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THE GOVERNATOR

Arnold, Arnold, Arnold… I think you need better financial advisors. Your State just escaped bankruptcy and now someone wants to put you in big trouble again.

• California Governor looks to emulate B.C.
  Province's public-private partnerships could serve as model for rebuilding U.S., Schwarzenegger says
  
  VICTORIA — A U.S. political heavyweight who believes his country needs to spend trillions of dollars to tackle crumbling infrastructure is pointing to British Columbia as a model for rebuilding America.
  
  California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, speaking yesterday on NBC's Meet the Press, said he wants to copy the public-private partnerships that have been used to fund and build major projects, from hospitals to highways, in B.C.
  
  "It's like when you look at British Columbia or other places where they have a public-private partnership, where everyone is happy," Gov. Schwarzenegger said.
  
  "Businesses are happy, the people are happy, labour is happy, the politicians are happy. I mean, everyone is happy. We want to do the same thing. We should - the United States should copy that kind of a principle so that you can go out there and build."
  
  The Governor was given a detailed briefing on B.C.'s public-private partnerships, known as P3s, when he visited the province in May, 2007. Premier Gordon Campbell, who has already forged an alliance with the California Governor over global-warming initiatives, took Mr. Schwarzenegger on a tour of the construction site for the Canada Line transit route linking downtown Vancouver and the city's airport."

Arnold, that was way back when, in 2007. It is 2009 now and we have had an economic meltdown, remember.

If you talk to the Premier of British Colombia ask him about the Port Mann Project and how it fell apart. Ask him if it really made sense to spend 200 million dollars more on P3 financing than if the BC Government did it themselves.

You might also wish to take a look at the Ontario Auditor General report on a hospital built near Toronto to see how P3 games are played.

Arnold, I did try to talk your people and offered to help but all I got was this:

OBAMA REBUFFS HARPER ON THE BORDER

It is becoming more and more clear that Prime Minister Harper got nowhere with President Obama on the border issue.

• “Harper wants to speed trade
  
  Canada's prime minister on Friday said he's exploring a locally championed plan to speed border trade by cutting red tape.
  
  Stephen Harper said he and President Barack Obama have discussed establishing border ambassadors, which he called envoys, to deal with impediments to international commerce.
  
  Harper said Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan also will meet with his American counterpart to discuss the concept…
  
  Special envoys will come about only if the prime minister pushes for it, James said after the meeting.
  
  "I got tired of going to conferences and hearing about border 'thickening,'" he said.
  
  "Everybody knows it's happening, and now we need somebody doing something about it."

Obviously, the Kergin initiative failed miserably. Why the Prime Minister wants to further embarrass himself is beyond me. If he could not convince the President to deal with this matter then what will Minister Van Loan or Mr. James accomplish?

Give it up already, Stephen. Neither a Republican nor a Democratic President is prepared to assist you in taking over the business of the Owner of the Ambassador Bridge. Perhaps soon you will finally realize that you have to deal with him before this molehill of an issue becomes a mountain that leads to the further deterioration of Canadian/American relations.

MOOOOO-RE DRIC STUDIES NEEDED

Oh sure, you thought I was kidding. That it was a lot of bull!

You thought I was being foolish when I pleaded that DRIC do the work to measure pollution levels from bovine flatulence to see what impact it had on pollution in this area.

I am surprised that our Legal weapon of mass destruction did not include this as a deficiency in the DRIC Environmental Assessment Report. It is a lot more persuasive than his silly MoE disclosure that turned out to be only a half story:

• "Fish oil in cow’s diet could help save planet
  
  Farting cows, their diets and its impact on global warming may make most people chuckle, but it isn’t a laughing matter for an Irish researcher studying how to reduce those emissions.
  
  Since 2007, Lorraine Lillis, a researcher from University College Dublin in Ireland, has focused on the benefits of adding fish oil to cows’ diet. While the oil helps the heart and circulatory system, and improves meat quality, she has also found that it reduces methane emissions.
  
  Farm animals are thought to produce up to a quarter of all man-made methane emissions worldwide. A part of that problem is a bacteria living in the digestive system of cows.
  
  With methane being 20 times more powerful at trapping solar energy in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, the cow has surprisingly become a very high priority, said Lillis.
  
  While a cow would normally produce 400 grams of methane per day, by adding fish oil to their daily food intake, it reduces emissions, Lillis said.
  
  On Monday, Lillis and other researchers from University College Dublin will report at the Society for General Microbiology meeting in Harrogate, England that by including two per cent fish oil in the cattle’s daily food intake, there would be a reduction of about 21 per cent in methane production.
  
  In Canada cars and trucks release 10.3 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, agriculture follows closely behind at 8.6 per cent, according to statistics from the National Inventory Report and Natural Resources Canada. "

Now about the hot air that comes out of City Hall and its effect on polluting the atmosphere...

Windsor $100,000 Club

BY NAME

Publish at Scribd or explore others: golf club

BY AMOUNT

Publish at Scribd or explore others: golf club

Manipulating Windsor Democracy

The Star finally reported that the Mayor and Council are going to be spending $30,000 to retain our Legal weapon of mass destruction and a US law firm to fight the Ambassador Bridge’s Coast Guard decision in United States. But they did not report anything about how Council passed the Resolution to achieve their goal:

• “City takes fight with bridge to the U.S.
  
  Windsor has budgeted $30,000 for legal fees to raise concerns with the U.S. Coast Guard over the potential twinning of the Ambassador Bridge, which is seeking regulatory approvals on both sides of the border.”

Immediately, scores of Star readers inundated the Star Forum on this story with negative comments about the City’s actions.

When this matter appeared at Council, the question that should be asked is why none of these people attended to protest. The answer is simple. How could they, no one knew that it was going to be dealt with at Council. Watch the video to see how Democracy was killed here, again.

Just as the regular Agenda items were about to be finished, out of the Magician’s hat came the rabbit: Agenda Item number 11. It had originally been scheduled to be put on the in camera Agenda but the Mayor asked that it be pulled and put on the Public Agenda.

It was the ratification of some vote on the US Coast Guard. There was absolutely no mention by the Mayor of hiring lawyers to fight the Ambassador Bridge matter. It could have been about anything.

In fact, one of the Councillors, it might have been Councillor Loopy from the sound of his voice, moved to ratify what they had already done! It looked as if they voted by email!

I must admit I do not understand the procedure followed.

Perhaps someone is preparing for the lawsuit that is about to come and the argument will be made that this matter was passed publicly by Council.

It was all very quick. It was approved 6-3 by Council. More importantly, not one single Councillor objected to this procedure, to this denial of citizens' democratic right to appear as a delegation in front of Council to express an opinion.

So much for democracy in Windsor. No member of the public was allowed to appear as a delegation to this matter because no one knew about it. No one was allowed to appear at Council to complain bitterly about what the Mayor and Council were doing, nor to support it either. No one could blame the Mayor for spending another $30,000 of taxpayer money. No one could blame him for anything.

It is a nice little trick. Put something on the in camera agenda so no one will know about it so that no one can appear as a delegation. In the last second, put it on the public agenda. If someone does object down the road, then Council can say it was all done publicly. No one would remember about the nice little procedural manoeuver.

Here are the procedural actions taken, part of the Administrative Report and, as well, the final Resolution.

Moved to Public Agenda

Part of Admin Report

Final Resolution

Scare Stories Are In Vogue Again

Oh Lord, the DRIC people have to be so desperate now.

I can hardly wait until Sean O’Dell comes back to tell us that there is sufficient traffic now for an Enhancement Project Bridge and a DRIC bridge or for someone in Government to tell us that a P3 solution makes sense even after the Port Mann Bridge P3 project collapsed.

I can just imagine the telephone call that took place:

• "OMG. The BLOGMeister has done a Freedom of Information Application and wants our investment grade traffic survey reports. We have stalled off releasing them for about a year now. What are we going to do now because they show that traffic has dropped and will not come back for years and years? I mean after all the whole justification for the DRIC project was that traffic was going to double and that the Ambassador Bridge was at capacity. Wait, I have got hit. It is a brilliant idea"

I heard a rumour the other day that the discredited security concerns were being brought back to try to support the building of a DRIC bridge. You see, none of the other reasons for building a DRIC bridge works or is supportable.

Lo and behold the Detroit Free Press ran a story about some of these security issues. Our Senator Kenney had dealt with this years ago and I thought the issue had been put to bed. Apparently not. The US side had to have their shot at that as well.

If the Bridge is that much of a security concern, I would have thought that no one in Government would mention it so that it gets coverage on the front page of a major newspaper in the United States. With all of the various Internet newsreaders services, that kind of information would get out to the "bad guys" very quickly.

What kind of idiot would want to release this kind of story and jeopardize the trade of North America? Even being desperate to beat the Ambassador Bridge is not an excuse for doing something so stupid. Someone from Homeland Security needs to talk to this person and give his/her head a shake for releasing information that could be prejudicial to the interests of Canada and the United States.

But before anybody gets too upset about it, one needs to ask a question. If it is a real concern, where are the RCMP and OPP police cars around the Bridge on our side protecting it and where are the military forces on the other side making sure that everything remains safe?

Don't you think that someone is trying to work up people into a frenzy because the traffic projection argument has failed miserably and their P3 financing sources have dried up!

Here’s a very funny line in their story:

• “Meanwhile, many of the biggest, most significant border crossings in North America already have redundancy built into them.”

If there really is a concern, then why hasn’t the Enhancement Project been approved by now? I would have thought that approval should be a priority and that MDOT and the American Government would have been pressuring Canada to do something by now. I have not seen that happen.

Here is a comment I read from a US public policy research institute

• "In 2005, recognizing the vital role Ambassador Bridge plays between the U.S. and Canada, DHS worked with the private-sector bridge stakeholders to reduce border wait time—which had been resulting in significant delays in commerce—by 25 percent.
  
  Presently, several actors are looking to continue the private-sector tradition by building a second bridge span. Instead of looking to the federal government, the new bridge will be built entirely with private dollars by the Ambassador Bridge Company...
  
  Politics, however, threatens to undermine the second span of the bridge. The Canadian government has acted reluctant at times to give the Ambassador Bridge Company a permit... There is undoubtedly a solution in the midst of the controversy. The United States must continue to negotiate this problem with U.S. interests in mind."

Again, the Blue Water Bridge was twinned and the Governments seem to want a new bridge beside the existing Peace Bridge. Something just does not make sense. If twinning is all right in other areas, then why is it not all right beside the Ambassador Bridge? There seems to be a bit of hypocrisy because it is a private bridge I guess.

I will tell you one thing. If Brig. Gen. Michael McDaniel, Gov. Jennifer Granholm's homeland security adviser, thinks the following, I would respectfully suggest that he do his homework a little bit better:

• "There are two main targets, either the people or the structure," he said. "If you were going to talk about the most important infrastructure in Michigan, you'd be talking about the Soo Locks and the Ambassador Bridge."

From a "bad guys" perspective, if that is what he is looking at, then there is a much better target than either of these. My guess is that he knows what that target is as well as I do and what he is doing is distracting people from it by pointing at other targets that are much more secure.

Of course, I have no intention of saying what that target is but I am sure that you, dear reader, can probably guess pretty accurately.

I feel very bad with this BLOG in not giving you certain other information. For example, there is another regional transportation asset that is absolutely crucial for cross-border trade. I do not mean the Tunnel either. It has been around for some time as well and yet I have not heard anyone say that it ought to be duplicated as well. Why not? Why is it only the Ambassador Bridge?

Here is something that the Mayor might want to talk about with respect to Greenlink and the DRIC people as well considering that they are putting in Schwunnels in their road. As I Blogged before:

• “I wonder if Gridlock Sam and Parsons Brinckerhoff retained a security advisor as part of their group when designing Schwunnels. You know those short tunnels up to 1 KM long that Sam put in all over the place in Greenlink that we are supposed to be so happy about. In fact, I wonder if the DRIC people did as well with their road project.
  
  If you stop and think about it, can you imagine the border chaos that would be caused if there was an accident in a shunnel or a Schwunnel. It does not take a super brain to figure out that even the smallest fender bender involving a couple of transport trucks could cause backups for hours going into the United States. Can you imagine what would happen to cross-border trade if we had the equivalent of that California fire that took place recently involving over 20 trucks.
  
  The trouble is that I believe that all of these people know the answer. They're treating us like fools again. There's much more involved in all of this border stuff than we poor taxpayers can figure out. One only needs to look at the materials that were disclosed in Port Huron as part of their border crossing file to know that we are not being given all of the relevant information.
  
  There is no doubt in my mind that the tunnels, Schwunnels and shunnels are huge security risks. I will let you figure out in your own mind the various ways that those who wish to harm the economies of Canada and United States could do so without very much effort. Unless there is going to be a tremendous security system in place before a vehicle enters the road to the border, then our economies are at risk.”

Take a look at my BLOG “November 29, 2007 How Greenlink Will Build E C Row As A Border Road where I said:

• “The security risk is the border road and not the bridge itself.”

It is a shame that the Free Press did not have a reporter at the Cropsey hearings or they would have recognized that this was an absolute nonissue. The Bridge Company told the Senator of their solution to solve the security issue at their bridge and at other bridges across North America.

It would appear that MDOT, even though they were at the session, must not have told Brig. Gen. McDaniel or he would not have made the comment that he did either.

You may remember this article that I Blogged before and my comments:

• “An interesting story about the terrorist threat:
  
  "Plan to protect infrastructure from terrorists
  Andrew Mayeda, CanWest News Service, May 26, 2007
  
  OTTAWA - The federal government plans to roll out a national strategy this summer to protect critical infrastructure such as oil and gas pipelines from terrorist attacks and other threats, according to documents obtained by CanWest News Service...
  
  The national strategy would reach far beyond the oil and gas sector to cover everything from power plants and telecommunications networks to banking systems, hospitals, transport routes, food-distribution networks, manufacturing facilities and the water supply."
  
  I assume that the Ambassador Bridge is included under "transport routes." The funny thing is that it seems everyone wants another bridge in Windsor because of the security risk but the Report in the news article does not say to duplicate all of the other potential targets.”

We have seen how sophisticated operatives can hit more sites than one at the same time. If they are going to hit at one bridge in the region, one should expect that all of the crossings would be hit in a coordinated fashion in order to damage the economy of North America.

I would have thought that reverse customs would make a lot more sense but no one seems to want to talk about that these days.

I can hardly wait to hear FHWA's Jim Steele argue for the need for redundant plazas again as the DRIC justification. Now that is a real knee-slapper!

Deep Throat And The Return Of DRTP (Part 2)

“DRTP,” Deep Throat repeated in case I missed it the first time.

It was probably a good thing that I was not eating when he said that or else I might have choked on my luncheon omelette. I wonder what my face looked like from the other side of the table when he repeated himself.

I figured that DRTP was virtually dead. After all, their office on Howard was for rent since they had moved back to their old location. Their visibility was now gone, not a good sign for them. Oh I knew that they were still trying to flog the doublestack rail tunnel concept but I had always assumed that the reason that they were doing so was so that CP and OMERS would not have to write-down their investment in the DRTP truck project. That must have cost them a pretty penny over the years that they would have to explain to shareholders and pensioners finally.

Deep Throat just watched me with that amused look in his eyes as I nearly fell off my chair in shock and bewilderment. “You cannot be serious. Everyone has attacked the truck expressway from MDOT in the past to Sam Schwartz to the DRIC people. Are you suggesting that DRTP might actually start a lawsuit to set aside the Environmental Assessment so that their project would be considered again? I know that everyone has thought that either the City or the Bridge Company might do it but no one has ever even discussed DRTP. Their website has been “Under Maintenance” for so long that it seemed obvious that nothing more was going to be done. How can you possibly say DRTP?”

“Well my dear friend, you certainly jump to conclusions quickly don’t you. Who said anything about a lawsuit? I expect that Borealis/OMERS and CP would like to have their doublestack rail tunnel but not pay for it. My recollection is that CP had said that such a tunnel was not an urgent priority for them right now but it would become one if they could get it at no cost!”

“Everyone knows that. So then why are you still talking about DRTP,” I wondered.

Deep Throat started. “Let us stand back a bit and look at the three items that you talked about:

• 1) Eddie’s transportation hub and changes to E C Row because they really are one and the same
  


• 2) Reverse customs or probably Shared Border Management more likely
  


• 3) College Bridge.

No one really believes that Windsor will become a significant airport hub. Why, Willow Run Airport which will be part of Detroit’s Aerotropolis already “offers five runways, 24-hour FAA Tower and U.S. Customs operations.” It already handles “over 400,000,000 lbs. of cargo annually, making it one of the nation's largest airports for landed air freight flown by exclusively cargo aircraft.”

“I did not know that," I said. "Then why is the City wasting about a quarter of a million dollars of taxpayer money on a Foreign Consultant who will tell us that it makes no sense to do anything with Windsor Airport?”

“You know why one hires a consultant don’t you?" Deep Throat said with amazement in his voice. "You need someone to blame when they come out with an idea that you know should be done but which for some reason you do not have the nerve to say yourself.

The most obvious thing that the Lufthansa subsidiary will say is…”

“Oh my goodness," I cried out. "Of course, there is no truck expressway from the airport to the border! You cannot have a transportation hub if you can’t move the goods, especially perishable ones, across the border quickly. There’s only one way to do so and that is to upgrade the Expressway for trucks. And wasn’t our Mayor opposed to that?

How could he now support upgrading the Expressway? He would look foolish. However, if a world renowned consultant said to do that, then he would have to back off wouldn’t he because the hub is our “Future.” It would be OK then. Henderson would validate it too followed by Star Editorials in favour!

Sandra and Dwight would reluctantly go along with him because he is the Mayor after all. One of them would probably say that it is not a bad idea anyway because there would need to be a temporary route to the border for trucks while the DRIC road was being built.

It would not surprise me if the upgrade to the Expressway would have to be started first while the DRIC Road might be put on the back burner for a few years until such time as the detour was finished. Of course, the upgraded Expressway would have 10 lanes to match what was being done in the West and probably at Manning road as well.

What an ingenious idea since it also stalls off building a new DRIC bridge until the road is complete! That could take forever if the time experience of constructing the Expressway in the first place is repeated. Say, just enough time until truck volumes pick up again in the future.”

“Now you. are getting it,” Deep Throat chuckled. “If you thought about it a little bit more, then you might even be able to guess where the new Customs facility might be built.”

“That is a no-brainer," I smiled feeling very good about myself now and my Sherlock Holmes skills of deductive reasoning. "It would go exactly where DRTP wanted to build its golf course-sized Customs area for US and Canadian truck inspections.

And isn’t that interesting. Trucks could go in one of two directions after they cleared Customs if they were going to the Ambassador Bridge, at least in the interim. They could go west along the Expressway to Huron Church or, someone could build a road on DRTP North right up to College and then west on College to Huron Church. No wonder it was said by the City that nothing would be done with a new College bridge until conversations with CP were completed. Not only do they have to consider a road along College but there might also be an opportunity for a doublestack rail tunnel too.”

Deep Throat looked at me with pride! He knew that I was getting better at reading the tea leaves on this file. I still needed some help from him but once I got a hint I was able to think about alternatives on my own. I wasn’t necessarily correct but I certainly looked at matters in a different light.

I decided to press my luck. “Obviously, there is a conflict between Transport Canada and Minister Van Loan’s Department. The Transport Minister is too busy giving out Infrastructure money around the country for the good of the re-election of the Conservative Party to worry about small things like the major border crossing between Canada and the United States.

Canada Customs falls under the jurisdiction of Van Loan. They are front and centre right now on the Bridge Company Environmental Assessment and probably don’t like it. This is Van Loan’s opportunity not only to save his Department but also to take away the file from the Transport Ministry.

I think that I am right in this because the Prime Minister announced that Van Loan was going to Washington to talk about the Kergin type plan to appoint “ambassadors” to work on border issues, a matter obviously that President Obama has no interest in. I would have thought that the Transport Minister should have been the one who made the trip since Corridors and Gateways come under his Department.”

“I think you hit the nail on the head, BLOGMeister. Van Loan’s comment about the pilot project in Windsor makes no sense whatsoever other than it being a signal to the Bridge Company that he is now the responsible Minister and that he wants to talk to them to make peace.

It may well mean that someone in Ottawa has finally figured out that they have lost and that it is better to retreat to fight another day.

The conversation will clearly be that the Bridge Company should not be too concerned about the DRIC bridge at this time because there is no traffic and that no matter what happens the Government is making sure that trucks will go to the Ambassador Bridge in the most expeditious way possible.

The Minister is being rather disingenuous to be kind because he would rather deal with the matter this way rather than face a lawsuit that will require a permanent solution that could hurt the Government very badly. The Bridge Company would not be fooled for a second time after the FIRA fiasco. No litigation “settlement” would be necessary if the Minister played it right because no litigation has started and the Minister does not want it to be started either. That is his mission.”

I called over the waitress and asked for another cup of coffee. I was feeling a little bit better now, a lot less stressed than a few minutes before. “Of course, you are suggesting that the land owned by DRTP both north and south of the expressway along with the property for the Customs Plaza will be traded for the cost of a doublestack rail tunnel aren’t you? The land south of DRTP will be deeded, probably to the City, to be used as parkland in perpetuity so that Councillor STOPDRTP will not get his shorts into a knot worrying that this is just the precursor to DRTP South being used as a truck Expressway as well. It gets Borealis and CP off the hook too because it means no write-downs on their balance sheets.

Poor Mike Hurst… wasn’t this similar to his Made in Windsor Solution when he was the Mayor?

Heck, the Governments owe it to DRTP since I am sure that Borealis expected to be the fund manager who would be able to charge big fees on this project. I wonder if this was a trial balloon being floated over in Europe these days with the Sovereign Funds.”

Deep Throat just burst out laughing. It was a good thing that the restaurant was virtually empty or else everyone would have looked at him in amazement and wondered what the big joke was.

“Is that part of what Minister Baird and our Mayor talked about along with the sale of the Brighton Beach lands when he was in town a few weeks ago?" I asked. "If so, now I know why the Star did not cover that story very thoroughly. That raises a whole bunch of questions about our Mayor too and what our Councilors know as well.”

Just as I was about to ask one of a dozen questions that just popped into my mind at that exact moment, Deep Throat stood up. “Just make sure that you leave the waitress a big tip. We have occupied her table for much too long. What you want to talk about is something that we will need to speak about in private and for a very long time at the appropriate time.”

And with that, Deep Throat left the restaurant. It was very clear to me that this was not the right time nor the right place. With a sigh, I brought out my VISA card and called over the waitress for the meal tab.

DRIC Bridge And The Jail

The Mayor stated at the CIBPA meeting the other night that there was some kind of announcement that was going to be made in a few weeks that will demonstrate the great relationship between the City and the Federal Government.

Now we can suspect why Transport Canada Minister Baird was in town and why the Star has not published very much information about their meeting.

The most significant matter between the two Governments is the sale of Brighton Beach for the DRIC Plaza. We should expect therefore that there is such a deal and that the purchase price will represent a number of millions of dollars that will come into Windsor’s treasury to be wasted by Council on some frivolities.

Money burns a hole in our Council’s pockets. Perhaps that explains why the Canal Vision has been delayed until sometime in April as well. Or perhaps that money was to impress the Lifthansa people who were around the airport recently doing their due diligence work for the transportation hub. Surely NOT for the Tunnel deal or Tunnel Plaza improvements

I expect that the Federal Government will be paying the City of Windsor in the neighbourhood of $25-$35M for the property based on the acreage. Obviously, the reason that the announcement was not made at this time is because the DRIC people need to get as much bang for the buck as possible to try to scare the Ambassador Bridge people even more.

But now I have a problem with respect to the Mayor/Chair of the Police Board's position about where he wants to put the jail. I thought that he wanted it in Brighton Beach as well.

• “There is no question that a new facility is required," Francis said. "So we welcome that there's going to be a new facility. But from a policing perspective, we had recommended another site."
  
  Francis said the city had suggested the Brighton Beach industrial area near the Detroit River since it's closer to the courts and in a less commercial area - which might make for easier transportation of detainees back and forth.”

I doubt given his statements about the horrific health issues about pollution that anyone who is concerned about people’s health would allow a jail to be built near the new DRIC bridge and plaza. It would be dangerous if the Mayor is correct for the inmates and dangerous for the people who work there.

Did the Mayor outsmart himself? Obviously, part of what he was doing was building up the price for the Federal Government to pay by suggesting that there might be an alternative use for the Brighton Beach site. However, by working people up against where the Province wants to put the jail, how is he now going to back off from that position? Does he have another location to put the Jail? If so, where?

Will there be a massive lawsuit started by the owner of the property if the Jail is moved?

What about the Province, how happy will they be? Will Dwight and Sandra teach Eddie a lesson by having the Jail moved to Tecumseh which is part of Dwight’s riding or to LaSalle or perhaps to Chatham?

Here is something that I found very interesting as well. A number of Councillors decided to open their mouths about the jail location in advance of the Council meeting and it would seem without knowing the facts:

• “But Ron Jones, Postma’s fellow Ward 2 councillor, said he won’t support a jail on the location. “It’s going to be defeated,” he predicted of what will happen in a council vote.”
  
  “I’m in complete opposition to that jail being located on that site,” said Ken Lewenza Jr. He said both he and Coun. Bill Marra will support residents who don’t want the institution in their midst.”

I would have thought that the Ontario Realty Corporation now has a very nice appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board in the event that Council turns down their application for approval for the jail location based on a reasonable apprehension of bias.

Another fine mess.

Is Half A Story Better Than None

It appears now that Windsorites were NOT told everything that was known when the Mayor released the so-called damaging MoE memo that made the headlines in the Star:

• "Mayor Eddie Francis released a copy of the memo Monday.
  
  The memo was obtained by the city's border lawyer David Estrin."

However, the issue is not clear-cut about what the Mayor knew and when. That is why I called for an immediate investigation under Council's auspices in this matter the other day.

Please read this email that was sent to Councillors and other community stakeholders by an Ontario Government Official "to ensure they know 'the rest of the story.'" Note the emphasized portion of the email.

• "Subject: DRIC/ WStar story
  
  Today's story was disingenuous at best.
  
  DRIC learned of the MoE memo a few weeks ago and immediately contacted Moe to learn more about their concerns. It was immediately obvious that the majority of criticisms could be answered from any number of the 63 reports that comprise the DRIC submission, if only they had dug deeper. DRIC was also able to verify that there were no mistakes in their calculations nor were the models incorrect. I have attached the complete point by point response for your review.
  
  But this is the usual and normal process...they (M0E) ask questions and for clarifications, and DRIC responds. To be fair the entire document is more than 1300 pages and very complex.
  
  The disingenuous part is that the document obtained by Estrin was accompanied by our detailed response and rebuttal. To not acknowledge that point, or to release one document in the absence of the other, is inappropriate and misleading.
  
  I remain available for any further questions you may have."

Either the Mayor knew about the DRIC response or he did not. Whether he had an actual copy of the DRIC response is irrelevant

If the Mayor was aware of the DRIC response when he released the MoE memo, then the only conclusion I can arrive at is that he chose NOT to provide relevant information to the public. He wanted us NOT to have all relevant information so that we could not make an informed decision.

If that is the truth, then Council has no choice but to censure him! He may also want to consider whether he should apologize as well at the next Council meeting to his colleagues and to the public.

If he did not have this information, it could only be because the City's lawyer David Estrin did not provide this information to him. If he did not do so, then the question needs to be asked why not?

If he did not do so for whatever reason, our Mayor was made to look like a fool and made it appear as if he misled the public. More importantly, the public was led to believe an important fact that was not true.

Council has no choice in this situation but to consider whether he should continue to act for the City.

As I said before, the Mayor's so-called justification is ridiculous:

• "Mayor Eddie Francis said it is not the city's job to put forth DRIC's positions.
  
  "It's not the City of Windsor's job to do DRIC's job," said Francis."

No one asks the Mayor to do DRIC's work. We do expect however to be able to trust our Mayor to give us the truth and not only part of the story, the part that is advantageous to his position.

In case some have forgotten, there is a court oath about:

• "truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth"

In the Court of public opinion, the obligation is the same!

PS. As a paying Star subscriber and as a reader, I am still waiting to hear from the Star Publisher, Jim Venney, about the Star's role too.

CIBPA/Francis CBC Interview

Poor Councillor Valentinis. Eddie has put him right between a rock and a hard place.

Frankly, Eddie disrespected the procedure at the CIBPA meeting by talking for so long. His attempt to try to end run the Chair who told him that this meeting was not the appropriate place for a Presentation was uncalled for. His insulting behaviour of the Association President during the radio interview was rather shocking to me.

This will make life difficult for the Councillor. He now has to choose between continuing to support a Mayor who has become even more unpopular with the group of people who provide the main base of support for the Councillor or separating himself away from Eddie if he wants to have a hope of being re-elected. Tony Blak is smiling today!

What an arrogant young man our Mayor is.

If members of CIBPA or the public want to know why Windsor is having difficulties negotiating deals with the Senior Levels or the Ambassador Bridge Company, then read the transcript below of the interview between the CIBPA President and our Mayor on CBC Radio. Could you deal with him?

Better yet, if you have speakers, listen along with the audio so you can hear the tone of what is being said.

I truly have difficulty believing that our Mayor, a lawyer who almost immediately after being called to the Bar announced that he was running for office and who has not practiced law as a full-time professional for any significant period of time as far as I know, would be so condescending to a fellow lawyer in town, one who has been in practice for almost 30 year.

Remember that nasty crack about Eddie by Don McArthur of the Star in his BLOG:

• "Heck, he's hardly even a lawyer. He just plays one on TV."

Eddie takes himself much too seriously as this video clip demonstrates to me anyway

If he is that good, then why did we need our legal weapon of mass destruction and a US lawyer to file submissions on the City's behalf against the Bridge Company in the US at a cost of $30,000? Why didn't he do it himself?

Why would Eddie want to antagonize the President of a very influential group of people in Windsor? These are exactly the people that you want on your side to help you out when you are dealing with the Senior Levels or the Bridge Company.

It should be clear by now that Eddie went to the CIBPA meeting the other day for two reasons. First, he wanted them to put pressure on our Liberal MPPs/Cabinet Ministers to force them to have the Premier come down here on bended knee, bow down to Eddie and agree to everything that he wants. Second, he wanted to ensure that if something drastic happened on the file, such as the Senior Levels walking away, that he could not be blamed. Thus, he tried to finger other people as the cause of the problem.

Just to have some fun again, I decided that I was going to"Fisk" or comment on some of Eddie's remarks. Follow along with the recording and the transcript now.

CBC Radio Windsor - March 26, 2009

Host: As you've been hearing on our local news coverage this morning, a town hall meeting was held last night to talk about the economic crisis facing this area. It was organized by the Canadian Italian Business and Professional Association as a way of mobilizing the community to push for action on government projects, projects that would provide jobs and stimulate our economy. The biggest and most contentious is that route to a new international bridge. DRIC is pushing for its Windsor Essex Parkway plan; Windsor City Council wants Greenlink. John Corrent organized last night's event. He's president of the Canadian Italian Business and Professional Associating. He's on the telephone. Mr. Corrent good morning.

John Corrent (President, Canadian Italian Business and Professional Association): Good morning. How are you today?

Host: I'm well. Thank you for joining us. Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis has agreed to join us as well. Mayor Francis good of you to make some time available for us. Thank you so much.

Eddie Francis: Thanks for having me.

Host: Mr. Corrent I'd like to start with you. What came out of last night's meeting?

Corrent: What was very impressive about last night was the turnout. We had a wonderful turnout. That was itself a message to the politicians that the community has some urgency in getting these projects started and underway. The support was fantastic.

Host: We talked about the border access route. What other major projects are you looking at here?

Corrent: The Ambassador Bridge for sure. Those are the two mega-projects that are worth over $1.6 billion dollars each and we believe from that they'll be spin-offs. There is infrastructure money that's available from the federal government and from the provincial government. I think that should be a complimentary package to those. So we're looking to the local politicians to get together with the senior levels of government and to get what they can get.

Host: So you blame the politicians for the inaction.

Corrent: It's not that they haven't acted. I think that they have. There's just been too much posturing. There's been too much stagnation. There's been double-talk and the community is confused. Why isn't there action now? We believe agreements should be forged. There should be no further delay. There shouldn't be litigation and that's what we've started.

Host: Mayor Francis you thought this meeting important enough that you attended and you spoke while you were there. Your response to this?

Eddie: Well I agree. I believe that, as City Council has expressed over the past several years and as the community members over the course of the DRIC process have expressed, they want a better solution. I agree that there's been double-talk. I agree that there's a time and a need for action and I welcome CIBPA's help to try to bring the province to the table.

• [That is our Eddie. I guess he does not realize that the Bridge and Plaza are federal matters while the road is a provincial matter. It is only by their good graces that he is allowed to have any voice whatsoever at the table. At any time, they can pull the chair out from under him. That he should be so hostile to the Premier who provided backstopping of $3.2 million for Red Bull as just one example is beyond me. I can hardly wait to see how much infrastructure money we get in Windsor with an attitude like his]

As I expressed yesterday evening, Cty Council several weeks ago called on the Province of Ontario to come to the table with mediation so that we can find a solution. All we're asking for is a better solution and I don't think there's anybody in this community that wouldn't want a better solution in terms of a solution that protects the health.

• [Eddie wants mediation provided it is on his terms only:
  
  "It calls for immediate mediation to be completed within 21 days after an agreed-upon mediator is appointed.
  
  The focus of the mediator, according to the city, would be to mitigate access road deficiencies through strategic tunnelling with an understanding the cost of doing so be no greater than $200 million more than the parkway’s current estimated $1.6-billion construction cost.”
  
  As I Blogged at the time:
  
  The arrogance and air of entitlement of the City leaders help explain why nothing ever gets done and why no one listens to Windsor.
  
  What right does Windsor have to “demand?” Moreover, what right does Windsor have to set out the rules unilaterally about what the mediation is all about? It is nothing more than a mediation ploy designed never to be accepted by the Province to accomplish some objective of the Mayor.]

As I said last night Tony, it's not an issue of jobs versus health. I think we can have both. We deserve both.

• [Windsor "entitlement" mentality again.]

In a city that suffers with significant issues as it relates to health related diseases - cardiovascular disease, asthma rates, bronchial rates, cancer rates - this is an opportunity for us not only to build new infrastructure, but build infrastructure taking into consideration that they can protect the community. And I welcome CIBPA to join the other community members in terms of trying to bring the Province to the table.

• [Considering that most of our pollution comes from the United States and that issues with respect to truck pollution will virtually disappear with new diesel fuel and engine technology, the health issue is nothing more than a scare tactic.]


• [Note also the second time he talked about bringing the Province to the table]

Host: And this CIBPA that you mentioned, that is Mr. Corrent's political action group which they have formed. Mayor Francis, what about suggestions that you are hindering Windsor's economy by refusing to compromise on Greenlink?

Eddie: That's not true with regards to not willing to compromise. We have compromised significantly. If you can recall, Greenlink was for a total of close to 3,600 metres or 3.6 kilometres in tunnelling. We brought that down considerably to 2.6 so that we protect the residents.

• [Eddie seems to forget that DRIC compromised as well. Wasn’t their first choice going to be an at grade-road and look at where they are now? One could make the argument that Eddie’s original position of full tunnelling was never serious so that he has never really compromised at all.]

Every step of the way we've compromised and all we're trying to do is achieve a better solution.

• [Eddie, Eddie, Eddie. You have been inhaling too much Tunnel exhaust that is coming out of the Heritage Tunnel Ventilation Building. Junior is going to come after you now just the way he did Councillor Halberstadt when you use the C-word.
  
  “Lewenza said Tuesday the use of the word "compromise" suggests the city is poised to settle with DRIC for something less than its official stance -- that the route must be tunnelled.
  
  "This is a billion-dollar file and he is out there saying we want a compromise," Lewenza said. "I challenged him on that."
  
  Let us agree that the amnesia disease has hit again and that Eddie is not trying to be misleading with people who are not very familiar with the border file. I’m sure that Eddie has probably forgotten some of these comments given his heavy workload:
  
   "the new Schwartz plan.. is not negotiable. "This is it. This is the city of Windsor's position"
  
   we are engaged in a very aggressive process right now where you have senior orders of government that want to impose a cheap solution on us. We have private interests that want to see their position is advanced and all those proposals compromise the city' s position.
  
  And all of those proposals will saddle the city with a position that is unacceptable so members of city council are very astutely, very prudently wanting to make sure that we follow the best course of action and they we do not sell out the city and that we do not prejudice the city's interest…
  
  the issue is that on one of his, on one of his writings he, Councillor Halberstadt indicated that the city was looking to compromise its position. I noticed that he has since then changed that but the issue is that some councillors have taken some serious, serious {inaudible} that the city is willing to compromise.
  
   I can assure you, and anyone who knows the council and knows our position on this file is that we have been consistent and we are not prepared to compromise on anything and we want the best solution for the city.”
  
  "Francis said details of the Schwartz plan, such as service roads and landscaping, can be tweaked, but the city will not negotiate the proposed tunnels with DRIC.
  
  "That last thing we want is for the province to come back and say: 'OK, we'll give you one tunnel,'" he said. "The amount of tunnelling and the connectivity of neighbourhoods is not negotiable."
  
   Eddie might be afraid that Gord would turn on him too as he did with his good buddy in the Three Blind Mice column:
  
  "Halberstadt and Marra don't have the excuse of being rookies. Halberstadt has been waving the white flag for some time, mouthing off about compromises and trade-offs. This isn't a rummage sale, Al. This is Windsor's fate for the next century and beyond and you sound like someone prepared to auction it to the highest bidder. Not a becoming role."]

As I've indicated, when this, and I said this last night Tony, this started back in 2002 when the Governments announced $300 million dollars of funding. That's all they were prepared to invest was $300 million dollars in the City for a border solution. Because of the City of Windsor in part with the others, we were able to take that $300 and bring it to $1.6 billion. But today you've got study after study - not our study. Report after report - not our report. And expert after expert - not our experts, but their experts, the Province's experts saying what they are proposing to build will be damaging to the health of the residents of the city of Windsor. So we have an opportunity to correct that.

• [Eddie is trying to confuse everybody again. He ought to know better than that.
  
  The $300 million that he talked about was part of the short and interim Border Infrastructure Fund money which should have built a road to the Ambassador Bridge.
  
  The $1.6 billion was for the long-term solution, something completely and totally different. That is the DRIC program money.
  
  Eddie never was able to get the $300 million increased to $1.6 billion. They are two separate and distinct programs and he knows it].

Having said that Tony, one last point. It's not our process. There still is another nine months left in this process by admission of DRIC. They cannot get a shovel in the ground and they have that written in their documents. Unfortunately, the political people in Toronto, the Ministers, are communicating a different message and are misleading the public to believe it's shovel ready. Even if we were to agree with the Province 100 percent with their Parkway proposal, even if we were to sign off on it today, it could not be shovel ready until the earliest 2010.

• [I just find it so coincidental that everything is now going to start in 2010 if the Mayor is correct. Look at how much time has been wasted reviewing all of the City’s proposals: the Schwartz report, full tunneling, Greenlink, Son of Greenlink and their various permutations. Wasn’t 2010 the year that Ministers Duncan and Caplan said that money was really going to be available after their Gong Show performance in Windsor. I remember then Transport Minister Cansfield saying the same thing about money being available after 2010 in one of her pre-election comments.]

Host: Let's bring John Corrent back in. Your thoughts on this sir?

Corrent: Well I think first of all it's got to be clear. We're waiting now for the Environmental Assessment decision. That decision is going to come down in April. In April there's only three decisions that that Minister can make. It's approval, approval with conditions, or denied. If it's going to be approved and if it's approved with conditions, it can be taken right to the Cabinet, the Provincial Cabinet and shortcut those conditions or comes with some solution to that. There's methods by which we can get this thing done before 2010. The Mayor knows that. The Provincial Ministers know that. It's a matter of getting these two parties in a room and forging that agreement and cutting the double-talk and the posturing that we're seeing and hearing even now this morning.

Eddie: John -

• [Poor Eddie. No "kill button" available for his use. No Procedural By-law he can wave around]

Corrent: Mayor you last night said there's only $100 million dollars between the province and this city. $100 million dollars over $1.6 billion dollar project? That's miniscule. There's got to be a solution out of $100 million dollars. Even if all the surrounding communities and Windsor contribute that sum.

Host: John -

Corrent: $100 million dollars shouldn't hold up a $1.6 billion dollar project. Last night you said that you didn't want to hold back the Ambassador Bridge. You would welcome the Ambassador Bridge for its construction. Well if you do, why did you commence a lawsuit across the river costing us $30,000 dollars to tell the Americans that we don't want this unless we got conditions attached to the agreement that promotes the City of Windsor?

• [What a remarkable transformation in the Mayor. Remember when he called the Bridge Company the "enemy" and said that the Owner of the Bridge Company might put cement in the Tunnel to close it down if he got control of it.]

Host: Mr. Corrent I -

Corrent: There's a better way of handling that.

Host: Mr. Corrent excuse me. Let's allow the Mayor the opportunity to respond.

Eddie: Mr. Corrent first and foremost I work for the residents of the City of Windsor. I'm not here to represent the Province nor the Ambassador Bridge.

• [A typical debating trick to create a strawman that doesn’t exist otherwise]

As a lawyer you should know the difference between a lawsuit and comments to the Coast Guard. As it relates to the Ambassador Bridge, let me tell you why the City of Windsor is making comments. The Ambassador Bridge expansion requires the closure of Huron Church Road to the river. We believe it's important for the Coast Guard to ask the Ambassador Bridge how they are going to re-establish that connection to our downtown once their expansion takes place.

• [I know a way . Put up a big road sign just as American vehicles are exiting from the Bridge that says in big bold White Letters on a Green Background with an arrow pointing to the east saying "TO DOWNTOWN."]

So there's a very difference in terms of asking and putting submissions forward than commencing a lawsuit and as a lawyer you know that difference. So I would respectfully ask let's not further confuse the issue.

• [The Mayor is well aware that what he is attempting to do is the equivalent of being successful in a lawsuit. He wants to convince the Coast Guard to change their decision with respect to the Bridge Company’s Project of "no significant impact."
  
  It is just that he does not have the guts to start a lawsuit because he knows that the Bridge Company would take action against him if he does. As I said before, I would sell tickets and fill up the East End Arena by showing a video of his cross- examination by a tough American litigator.
  
  I hardly believe that our Mayor/lawyer should be lecturing someone who has been in practice for 30 years about how to practise law.
  
  It is no wonder that Mr. Corrent’s Community is outraged at the Mayor’s insulting comments as are other members of the Windsor Community.]

As it relates to the Province of Ontario, are you serious?! You want the City and you want the towns to contribute to this project? In Toronto: $17.9 billion dollars, all Federal and Provincial dollars.

• [I have no idea what the $17.9 billion represents but it is a big number and very impressive]

We have paid the price. We have paid the price to be the national and provincial artery to the global supply chain. We accept that responsibility. They have an obligation. The investment that they make here will be an investment for the next 100years.

• [We have also received a price too. The border crossing has been the basis of our prosperity. Moreover, our future, if it is to be a transportation hub given that quarter million dollars that the Mayor is spending on a Foreign Consultant, also relies on our location at the border and having a proper border crossing.]

And with regards to the Environmental Assessment, as a lawyer you should also know this sir. The Environmental Assessment was a DRIC Environmental Assessment. You read the American documents; the American documents have clearly outlined a timetable. In the American documents as partners with the Canadian agencies, they say very clearly in black and white, the only thing that can take place in 2010 - utilities relocates with construction beginning in 2011 and construction completing 2015. That's in black and white. In fact, the Ministry of the Environment themselves in the recently released memo went after DRIC and went after the Province of Ontario asking them where your timelines are? It's not our process. It's their process.

• [Again, another strawman with respect to the process being DRIC’s. Everybody knows it so what is he trying to accomplish? The point that he is overlooking, and that was the whole point of the CIBPA meeting, is to try and figure out a way to reduce that time by cooperating with the Senior Levels and with the Bridge Company.]

If I am correct in my view of what the Mayor wishes to accomplish by his stalling Road projects, then he has no interest whatsoever in moving forward quickly. He would only do so if the Senior Levels and the Bridge Company cave in to his demands, demands he is never told us about to date as far as I know.]

Host: Mister Francis, Mayor Francis forgive me. I'll have to break in. We're quickly running out of time. Last word to you Mr. Corrent.

Corrent: Yes. We could go on with this debate and I can rebut those statements, but all I'm saying is that I'm urging the politicians to get together and do a deal. Get these agreements done. We can go on and debate forever. It's not necessary to do that. The Mayor says we're not far apart. When we're not far apart, we should be sitting down and getting the job done and agreements forged. That's the message we want to send.

Host: Gentlemen sadly we have to leave it right there. I do appreciate your time this morning. John Corrent thank you so much.

Corrent: Thank you.

Host: Mayor Francis we appreciate your time sir. Thank you.

Eddie: Thank you to both of you. All the best.

Host: John Corrent is president of the Canadian Italian Business and Professional Association in Windsor. Eddie Francis is of course Windsor's Mayor.

Deep Throat And The Return Of DRTP (Part 1)

It had been a very long day so far and it was only 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon. I was exhausted already. I had gone out to buy some hardware supplies. What with getting up before the crack of dawn to check my Internet online sources, then to talk to the inside moles, write a new BLOG and send it out by e-mail to all my readers and then doing all of the usual household chores, I had missed my lunch.

Here I was at one of the local restaurants looking over the luncheon specials and hoping that the waitress wouldn’t shout at me because I was too late when I heard a voice say “The Spanish omelette is a very good choice.”

I knew immediately who it was without having to look up.

“What a remarkable coincidence that we both happened to choose the same restaurant at the same time to have a meal,” Deep Throat said.

Coincidence? I hardly think so. Obviously, I had been followed but did not know it until the appropriate time for Deep Throat to make his presence known. As I looked up, I thought I saw the shadow of a military man walking outside of the restaurant window.

“May I join you,” he said as he was already sitting down. As the waitress passed by, he called out “Two luncheon specials please along with rye toast and coffee. Cream and one sugar isn't it? One cheque would be fine.”

I knew that I was going to get stuck with the tab. I always was.

My last meeting with Deep Throat was a very unusual one. I had never seen him so pessimistic before probably because he was so uncertain about what was going to happen. He even complimented me on some of my BLOGs, again, something very unusual.

As we left each other, I remember what he said to me, “It is up to you and your fellow Bloggers to let the public know what is going on. Citizens of Windsor need to be involved in this process and only the Bloggers are letting people know what is really going on with the odd traditional media exception.”

The waitress came with our coffee and, before she brought our lunches, Deep Throat looked at me with the usual twinkle in his eye. It always unnerved me because I was not sure whether he was mocking me or having fun with me or was just happy that he could share a conversation with someone outside of his normal realm of activities, “Tell me Blogmeister, have you been confused about anything to do with the border file over the past few weeks? Or maybe, something to do with other files that just do not seem right?”

“Of course,” I said. “You obviously have read the BLOG that I wrote about Minister Van Loan. His comment made absolutely no sense to me:

• "Under a proposal favoured by Ottawa, American officials would check U.S.-bound trucks on the Canadian side of the border and vice versa, easing trade bottlenecks.
  
  Van Loan said he suggested a pilot project at the Windsor-Detroit border but nothing was settled.”

Reverse customs? Something that the Ambassador Bridge Company has been advocating for years. Why were they proposing that it be done here and not at Fort Erie, for example, where they were working on Shared Border Management for years so that parts of Buffalo would not have to be destroyed with an expanded truck Plaza?

Was it a quid pro quo? We give you reverse customs or SBM and you give us the DRIC bridge?

Were they on the other hand offering this up as a peace token to the Bridge Company and now another Minister was going to get involved. Someone who had a reputation of being tough and aggressive. His nickname was Mr. Van Ogre!”

“Yes I noticed that BLOG of yours. I was quite impressed that you picked it up.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere with me,” I said laughingly. “But there is more.

Then there was the bizarre statement about what would happen at our Mayor's transportation hub:

• “The Star, however, has learned that the city's strategy would include a centre consolidating U.S. and Canadian inspection and security agencies. "Concentration of all inspection and border processes would be located under one roof, including the Canada Border Service Agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Department of Agriculture, Transport Canada" and other U.S. and Canadian authorities, according to city documents.”

It is ludicrous to believe that all of this would take place just for one big Russian cargo jet that might land here once or twice a week. I just cannot believe that Windsor would be a cargo centre given Aerotropolis in Detroit.

How about the College Avenue Bridge:

• “Another top priority is replacing the College Avenue bridge -- a symbol of Windsor's infrastructure decay and in such disrepair Palanacki had it shut down as a safety hazard. A new bridge would cost $11.3 million.”

That had a funny smell about it to me:

• “We inspect our bridges on a regular basis. We have been closely monitoring this bridge for 15 years and we know it's near the end of its lifespan," said Palanacki of the bridge built in 1927.
  
  It is expected the bridge will be closed to traffic for at least a year -- and likely much longer -- while the city irons out plans for the corridor with CP Railway which travels under the bridge, Palanacki said.
  
  City administrators decided to hold off on replacement of the bridge since the railway line -- which leads into the entrance of the Detroit River rail tunnel -- has for years been caught up in the border truck debate.
  
  There was talk starting seven years ago by a group known as Detroit River Tunnel Partnership of the rail tunnel corridor being converted for truck traffic, but recently the group has shifted focus to instead build a new CP high-stack rail tunnel linking with Detroit.
  
  "Administration has not been in position to recommend reconstruction if there were going to be changes to the rail line either with DRTP or the rail tunnel, so we kept deferring it," Palanacki said.”

Our lunch special was served and I started gobbling it down because I was famished by then. In between mouthfuls, I said, “There is even more. There are so many things that I find surprising that I just cannot explain. Take for instance Transport Canada Minister Baird coming to town, meeting with the Mayor and hardly a word in the Star about it until some days later and even then not much of a discussion about it at all.

How about what DRIC was proposing with respect to the E C Row West of Huron Church Road? As you said to me before:

• “Instead of building a truck highway that would run parallel to E.C. Row, 50 metres to the south, it [DRIC] now wants to put international truck traffic in the centre portion of a new 10-lane E.C. Row, separated from local traffic running on either side.”
  
  A 10 lane Expressway! Can you believe it and not a word of opposition from the Mayor. He is thrilled with it and applauds it.
  
  The Mayor has told us enough times recently that he is not opposed to what the County wants with respect to Manning Road but that he is just concerned about sequencing…
  
  As you can see now, in both the East and West ends of the Expressway, we are going to see major upgrades. Can the centre, the part that runs through the City, be far behind? I hardly think so.
  
  There are some of us who are cynical enough to believe that the changes being made to the Expressway today are nothing more than a precursor to the construction that will take place in a few years when that road is upgraded completely to as many as 10 lanes. There would be five lanes in each direction with two lanes dedicated for trucks only to allow them to have a direct connection from Highway 401 to the border.”

As usual, my food started getting stuck in my throat as I started talking about all this stuff. I was getting myself all worked up over it and getting indigestion. It really bothered me that I could not figure out what was going on.

Deep Throat almost burst out laughing and would have sprayed me with the coffee that he was drinking just like in the movies. “My goodness Blogmeister. You are getting much better now than ever. My teachings must have rubbed off on you. You have identified just about everything that is confusing everyone.”

“Everyone but you, I assume dear friend,” I said to Deep Throat. “I know that you are not going to tell me the obvious answer but that you are going to let me figure it out myself. Your Socratic method of teaching me things reminds me of law school. Okay, okay. What is the hint that is going to make me look foolish because I couldn’t figure out the obvious?”

Deep Throat stared at me with a funny look on his face and said in a very low voice "DRTP."

Turning Confused

I should hang out my shingle again for truck drivers. I could make a fortune defending truck drivers who were supposedly making an improper left turn who were ticketed by the Windsor police.

I wonder if I should ask OTA's David Bradley for a reference for all of those truck drivers who may get caught making a so-called illegal left turn at Dougall and E C Row. Should I buy an ad in Today's Trucking Magazine?

I think I found the legal loophole! English grammar to the rescue.

Let’s be fair. Truckers have to make instantaneous decisions when they read road signs. When you are driving one of these big rigs you just do not have the opportunity to make quick movements by trying to guess what a road sign says.

Moreover, from a conviction perspective, if there is any ambiguity in a sign such that there may be two explanations or meanings for what the sign says, a Court would have to quash any ticket that was issued. There could be no conviction.

Take a look at the road sign that was issued for northbound truckers to tell them that they cannot make a left hand turn from Dougall to get on to the Expressway.

However, is that what the sign really says? I don’t think so. It would have been so much easier just to say No Left Turns For Trucks at EC Row. Instead, the way I could read the sign is the following:

•  No trucks on Dougall



•  Trucks, make a left hand turn at the Expressway to get off Dougall NOW!

It is completely contrary to what the City intended! It forces drivers to make a left hand turn in my opinion.

Just pity the poor trucker now. The Trucker is now in the inside lane ready to get off of Dougall by going on to the Expressway. After all, the sign appears to say no trucks on Dougall. If you will recall, there is a sign further north at Tecumseh that has been there for years saying that no trucks are allowed on Ouellette at certain times.

As the trucker pulls into the left turn lane, he/she then sees this sign:

What is he/she to make of it? It does not say in big bold letters NO LEFT TURN. It just says get out of this lane because you are not supposed to be here.

Again, the trucker must make an instantaneous decision and it is even more difficult because the left turn lane is so short at this point. The trucker has two choices.

The first, which makes no sense and is very dangerous, is to turn back into the lane on the right immediately. That could cause a horrific accident if cars are going northbound in that lane at the same time or a backup while the trucker was waiting to enter the lane. The trucker would then continue north on Dougall and risk getting a ticket because he/she thought that he/she was not supposed to be going north on Dougall in the first place.

The second choice is to make the left turn because there is no sign that says no left turn. In effect, the trucker is being led to believe that the sign is telling the trucker to make a turn and to get out of this lane as soon as possible. That is the only logical explanation given the first sign.

This City is so bizarre. Nothing is easy here. We cannot even inform truckers properly what they must do.

One other matter. I hope that the Parks Department or whoever is responsible for the grass and tree planting on that stretch of Dougall takes a good look at that area next time there is a heavy storm. It would not appear that there is proper drainage because the water seems to run off quickly into the roadway causing huge puddles after a heavy rain storm like we had a week or so ago. That area also iced up quickly when the temperature dropped during the wintertime because of the water on the road.

Action needs to be taken immediately before there is a serious accident.

DRIC Road In Ontario Budget

Now we know the reason for the Gong Show comment, the Cansfield Statement and the Stall. Oh so predictable.

Why CIBPA Could Not Succeed Last Night

I attended the CIBPA meeting last night and I am glad that I did. It was an interesting evening for me at least and an upsetting one too. I trust that it was eye-opening as well to some people in attendance who have not been very close to this matter.

I do not know how the Organizers feel this morning but they should be furious. Their hearts were in the right place. They were trying to do the right thing for Windsor. However, the Eminence Greasie and the E-Team out-manoeuvered them politically. They should be furious not only at the Mayor and Council but at the Windsor Star as well who ignored them. In fact, as you will see, there was no point in having the session at all.

For the 200 to 250 people who were at the Caboto Club, they now have a good understanding about why the border file is a mess. We were all used last night by a Mayor who has no interest whatsoever in having a solution unless it is on his terms and on his terms alone. Or unless it is finally imposed on him so that he personally cannot be blamed for his failure to achieve and waste of millions of dollars of taxpayer money after all of this time.

That was abundantly obvious as I shall describe below. His desire to force others to meet with him is real and he will use groups like CIBPA to do so. However, there is an agenda that he has, and what it is I have no idea. Until that has been achieved or the Councillors finally get some balls as they did in 2003 when Mike Hurst was Mayor and take back this City, Windsor will continue suffering as we are now.

Unfortunately, the rest of the City will not know about it unless they happened to see the EH-News clip around 11:30 last night or the audio snippets on CKLW News this morning. I do not know if the Windsor Star had a reporter at the session but there was nothing in the newspaper today about it. Accordingly, it was a “non-event,” not worthy of consideration.

I expect that City Hall believed last night would be a bitch session against them. The Mayor and Council would have been so upset if all that had been reported in our leading media outlet. They totally misunderstood what last night’s meeting was all about. They need not have worried so much. The Star reporters were busy elsewhere it seems. The Star was more interested in running a story about massage parlours than about the future of our City.

Last night was intended to be a love-in by the Organizers. They did not want to blame anyone. They did not want to take sides. They were in favour of every project in order to deliver the message to the rest of Canada that Windsor is open for business so come here and invest. All they wanted to do was to try to ensure that deals are “cut,” in their terms as businesspeople, between the various parties involved: the City, the Senior Levels, the Bridge Company and even DRTP for the doublestack rail tunnel. Why the Chair even threw in the airport transportation hub to make this even more palatable for our Council.

CIBPA in effect wants to be the facilitator to make these deals happen even if they keep people locked up in rooms until deals are done. In that way, they believe that the City would start prospering again.

The Mayor did not have to worry. He was there last night surrounded by a number of his Councillors. I guess he figured that there was strength in numbers. To be honest, I was surprised that any of them were there because I had been told earlier in the week that it was unlikely that anyone from City Hall was going to come other than perhaps Council Marra who is a member of the Association and probably Councillor Valentinis also. The session had been dismissed out of hand.

Eddie did admit, as I had been told, that he asked to make a presentation but given the nature of the session the Organizers turned him down. I heard that it was supposed to be at least a 20 minute talk that would have a bored everyone I am certain.

Nevertheless, the Mayor did speak last night. I should have timed him but he certainly spoke much longer than the one minute that the Chair said that everyone would be allowed to speak. In fact, the Mayor disrespected everyone in the room and the Chair by speaking for so long. I guess he thought that he could do so because only he controls a “kill button.” It was necessary for the Chair to interrupt him finally and to ask him to stop speaking. He agreed to do so but then spoke for another couple of minutes.

I think that I will use the Mayor’s precedent when I speak at Council next time. I will ignore the Chair and the Procedural Bylaw at Council the way that the Mayor disrespected the Chair and the rules last night.

CIBPA’s basic position as expressed by the Chair was that there is an URGENCY to forging agreements to expedite the construction of the international crossings in Windsor. He also said that there should be INTOLERANCE over any additional studies or threats of litigation or acts of delay. Finally he said that there is an IMMEDIATE NEED for economic initiatives to stimulate the local economy to create new jobs to the attraction of new industry and commerce.

There were probably about a dozen people or so who spoke and within the time constraint imposed by the Chair. The feeling in the room as far as I was concerned was frustration, anger, and fear. No one really understood what was going on in this City other than they felt it sinking and that no one was doing anything about it. The most telling comment was by the gentleman who is unemployed and said that he just wanted to find a job.

I wonder if the Mayor and Councillors will get it considering that Dan Stamper of the Bridge Company got a longer and louder round of applause than the Mayor!

No offense to the Organizers but they are politically naïve. The Mayor and his fellow Councilors were probably laughing themselves silly after they left the session. Nothing was going to be accomplished. There was no pressure on them. The Mayor was allowed to present his revision of the Border history as if it actually took place.

CIBPA want to set up a political action group and that makes sense. However they need to understand the purpose of the group is to take action against politicians and not try to make love with them. After listening to the Mayor, they should understand that. He has no interest in making what they want to do work unless it helps them achieve his Agenda whatever that is.

The most dramatic moment of the meeting and the one that explained why the hopes of the Organizers will never take place unless they are politically active occurred when the Mayor gave his diatribe and was then followed by Dan Stamper of the Bridge Company.

The Mayor was there not for the purposes of the Organizers but rather to blame everyone else for the fact that there is no border deal.

Well not quite everyone, he did say that there was something that was going to be announced in a few weeks between the City and the Federal Government. I assume that means that when Minister Baird came down here he negotiated the purchase price for the Brighton Beach property with the City. You know Brighton Beach… that is the place that the Mayor pretended that he wanted to put the jail in order to put pressure on the Senior Levels. Speaking of the Jail, I did not see a story about that in the Star either. I guess Eddie really does believe now what he was told that if the location of the jail is opposed it will be moved out of Windsor.

The Mayor was there to protect himself from having the finger of blame pointed at him if in fact the Senior Levels decide that they have had enough of Windsor. His purpose for being at the session was to try to have CIBPA pressure the Premier to bow down to Eddie’s demands respecting Greenlink, as if that is ever going to happen. The Mayor wanted to appear so conciliatory by saying that in fact that the City wanted mediation… of course he forgot to tell people that the terms of mediation are his and his alone and that the Province must agree to his terms if that is to happen.

I was interested as well that he threw in health problems of children and of cancer and of all of the horrors that you can think as if that was supposed to impress anyone. It is a shame though that he did not mention the reason why he forgot to release the DRIC response to the MoE memo about health issues.

I am not going to get fully into what the Mayor said because he rewrote what happened in the past. There’s no point trying to correct him because the amnesia disease at City Hall has affected what he remembers.

I will give you one instance where he talked about the Border Infrastructure Fund of $300 million and then had it turn into his huge success of getting that amount increased to $1.6 billion. Of course, the two programs are completely different, BIF and DRIC, but not in the world of Eddie Francis when it comes to his glory.

For another, as the person who created the expression "Montréal-to-Tijuana trucks," I believe that I can recall a lot more clearly why citizens opposed trucks on E C Row than the Mayor. It was not keep trucks off of the Expressway but rather to prevent it being a precursor to the DRTP truck road.

The Mayor spoke for much too long. If he really wanted to help CIBPA achieve its objective, all he had to do was turn to the left from the microphone where he was speaking and look at Dan Stamper who is probably sitting three or 4 feet away. All that the Mayor had to do was invite Dan to come to his office today to resolve the differences between the City and the Bridge Company. Stamper said that he was there to do so. The Mayor issued no such invitation. Why not if he meant what he said.

If the City and Bridge Company formed an alliance by working out a deal, do you truly believe that the Senior Levels would dare oppose them? Immediately we would have jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment that would force the Senior Levels to build a proper road to the Ambassador Bridge. That would create even more high-paying jobs for years, thousands of them.

• "Transport and Infrastructure Minister John Baird assured the gathering [just yesterday in Washington DC] that a new bridge between Windsor and Detroit, through which one-quarter of all Canada-U.S. trade flows, "has been and will continue to be the number one infrastructure project for Canada."

Of course, the Mayor did not do so. The Bridge Company is the City’s “enemy.” That is what the Mayor called them before. I guess he forgot that last night when he claimed that he has no bad feelings against them and was not trying to hurt them.

I talked to Stamper just after he arrived at the Club and asked him whether he was going to speak. He said to me that it was not his intention to do so. However, after the Mayor spoke, he did and he did so immediately.

He effectively called the Mayor’s bluff. The Mayor claimed that he was prepared to talk to other parties. Stamper acknowledged that this was true. He reminded the crowd that the Mayor and Council were prepared to listen to his Company’s billion dollar proposal for all of 10 minutes at Council. When he asked for an extension of five minutes, he was unanimously refused by Council. No one would dare put up their hand to allow him to do so.

He made a mockery of the Mayor’s suggestion that he was not opposing his Company. Remember, that the Star has not reported this story either for reasons that only the Star knows.

Stamper told the attendees that the City passed a Resolution (in a vote of six to three in camera at Council last Monday I am told, with Council MOM not being there,) to hire another lawyer, a US one this time, to oppose the Coast Guard decision that the Bridge Company Enhancement Project was of “no significant impact.” In other words, the Mayor is trying to put another roadblock in front of the Company, this time in United States as Mr. Estrin tried to do before in Cleveland. Dan was generous enough not to talk about the Interim Control and Anti-Demolition By-laws, the Heritage study and the Sandwich CIP as well.

Finally, and this was the ultimate insult to the Mayor, Stamper asked any of the contractors who were present if they were demolition contractors as well. He said that he had some homes to tear down and, as everyone laughed when he said that because of the Indian Road fiasco, he just said to the Mayor that he was “just kidding Mayor.”

I give the Organizers credit for at least starting something. It is about time that major organizations in this City banded together to take this City back from a Mayor and Council that are so out of touch with reality that it is sickening.

The one mistake that they made last night was not involving the Community at large. It is fine to involve business organizations and labour unions but that will not impress this Mayor and Council. They are viewed as nothing more than troublemaking pressure groups who are working for the Senior Levels and others with a vested interest. In fact, I hope none of the Organizers have to appear in front of City Council in the next little while for any kind of approval or a favourable decision from Council.

The Citizens of Windsor who are sick and tired of what is going on here must be involved. If the Organizers do not understand this and do not understand it quickly then they are wasting their time. When this City had the Senior Levels and the Americans eating out of their hands, it was not something achieved because of what the Mayor and Council did or any pressure group. It was accomplished by the power that was given to our civic leaders by the Citizens of Windsor uniting together for the good of the City.

I was there. I was involved. I saw it happen. No politician dared oppose what the Citizens of Windsor wanted if they had any hope of being reelected. We understood it and so did the politicians. I know several of them who changed their positions dramatically because they knew they would not be reelected unless they did so immediately.

That kind of feeling must be achieved again. Citizens of Windsor are tired of all of this but must be called upon one more time to take back this City from politicians who do not understand what we want. If CIBPA can forge an alliance between the groups they have talked so far and the Citizens of Windsor, then we will truly have a situation where this City will prosper again in spite of the politicians who claim that they are working on our behalf.