A Potpourri Of Ideas

Lots and lots of interesting items to talk about that I thought you might find of interest.

THE WINDSOR AIRPORT NAME

Now I know why they called it "Your Quick Getaway." The real reason, not the contrived one that we were told:

• "But if Windsor is as awful as some homegrown critics suggest, and he gets that message at least twice a week in hostile letters, Francis wonders why they stick around. "If you think it's the worst city in the world, what are you doing here?"

That's our Eddie....always thinking ahead. Making it easy for personality-driven naysayers who undermine Windsor's best interests to advance their own agendas to get out of town.

It truly is Eddie's way or the highway, Greenlink probably!

Hmmmm. I wonder if I could be an immigrant in Mexico.

GOVERNOR'S HUBBY BLOWS A GASKET

I wonder if the Governor's hubby is furious at Gord Henderson. Imagine the huge contract he could have received to provide assistance to an entire City that our Mayor believes to be dysfunctional now since it will not follow him unthinkingly.

It would be a bargain for us if paid in US$ too.

TOUGHEST JOB IN WINDSOR

If I asked you, dear reader, which is the toughest Windsor occupation to be involved in what would you say?

Would you say it is being a fire fighter or police officer since every time they go on a call their life is at risk.

Would you say it was being an outside worker since you must do your job no matter how hot or how cold it is or how rainy or snowy?

What about being a doctor or nurse with life-and-death situations in your hands?

Nope you're all wrong. Clearly the toughest profession Windsor is being an Editorial Writer for the Windsor Star. Imagine the pressure that you are under. The City is a mess and nothing is getting better. Financial decisions have been made that are costly and make little sense and when they get out into the open, stories change every single day. Open and transparent government, what is that in this City?

You need to criticize the person in charge, the Mayor by name, the only full-time municipal politician in Windsor, but you don't dare. Can you imagine the pressure that the Editorial Writer is under! How can they survive the stress?

I wrote before about the Windsor Star Editorial dealing with the "WUC fiasco; Give public a proper forum." The Star had no choice but to slam our elected officials but interestingly, the one Editorial that really did so did not name the Mayor. The best they could do was use the words "City Hall."

Check Monday's Editorial about the airport. Understatement of the year:

• "the dearth of information that preceded council's decision to reject a private operator in favour of maintaining the current management arrangement was disquieting."

Now that language was superb wasn't it!

Oh Eddie was mentioned once by name:

• "Mayor Eddie Francis was named CEO of the corporation called YQG."

Now come on Windsor Star Editorial writers. Who is responsible for

• "The lack of details presented before councillors voted on the airport's future last week is emblematic of broader problems with this city and its arms-length corporations, which are not accountable to residents in any direct and meaningful way."

Even your own Don McArthur is blocked from getting basic information.

Name names Windsor Star.... trust me, it won't hurt! And the Editorial Writers will feel so much better.

BUDGET NUMBERS

Take a look at the Star "Sound Off" website if you want to read what people think about the City proposing to increase taxes, again! Quite a few people took time out to comment.

Here is the link

http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/features/soundoff/story.html?id=b6d8caf5-0c29-42c3-b3b9-5ebdbefb9add&k=80953

Naw, the Mayor and Councillors won't go there. They will just congratulate themselves on another job well-done.

PASS THE EGG SALAD SANDWICHES

Remember the incident involving the nice ladies at Willistead Manor during Art in the Park. Our guardians of health were so concerned about people becoming violently ill that they poured bleach over egg salad sandwiches. All that took place in June, 2006.

Now whatever you want to say about how our Windsor-Essex County Health Unit undertook its actions in that incident, at the least one had to say that they were looking after our health and well-being. For that we should be thankful.

Imagine then my shock when I read the Saturday Star and headline "Salmonella outbreak spurs inspection blitz." And then imagine my disgust when I read

• "The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit has stepped up food preparation education at the city's shawarma restaurants after a 2005 salmonella outbreak traced to a restaurant that has since closed.
  
  In a report provided to Thursday's meeting of the board of the health unit details of the outbreak, which had not been previously publicly reported."

Does that explain the actions of the Health police in 2006, a year after the shawarma scare and perhaps justify what they did? After all we learned:

• "A total of 46 people reported a food-borne illness after eating at the restaurant that year."

No, what we learned is that the Health Unit hid from the public a very serious health problem in which "8.5 per cent [of the samples] tested positive for organisms like salmonella, which can cause illness." In other words, the Health police put at risk a significant section of the population of the area that eats at shawarma restaurants.

It appears to me that the Minister Of Health needs to investigate our Health Police. If he can intervene with bleach on egg salad sandwiches, then he can intervene in taking a look at a Health Unit that doesn't have enough sense to warn the public of a significant health risk.

ROADS TO TRAILS

I'll talk about DRTPs new proposal in another BLOG.

In the meantime, if DRTP is serious that they have ditched the idea about a truck expressway into the heart of Windsor, the easy way for them to prove it is to sell their corridor to the City for dollar for new parkland. Isn't that the ultimate Rails for Trails?

In this way, we don't need Greenlink to provide us with parkland since we will have kilometres of it along the DRTP corridor. Since we have all this new parkland, we can now allow the DRIC road to be built to the Ambassador Bridge.

The money that we don't pay to David Estrin, Sam Schwartz, and Parsons Brinckerhoff would go a long way to pay for the maintenance of the new parkland.

Problems solved.

A JOB FOR WINDSOR'S MEDICAL SCHOOL

Canada has never produced enough doctors. We always counted on significant number of doctors coming from out of the country to make up the deficiency. The doctor shortage is due to mistakes being made a number of years ago about the number of doctors required resulting in admissions to the medical schools being cut back.

I saw this story:

• To compete with regions offering incentives to lure doctors, Leamington, Kingsville, Essex and Leamington needs a $2.43-million strategic plan, Frank Ricci, chairman of the Leamington and Area Physician Recruitment and Retention Steering Committee, said Wednesday.
  
  “If we don’t do it, it’s going to be difficult to attract doctors,” said the Leamington lawyer. “It’s going to put us in the game if we have a properly funded plan.”
  
  Ricci unveiled the strategic plan this week at Kingsville council. It recommends spending $2.43 million to attract 23 family physicians and a handful of specialists and ER doctors over the next three to five years.

What a huge waste of money. That's not the way to attract, and more importantly, keep doctors. A better strategy is needed.

I was amused by this story in the Windsor Star as well:

• "Under pressure to produce doctors more quickly, Canada's medical schools are weighing the merits of allowing students without undergraduate degrees to enrol in physician training.
  
  The schools are also considering shortening the time it takes to train doctors."

The answer is not lowering standards as this seems to be suggesting but rather making it easier for foreign trained doctors to be admitted into practice in Canada. As I have said before, there are doctors who are highly trained just waiting to come to Canada but cannot do so for a variety of reasons or who already live here. At one time, when I was deeply involved in this, I had the equivalent of a Boeing 747 full of well trained doctors waiting to come here. All of them would have paid for any upgraded training needed out of their own pocket and would not require any subsidy from taxpayers.

What is needed is for our medical schools to take on the responsibility to ensure that foreign trained doctors are brought up to Canadian standards as quickly as possible thereby eliminating the doctor shortage quickly and easily. What is needed is a program at a school where all foreign trained doctors must come and pass the required tests so that they can be admitted into practice.

What better place for this medical school program to be located than in Windsor which is probably one of the most underserviced areas medically in the Province believe it or not. A partnership with St. Clair College would make a tremendous amount of sense as well since the College could assist in ensuring that the family of the doctor also makes a smooth transition into the Canadian way of life.

I have suggested that this approach to City Council before and to the University and suggest it here again.