Councillor Dilkens Is A Non-Person

I demand a new election in Ward 1. The person I thought was my Councillor has disappeared off the face of the earth it seems.

Now I attended the Assumption School meeting on Saturday and I thought that Councillor Drew Dilkens was the only political person who spoke who made any sense there. He talked about the reality of the Bridge Co. being at the river as a border crossing and that we should talk to them and not fight them. He also said that no matter what, even with a new bridge, truck traffic would still go over the Ambassador Bridge and that we had to deal with it.

The Star quoted him in an early story but something happened between then and now. He must have been abducted by aliens. The published Star story did not mention his quotes. Oh it also did not mention that our tunneling Mayor was invited to come to speak but he did not even send regrets for not showing up to a tunneling meeting in Ward 2. That's bad for his election fight in October!

Here is the online story that the Star first published after the meeting:

• Tunnel only option for new border crossing
  Dale Molnar, Windsor Star
  
  WINDSOR -- Tunneling the access road to the new border crossing isn’t the top priority. It’s the only option. That was the message Coun. Bill Marra and other local politicians presented to representatives from the Detroit River International Crossing group Saturday afternoon at Assumption High School.
  
  The school council held an information meeting on the new crossing that drew about 50 concerned citizens, Windsor MP’s Brian Masse and Joe Comartin, councillors Ron Jones, Drew Dilkens and Bill Marra as well as Dave Wake the manager of the planning office of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and Murray Thompson, DRIC project manager.
  
  Wake said the tunneling option is still on the table.
  
  He said he has heard opinions for and against tunneling at the open houses on the preferred options for the crossings and the plazas.
  
  “People in our ministry and the people at Queens Park are well aware of the sentiments in this community and all of the issues including the desire for tunneling,” said Wake.
  
  Truck Watch group coordinator Mary Ann Cuderman and Coun. Ron Jones also spoke out about locating the new bridge on the Sterling Fuel property in Sandwich Towne.
  
  “We have the potential of the loss of at least a third of Sandwich Towne when you consider access roads and plazas,” said Cuderman, including a twinning of the Ambassador Bridge, which she and Jones also spoke against.
  
  Coun. Drew Dilkens angered a number of audience members when he suggested traffic congestion on Huron Church Road had dropped dramatically since Sept. 11, 2001.
  
  He also raised their ire when he suggested the city needs to ensure smooth travel along Huron Church to the Ambassador Bridge.
  
  “I don’t view this as being at war with the Ambassador Bridge. I would rather engage them and make them part of the process,” said Dilkens.
  
  City council is holding off passing a resolution on a preferred option for the crossing, the plaza and tunneling the access route until Mayor Eddie Francis can hold further meetings with Ontario Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield.
  
  However, he said all councillors are in favour of the tunneling option.

Here is the newspaper version of the story . Notice the difference? Drew Dilkens did not exist except in name only!

• Tunnelling option supported
  Dale Molnar, Windsor Star Published: Monday, March 05, 2007
  
  Tunnelling the access road to the new border crossing isn't the top priority: It's the only option.
  
  That was the message local politicians presented to representatives from the Detroit River International Crossing group Saturday afternoon at a town meeting at Assumption High School.
  
  "You want to eliminate those international trucks ... coming through our neighbourhoods and communities," said Windsor West MP Brian Masse.
  
  "I don't know of any other community in Canada ... where kids go to school with backpacks for air monitoring. That's how obscene the situation has become."
  
  The meeting, sponsored by the school council, drew about 50 concerned citizens, Windsor MP Joe Comartin, councillors Bill Marra, Ron Jones, Drew Dilkens and Dave Wake, manager of the planning office of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, as well as Murray Thompson, DRIC project manager.
  
  Wake said the tunnelling option is still on the table.
  
  "People in our ministry and the people at Queens Park are well aware of the sentiments in this community and all of the issues, including the desire for tunneling," Wake said.
  
  He apologized for a report in an internal Transportation Ministry newsletter that suggested "many visitors" to recent public open houses were opposed to tunnelling and aghast at the $3.8-billion pricetag.
  
  Windsor-St. Clair MP Joe Comartin said the upper levels of government have to realize they're going to have to spend "billions and billions of dollars" on the new crossing and route.
  
  "There were some really stupid mistakes made historically ...we cannot let that happen again this time," said Comartin, referring to decisions to end the 401 outside Windsor rather than continuing it to the bridge.
  
  He said the community is entitled to have a new bridge that is a "high quality, architecturally significant structure.
  
  "We may be able to argue that this is the most important crossing in the world and it should be a signature piece."
  
  Truck Watch group co-ordinator Mary Ann Cuderman and Coun. Ron Jones spoke out against locating the new bridge on the Sterling Fuel property in Sandwich Towne.
  
  "We have the potential of the loss of at least a third of Sandwich Towne when you consider access roads and plazas," said Cuderman, including a twinning of the Ambassador Bridge, which she and Jones were against.
  
  Transport Canada has issued a call for public comment on the Ambassador Bridge enhancement project, which includes twinning the span as part of an environmental assessment."

Notice also, according to the Star, that Dave Wake "apologized" in the second story for the newsletter that the Transport Ministry circulated. Well....... maybe he did but my recollection is that he said that what the Star story consisted of is one line in an article in an internal publication that was published to give people a flavour of what was going on in Windsor. Perhaps the Star could publish the whole newsletter so we could read it for ourselves.

The Star has become so predictable too. Do you really think that the Star will ask what the consequences would have been if the fire truck accident had occurred in a tunnel to the border. Instead, it will be made the Bridge Co.'s fault for the accident too.

Here is one quote in the story 'This hits home for us...':

• "That corner at the mouth of the Ambassador Bridge is a testament to the dangers firefighters face. Copeland and his buddies weren't the first to tangle with it. In 1989, four other firefighters were hurt after their truck spun out on wet pavement and hit a tree there."

Then the story about the accident in 1989: "Tragedy eerily similar"

Wait a minute, I have it. I understand what is going on.

The Star is trying to protect Dilkens just one more time from political oblivion. You remember the Henderson "Three blind mice" column. [...in a pathetic display of obsequiousness, decided that currying favour with an expansion-bent bridge company is more important than preserving one of the most significant historical and archeological areas in North America...The three councillors sided with an infuriated bridge company in opposing the passing of interim control and demolition control bylaws designed to halt the bulldozers in historic Olde Sandwich while imaginative plans for the community are moving forward.] Now the earlier Star story and now the later Star story.

The Editors have given Drew a fair warning. Speak out about reality about the border one more time and your political career is over before it even started in Windsor.

Oh and by the way if Councillor Marra ever thinks his Tunnel motion is coming back and if anyone is so stupid as to think we are ever having a tunnel in Windsor, here is what was also dropped:

• "City council is holding off passing a resolution on a preferred option for the crossing, the plaza and tunneling the access route until Mayor Eddie Francis can hold further meetings with Ontario Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield.
  
  However, he said all councillors are in favour of the tunneling option."

Notice also the subtle change in the headline. You see there will be no tunnel. It is only the Mayor's E C Row option out there now!