Coming Home To Roost

Gord Henderson generously attributes Eddie's problems these days to bad luck or the cyclical auto industry slowdown or just bad timing!

Yet, in his column dated January 6, 2004, Gord wrote:

• Francis conceded this will be an "extremely challenging" year. Those challenges include some anticipated bad economic news that can't be revealed at this point (that sounds ominous) but which will necessitate increased efforts to diversify and attract new industry.

There is bad news for our two major industries in town. The job situation has not been good for Windsor and it is getting worse.

First, we lose 1100 Ford jobs. Then we lose 600 Chrysler jobs. Next, how many GM jobs will be sacrificed? But that is not all. How many spin-off jobs will be lost because of the downturn in the auto industry? Don’t those auto execs ever wonder who is going to be able to buy a car if the numbers of unemployed keep increasing?

If that is not a kick where it hurts, we read also that "Windsor's hospitality and retail industries were hit with "scary" news Tuesday when Statistics Canada revealed the number of same-day car travellers from the United States tumbled to its lowest monthly number on record." We experienced a 12.7% drop in traffic. Just to make us feel oh so much better, the Statscan analyst quoted said "We have no idea what's going to happen from here."

What increased efforts have we made to diversify and attract new industry?

Knowing about the Mayor’s platform promise to create a knowledge based industry here, I tried to help. I introduced some time ago the concept of the "Innovation Centre" that was started in Sault Ste. Marie to help out that community. "The Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre is a not-for-profit organization with a mandate to assist Sault Ste. Marie District with economic diversification in Information Technology or knowledge based industries. By developing innovative partnerships with industry, government, and other public organizations, the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre is a "catalyst for change"

Their former head came down to Windsor at my invitation to assist us in looking at the concept to see if it would work here. I believe he prepared a paper on the subject. I even pushed for his hiring, given his experience, to cut down on the time needed for us to create something similar. Why re-invent the wheel after all since the idea made good sense to me.

I brought forward the idea of building on Enwin's expertise (and to make them some money) by turning Windsor "wireless" ie everyone in town would have wireless broadband connection to the Internet to provide inexpensive access and VoIP telephony. [Oakland County across the river is doing this now] More than that Windsor could have become a "showcase" for a major hardware company in North America so that we could attract technology innovators here to use our city as a testbed for the latest technologies.

Unfortunately, everything got bogged down as the City and County did their myriad of studies into what we should be doing. An Economic Development Statement is to be released in a few weeks, on October 3.

Remember what the Mayor said at his Chamber of Commerce Speech – Managing Your Money Better in May 2004:

• "I also understand, that often, the best thing that a government can do to help business, can be summarized in five words:
  
  Get out of the way!
  
  When governments leave businesses alone to do what they do best, it is
  amazing the innovation and creativity that takes form."

So what did we do in Windsor? Did we follow our Mayor's advice? Hardly. Our Statement is being prepared by the CAO's of the City and the County, with the help of a consultant from KPMG, staff from the City and County and an Advisory Committee of Chamber, Education and private sector representatives.

We will see the Eddie "future vision," in the Gord Henderson column today (It had been postponed for some reason). That future vision will earn tremendous praise I am sure from the Star Editorial writers.

Next we will have the Statement 10 days later which will fit in remarkably well with what has already been disclosed.

Finally, we will need a catalyst, a big event to get everyone excited about how our Region is going to prosper. I have it. Why not set up a conference similar to the one Alfie Morgan talked about in the Letters to the Editor section of the Star a few days ago. Alfie was acting CAO after Dennis left before and so he can step in again to help out the Mayor.

Now I feel better. Hey buddy, I can spare that dime now.