Bordering On The Sublime Or ...

What a day yesterday was. A whole range of emotions from gloating over a seeming victory to worrying about what will happen next. I’ve been there before with Council resolutions that meant little to bureaucrats who were the “decision-makers,” quiet by-law changes that almost thwarted the will of the Community, and announcements by a Prime Minister and Premier that seemed to give hope but then seemed to be ignored.

Let’s get out the good news first. This was a total victory for the group I founded, OJIBWAY NOW! and for the group of which I was General Counsel previously, STOPDRTP and the Windsorites who supported us so strongly for almost 3 years now.

DRTP should be dead, finally! As was clear for years now:

• “The capacity provided by the Detroit River Tunnel Partnership (DRTP) two-lane truckway proposal was determined to be inadequate to serve the region’s long-term needs.
  
  It was also determined that a six-lane freeway following the Canadian Southern (CASO) Rail corridor in Canada, to a new river crossing, would have caused major community impacts in significant urban areas on the Canadian side of the border.

As for the new crossing, the obvious corridor was picked—OJIBWAY! What more needs to be said.

The big surprise to me was that only one corridor was chosen and that both DRTP and the Twinned Bridge were killed off now. Did someone in Government get guts finally? I had heard rumours of this decision for several weeks now including that our Cabinet members/MPPs, Sandra and Dwight, were to make the announcement last week! I guess someone decided that we Canadians were “courteous” after all and that we should not try to out-Granholm Granholm and follow proper etiquette.

I expect the inevitable risk of lawsuits will happen as the losing parties threaten legal action. That is my biggest worry that may delay the process.

What else can one say after DRTP’s Marge Byington’s press release the day before Kwame was re-elected. The threat is there. I frankly doubt if DRTP will sue since they would probably never get their connection to I-75 if Kwame had his way after Marge’s comments against him in Today’s Trucking magazine.

The Bridge Co. might be angry but for different reasons. Why the Twinned Bridge was killed off when it was ranked highly as well is the big mystery to me. The reason given---"twinning the existing Ambassador Bridge was determined to not be practical based on the community impacts of the proposed plaza and access road in Canada"---makes little sense to me. Obviously, the plaza location the Bi-national identified for the Twinned Bridge killed that project but the Bridge Co. never supported that location at all as far as I recall. Strange!

But it is more than that. The Bridge Co. owns most of the the land on both sides of the border where the crossing goes and they "own" the business now across the border, especially the truck traffic. They are not going to give up their operations to anyone without a fight or a very big cheque.

And if one wants to talk politics, the Michigan Governor and Detroit Mayor like the Bridge Co. for the developments proposed and jobs to be created on their side.

The biggest losers have to be Mayor Francis and the Councillors. According to the Mayor, he was briefed today on the decision. So much for Windsor having a seat at the table and being a partner in the process.

It is just dessert for a Mayor who can now be seen to have wasted so much time, effort and taxpayer dollars on a short-term billion dollar dream that made no sense instead of rallying Windsorites for the long-term, Ojibway solution. Imagine where we would be now if the Mayor and Council had truly focused on the reasons for which they were elected.

Of course, heaven forbid, the Mayor may still try and salvage his Tunnel dream. A strong argument can be made that the Tunnel’s value has been diminished greatly by today’s announcement so that may no longer be possible. Therefore, Council can get back to running the city and not a border crossing, as exciting as that may be!

Oh watch the Mayor get on his high horse about trucks on E C Row, even temporarily (or he might even cave in on that to save face with the Senior Levels). No one will say that the route chosen by the Bi-national was effectively that identified by the Bridge Co. as part of their solution and they NEVER suggested putting trucks on E C Row during construction.

So what should be done now? We will have to determine if a new crossing is really needed with the fall in traffic or if needed, when it should be built. I see the language---“The Partnership will continue to explore the U.S. customs plaza area of the Ambassador Bridge to connect to a potential customs plaza on the Canadian side in the remaining area of continued analysis”---which may mean that the 200 booth proposal is on the table finally and with reverse customs. We need to assess what the impact of a new crossing will be on existing crossings since we do not want to bankrupt them, especially the City-owned Tunnel.

Assuming that the 200 booth proposal works for 20-25 years, or even if it does not and we decide to build now, we need to identify exactly and protect the corridor to the new crossing. Quoting from the letter I and my colleagues sent to the Mayor and Council back in December 2003:

• "We offer the following solution:
  -Provide a by-pass away from the densely populated areas of Windsor to a new bridge focusing on the Ojibway West corridor
  -Commence the environmental assessment of Hwy. #3/ Huron Church Road from Howard Avenue to the E.C. Row Expressway interchange and the Ojibway West Corridor immediately
  -Commence engineering work on the Ojibway West Corridor to determine the best routing to minimize impact
  -Expropriate/move the Ambassador Bridge Co.’s Montreal-to-Tijuana truck traffic for the benefit of the Community in a manner consistent with other such actions by the City [when required]
  -Utilize the Ojibway West Corridor and the new bridge for this international truck traffic
  -Use the existing bridge for car and local international truck traffic only to give local businesses, the tourist trade and commuters an advantage.
  -Immediately start a dialogue with the relevant stake-holders including citizens groups, Governments, the Ambassador Bridge, to deal with how we are going to accomplish this solution in a timely manner.
  
  Our solution accomplishes many objectives that support the economy, international trade and protects Windsor:
  
  1. It meets the needs of our region and the nation’s economy now
  2. It gives our area an economic advantage for diversity and the economic boost it needs
  3. Huron Church Road from the E.C. Row Expressway to the foot of the Ambassador Bridge can be turned into a new Windsor destination centre
  4. It moves the Montreal-to-Tijuana trucks out of the densely populated areas and can help keep them off city streets.
  5. Highway 401 is finally completed to the border
  6. E C Row is preserved for the Community
  7. Our suggested corridor to the border would not result in major traffic congestion and therefore not interfere with ongoing cross border traffic so vital to the Canadian economy.
  8. Our routing can be set up as a secured corridor to support the anti-terrorism initiatives of the Canadian and U.S. Governments
  9. While our corridor is designated as a truck route, it could be used for auto traffic redundancy if an emergency situation arose."