Forced Congestion As A Buy-Out Tool

There's something about Greenlink that just bothers me. Oh I know that it is really nothing more than another "starting point" in the Mayor's non-negotiable bargaining position. As the Mayor said in the Star:

• "Francis said details of the Schwartz plan, such as service roads and landscaping, can be tweaked, but the city will not negotiate the proposed tunnels with DRIC.
  
  "That last thing we want is for the province to come back and say: 'OK, we'll give you one tunnel,'" he said. "The amount of tunnelling and the connectivity of neighbourhoods is not negotiable."

To be direct about it, the Mayor has just said he's prepared to negotiate even right after the public made comments on his latest newly revised and improved Schwartz plan. Councillor Halberstadt should immediately object and claim that the Mayor has compromised (oooops, there's that C-word again) in exactly the same way that he was unfairly criticized for doing that.

I'm still waiting to find out how the City is allowed to negotiate partial tunneling under the Resolution that calls for full tunneling. I wonder if Counselor Marra could explain that. Oh it really doesn't matter. Eddie will ignore whatever it is that he wants to ignore. Hmmmm, I wonder if this is a breach of the Code of Conduct that Council wants approved so that I can make a complaint with the Integrity Commissioner. Now that should be fun.

That's what makes me really nervous about all this. I'm not been impressed with Eddie's negotiating skills such as the other deals that he has been involved like the Canderel subleases, the Mady garage, the five cent parking fees and who knows what on the East End arena.

But it is more than that. I can't really figure out why Sam stopped at the expressway and why he didn't go further with the road right to the bridge. Oh I know the excuse, we have to wait to see where DRIC is going to place the Plaza and the border crossing:

• "Until the site of the new bridge and plaza is determined, the exact path of the easternmost portion of the highway leading to it can't be known. "All we can say is that road will feed into the plaza."
  
  The city wants the plaza located on 110 acres it owns in Brighton Beach."

However I don't buy that.

The most obvious explanation for the not going further is that would mean that the cost for Sam's road would have to be increased. Since Sam has not done any work north of EC role, then the cost that he has set out for Greenlink ought to not be compared with the DRIC numbers which I believe are the costs right to the border.

But I don't think it is that either.

What I think is a connection north of EC role is designed to be the last-ditch effort to put the Ambassador Bridge out of business. The road to the border is being done a step at a time and my belief is that it is an effort by all of the three governments combined, Federal, Provincial and Municipal. Oh sure they may fight and scream amongst themselves like children but that is just so that each one can get an advantage over the other parties. All three are united in wanting to block the Ambassador Bridge Company.

The object is to build a variation of the DRIC road to the new bridge to remove as many trucks from going north on Huron Church Road as possible. Even the million or so local international trucks will be encouraged not to use that road. If that happens, or it seems to be happening, won't that put a squeeze on the Ambassador Bridge company that might force them to sell out?

How will that be done? Very simply.

If you remember the drawing that was shown in Sam's first presentation of "Huron Church “Boulevard” – The Champs Elysèes of Canada," the road in that drawing only showed two lanes north and south and not three. It showed a nice bicycling lane and a walkway for pedestrians that must have taken over one lane of traffic. If that doesn't show the City's perspective, then nothing does. Now perhaps the reason why the City is opposed, and has been opposed for the last five years, to any plan on Huron Church road is becoming clearer.

Brain Masse in his Detroit radio debate with Dan Stamper confirmed that the road was the big issue and nothing else:

• "it doesn’t take away the main problem – that’s going to and from the border crossing in the Detroit-Windsor region and that’s important to note...
  
  you still have the problem of the trucks and the cars can’t get to the 401. And that, at the end of the day, that’s the real problem. That’s why there’s been such discussion in our community over the years to come up with a, something that’s going to be healthy for the local area, as well as, the flow of the traffic through our region and that is important for the rest of the United States and the rest of Canada, but also is important for our regional economy...
  
  once again it just comes down to the bottom line of how do you get to the through traffic from the 401 that needs to go there and also capacity for local businesses and also more importantly, to our commuters."

Ontario Minister Cansfield has has made her contribution to the road issue:

• "It will be in mid 2007 when a decision for a preferred bridge location will be made and Ontario will say how to get from 401 to there
  
  The Schwartz Report fitted in with the Province’s planning since all was accepted other than the Horseshoe Road and going through Ojibway ("Information input into their study") ie 2 KM difference at Todd Lane
  
  People on Huron Church don’t want to mingle with heavy trucks.
  
  The Government's stated objective was to separate long-haul traffic from local traffic
  
  They want to have Huron Church as a viable business section again and to maintain economic viability ie have it as a commercial route for tourists, attractions, dinner
  
  The avoidance of large vehicles on that route is a huge and legitimate issue
  
  People have had difficult times along that stretch of highway
  
  Preferred route is a freeway with NO driveways off of it."

Transport Minister Cannon on Melanie Deveau's show just had to come back and talk about the road during his interview when he said:

• "And of course the Government of Ontario is a partner as well as the Town of Windsor and so we have to be able to, I think, be open minded, listen to everything that has to be said and at the end of the day of course, we are going to make the decisions with the Government of Ontario on the specific design and the architecture of the road. But as I was mentioning this morning in the press conference, you know, I am a former town councillor and so I am always more sensitive to concerns that are brought up by people living in this area. The Ambassador Bridge, I come back to that Melanie just for a second, it is an important issue because you know there is the environmental assessment that they want to do, but at the end of the day there is also the fact that this access road will be going directly through the city of Windsor and I am not, I am not necessarily convinced that that is the right way and the right approach to take."

Clearly the "road to the bridge" is the last gasp of the Governments. Every other tactic from traffic numbers to security and redundancy to plaza size etc. etc. has failed. It is all so transparent and Sam's omission just confirmed what I already believed. As I wrote before,

• "Effectively, the Minister has given the City the blessing to reduce the lanes on Huron Church, just do it in the name of a greening effort. Create gridlock on Huron Church to discourage trucks from using it to go to the Bridge. You want to go the twinned bridge? Sure, just be prepared to sit on a one-lane narrow road for an hour or more. Truckers will say the heck with that and go to the bridge that has a six-lane highway leading to it.
  
  Why how can the Bridge Co. sue...they still have their road! It's not the Government's fault if truckers choose a different way to cross the border. It's the law of competition isn't it! It is a scorched earth tactic designed to scare the Bridge Co."

Unfortunately, Sam's presentation really did ruin everything. Why the man said that what the Ambassador Bridge people did before was right. You could build a road along Huron Church that could be used for traffic and could connect the communities. If we take Sam's logic to its conclusion, then a road could be built on Huron Church right to the Ambassador Bridge. If his concept worked south of E C Row, it could be built north of the E C Row too. Now that is not what the Mayor and Windsor Council want but that is what Sam gave them.

And as for the Senior Levels, they are going to have a tough time explaining why the $300 million BIF funds were never used as an intermediate solution to connect Highway 401 to the Ambassador Bridge. After all, that is what the money was supposed to be used for.

Come on now, the DRIC road can be built right to the Ambassador Bridge and everybody knows it. There is no reason why it could not have been built before now since the road could go both to the Ambassador and to a new DRIC bridge if it was ever to be built. The only reason obviously is to pressure the Bridge Company.

I wonder what will happen after that. When the Governments have lost their negotiating position to their opponent, will sanity finally prevail?

Just so you will get a better idea why Sam's 2 lanes are critical on Huron Church and why nothing was mentioned about it during Greenlink, take a look at this story about Australia. Don't you just love it. Keeping trucks away from the Ambassador Bridge is the only way a DRIC Bridge could survive too because its tolls would be several times higher unless taxpayers subsidized it:

• "Profit over Practicality? Lane Cove Tunnel Sydney
  
  The Sydney Morning Herald ran a story recently which gave a glimpse into the congestion problems suffered by Sydney residents. The Lane Cove Tunnel is entirely dependent on government-created congestion to turn a profit...
  
  The original idea was for the NSW government to deliberately create congestion on nearby Epping road (by narrowing lanes) to force motorists onto the tunnel. It was election time when the plan was meant to go ahead and hence someone in power realised this was not going to be popular and currently the plans have been delayed.
  
  The delay has meant the NSW government has had to pay $25 million dollars of tax payer money to the toll road owners for not honouring its contractual obligations (to narrow Epping road).
  
  Of course narrowing Epping road isn’t what the government will call this, the idea is to build dedicated bus and bicycle lanes which would then create the desired level of congestion for Lane Cove Tunnel. The plan will still go ahead in February next year."