Did Dan Stamp-er Eddie, Again

I know that few at City Hall admit reading BLOGs, although so many people there seem to know what we Bloggers have to say. Perhaps, if someone would be so kind as to the forward to the Mayor and Councillors a copy of this BLOG, they might be interested in reading it before they do something foolish.

I want to provide to the Councillors some information that they may not have been told about or know about or that they or the Mayor may have forgotten. It is information that demonstrates that the City has a minimal role and has no "veto" power in the border file, especially after Bill C-3 was passed. This is so no matter what may be asserted. Hmmm I wonder if our NDP MP Brian Masse will take credit for that!

This BLOG is another one of my long rants so be prepared with an extra large coffee. I am so tired of the nonsense being spread throughout the Community from City Hall. It is harmful if we ever want to see an end to the border disputes. I do not understand what purpose is being served.

Wasn't it nice how the Windsor Star helped out our Mayor with the front-page story on Saturday about the Bridge Company---"Bridge has 'right' to build twin span." That should inflame opinions against them shouldn't it.

After all, you remember what the Editor of the Star said about their mission in life:

• "We did things that newspapers can do to bring about change, positive change."

The story was elaborating an October 3, 2008 article in the American Journal of Commerce. Obviously, placing it in the Star on Saturday means it will be in the minds of Councillors for their Monday Council meeting. It will give them something to stew about over the weekend.

Did you notice again the wimpy response from the Mayor! It is becoming absolutely clear that Council told the Mayor that he better not sue or even threaten litigation.

• "Until that information and the process is complete, we will continue to have concerns," Francis said."
  
• "The mayor said he believes the twin span plan can't go ahead without municipal approval in Windsor."

There was no outburst in the Star just as there was none during the interview on EH News, no threat to stop the Bridge Company in their tracks by legal action and no suggestion that David Estrin would be retained to come up with a legal strategy as quickly as possible to stop them.

Thanks though to the Star and their generousity with the big headline, they have given Eddie another chance to follow up on what Henderson wrote about last Saturday. Gord you see is free to say what Eddie cannot to try to terrorize all of Eddie's "enemies."

• "Apart from the power of public opinion, Windsor is left with but one weapon in this fight, David Estrin, the guy who wrote the book on environmental law in Ontario.
  
  But what a weapon."

One that seems muted when asked to comment on the Bridge Company's success against him.

I can just picture Eddie at the in camera Council session on Monday pleading and imploring the Councillors to permit him to unleash our ultimate weapon, David Estrin, to sue the Bridge Company over the Enhancement Project and to sue DRIC over the DRIC Road and Bridge to stop everything cold.

That'll show 'em! Moreover, that'll get Eddie off the hook!

Before Eddie does that and before Council considers his request, they both might want to look at the excerpt below from a Globe and Mail story over the weekend and find out the horrible condition that the economy of Windsor is in. Perhaps they don't know how bad things are considering that they do all right thank you very much. They earn extra income after all thanks to Board revenue over and above their Council salaries as they ponder the issues of the day while munching on their lamb chops in the in camera sessions.

Somebody on Council needs to tell the Mayor to close his mouth. He has done enough damage already. His mouthing off in the Star will not only hurt Windsor taxpayers but perhaps him and his colleagues personally if the Bridge Company starts a bad faith claim and is successful. Perhaps he ought to take a lesson from Greg Heil.

Does anybody believe that Eddie is

• "unfazed by Stamper's threat?"

Stamper is one of the few people that terrifies our Mayor. He knows that Stamper does NOT threaten but acts.

I remember an incident at Council when Eddie did his usual "clarification" interruption during Stamper's presentation, complaining that he never tried to hurt the Bridge Company. Stamper shut Eddie down completely when he told him that he had transcripts of his comments!

If Eddie believes that the Bridge Companies is merely threatening, then he need only ask David Estrin. Stamper's intentions were very clear when he said:

• "We have not yet threatened to sue anybody, but we reserve all our rights including legal," he said. "I've had plenty of opportunities, but have not sued anybody. We believe rational people will come to rational decisions.
  
  Stamper said that "to stand in the way of our replacement bridge is impossible for anybody."

The Globe story is really quite frightening but it is something that the Star Reporter, Monica Wolfson, has already told us about with her mortgage problems in Ann Arbor:

• "The gloom spreads north
  
  Rick Lafleur is walking away from his home in Windsor, Ont., unable to renew his mortgage. Customers won't even talk to Newfoundland manufacturer Lorne Janes as their lenders tighten the screws. New Brunswick Finance Minister Victor Boudreau fears a budget deficit may be inevitable as a collapsing stock market whacks government pension funds and the province's export-driven economy falters further...
  
  Across the country, even in the seemingly unsinkable resource towns of the Prairies, the grim prospect of a U.S.-led global recession and credit crunch has exited the abstract realm of the financial markets and landed with a thud on the kitchen tables of average Canadians...
  
  It's already too late for Mr. Lafleur, in Windsor, where auto-sector job losses pushed the unemployment rate to the highest of any Canadian city at 9.6 per cent in August. Although he and his wife have both found new jobs after losing their last ones at a Chrysler car dealership and General Motors plant, respectively, their house is now worth less than the mortgage on it.
  
  Mr. Lafleur's lender, Xceed Mortgage Corp., has tightened its credit conditions and recently told Mr. Lafleur it would not renew the $155,000 mortgage on his modest 50-year-old bungalow because the property is now worth about 25 per cent less than that amount.
  
  “I'm being told, no, they're not going to renew, because they are pulling out of Ontario and, secondly, because the loan-to-value was out of sync … because of the economy and Windsor is pretty bad,” Mr. Lafleur said.
  
  It's a big switch from a few years ago when lenders were falling over themselves to offer a mortgage to almost any homeowner or buyer who asked for one. Indeed, Mr. Lafleur was not required to retain any equity in his property when he remortgaged it five years ago.
  
  “I was getting married and I needed 100-per-cent financing. They said fine, no problem. Got the mortgage,” Mr. Lafleur said.

Eddie needs to be quiet already. It is time that reality sank in at City Hall. We need the 15,000 high-paying infrastructure and spinoff jobs and we need them now! Or is the PLAN to devastate this City completely for some reason!

We do not need more stalling with a Son of Greenlink that has already been rejected. We do not need threats of municipal action to stop either an Enhancement Project or even a DRIC bridge:

• "He said legislation in the 1920s, when the bridge was built, referred to "a requirement for municipal consent."
  
  "They know that," Francis said. "It's the same for DRIC."

Eddie has already lost that argument in Ottawa. Another "accurate but narrow" comment as we shall see further on in this BLOG.

It is time for the Councillors to stand up for this City and tell the Mayor that he is no longer the Voice of Council. He had his chance and blew it, achieving nothing while wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on consultants and lawyers. It is time for Councillors to be the Voice of Windsor just as they were when they stood up to ex-Mayor Mike Hurst. Eddie, since he has been elected as Mayor, has squandered all of the good-will that the previous 2003 Council and the citizens of Windsor gained for him.

It is enough already. It is time that he stood down from the border file and let a group of Councillors who are prepared to work in good faith with the other parties to arrive at a workable and practical compromise. He is completely incapable of doing so as can be seen by the recent Son of Greenlink rejection by DRIC.

Even the County wanted an agenda for the next Joint Councils meeting because they did not want to hear Eddie mouthing off about Greenlink anymore!

Eddie just won’t give up. It is almost as if he wants to challenge the Bridge Company to sue him personally for bad faith and to have the City sued too. He must believe that his position is so strong that nothing will happen. Maybe he is right but then again maybe he is wrong.

What scares me though is that if he is wrong, the Bridge Company will be able to obtain massive damages from the City i.e. taxpayer pocketbooks and Eddie will in fact be their best witness. After all, he is the one publicizing for great effect the figure of 30,000 trucks as the number of trucks that will be going to the Ambassador Bridge per day. That number of trucks would be used to estimate the measure of damages that the Bridge Company would claim.

• “you [will] have 30,000 trucks going from the foot of Highway 401 to their facility.”

Given the volume of trucks crossing the bridge today, I’m not sure how our Mayor arrives at that number but nevertheless he is running around using it so he and we are stuck with it.

He claims:

• “The bridge has "yet to identify or spell out how residents will be protected when you have 30,000 trucks going from the foot of Highway 401 to their facility.”

The easy answer is that they do not have to do that under their Environmental Assessment. That is the job of the Governments. Their EA has to do with the bridge only and not the road system.

In reality though, and Eddie knows it, the DRIC Road can be designed so that it goes straight to the Ambassador Bridge. Trucks do NOT have to go on Huron Church. After all, the DRIC Road is the City’s WALTS road under a different name! Another accurate but narrow comment.

Here is what really troubles me about his Star statements. He is trying to make us believe that the City has a position that it can enforce against both the Bridge Company and DRIC. Thanks to the failure of Brian Masse to obtain the amendments to Bill C- 3 that Eddie wanted, the City has no position. Here is what was said in Parliament:

• Mr. Brian Jean:
  Fortunately enough for all of us, our forefathers, in the British North America Act, set down the jurisdictions of the federal government and provincial government and allowed the province to delegate some authority to municipal governments. The situation you're suggesting, as I read it, is that we have to comply with municipal governments in matters related to international border crossings.
  
  I mean no disrespect, but I've dealt with many municipal governments in the past, and some were made up of very intelligent people, and some were not. The reality is that we have a federal government that has specific jurisdiction over one of the most important things we have as a country, our international border crossings…
  
  Mr. Brian Masse:
  
  ...I don't view this as an interpretation, with great respect, of trumping the act in itself. I believe it provides a window for municipal and provincial laws to be part of the process. I think that's the important aspect.
  
  Mr. Brian Jean:
  
  …The reality here is that it's under federal government authority, and I think something as important as this should be left there. It's beyond jurisdiction; it's ultra vires the provinces and the municipal governments.
  
  Mr. Mario Laframboise:
  
  …There are times when we have to be able to respect jurisdictions. I understand our colleague, Mr. Masse, because I know that it is not always easy. As the former President of the Union des municipalités du Québec, it’s not easy for me to discuss municipal issues. Interprovincial bridges and tunnels, however, are under federal jurisdiction. I do not think that we have to amend this clause. That is the point of the bill; you wanted to clarify the situation. The municipalities have to understand that these bridges and tunnels are under federal jurisdiction.”

In case Eddie seems to have forgotten, I have a copy of the Senate transcript too where he and David Estrin appeared. If I have a copy, then I am certain that the lawyers for the Bridge Company have one too. His words are going to come back to haunt him.

At the Senate hearings in Ottawa, he tried to claim that the City of Windsor had a role to play as far as the construction of an international bridge goes. He made the same argument that he made in the Star story:

• “The mayor said he believes the twin span plan can't go ahead without municipal approval in Windsor.
  
  He said legislation in the 1920s, when the bridge was built, referred to "a requirement for municipal consent."

That position was rejected. Even Eddie conceded the Federal paramountcy. Why did he not mention his concession in the Star article:

• “I agree with you concerning jurisdiction. The federal government has jurisdiction over general works for the advantage of Canada — the bridge, the plaza, the facility, and the immediate area.”

Does that mean that the homes on Indian Road can be torn down since they are in the "immediate area" notwithstanding what the City's Demolition bylaw says? If so, why is Eddie pretending that he has the power to stop them from being demolished! Next will the Heritage designation be the tool du jour to be used to try to stop the Bridge Company.

Here is what Senator Eyton had to say

• “To me, the bridges and tunnels that are the subject of the act are clearly vital national works. They have an importance much beyond the city of Windsor, and they have a terrific importance for Southern Ontario…
  
  I have looked at the definition. In your submission, you refer to the 1921 act…
  
  Even back in 1921, there is a provision saying, "We will try to work it out, but essentially, if there is a disagreement or dispute, then it will go to a federal body, that is, the Railway Commissioners for Canada.”

Moreover, Counsel for Transport Canada and the Transport Minister stated:

• “Senator Phalen: I received correspondence from the City of Windsor, dated September 19, in which they outline their concerns that this proposed legislation ignores the municipality in the decision-making process, even though the municipality will be directly impacted by any changes.
  
  Can you or have you addressed any of the concerns of the municipalities?
  
  Mr. Cannon: At the outset I will indicate to you that of course this is federal jurisdiction. That is the first point I want to mention…
  
  Senator Phalen: They seem to be using two acts to support their claim. One is the 1921 act incorporating the Canadian Transit Company and another is a 1927 act incorporating the Detroit and Windsor Subway Company. The latter act states that the companies shall not construct or operate any of the works mentioned in the act along, under or over any highway, street or public place without first obtaining the consent expressed by the bylaw of the municipality having jurisdiction over such highway, street or other public place and upon terms to be agreed upon with the municipality. Do these acts still have any force?
  
  Mr. Cannon: I will let our lawyer respond to that, but I think that the legislation you are talking about pertains to the construction period. As you well know, before authorizing construction of a bridge or tunnel, many municipalities must ensure that it respects the urban plan, the rules and the regulations, the bylaws, et cetera, in terms of its construction. I would suspect that is what we are referring to.
  
  Mr. Langlois: The minister answered the question. The act puts conditions on construction and initial operation. They had to consult the municipal official and get an approval of the bylaw. The passage you refer to is accurate.
  
  This infrastructure has been constructed and the operation is started without telling you that these bills are spent, construction has now been completed so the conditions have been met. This bill will apply to future construction. If someone wants to construct new infrastructure, the conditions that will have to be met will be the ones in the bill in front of you.
  
  Windsor would like to have — I do not want to call it a veto power — a right to approve construction and operation. The government addressed that concern through the amendment that was made in the House committee, to have the minister consult with the municipalities that are implicated through the construction operation.”

To put it succinctly, this is a Federal matter and Eddie, as a lawyer who has studied Constitutional Law, knows that the City of Windsor has no position. He has conceded all in any event by his statement.

There is no point in our Mayor pretending that he has a power that he does not have. Of course, he can try and stall the process again if he can convince Council to start a lawsuit using David Estrin, assuming that Mr. Estrin is allowed to continue to act for the City of Windsor. All that Eddie would accomplish would be to increase legal costs to taxpayers, to have a massive claim be made against the City and jeopardize even more the economic viability of our Region.

It is enough already. It is time that Council take control of this file. It can be March, 2003 all over again if the Majority of Councillors have the guts or at least, the common sense.