Some DRIC Questions

Oh the Bridge Co. people have a good sense of humour and of timing.

I am sure that you saw their ad in the Star today on Page A9 congratulating DRIC and the City on coming up with their novel ideas on how to build a road to the border---using a technique that the Bridge Co. proposed over 5 years ago and with a corridor based the City's WALTS road proposal that is effectively now the DRIC route! And they also asked why the Senior Levels have broken their promise to build a road to the Ambassador Bridge using the $300M BIF funds.

It is all a farce. We are where we were more than 5 years ago and Eddie still wants to stall and delay matters and to continue to spend taxpayer dollars on foreign consultants. I do wish that Sam would tell us how what he said on national TV on the Today show matches what he said here about the condition of private bridges!

Read the Bridge Co.'s letters as well (below and on their website) to Prime Minister Harper and to the Michigan Governor's Policy Advisor Transportation and Human Services Policy and Management Division. The letters will blow your socks off especially about bridge maintenance.

http://www.ambassadorbridge.com/ambassador-project-whats-new.html

All we have lost is time, jobs, investment, reputation. But hey we have a WUC audit to set up and a new East End arena complex front page story for which the Mayor and Council have some more explaining to do on the finances. Heck who needs $50M for watermains anyway. I guess Councillor Lewenza is wrong. Ice rinks are more important than water as a Municipal priority.

I am going to attend the DRIC meeting not because I intend to learn anything new but because I want to fill in the comment cards with questions I would like to ask. I trust that they will be answered and I will let you know what they are.

May I strongly suggest that you go and do the same. We need to pressure Sandra and Dwight before the election since the road is Provincial responsibility (Eddie is irrelevant) and get them to build the road to the Ambassador Bridge now.

We need the jobs and the investment. We cannot afford any longer the waste of time and the destruction of our City's reputation!

Here are my questions...what are yours:

1. The bridge collapse in Montreal (as well as the collapse in Minnesota) opened a dialogue on the condition of existing bridges and tunnels across Canada. This led to the discovery that billions of dollars will be needed in the near future to rehab and safety certify the existing infrastructure. Why then is the provincial and federal government still looking to invest over $1 Billion in Windsor when we have a private investor ready, willing and able to do so?
   


2. Why aren't the Governments fixing the publicly owned infrastructure deficiencies in Ontario with public dollars and let the private investor fix any privately owned infrastructure deficiencies with private dollars.


3. The Ambassador Bridge has purchased the property it needs to build their new span and plaza in Windsor. Why is DRIC looking to uproot hundreds of residences and many businesses when the Ambassador plan with appropriate highway connections would greatly limit these property takings?


4. Everyone knows that the real problem in Windsor is trucks on the city streets when there is a back-up. Why wasn’t the City of Windsor WALTS study recommendations for access from Highway 401 to the existing Ambassador Bridge that the Bridge Co. engineered given more consideration especially now that the DRIC has identified areas in their plan that could be partially or completely tunneled?


5. Why does the DRIC team want to sandwich Sandwich? With the prevailing winds from the west this makes no sense.


6. Windsor has the highest unemployment rate in all of Canada. Why isn’t the Government working with the Bridge Co. to move their proposal for a new span through the environmental process in a timely fashion so as to allow thousands of new construction and post construction jobs in our City?


7. Why hasn’t the DRIC team explained the toll structure for their new publicly owned bridge? If it is going to be a P3 then who sets and controls this structure as a private investor will want that control and then how does that really differ from what happens today at the existing bridge and tunnel?


8. Who decides what the true property values are during the expropriation process? The Bridge Co. bought their properties at above market value to be fair to the property owners. (Brian Masse should congratulate them for that!) Can DRIC guarantee the same?


9. Now that the DRIC and the City of Windsor are in potential agreement of tunneling sections of the new highway connection to the border, why doesn’t the DRIC finish Highway 401 to the existing bridge?


10. Since DRIC has made “redundancy” one of their staple argument for the need to build a new crossing, why aren’t they taking the same position on highway access and finishing Highway 401 to the Ambassador Bridge as well? Why are they relying on one road to a border crossing only?