The Mayor's "Annus Horribilis"

It has been an "annus horribilis" so far for Mayor Eddie Francis. Canderel is still on-going. The MFP settlement will cost taxpayers an extra $68 million. Financially, most of the major departments at City Hall are projecting deficits. Agenda Item #5 united border groups across the City against him. Extra costs at the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel. The arena fiasco. And now Eddie’s short-term, billion dollar, border Plan has fallen apart.

The Windsor Star Editorial--Trade minister is out of touch--means some still do not get it. The coup de grace respecting the border has been delivered. Finally a politician, and a Liberal Cabinet Minister too, has got it right. Finally a politician understands that pretending there is a crisis at the border is not helpful for Windsor or the economy of Canada. Finally a politician can say that "the border problems we've had in the past have been solved." Finally we might get a real solution.

Minister Peterson has confirmed what we all know, especially Mayor Eddie Francis who told us he monitors the border carefully. Truck backups on Huron Church Road became an urban legend after the 4 US Customs booths were opened by the Bridge Co. Now with the plans for 7 more booths, border capacity will increase by 50%. And this will be accomplished at a cost of only a few million dollars paid for by the Bridge Co. The new Bridge Co. proposal of 200 booths to be completed by the end of 2007 may solve our crossing problem for the next 20-30 years as well, again paid for by the Bridge Co.

So why would anyone, especially our Mayor, want to spend a billion dollars of taxpayer money to solve a problem that does not exist? It is time for Council to do what they were elected to do: rally Windsorite support now for the long-term solution: OJIBWAY NOW!