Nothing But Contempt For Citizens

I was accused the other day by one of my readers of being negative in my BLOGs. Be more positive I was told. Say nice things. Look on the bright side for once.

I do not mind the accusation. I'm not really negative, or I do not think I am. I have written a BLOG about this subject before: February 27, 2006 "Why Is this BLOG So Negative?"

I concluded at the time:

• "I am sorry, now you may understand the reason why I cannot be positive. Can you blame me when you see amateurs trying to play entrepreneur with my tax dollars!"

Is it any better now or worse? If you read my BLOG properly, my objective is to try to point out ways that this City can prosper. Sure I take positions that are different than others, especially the cheerleaders. So what, it is my point of view that I express. If revealing what is going on behind the scenes, how it is killing this City and why it's happening is negative, so be it. Why do I want to sit idly by as my City is being destroyed.

If we were talking about putting up stop signs or dealing with pitbulls or feral cats or animals in circuses, strippers' signs and the like, then I can understand the criticism. But we are not.

We are talking about an arena that may cost in the neighbourhood of $100 million, a watermain infrastructure deficit of $830 million never mind that for sewers and roads, a multi-billion dollar border solution and multi-million dollar brownfields redevelopment. We have a US$75 million Tunnel deal, a $30 or 40 or 50 million Tunnel improvement project, a new City Hall, shovel-ready airport lands and who knows what else. And I haven't even talked about our taxes, levies, charges and lack of economic development with so many jobs and businesses leaving town.

To be fair how can anyone say anything positive about the City and what is happening to it. How many chances do we have to give our political leaders before we are allowed to say that something is seriously wrong here? Let me give the best example other than the border issue.

The biggest fiasco that impacts every man, woman and child and business in Windsor is that involving the Windsor Utilities Commission. It is a total mess. What else can one say about. Even the Windsor Star has confirmed my analysis of it by their choice of language in several Editorials.

We had all of the obscene maneuvering at Council that I won't bore you with today but which you know about that prevented the value-for-money audit by the Auditor-General of Ontario. We had all of the disgusting actions by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs that I have related to you. The big joke to me is how certain people in town are so scared of something, which we will find out about soon enough, that they have to resort to smear, innuendo and character assassination.

Let me remind you of what Chair/Councillor Ken Lewenza told Don McArthur of the Windsor Star about a month ago:

• "Councillor Ken Lewenza Jr., chair of the Windsor Utilities Commission, says he and Max Zalev, WUC's acting general manager, will sit down for a chat with anyone and everyone in this city who has concerns or questions about skyrocketing water rates.
  
  "Max and I, in our discussion the other day, said anytime anyone from the public -- and we're going to announce this at the next meeting -- wants to spend time with us, we are going to spend whatever time is required, within reason, in terms of helping people understand," said Lewenza earlier this week."

A month already. Perhaps the Commission has not yet had its "next meeting" but I don't remember any announcement from the Commission.

And if you read another of McArthur's BLOGs:

• "The high price of public information...
  
  ...I received a response from Enwin today regarding my Freedom of Information request for minutes of meetings dating back to 1999. It came in the afternoon mail, just in the nick of time, because today was the deadline to reply to my request, which was made Sept. 19.
  
  I had requested "copies of minutes for all board meetings and minutes for any and all subcommittee meetings held by Enwin Utilities Ltd, Windsor Canada Utilities, Enwin Powerlines and Enwin Energy from 1999 to present."
  
  The letter indicates Enwin has "identified and assembled 241 Minutes of Meetings" but that it will cost me $1,959.20 for them to respond to my request. The letter also indicates they can't even tell me at this juncture whether or what portions of documents they might release until "February, 15, 2007." I'm assuming they meant to say 2008...
  
  Enwin is demanding I put down a deposit of fifty per cent of the total, or $979.60, before they continue the review of the records, even though they haven't determined whether these records should be released or not. That means I could fork over that deposit and then wait four months for Enwin to come up with reasons for not releasing the minutes."

Does this sound familiar to you? It sure did to me. Even assuming that the Windsor Star will finance any of this investigation because, to be blunt about it, which citizen would be prepared to do it, the results will not be made available until well after the Ministry Whitewash audit is completed.

Oh dear, did I use the word "whitewash?" Now why would I want to use that word since, we are having an investigation into the affairs of the Commission. Shouldn't we be thrilled and happy about it, aren't we getting what we want?

You have read enough of my BLOGs and my conversations with the Ministry to know that I never believed that there would be a proper audit, one that the citizens of Windsor want and demanded. Heck, why should anyone listen to us anyway? We're just an open pocketbook to be used by every level of government. We're just mere conveniences to vote, whose only function is to re-elect politicians every few years after they tell us all the wonderful things they've done for us and all of the wonderful things they are going to do for us.

It does not matter what the truth is. Just ask the members of WeACT what a Cabinet Minister promised to do before the election ["I do get your concerns and I'm checking, I just don't have the info yet, keep u posted"] and whether that promise was kept. Darn, and the provincial election is over now and the Cabinet Minister was re-elected.

Let's take a look at the latest story in that Star about the whitewash. To be honest, I find it extremely depressing to even write about it. What do we learn:

1. Ontario's Finance Ministry was involved in the process [I wonder why another Government department was brought in. Sandra and Dwight were involved too. Was the Premier's office involved as well?]


2. Five firms registered with the government for this type of work were requested to make submissions on the WUC audit [The public MERX system was not used. I wonder why not? I heard from a Cabinet Minister that only one firm put in a proposal. If that is true, why didn't the other four firms put in a proposal?]


3. Is it the forensic side of the firm of Grant Thornton that is involved or the auditing side only [If it is only the auditing side, I guess we're getting a KPMG type audit]


4. The audit started Tuesday [So much for the Ministry ever talking to mere citizens. What is Government so afraid of, I just don't get it!]


5. "The request to us was not value for money. (Council) defeated that for whatever reason. We are responding to their request" [So we will NOT get our questions answered now. The Ministry statement made is absolutely incorrect. Council asked for a section 10 audit as well and that was ignored by the Minister. Council never defeated the Auditor-General request because of the Mayor's Motion. It was never heard]


6. Enwin was excluded from mention within the terms of the audit because it is a separate corporation not controlled by the municipality [Is the Ministry treating us like complete fools? Enwin is owned by Windsor]


7. "The audit should be completed in three to four weeks, with the report turned over to the municipal affairs minister."Upon his review, he decides what to do with it," Wild said. "He will then release it to the City of Windsor and it would be public information. What they do with it is up to them" [Oh well, maybe we will see the report and maybe we won't]

So tell me, what does everyone have to be so afraid about? It is not that some investigative journalist or whistleblower discovered all this. It was revealed by the Mayor. He was the one who raised all of the issues. He was also the one who is responsible for this mess because of all the confusion that he created. WeACT and other citizens merely got involved to get answers to the obvious questions.

But we are not going to get them. We're not going to learn the truth. The hired auditors will do a good job but they will only do the job that they were directed to do. Nothing more. Be prepared, Eddie and Junior will say that they were exonerated, that there was nothing wrong and this was a waste of money because of a few malcontented citizens.

The System worked again. It beat everyone down. It's all a matter of money and how much you can afford to spend out of your own pocket while the politicians have your money to indemnify them.

Now do you understand why people feel powerless and that the system has no interest in them. Now do you understand why people need a group to fight for them. Now do you understand why court cases are needed.

Now do you know why Windsorites need a group like WeACT. Now do you know why Windsorites need a fearless group who is not afraid of Government to stand up for them. Now do you understand why WeACT needs money to fight these battles.

It is fine to sit there and moan and groan and to say what else can one expect of politicians. If that's what you want to do that's all right but then don't complain. If you want to continue to have have your pocketbook picked by Government, then do nothing. Or you can send a cheque to WeACT. I already gave my donation.

Your donation may be paid into the WeACT Legal Fund by visiting any branch of the Royal Bank and making a deposit to Account #08152-1008275. Donations can be made anonymously too.