Here's The Latest News

Here is the latest news about the key events in our region from BLOG Central:

PARLIAMENT IN BIG TROUBLE

I am sure that you saw the front page story in the Windsor Star:

• Parliament Buildings crumbling
  Maria Cook, Tuesday, May 22, 2007
  
  OTTAWA - The Parliament Buildings are in such bad shape a minor earth tremor or lightning strike could set off an avalanche of stone and brick that could injure or kill someone, says one of Canada's leading stonemasons.
  
  
  
  "The state of disrepair is truly alarming," said Robert "Bobby" Watt, whose projects include the Library of Parliament, Centre Block and the Ontario legislature.
  
  "There's $500 million in emergency repairs that needs to be done now before people get killed. You can't just let it fall down."

I wonder if Brian Masse and/or Jeff Watson will stand up in the House and ask a question during Question Period to ask the PM or Minister of Transport if the damage is due to trucks going through the Ottawa/Hull region on the way to the Ambassador Bridge.

May as well blame that on the Bridge Co. too! Everything else is blamed on them.

PRIORITIES

I feel like an announcer at a basketball game.

"Ladies and gentlemen,

Here are your world-champion, 2007 Windsor City Council priorities:

1. improving the city's branding and image [hiring a staff of PR flacks for the Mayor]


2. improved relations with Essex County to enhance regional marketing [Work for the gazelle feeders]


3. beginning a service delivery review [son of 311...whatever happened to Citistat? Union busting at its finest coming up. Will Junior support it?]


4. a new engineering school for the University of Windsor [Can you say our new urban village]


5. the city's broadband capabilities through the Maxess fibreoptic network [I had a client who was prepared to do this several years ago at its cost and which would have made Windsor a "showcase" city. I am still waiting for a Maxess quote].

I am not sure what happened to the border, increasing reserves, the arena , the Tunnel deal, the transportation hub, developing "shovel-ready" land, jobs, jobs, jobs as concerns.

WHO ELSE IS LEAVING THE SINKING GOOD SHIP WINDSOR ADMINISTRATION NEXT

From what I hear from my inside moles, morale is quite low still at City Hall. However, if you want a good-paying job and want to live here, then if you are a public servant, you "grin and bear it."

It gets somewhat concerning however when people like John Tofflemire and Brenda Andreatta decide to pack up and go.

Now let's give people a real shocker...which two senior managers are rumoured to be actively seeking new positions? With all of those resumes out there, expect more announcements about personnel changes and retirements

A STRANGE APPOINTMENT

Take a look at By-law 68-2007

• "A By-law to rescind the appointments of Brenda Andreatta as Clerk and George Wilkki as Acting Clerk, to appoint Helga Reidel as a Deputy Clerk, and to appoint Gary Cian and Steven Vlachodimos as Acting Clerks"

The interesting part was appointing Helga Reidel as Deputy Clerk. It seems unusual to have the supervisor of the two Acting Clerks appointed as their Deputy. Could the purpose be to have her attend the closed meetings since she is part of the senior management group and avoid having an impartial statutory officer i.e. the Clerk present.

Did Brenda Andreatta as Clerk attend those meetings?

NUMBER OF HITS FOR THE BRIDGE CO. ANIMATION

As at 12:15 PM on May 22, 11,925 is the number of hits on the Ambassador Bridge animation of its new enhancement project. If you still have not seen it, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrVM_ReGCSE

For a different version of the animation that shows the minimal impact on Sandwich, go to http://www.ambassadorbridge.com/ and click on "View Fly Over Rendering." It's even better.

SENATOR KENNY'S DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

It's a double whammy!

Our delay over the border is falling right into the hands of the economic isolationists in the US. Instead of making it easy for traffic to flow, we are making it harder through petty Windsor Mayoral irritants.

Not only that, we are making it easy for our gazelles to leave us too since we cannot match the incentives of US states.

Here is part of what the Times of London wrote about the desire to end free trade in the US. I guess that means traffic numbers won't grow according to the DRIC projections and may even decrease.

That's OK...Let's still spend billions on a new bridge!

The end of free trade as we know it
Irwin Stelzer

SO it does indeed end with a whimper rather than a bang. Free trade, I mean. Thanks to a president too weak politically to withstand the protectionist surge of a Democratic Congress, the era of ever-freer trade has come to an end. It expired quietly, with few mourners, and with some of those who have done it in claiming that the corpse is alive and well...

The deal, still subject to congressional approval, is this. The Democrats will agree to approve two minor trade agreements, one with Peru and the other with Panama, in return for a Republican agreement to include in trade pacts a series of environmental and labour-market “reforms”...

More important is what this deal signals about the shift in the balance of political forces that determine future trade policy. Until now, the administration’s supporters of free trade have been able to fight off Democrats’ attempts to incorporate these restrictions in trade agreements. No longer...

In one sense, the free-trade advocates in the administration have nobody to blame but themselves. They have been unable to craft and to explain programmes to transfer some of the gains of free trade to those who suffer from it ...That created an opportunity for critics to claim that globalisation and free trade raise corporate profits and executive pay, while exposing ordinary workers to competition from dollar-a-day labourers in Asia and Latin America.

Then there is China, increasing its wealth and, equally important, its political power on the back of an export boom sustained in part by an undervalued currency...

Trade-union leaders disagree: no trade deals so long as Bush is president or, better still, never. John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, America’s largest trade-union confederation, has promised to oppose any trade agreement with South Korea or Colombia, as well as any extension of Bush’s fast-track authority. With elections pending, that matters.

All of this is a pity. Just when the falling dollar is boosting American exports, a tit-for-tat trade war, closing markets to US goods, is the last thing a slowing American economy needs.

HOW CAN MICHIGAN AFFORD A NEW BRIDGE NOW

Speaking of spending billions on a public bridge, here is an interesting story.

A public bridge in Michigan means that up to $1.5 billion or so is needed (Michigan's share is 20% while the Feds need cash for the War in Iraq) and about $2 B in matching Federal grants are lost. Do you really think that is going to happen?

Michigan's budget hole deepens to $600M
State budget director calls number a 'wake-up call'
Chris Andrews, Lansing State Journal, May 19, 2007

State government's budget hole grew by about $100 million Friday after top financial officials downgraded Michigan's already grim financial outlook.

The new revenue estimates leave the state confronting a $600 million problem in this year's general fund budget, up from $500 million.

In addition, the state faces a $200 million shortfall in money for public schools, even though the school year is almost over.

"This is a pretty clear wake-up call. We are almost to the fourth quarter of the fiscal year," state budget director Robert Emerson said. "I think there's more pressure on all of us to figure out a solution."

Gov. Jennifer Granholm and legislative leaders have been battling over the budget for months. The big stumbling block: whether to raise taxes.

It's still too early to tell whether the solution - or the lack of one - will lead to a partial government shutdown or other temporary layoffs this summer.

The Court of Appeals already has said it will close for four two-day periods, most of them revolving around holidays. Similar plans could be in store for other state employees.

"If we are going to do it, it will be done pretty soon," Emerson said.

But he said savings from a shutdown are limited because programs that protect the public - such as prisons, state police and child protective services - would have to continue.

Granholm has said she wants the complete budget solution in place by June 1.

Solutions grow more difficult by the day. That's because with each passing day, there is less time to spread out budget cuts or raise revenue from any tax increases."