News Items Of Interest
GUESS WHO’S NOT COMING TO DINNER
Poor Eddie. He will not be able to meet one of his great combatants when he meets with DRIC
- “Mayor Eddie Francis meets today with DRIC consultants to ask what it is they still need to study.”
Len Kozachuk of URS Canada has left and has a new senior position at Infrastructure Ontario.
Len’s leaving has to mean that the DRIC Environmental Assessment in Canada is coming to an end or Len saw the light and decided to get out while the getting out was good! It is too bad. Had he stayed at URS, he could have seen another aspect of the EA business… a dozen years of litigation over what he helped create.
I said “Poor Eddie” because it has to mean that Infrastructure Ontario will now turn down cold any request for money for the Tunnel deal. Given his knowledge of the border crossing, Len has to know that the Tunnel Plaza Improvements project is in limbo and over budget and the City has not yet put forward its $10 million.
More importantly, he has to be absolutely familiar with the US DEIS which stated that the new DRIC bridge could take away up to a quarter of the Tunnel traffic. How could it possibly repay its loan in the circumstances?
Oh well, since the Mayor Cockrel wants to have a totally new deal in any event, it would appear that Eddie doesn’t need their money anyway.
DO NOT LET FDI MAGAZINE SEE THIS LIST
The budget of the Windsor Essex Development Commission may take a big hit this month because they are probably out there buying up all the copies of Canadian Business Magazine. That magazine has just published a list of the “Best Cities To Do Business In Canada.”
As you know, FDI Magazine ranked Windsor ”as North America’s leading small City of the Future” for 2007/8. I’m not sure what this ranking did for the City but a number of Windsorites were able to go overseas because of it. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know how many taxpayer paid junkets were made?
As well, a City had to apply before FDI considered it. The irony of ironies is that some of the people involved in Windsor winning this award left the employment of the Development Commission.
With the Canadian Business ranking, the Magazine chose the cities and the criteria.
Okay, okay. Enough stalling. I am NOT the Naysayer. Here it is:
WINDSOR RANKS 32 OUT OF 40
In annual operating costs we are #28
In cost-of-living we are #16
In building permit average growth we are #24
In unemployment rate variances we are #39
In crime rate per 100,000 people we are #20.
MPAC NOTICES ARE OUT
Oh boy, just wait for the tax increases or service cuts now as property values decrease for many residences here. No wonder Gord did the column that he did when he did with respect to Government employees. Aren't City employees going to be negotiating a new contract soon:
- "Public sector workers need reality check
The gap between the real world and the insulated cocoon occupied by this country's 3.2-million public sector workers is turning into a yawning chasm that could soon rival the Grand Canyon...
I hear Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis was hauled over the coals and then trotted out to the woodshed by infuriated city staffers (many of whom don't live in Windsor) when he dared to state the obvious, that the party is over...
That comment was taken as a declaration of war by CUPE locals representing 1,700 city workers and now both sides are girding for a struggle that will likely end in a strike when contracts expire at the end of December."
Guess who's going to bear the brunt of the attack if taxes have to go up. It should be obvious what the game is and how it is going to be played. The softening up the taxpayer so they will know who to blame game has started a few months in advance.
Want to bet who the anonymous Councillor was who has effectively told us that there will be a strike and the public inconvenienced. I wonder if this is a task for the Integrity Commissioner like in Hamilton.
- "Gee. I sure hope it doesn't snow much in January," said a councillor who requested anonymity (to avoid becoming a CUPE pin cushion) but is betting on picket lines in the new year and howls of indignation from constituents when streets don't get plowed or garbage picked up."
Blame---NOT our Mayor and Council with their taxes-wasting East End Arena and Canal visions. And their failure to get 15,000 high-paying jobs for this city because of their stalling on the border.
EX-HERITAGE CHAIR RESPONDS
It’s nice to see that Greg Heil doesn’t intend to be attacked and that he is prepared to hit back against those who try to do so.
In his Letter to the Editor, he gives us a bit more information about why he retired from the Heritage Committee after being Chair for about 10 years:
- “In this case, by skewing the district boundaries into an area of clearly marginal heritage value for what appears to me to fight a proxy war with the bridge company has poisoned any goodwill toward the study and will doom it to failure…
The district boundaries should be consolidated to within the proper limits focused about Sandwich Street and the city should take up its battle with the bridge company separately through the auspices of the formal environmental analysis underway by senior government levels.”
What was also interesting to me was the letter by in the Saturday Star Patricia Malicki, the president of the Windsor chapter of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario. She claims that
- “I am baffled by the comments made by Greg Heil.”
She should not be because she also said:
- “I am the first to admit there is not much worth saving on the east side of Indian Road, partially due to the neglect of the owners.
It doesn't make sense to include the west side of the street and not the east side. If the homes on the east side are demolished, that space will provide an excellent buffer between the conservation district and the Ambassador Bridge and can be used for heritage interpretive purposes.”
#321
I was surprised that it was front page news about the Forbes’ ranking of Matty Moroun, the owner of the Bridge Company, as #321 on their list of the 400 richest Americans.
If the positioning of the story and the story itself were designed to generate animosity towards him and negative responses, then those purposes failed miserably. Check out the comments on the Star Forum for yourself http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=feaa025d-ed19-4e4e-8531-294769b8274c
What is more interesting is not just the support for what he has been able to achieve as a businessman but an understanding of the border crossing file. This is notwithstanding the millions spent by DRIC trying to convince us that their new bridge is the only answer and the money spent by the City and the smears trying to picture the Bridge Company as the “enemy” of the City.
posted by JoeBlog at 11:00 a.m.
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