Where's the $300 Million Already

How would you like to go and meet an industry group that has been suffering with this economy and tell them that you have had a couple of hundred million dollars in your pocket over the last few years but because of your inability to complete a deal, they cannot have it. That was the task that Mayor Francis and his buddy, Gridlock Sam faced the other night in their presentation to the Heavy Construction Association of Windsor.

A friend of mine attended the session and sent me this summary.

• "Schwartz's presentation started when the Mayor arrived at close to 8:30pm. For many in the room who were not up on the subject, it was enlightening and a solution. For those of us who have been following this for some time, it was just another story that may or may not happen.
  
  It seemed to be a well-rehearsed presentation that they tagged teamed together on. Sam's presentation lasted about 25 to 30 minutes, followed by Sam and Eddie taking questions for about 30 minutes.
  
  Sam spent most of the night pumping up the contractors on how much work they would be getting through this plan and how they need to be creative and innovative in their methods of construction, mitigating traffic confusion and disruption during the construction period and how to be proactive in keeping the flow of international trucks flowing freely across the border until construction is completed. Sam told them that if they did all this in their bid packages it would help keep out the big construction conglomerates from coming here and taking their work.
  
  It was the perfect lead-in for Eddie to tell the contractors that the city has increased the capital works budget this year and will be for the next few years in order to get the "city needed" projects done now before all this infrastructure work comes to them. He told them he doesn't want them to be tied down with small city projects so that they miss out on all the big money projects.
  
  Sam was directly asked about the project being turned into a tunnel project instead of on grade. He said that he is aware of no tunnel cost analysis or construction difficulties and no construction cost of a tunnel has been estimated to date. He did say he was rather surprised that no has come forward with a cost projection for a tunnel project. Then he said he really didn't want to offer comment on alternatives suggested by members from the floor.
  
  Sam spent alot of time convincing everyone that the Bi-National Group's proposal won't work and showed them why. Eddie followed up with a 15 minute bashing of the Bi-National's presentation and how we must fight against it and if we don't press forward with the city's plan we would be doing a dis-service to the community we live and raise our families in.
  
  I did find it very interesting next when Sam went off on a tangent about how we should be very alarmed that the owners of the Ambassador Bridge will not release their maintenance records to the public. He said because they won't release these records we are vulnerable and we are being held hostage by the Bridge Corp. He went on to say that with his experience in New York he demanded and got to see records of many bridges to ensure public safety and we should be entitled to the same. He said he finds it odd that they won't release the records and because of that what are they hiding? He said if we don't get those records there is a real potential for a disaster in this community."
  
  Between Sam and Eddie they summarized that their proposal was the real solution to our international truck problem and that we all should be on board as partners in getting the job done and done by Windsor contractors.

Just a few comments:

1. I would not be too thrilled at the presentation if I were a contractor. What it says is that I won't be getting any major jobs for several more years. The carrot is there but in the interim, all I will be getting is some some small "city-needed" projects. [ I wonder if Eddie talked about "local prefernce" or rather "fair wages" to get these guys onside. Isn't that to come before Council soon?]
2. I wonder if any of the contractors were the ones who told Councillor Brister last Saturday to "stay strong" and litigate. He "said the city could be forced to sue the government and tie up the border plan in the courts if route concerns are not addressed." Lots of macho talk. I wonder why our lawyer/Mayor did not explain to Councillor Budget that contractors may not be too pleased not to have construction work while the lawyers earn their fees in court for years and years.
3. I wonder if the Feds and Province are paying for the funds if they will prefer contractors they know or local ones. Since "local perference" is not legal, our guys may not get any of the work or just sub-contract work.
4. If it is a tunnel project rather than a "road" project, do local contractors have this experience or will they have to act as a sub-trade only
5. I wish I knew how they explained away the DRIC plan based on what Council endorsed in secret.
6. I guess that Sam is trying to get the Bridge Co. to sue him. If that happens, he gets to see their "secret" records in the Discovery process. I guess he (or maybe our lawyer/Mayor) thinks he can sucker them. It is not a game I'd like to play with a company that is not afraid to litigate!
7. I happened to meet a Government person the other day and co-incidentally asked about the Bridge records. He said that they met all legal requirements in what they produced so I am not sure what the issue is.
8. I guess Eddie really does not want to work with the Bridge Co. if this was part of Sam's message. It must still grate Eddie that the Bridge Co. out-manoeuvered him so completely and ruined his grand ambition!

What bothers me the most about all of this is that we are back where we were three years ago. We have lost sight of what our objective is: a long-term solution to the border, not a road design competition between Schwartz and DRIC. We are reactive again, not pro-active. We have lost our seat at the table and are now a proponent not a decision-maker.

How could we fall so far so fast. From the Prime Minister, Premier and US Ambassador asking us what we want to Councillor Valentinis asking why no one listens to us! I wish someone would tell me how that happened.

I was thinking tonight--why couldn't Eddie have mobilized Windsorites back in mid-2004 when he knew the Senior Levels were going nowhere on this rather than in 2006.

Compare how Eddie and Council acted with that of the Downriver Michigan politicans. Compare their results with ours. What went so wrong for us?