More News Items

There is so much to BLOG about in this City and so little time to write about everything. Here are some more shorter items of interest for you:

I WAS NOT INVITED TO TAKE THE TRAIN TO TORONTO

As you know by now, regretfully as I learned to my dismay, I am not a mover and shaker in Windsor.

• "More than 100 of Windsor's most civic-minded and influential boosters boarded a VIA Rail train this morning, ready to take Toronto by storm."

I am still a mere, lonely Blogger after all. [SOB]

WEDC

You need to read the article in the May, 2008 edition of BIZ-X magazine written by Councillor Halberstadt about the fiasco known as the Windsor Essex Development Commission. It is now on his BLOG:

(http://www.alanhalberstadt.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=8&Itemid=87 )

I was not all that wrong when I called it our municipal Senate.

If I was a Woodslee credit union member I would be furious at my Board for throwing all that money, a quarter of a million dollars, into the Commission. Who knows if they have produced a brochure yet

US SLAMS CANADA

Diplomatically of course.

I told you that would not take long for the Americans to take a shot at Canada over the embarrassing nonstory about the DRIC Bridge that someone in the Canadian Government foolishly leaked to Radio-Canada.

I'm sure that you saw the letter in today's Windsor Star from the US Consul General in Toronto. He got his letter in very quickly didn't he. Does it tell you how angry the Americans are!

Here are some excerpts from the letter:

• "Recently, we've seen some media reports citing "unnamed sources" on plans to build a new Detroit-Windsor bridge. We'd like to correct a couple of misperceptions that seem to be circulating.
  
  [Two paragraphs of fluff and platitudes to hide the key message and then...]
  
  As the public comment period south of the border is still underway in assessing the environmental impact of the project, important details such as exact location and specifications have not yet been finalized. [Translation: We haven't finalized anything so how can we agree to anything]
  
  One aspect of recent reporting is correct: President Bush and Prime Minister Harper did discuss the Detroit-Windsor border during the recent North American Leaders meeting in New Orleans. [Section removed by State Department in Washington: but the President did not agree to do anything or else it would have been published in the Joint Communiqué for heaven sakes! Don't your diplomatic people know how the game is played.]
  
  [More fluff to end the letter].

FLYING HIGH AT YQG

Several interesting things going on at the airport.

A reader directed me to the Windsor Airport website and to this comment:

• "People routinely commute over the border to work, shop, travel and to enjoy the amenities of each other’s country. Traffic across the border exceeds 10 million vehicles annually. The Globe and Mail reports "Traffic though the Windsor tunnel has jumped 73 percent since 1993, making it the entry of choice for one in five Americans travelling to Canada by car."

I thought, after seeing that statistic, that I could not understand why Larry Horwitz of the DWBIA was so upset about downtown being so run down and lacking business. With that huge increase, there must be tourists galore clogging the streets and pumping money into our economy hand over fist!

I tried to find that quotation in the Globe but I was unable to do so. So I thought I would try independently to confirm what I thought was an absurd statement.

I must admit I wondered why 1993 was chosen until I read a DCTC SEC statement and saw the following:

• "Since the advent of casino gambling in Windsor early in the third fiscal quarter, traffic volumes have increased over 1993 when traffic volumes were depressed due to extensive construction work at the facility. The casino opened in May, 1994 and is located in downtown Windsor near the tunnel facility. The traffic volume decreases experienced earlier in the year which were attributable to the weak Canadian dollar, the generally poor economy and the disruption due to construction have been more than offset by casino related increases. "

You see that's how you play with numbers. You start with a year with artificially low volumes so that you can show a magnificent increase.

Just so you know, my information is that the number of cars in 1993 that went through the Tunnel was about 6.1M, its peak in 1999 was about 9.3M and in 2007 was about 4.7M or about 50% less than its peak. I had no idea therefore how anybody arrived at the number 73% increase when the 2007 volume was lower than in 1993.

Then I saw the Star yesterday and that story about the new Charter airline that is going to fly out of the airport. There was a very strange number there that I saw for passengers. Even with Mexican migrant workers flying with Mexicana into Windsor, that seemed like a big increase:

• "There are 260,000 passengers a year flying in and out of Windsor Airport on Air Canada flights to Toronto. The Sunwing charters should add 8,000 passengers, she [Ms Nazzani] said."

Only about a month ago she had said:

• "Total number of domestic passengers increased six per cent in 2007 over the prior year."

Nazzani told us in March:

• "Nazzani's goal is to get passenger numbers up to 400,000 annually within 10 years. They peaked at 250,000 in the late 1990s and now stand at 130,000."

I guess Ms. Nazzani must have changed the conversation to get the number of 130,000 up to 260,000. It looks like it is based on a different formula now.

Gord Henderson had told was back in November

• "passenger traffic had tumbled from a high of 350,000 trips in 1998 to a mere 124,000 last year. "

Just so you know, Windsor airport is NOT even in the Top 50 airports in Canada according to arriving and departing flights for scheduled services and major charter services

Finally, Let me be very cynical. You know that there is more to the Sunwing Airlines deal than we have been told. After all, the guy who gives away money for leasehold improvements in Canderel, negotiates five cent parking for the Keg deal and is responsible for the Spitfires lease and the funky bus terminal negotiation with Greyhound needed to do something for the Airport.

Ms. Nazzani had already told us during her performance in front of City Council that WestJet asked her how much the City would be prepared to help them out if they decided to come back to Windsor? I am sure that Sunwing asked the same question.

I wonder what the answer was. You know that we'll never find out what the deal is. Even the Star knows that. Back in November they wrote:

• "But when something happens and the public and press begin asking hard and specific questions, the corporate mantle is used as a shield to avoid answering those questions or to avoid releasing documents that might help provide some clarity. Even if that resistance to release information is rooted in the desire to protect the corporation, and, by extension, the city and its residents, an impression can be created that officials do not welcome public input and scrutiny. This is good for neither the public nor those dedicated people who have been appointed to serve on various boards."

Back in November, at City Council, Councillors were told

• "a new executive board with community, business and aviation representatives will be formed to oversee YQG.

Council Dilkens keeps asking

• "wanted to know why a new board of directors with experience in the industry has not yet been appointed to oversee Windsor Airport. "

Eddie stalled him off saying:

• "Francis said Monday that plans had been to advertise for the positions in late March or April. "Our hope is that the ad will go out in April and then that will come back to council," Francis said."

It's May already. Now we know why Eddie did not want a new Board and why he wanted to stay in control.

• "The airport continues to be governed by a board of city officials, with Francis as CEO and several municipal administrators as directors of a corporation established by the city after it took over control a year ago."

To be fair, Ms Nazzani has been busy. According to Gord back in November, Ms. Nazzani

• "has been on the road repeatedly to pitch the city-formed company she runs, YQG (trademarked as Your Quick Getaway), at airline industry conferences as far away as Frankfurt, Stockholm and London."

We also know she went to Germany with Eddie to try and sell onions there as well to that startup German company. You remember, the same time that Dwight Duncan held a pre-budget meeting where Eddie snubbed him.

I can hardly wait to find out what other deals have been made and how much they are going to cost us.

EDDIE CALLS IN THE ARMY

Our Mayor fired another shot in a recent Bloomberg article:

• "The region can't stand pat with only the Ambassador Bridge, Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis said in an interview.
  
  "From my perspective, it's an unacceptable risk," Francis said."

An interesting comment... it appears that not only does Eddie want to control the Tunnel but maybe he has an interest in a new bridge as well.

It seems that the war between the City of Windsor and the Ambassador Bridge Company is getting serious. Mayor General Francis has called in the militia to fight the City's "enemy."

The cover story, so as not to panic Ward 2 residents in the West End, is

• "The soldiers will be taking part in the army's Battle Fitness Test, which involves marching in large numbers in full uniform, and simulated casualty carries."

Don't you find it interesting that these soldiers will be marching:

• "The soldiers will be marching 13 kilometres along Sandwich Street and will then be performing a 100-metre simulated casualty carry.
  
  Similar exercises will be taking place along Huron Church Road, Russell Street and Peter Street."

Normally I would accept the story that this is a mere military exercise. However this line in the story makes it absolutely clear that Eddie is on full alert:

• "Local reservists with the Canadian Forces will be visible on city streets in the west end tonight, tomorrow and in the coming weeks."

WOW FACTOR

• "If council is going to give this money you want to see the 'wow factor' right away," said Francis on Monday of his orders to parks officials. "Without that, there will be very little chance for future dollars."

WOW, $1.85M for cosmetic changes to tart up the City and that is just the beginning.

WOW, $900,000 in cost every year to keep the initiative going. No more library books next year either or perhaps crossing guards are expendable:

• "City treasurer Onorio Colucci warned council that the program will have to compete annually for city dollars with other needs."

WOW, how will we be able to afford to maintain the Greenlink parks at this kind of cost?

WOW, $50,000 of that sum is going to a private business. I wonder how this is justified:

• "welcoming initiatives for casino patrons once its new expansion is formally opened next month."

WOW, I didn't know that people were reluctant to go to Chicago and Montréal as tourists. According to Don Sadler, their beautification program meant that

• "people now want to go there."

WOW, up to $70,000, to determine what can be done to deal with abandoned homes. Gee, I know how to solve that problem for a few homes on Indian Road and I won't charge very much money to tell the City what to do.

WOW, don't you find it amazing how the Mayor was able to find money for this program so easily and quickly.

WOW, don't you find it tragic that the Mayor and Councillors are more concerned about trees and flowers than solving the real problems of the City.