Is DRIC Dropping Windsor

I am sure that you read the old news in the Star today about the Michigan hearings about DRIC. I bet it would not break the Mayor's heart if it all turned into chaos. He might even take the credit for it too to help (along with the arena) to get him re-elected.

If it is true that Senior Level mandarins are trying to figure out what to do about Windsor these days, I thought I should speculate on what would happen if DRIC is ended.

After spending all of this money, you might wonder why anyone would want to terminate DRIC before it has come up with its answer. What better time to do it before someone gets angry if DRIC makes the "wrong" choice! A crossing at Sterling Fuels would cause a war in Windsor while one in Delray West would equally cause a call to arms! Both scenarios are possible too.

Who would want to end DRIC? The easier question is who still wants it around? The process has become farcical, the locations that seem to be the ones chosen will result in Sandwich or Delray suffering (unless they build the S-bridge or diagonal bridge) and the costs of a new crossing seem astronomical ie at least $3.5-4 billion including the cost of the infrastructure and bridge. Yet who knows if we need one with the traffic projections not being that optimistic any more. [Wait until the border ID issue and no smoking rules are factored in.]

The jockeying right now is to see if one side can pass the blame to the other for ending the project. Who will do it in the end?

Alternative 1---Our side. Windsor is a problem for the Conservatives. I expect that DRIC will choose a crossing landing at Sterling Fuels which will get the Mayor and Council all hot and bothered. Estrin will be called in to sue but before he does, the Feds will call it all off.

Alternative 2---Their side. If Delray West is picked, then Kwame and his Council will call the Governor to remind her of their Resolution. And if she doesn't terminate DRIC, the Republicans will after embarrassing MDOT and showing that the Governor is responsible for a huge waste of money. It's an election year for the Michigan Governor remember.

Alternative 3---Both sides. Regardless which choice is made, the total cost will be too high so the Report will be tabled to gather dust. And an S-bridge or diagonal bridge as our "Signature Bridge" to be the laughing stock of the world....

If DRIC ends, will the BIF money go too? If the $300 million does and jobs are lost here because of that, someone's head will be on the line. That should be Eddie's major concern since it will be his head, especially after the carrot he held out at the Heavy Construction Association meeting. After the "Snub" by the Mayor, I can see the Senior Levels pretending to do so to make him squirm and to teach him a lesson in power politics.

However, I do not think it will end since money is provided for "reducing border congestion and expanding infrastructure capacity over the medium term." DRIC really has nothing to do with this since they are involved in long-term projects. It may require a new Mayor before we get the money, someone who is capable of negotiating what is right for Windsor but in a proper manner without offending the other side.

Obviously, the ending of DRIC cuts off the money for the long-term. Thus we will have no new bridge being built under Government auspices. It's the "No-action" solution that can be justified because of traffic declines. That means no bridge in Sandwich (or Delray). Certain Sandwich residents and their Councillors and probably the Mayor too will take credit for this massive victory that saved the Sandwich heritage.

But this "victory" may result in their ultimate worst nightmare. What will they do then?

What will the alternative be if DRIC ends?

• No Action---probably for the short term until traffic gradually picks up since the new customs booths opened by the Bridge Co. solved the short-term problems
• a private DRTP project----hardly, they do not have a chance any more after everyone has knocked them around so much (the Rail lands by-law OMB hearing is starting May 1) and it does not seem that they have the money for a "tunnelled" DRTP without massive Government intervention
• 200 booths at the Ambassador Gateway...likely since its cost is relatively low and it can clear through Customs double the traffic capacity of all of the existing crossings in SW Ontario.
• Bridge at Ojibway...unlikely since Mich-Can would be finished and that was never the Bridge Co.'s first choice for a location. I think they might have gone there to please Eddie at one time but not now after he has tried to paint them as the "bad guys" on the border issue. It MIGHT come back if the 4 Governments want a public bridge and are willing to litigate against the Bridge Co. but I just do not see that happening either

But we know what the obvious result is don't we: the twinning of the Ambassador Bridge. It was bound to happen and we got clear indication of that when DRIC eliminated the Bridge Co's proposal from the long-term review. As I wrote previously:

• [DRIC stated] "However, the Canadian evaluation notes a second span of the Ambassador Bridge would be an expansion of the existing crossing, not a new crossing of the river with new connections to the freeway systems in Ontario and Michigan."
  
  Since the Bridge Co.'s Twinned Bridge or 200 booth proposal is considered an expansion of the existing crossing, the Bi-national has no control over them. The Bridge Co. can now act on their own. ..After all, it is not a NEW proposal but expansion of an existing corridor to the border. "

Isn't it ironic, that those who considered themselves the biggest enemies of the Bridge Co. in fact turned out to be the ones who are responsible for them being the builders of the next crossing.

We will be back again to the more mundane issue of how traffic will get to the existing bridge and then the 200 booths or a Twinned Bridge in the future. Of course we can go back to the trucks and eventual problems on Huron Church by doing nothing. But we won't.

We will build the DRIC road to the Ambassador Bridge using the $300 million BIF funds since our industry needs work and we need jobs. The Senior Levels will see to that. Schwartz made it easy now since his suggested routes incorporated Talbot Road and our Mayor and Councillors endorsed it no matter what they say.

We will NOT have to worry about a tunnel on Talbot Road. The Senior Levels will expropriate the properties there that are needed. If one wants to argue for a tunnel, the better position is to build one in the Sandwich area as required. That would happen since the Senior Levels do have to give something to that area after the residents there were lulled into a false sense of security thinking that a Sterling Fuels bridge would not happen.

I don't see the Senior Levels building the Tunnel plaza either. The City's plans make little sense since they do not move a single vehicle through more quickly. They won't waste $30 million on a Brighton Beach East parking lot. I expect the Bridge Co. to make another bid to operate the Tunnel which Detroit will accept and Windsor will be forced into it as well. [Note: Eddie left that route wide open as his fall-back if Detroit rejects his advances. The Windsor City Auditor's notes distributed to Detroit Council said Windsor prefers to have the Tunnel operated as a "utility" for the benefit of Windsor and Detroit. That does NOT mean that there is no role for a manager/operator such as the Bridge Co.] And then the Bridge Co. will make the Tunnel work!

There can be a fly in the ointment. I can see some local politicans playing silly games again. Let's assume that they are that dumb to actually start a lawsuit against the Senior Levels to prove a point whatever that may be (Oh my...now you see why I am against 4 year terms for municipal councils). In that case, we will get what we want in Windsor----tranquility as industry pulls out and the $300 million goes to build Sarnia/Port Huron and the east-west corridor.

Hopefully, we will see through that stratagem and throw out of office anyone so foolish as to suggest that tactic!