necessity of cancelling the race.
"With a lot of folks in Michigan hurting, it just wasn't right to stage the event," Cain said. "We all had a few beers and talked about it. Everybody wants this race to come back. But we knew it wasn't a good situation to go ahead next year with it."
Even with Washington coming to the aid of Detroit automakers Friday, the decision to cancel the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix is a good one.
The Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau reports last year's event generated $55 million in economic impact for metropolitan Detroit and another $12.8 million in direct spending in Detroit and the surrounding tri-county area. But to expect the public to shelve out that kind of money for the 2009 event in such economically challenging times would have been foolish and arrogant.”
Although it has not been announced, the information I have received, and it is posted on another BLOG in Windsor, is that our Mayor has been successful in bringing Red Bull back to Windsor. While congratulations are in order for him to do so, one wonders why he has not yet publicized it.
Could it be that the Mayor is out there looking for Sponsorship money in the amount of several million dollars and is having difficulty collecting it. After all, this is Windsor, not Detroit, which ran the event last time. With these tough economic times, I expect that our Mayor will have great difficulty in convincing businesses to provide that kind of money for a frivolity when they are hurting financially because of the distressed economy.
The auto companies certainly will not be able to help since they would be slammed by the Government officials in Washington, Ottawa and Toronto who have just given them bridge loans. If the United Way goals have dropped from from $9.3 million in 2001 to $6.5 million in 2008, I would think that any business that contributed to an air race might be criticized for not donating that money to a charity instead.
If the Windsor International Air Show was given such a hard time because of “process” for a $10,000 City sponsorship, does anyone believe that Councillors have the nerve to commit $3 million to the Red Bull race? I’m sure they would not be so foolish as to take out this money from the reserves or the Budget stabilization fund or somehow offset it from the $20 million that the City will be receiving from the Province. Surely, the Council would not claim that they are using part of the $4 million for the Arena that was received from the Province for this.
I would doubt that Eddie would try and run the Sponsorship through the Visitors’ Bureau or the Airport or even the Development Commission since these organizations don’t have that kind of money.
I would think that perhaps the Senior Levels might be the only reasonable source of money considering that former Senator Fortier seemed to be able to gather government money to try to save the Montreal Grand Prix. However, considering the number of snubs, I would think that this source of money would be dried up for anything to do with Windsor.
I would think that our Mayor should perhaps contact his friend Roger and ask for a copy of the news release that he sent out with respect to the Grand Prix not being run this year. If Eddie has any sense what he will do is tell us all that he was successful in bringing back the Red Bull Air Race so that he can be our big hero but that he has decided that it is not the time to run this race in this City this year with all of our economic difficulties. In this way, he shows some empathy for his fellow citizens.
He wins both ways if he does this. However, I don’t think he’s capable of doing so. He had the chance to do so on Face-to-Face but did not. Who knows, I might be surprised.
IT'S ALIVE. IT'S ALIVE
If the hint given in the Henderson column some time ago that he might be retiring is true, then if I was the Mayor, I would try and hire him either full time or on a retainer basis to be my Communications guru. I am sure that he would not charge the quarter of a million dollars that the Mayor wanted to spend for a PR Group but even if he did, he would be worth the price to the Mayor.
Who else but Gord could almost make me feel guilty about not demanding that my tax money be used for the Francis/Cooke “pie-in-the-sky” canal scheme. I almost was made to feel that I would be characterized as a "detractor" if I did not go along with building this project that will revitalize our downtown so that "visitors [could go] home with fond memories and great impressions to pass on to friends and relatives." Just like the almost $1 million spent on fixing up our entranceways, but for the weeds, that visitors would see as they whizzed down Dougall and other avenues.
Yes, let's spend money for visitors and forget about those sewer backups and potholes.
Obviously, the Mayor did not want to announce the results of the Cooke study at this time because he literally would be laughed out of town if he dared try to suggest that it move forward. I have heard from a person who is very close to City Hall that the Report had been completed sometime ago and that in fact it came in under the outrageous $60 million cost that had been floated. But then again, they should have floated $100 million so that the “savings” would have been so much more spectacular.
However, we learned in the Henderson column that the Report that should have been out by now will be out in February. What a nice Valentines Day present for us
- “Things are coming along. I'm still hopeful it will happen," said Cooke, explaining that the engineering feasibility study, conducted by Landmark Engineering of Windsor, is 95 per cent complete and the economic feasibility study, by UrbanMetrics Inc. of Toronto, should be finished by the end of February.”
There was a mention in the Henderson column of a new company. In case you are wondering who Pristine Power Inc. is, they are the people who are proposing
- “84 MW natural gas-fired cogeneration facility using modern technology to generate reliable clean power for over 80,000 homes in the Windsor area and steam for Ford's Windsor operations. The project will encompass approximately 1.5 acres of industrial land, located adjacent to the existing Ford powerhouse and will be equipped with modern emission controls to meet all federal and provinical air quality standards.”
If it was not for those silly landlords who delayed by a month the setting up of the Town & Gown committee since they thought that the City was trying to force them out of business, I am sure that the Report would have been out a lot sooner. It would not surprise me if the Report suggested that the focus of the canal vision could be buildings constructed by the University and St. Clair College along with student housing. However, there I am being cynical again.
It is so much easier for Gord to write about “vision for a downtown renaissance,” “the dream of a Little Venice,” “pie-in-the-sky schemes,” and “eye candy.” Why I bet he can do it almost with his eyes closed after he has supported so many of Eddie’s other dreams.
Gord asks
- “Is the dream still alive? Even in these hard times? You bet it is.”
Yes, so much easier than doing one column about the 400 Building audit and the joke that it has become.
REASSURANCE
Wow, is our Mayor ever lucky that Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a personal phone call to him about the letter that he sent with respect to the automobile industry. Just take a look at this Reuters update:
- UPDATE 3-Canada auto plan expected to be unveiled Saturday
Fri Dec 19, 2008 5:50pm GMT
(Adds comments by mayor of Windsor, Ontario)
By John McCrank
TORONTO, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will unveil an aid package for Canada's auto industry on Saturday, responding to Washington's move to provide U.S.-based automakers with $17.4 billion in emergency funding…
The spokesman declined to give more details of what Harper would announce on Saturday. The prime minister will appear with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.
Eddie Francis, mayor of Windsor, Ontario, across the border from Detroit, said he spoke to Harper last Friday about the crisis in the auto industry.
"He left me with the impression that they were on top of it and I walked away very reassured that they understood the significance of this industry to the economy," he said.
About 45,000 jobs in Windsor are tied directly to the auto industry.
"Our lifeline is extended today -- we are not out of the woods yet -- but what it means is that this industry has bought 90 days and our communities have bought 90 days," he said."
What a slap in the face to the Prime Minister however. I thought that the Federal Government and the Mayor were on good terms. The best that the PM could do was to leave Eddie with the “impression” that he knew what he was doing rather than Harper actually knowing what he was doing.
I will bet that Stephen and Dalton are so reassured that our Mayor is reassured. At least for 90 days after which the canal vision will come out to make us feel so much better. Isn’t that reassuring for us all too.
NOW AND THEN
- Reuters:
"Ken Lewenza, president of the Canadian Auto Workers union, lauded the U.S. package, but criticized concessions included in the deal that could lower wages and benefits, saying they weakened his own position in bargaining for a Canadian package.
Lewenza has resisted the idea of wage and benefit cuts, but he said the union would find a way to work with the provincial and federal governments to find a solution.
"I never said (concessions) were a nonstarter," he said." - National Post/Windsor Star:
"CAW offers no breaks for auto bailout
'We've suffered'
Nicolas Van Praet, National Post, Published: Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Canadian Auto Workers union president Ken Lewenza yesterday rejected calls for his members to make concessions as part of any taxpayer-funded rescue of Detroit's car manufacturers, saying labour did not create the crisis now threatening General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC with collapse.
His comments came as U. S. senators began debating the merits of a US$25-billion emergency loans package for Detroit. The White House said the deal does not have sufficient political support to succeed.
In Ottawa, a senior government official said Stephen Harper's Conservative government has not made any decision on offering parallel aid.
"We don't see this as us being the problem," Mr. Lewenza said, adding he would "absolutely not" accept any further cuts after losing tens of thousands of jobs in recent years. "We've suffered our share of pain."
WINDSOR IS TRIVIAL
All of a sudden, I have seen a couple of news stories where facts about Windsor are the subject matter of a quiz. Perhaps that would is what we should do, name a game after the City so that we would get worldwide attention. How about "THINK BIG Pursuit" or "The Entitlement Game."
Here are the quizzes:
TORONTO SUN
16. Dwight Duncan, who represents Windsor-Tecumseh, asks: Which of the following facts is NOT true about Windsor?
a) The first urban settlement in what is now the City of Windsor was named Sandwich in 1797.
b) Windsor was the final terminus of the Underground Railroad.
c) The child-resistant, push-'n-turn caps on medicine bottles that are now accepted worldwide by the pharmaceutical industry were invented by a doctor and pharmacist from Windsor.
d) The Windsor/Detroit Tunnel is the longest underwater international vehicle tunnel in the world.
e) Windsor is often lovingly referred to as the "Rose City."
Answer is (d) The Chunnel, that connects the U.K. and France, has the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
3. If you're in Windsor, Ontario, but would rather be in Detroit, which direction should you head?
HOLISTIC MEDICINE
- "With these measures taken together, Canada is following a holistic approach that will benefit the entire supply chain,” said the Prime Minister."
GREENLINK PRIZE
I had one further thought with respect to Gord's column about the big prize that Sam won.
Which Greenlink proposal was submitted? Was it the first Greenlink, the Son of Greenlink or, if Eddie decides to do another version, would it be Greenlink: The Next Generation.
Don't you think it would be rather awkward for Eddie and Sam to stand up at the podium and receive an award for a project that they have junked?
D.I.R.T.
I really would like to be able to say that the DRTP's DIRT project---Detroit International Rail Tunnel---or was it DRRT, made sense but I cannot yet.
Sure, a whole bunch of people apparently liked it but then again, many of them also thought DRTP's truck tunnel was a great idea and you know what happened to it!
The Detroit Regional Chamber supports the proposal. Yet I wondered how they could do so considering they had all of these concerns:
- Approvals/Permits Required: DRTP has stated that roughly 60 permits must be obtained before they can proceed with construction of the project; To-date, DRTP has not applied for or obtained any of these permits.
- EIS: An Environmental Impact Analysis of the project has not been conducted to-date.
- Cost-Benefit Analysis: A detailed cost-benefit analysis of the project has not been made available to support the project benefits outlined in the rail tunnel proposal.
- Additional Information Required
In order for the Chamber and other interested organizations to conduct a comprehensive review and analysis of the DRTP’s proposal, the following additional information would be required:
- Detailed information regarding plans for the design, construction, proposed alignment highway and rail access and egress, etc. for the proposed new high clearance rail tunnel.
- Updated planning data and statistics that document the demand for additional rail capacity in the Detroit-Windsor corridor. Similar data which documents the projected future increase in intermodal freight traffic in the nation.
- Statistics from MDOT on rail traffic volume in Michigan indicating that the majority of Canadian Pacific (CP) rail traffic is pass-through from Toronto to Chicago via Detroit at their Oak Yard facility.
- A potential area of concern is spin-off development. Historical planning data indicates that spin-off development typically occurs not where the tunnel traffic flows, but where the freight is actually handled and processed, i.e. at intermodal freight facilities.
- What information and data are available to document the cost-benefits to the region of this project – i.e. new economic activity or the generation of new jobs?
- Specifically, how will the local business community and industry benefit from the tunnel project, and who are potential customers?
- How will this project impact current plans for development of the Detroit Intermodal Freight Terminal (DIFT), and what is being done to coordinate those plans with MDOT?
- How will this project impact the environment and local transportation infrastructure in the region, i.e. adjourning streets and roads?
- What other state and local planning agencies are you working with to obtain support for the project, i.e. Corps of Engineers, SEMCOG, etc.?
- What approvals or permits are required for CP to move forward with this proposal?
- What municipal or other political support is required to move forward?
What a way to run a railroad!
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