The Price Of Inexperience

Who is advising Eddie Francis on the border? We should be told immediately who the behind-the-scenes people are.

Is anyone? Or is our Mayor so arrogant that he thinks he knows it all?

I am sure that you will have noticed the anger and frustration in some of my BLOGS recently. I cannot help it. We have no leadership in this City whatsoever. We have branding and sloganeering not action. Why even the Mayor was bored with his speech the other night. He was that flat in his delivery.

Sorry, this follows what I see as foolishness on the Engineering complex. I do not want to be negative, but I can see us losing the complex either downtown or at the University by the time this extravaganza is over. Leaking a story to the newspapers is not always the best tactic. Did anyone think through the strategy? In this case it might kill us.

And $75M for the Tunnel, with all of its problems! At least Cliff Sutts will be our guarantor against a bad deal.

I won't even get into the delay at the $65M and counting East end arena.

Have you noticed how quiet everything has been on the border file recently. I cannot remember the last big story in the Star. Oh there was the required border paragraphs in the State of the City speech with Eddie's standard form call to arms about quality of life but that's about it. The usual template. Not even tunnel talk.

I am so tired of hearing the Mayor's platitudes in his speeches and then seeing lack of action. Our problems are not that difficult to overcome. It's not rocket science. What's the reason for the delay? Fear, fear of failure, fear of failure due to inexperience.

Here is what is driving me crazy...a letter from a reader whom I met for lunch a few weeks ago. I like knowing who reads my BLOGs and I try and meet those who wrote to me as often as I can to understand their perspective of Windsor:

• "I just had a really interesting conversation with a supplier.
  
  Last Sunday he flew to Kentucky. He was met at the airport by the Economic Development Office. He was taken to the facility where he was to set up tool cutter grinders. Small but a necessary aspect.
  
  They would pick up the equipment for him, set them up and do the paperwork for him so they would cut a cheque for his incentive the next day.
  
  Tax breaks and other incentives that are just too long to type out. The more I type the angrier I become.
  
  He spent two days training people on the machinery and they were up and running. He doesn't even have to be there.
  
  It sounds like he is going to open another place down there. Simple and the government wants you there.
  
  My next vacation is in Kentucky. I think there is going to be Bluegrass on my shoes soon."

My friend is a successful, small businessman in Windsor. The kind of business the Gazelle feeders should nurture. Now he is thinking about leaving!

Our Symphony Orchestra executive director is going to Edmonton. The GM plant is in trouble. Our area is a mess and we have inexperienced people at the top who cannot accomplish anything in four years. Talk, talk, talk is all they are good for.

Take a look at the graph above. It's a Special Report from the US Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics. We have a success story in Windsor---the Ambassador Bridge. Instead of partnering with them and taking advantage of their expertise to build what the Mayor now seems to want, a transportation hub for logisitics and distribution, we call them our "enemy" and spend millions of taxpayer dollars to fight them and stall them.

Seriously, have you ever heard of anything more stupid. Hell, our leaders are too afraid to even meet with them, having to get their information about their enhancement project from BLOG sites like mine and that of Chris Schnurr or second-hand. Even then, they cannot get it right.

Look at the statistics concerning value from the BTS report:

• Exports through Windsor/Detroit higher than Fort Erie and Sarnia combined



• Imports through Windsor/Detroit higher than Fort Erie and Sarnia combined



• Exports and imports double that of Fort Erie and more than triple that of Port Huron



• Higher value than Laredo, the top US/Mexico crossing.

Like it or not, the reality is "Trucks remain the dominant mode for transporting U.S.-North American freight, carrying $534 billion, or 62 percent, of the total value in 2006...Between 1996 and 2006, trucks accounted for most of the growth in the value of U.S.-North American freight."

It is very interseting that while traffic is going down the values are going up. That makes being a distribution centre even more important as I have Blogged before.

More stats

• "In 2006, the leading overall truck gateway was Detroit, Michigan, with $115 billion of freight, followed by Laredo, Texas, ($79 billion), and Buffalo-Niagara Falls, New York ($59 billion)."

Are the politicians at the Senior Levels any better? No....they are so tied into their bureaucrats that it is pathetic. They are listening to people who frankly have lost touch and who assumed that they could force the Bridge Co. out of business. Now they are scrambling to regroup. Do you really think a bureaucrat can compete with a man who built up his business from nothing to what it is now? It is family money at risk not taxpayer money. Perhaps Brian Masse will understand that one day.

How about the Americans...the Legislators in Michigan have at least tried to end DRIC.

Why is this important for both countries:

• "Michigan topped the list of states for value of merchandise trade with Canada in 2006. Goods transported between Michigan and Canada totaled $73 billion, which was nearly double the value of goods moved between Illinois (the second ranked state) and Canada. Illinois was followed by New York and California."

Windsor may be losing out on auto plants but Ontario and Canada are not. Our politicians better protect that trade by ensuring the border traffic flows smoothly:

• "Ranked by value, motor vehicles and parts was the leading commodity group transported between the United States and our NAFTA partners in 2006.


• "Over $1 out of every $6 (17.7 percent) of freight shipments between the United States and its NAFTA partners involved motor vehicles and parts, totaling $153 billion. Of this, $107 billion was traded with Canada and $45 billion was traded with Mexico.


• Motor vehicles and parts was the leading commodity in U.S.-Canada land mode trade and second for U.S.-Mexico land mode trade.


• The dominance of motor vehicles and parts reflects the continued integration of automotive production across the borders of the three countries."

Don't you find it odd that so much traffic still goes through Windsor/Detroit even though auto trade is now more east-west? The Bridge Co. must be doing something right even though their tolls are higher and the road to the bridge is horrible due to lack of action by all levels of Government here. Again, a lesson for Brian Masse about investing profits in infrastucture improvement to maintain and draw business from competitors, even public ones.

We have an opportunity here that has been staring us in the face for years. We all know it but some of us cannot forgive the Bridge Co. for being successful. It is better to call them our "enemy" and spread misinformation and disinformation.

We will just have to wait it seems until some people smarten up. In the meantime, the Bridge Co. will just keep on moving forward doing the right thing for the region in spite of our so-called leaders.