Senator Kenny's "Dirty Little Secret"

Is the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel a "jewel" that the City must keep as an asset or has it become a "liability" such that we should sell it immediately as the City rationalizes its assets and its value is high? I ask this after hearing about the downturn in traffic at the Tunnel and about the huge amounts being needed to fix it up. More importantly, I thought about it even more after the Mayor’s idea of subsidizing NEXUS holders to try to bring back business to Windsor.

Are we speaking out of both sides of our mouth?

On the one hand, we supposedly need a new border crossing immediately for the emergency that we are in since volumes will grow dramatically in the future. On the other hand, we need to "subsidize" NEXUS holders, according to the Mayor, to get traffic to Windsor as volumes decrease dramatically.

Which is it?

Factually, the Bi-national has admitted that their traffic numbers were wrong and stated that the Bridge has another extra 10 years of capacity left. What if their projections are even more off?

Perhaps it may be that there really is no crisis other than Senator Kenny’s "Dirty Little Secret?"

• "Border uncertainty serves the interest of certain businesses and some local politicians in Michigan by making Canada a less attractive place to invest capital."

In other words, we need another new crossing and to spend hundreds of millions of dollars earlier than needed NOT because of volumes but because of a PERCEPTION that there is a problem!

"If industry perceives the border crossings at Windsor-Detroit to be unreliable, then in time Canada will see negative impacts such as less investment, and even disinvestment. As Gerald Fedchun, President of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, said, "We don't think that perception is there just yet, but others can use the uncertainty against us."

So if it is true that the traffic numbers are low and if it is also true that the City is concerned about the future of the Tunnel, then what would the premature building of a new crossing do? Clearly, it could bankrupt the Tunnel!

Remember that the Ambassador Bridge plan would have 200 Customs booths to speed traffic through. A new bridge would also be required to provide passenger redundancy so cars could use that state-of the art facility. Who would or who would want to use the Tunnel’s cramped and outdated facilities when there were better alternatives? If the Mayor thought the Bridge Company’s plans would hurt the Tunnel, imagine what another crossing would do to the Tunnel’s bottom-line!

So the obvious answer is to sell the Tunnel isn’t it? Sell it at the highest price possible before it goes broke! While that may seem to be obvious, politically, that is not going to happen under this Council and it may not be the best solution anyway!

What makes better sense is to figure out what is going on, determine what is needed, plan for it and then communicate that strategy to the World! We already are there if people would only open their eyes:

• We have solved the short-term problems by opening up new booths into the US and building new "insurance" booths into Canada
• The medium-term is solved by the Bridge Company’s new plans
• The long-term is solved by Gridlock Sam’s OJIBWAY solution (although we still need to work on the best way to get there)
• We need to recognize that there is no money in the Federal budget for a new crossing (another federal election is coming and the Liberals do need to give away "goodies") and nothing will happen financially with the Province until after 2010
• We need to be smart and "set aside" the new corridor to the border so that nothing is built on it until needed
• We build when needed and not just to solve "perception" issues
• And we need to communicate to the World that there is no problem in Windsor and that we have a well-thought out plan for the future ie we need to stop feeding and to start killing the perception that we have a problem so that business and tourists are not scared away any longer. We need a new auto plant here already!

If we follow this simple strategy, the Tunnel still has a future (and the City an asset of value) since we are not building now capacity that we do not need and will not take away business from the Tunnel that it needs. We will have a strategy developed and a location chosen such that when a new crossing is needed, it can be built in a proper time-frame. If communicated properly, then Business can do their long-term planning knowing that Windsor, Ontario and Canada have a border that works!

We all win