The Infamous Agenda Item #5 At City Council

Oh boy....when I get mad, I get mad. And was I ever mad as you shall read below at what was being proposed at Council on July 25, 2005 respecting the border. I wonder what the agenda is that someone is trying to move forward in this manner.

I am frankly disgusted with the manner in which Agenda Item #5 was put forward. The Mayor as CEO of the City must take ultimate responsibility for this. I believe it to be not in line with the professed objective of “open and transparent” Government at City Hall. Who would have thought that a subject entitled ‘Essex-Windsor Regional Transportation Master Plan’ is really a motion that includes endorsing the already failed Schwartz short-term strategy on the border and giving out a blank cheque to spend taxpayer money!

I suspect that certain members of Council are afraid of what citizens might have to say on the border. Council endorsed Schwartz in secret only and have never given citizens the formal opportunity to express our views. It is even more strange, that, at a time when Council is spending thousands of dollars on consultants to gather the views of constituents on border crossing corridors, it is effectively insulting its electorate by adopting the Schwartz “Horseshoe Road” before knowing what its citizens’ views are! In fact, the comments deadline was July 25 at 4 PM…only 2 hours before the Council meeting!

The comments of the City's outside lawer, David Estrin, have been around since March. Who on Council has read them during the last 4 months or were they as surprised as citizens to read them as well?

This item also makes a mockery of Council’s approach to fiscal responsibility and puts the financial stability of the City at risk. The motion is nothing more than writing a blank cheque to allow the Mayor and Council the right to spend an undefined sum of money on any project that they “deem necessary” at their discretion. It seems obvious that the $400 million “Horseshoe Road” will be the first roadway built with City taxpayer money since it is specifically mentioned in the motion.

Sure. Let’s go it alone. Let’s build roads to benefit international trucks only on the backs of our taxpayers.

Did you see anywhere in the motion a long-term solution strategy. Of course not. And you won’t. The Mayor has already conceded that the Bi-national is the final decision-maker. I did not give him the authority to make that concesion on my behalf.

It’s absurd. We did not elect this Mayor and this Council to rally citizens for a short-term solution when we no longer have a short-term problem. I repeat again----The short-term problem has been solved. The four Customs booths opened by the Ambassador Bridge Company ended back-ups on Huron Church Road. They are opening up to seven more on the US side and nine on the Canadian side to ensure border traffic flows smoothly. Their proposal to build 200 Customs booths if combined with reverse customs ought to solve our problems for 20 years or more, especially since the Bi-National Engineers have said that truck traffic is down, not up, contrary to their optimistic projections previously.

For what reason is this Mayor and Council perpetuating the myth of problems at the border? Don’t the Mayor and Council understand yet that these scare stories hurt Windsor’s economy? They should do what they were elected to do: focus on solving the long-term border issue!

Let me deal with specifically with the Mayor’s billion dollar short-term dream. It does not work so scrap it:

• The Mayor claimed that the Horseshoe Road would cost $400M and that it was costed out. Yet, the Peer Expert who examined Sam’s report said that Sam was excluded from the estimation of relative costs.
• The Horseshoe is just a big circle that puts the trucks back onto Huron Church. It’s the Ring Road only moved south. If the Bi-national decides on a different location for the border crossing, we have just wasted hundreds of millions of dollars of Windsor taxpayers money on a useless roadway.
• Imagine the City paying $300 million for the almost 100 year old rail tunnels to CP Rail/ OMERS, the companies that backed the intrusive DRTP. This gives them an immense profit on their project
• The City’s financing proposal to build the new train tunnel may violate the Strategic Infrastructure Fund rules since those rules only allow for 50% of a project to be financed.
• CP Rail has said the tunnel is merely on their "wish list" and there is no immediate pressure for it.
• As for the multi-modal Taj Mahal at the airport, VIA Rail does not want to move to Sam’s new Grand Central Station. There are only a few Toronto/Windsor trains per day anyway. Wasn’t the VIA train to Chicago cancelled already? And I thought Westjet pulled out of Windsor airport because it could not attract enough travellers to turn a profit.
• Why is there this fixation on the barge? Most truckers would not use it anyway if they had a choice. I am against City taxpayers being asked to spend our money to pay the private Ferry Company’s bills. If the venture makes sense economically, let that private operator pay for it
• Please explain why we should use up prime industrial land that the City accumulated at Brighton Beach and turn it into a gigantic truck parking lot.
• There is nothing in this motion to show our frustration and opposition to any suggestion that the Bi-national be continued on for many more years
• I understand that part of this was based on Mr. Estrin’s suggestions. He will be pleased. The provisions to take away business from the Bridge Company to give to their competitors, including the city-owned Tunnel, means that Gowlings will have a major lawsuit to fight on behalf of the City when the Bridge Company sues the City.

I am so tired of being fed short-term dreams and visions. I did not help elect a new small town Mayor and Council. Windsor is a great city and we deserve better. Rallying support for a short-term solution is not Thinking Big but supporting mediocrity. It means that Windsor has given up. That is unacceptable to me. I and my colleagues at OJIBWAY NOW! have not fought this battle to surrender.