One After Another

There are so many stories taking place that it is almost impossible for me to keep up with them. However I will try the best I can to keep you informed.

OUR NEW PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

It would appear that all school children within Windsor and Essex County will soon be required to put their hands over their hearts to pledge their faith in this region every morning right after the national anthem.

I am sure that you saw the gigantic ad in Saturday’s Star presumably paid for by that newspaper out of the hundreds of thousands of dollars that it received from the City and the County for the ad campaign to promote Windsor. It does cost money for paper and ink after all. Nice sucking up to the politicians with their photos.

The sloganeers have been so busy with the names that they have dreamt up that they may have set a world’s record for logos in one newspaper ad: Believe Team, W.E.CAN, Believe! W.E. CAN.

Just watch City Council next week as the Mayor stands and asks everyone in the Chambers and at home to rise and repeat after him:

• “I hereby pledge to stand up and be proud of Windsor Essex County.
  
  I believe in the potential of this community and will share its positive and unique attributes with all.”

Why, it reminds me of the pledge that I used to repeat in my childhood. You remember the one don’t you, the one right at the end of the Mickey Mouse Club! It is appropriate as far as I am concerned. This whole campaign is Mickey Mouse.

STAR JOURNALISM

I am pretty disgusted to be blunt about it. How many negative scare stories have we read about the Province and the new jail since it has been announced.

All we have read about is our Mayor and Councillor Marra denouncing the decision and the process.

All of a sudden in Monday’s Star, the other side is mentioned. All of a sudden the Star has decided that it ought to provide a balanced point of view. All of a sudden there are some positives about living near a jail:

• You couldn't ask for better neighbours than the inmates and staff at Windsor jail
  
• If anything, it makes the community safer
  
• the jail has benefited the community immensely as staff -- there are at least 110 unionized workers -- patronize area shops, restaurants and even the local pharmacy.
  
• They're a boost to our economy and I'm sad to see them go
  
• the jail, long located in the heart of Sandwich near General Brock Public School, has been nothing but positive for the community.
  
• "We have houses right across the street and their property values would be the same whether the jail was there or not," she said.
  
• Gordon Krantz, the Mayor of Milton, Ont., which hosts the 1,500-bed Maplehurst Correctional Facility, said the jail "provides "a lot of good jobs, well-paying jobs in the community" and that the prison purchases supplies locally."

A number of comments are given by Mary Ann Cuderman. Obviously, there is no need for any more debate since she is the Council favourite, especially about bridge issues, so she must know what she’s talking about.

It is obvious that something more is going on with respect to the jail than we are being told. Secrecy rules. I am sure that it all has to do with real estate and land values. In other words, money.

Too bad that we taxpayers are completely irrelevant and need not be told anything.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TUNNEL DEAL

I may start believing that we may actually have a DRIC bridge in this area if the Federal Government decides to help finance Eddie’s Tunnel deal with Detroit.

As I have said before, the Federal Government needs to eliminate competition in order to grant the P3 investor a monopoly in this region. I expect that the Tunnel and DRIC bridge will be wrapped up together in one big package for someone to bid on. There is no other explanation than Federal Government involvement to explain why the Feds took such aggressive action to prevent the Bridge Company from operating the Tunnel.

My view is that the Feds have always been interested but were not prepared to pay the kind of money that Kwame and Eddie were negotiating.

Now Detroit is really in a jam and it would not surprise me to see the Feds come in with lowball offer that they would make through Eddie to Detroit to try to get control of the Tunnel.

As the Free Press reported:

• “Then there’s the question about how the current 2008-09 fiscal year will impact the deficit number. Kilpatrick proposed selling Detroit’s half of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel to raise $65 million for the city’s budget, but the plan died under heavy opposition from the council, which instead called for selling deficit bonds.
  
  Failure to find that $65 million in some form would push the deficit past $200 million, Corley said. And with the economy sinking, that could further worsen the situation.”

Watch and see what happens. Watch also as it becomes a controversy between Canada and the new US President.

CALLING THE SHOPPING CHANNEL

As I have written before, Sandwich has been Delrayed! All these wonderful plans and concepts to work up the area into believing that something may actually happen there.

I see that the word “jewel” is still being tossed around to over-dramatize something in Windsor:

• “Sandwich can be city 'jewel'”

You can effectively ignore all the propaganda about the area by skipping to the end of the Star story to read what this is all about. As if you, dear reader, did not know:

• “One threat to the heritage designation remains the Ambassador Bridge company, which has been barred from tearing down homes it owns on Indian Road to expand its operations because of the neighbourhood studies.
  
  It has threatened legal action to stop designation and its officials have been in regular attendance at community meetings.
  
  Bridge owner Matty Moroun and his companies have continued to purchase dozens of homes on Indian Road, Edison Street and Bloomfield Road in anticipation the property may some day be required for its expansion plans, including its twin-span proposal. Many of the homes have been abandoned and boarded up.
  
  "He has decimated a whole community and made us look like a ghetto on his own whim," Cuderman said.
  
  "The city has to be strong as to what they do here."

No, the real threat to the area is that residents have been taken for a ride and their community put in limbo for two years with the Interim Control by law and now more time with the Heritage plan.

The Star story provides the kicker:

• "it is an anxious time as they await municipal approvals they believe will kick-start their vision to revitalize the area -- provided the necessary funding follows...
  
  "If you can get dollars to move the plan forward, it will bring tourism and money into the city."

Did you notice that Councillor Postma was not interviewed. The Star dare not do so because she let the cat out of the bag on John Fairley's show when she said that there was not enough money for the Sandwich Community Improvement Plan.

Of course, there was a way that the area could have been helped. But that never would have happened so there's no point talking very much about it.

The only kind of jewel that Sandwich will become with his Mayor and Council is Cubic Zirconia!

PAYING THE FREIGHT

I wonder if the WEDC is running out of money or is the Commission too embarrassed to let people know how many overseas trips they have taken. I read as an example in a WEDC newsletter that the Chair, Remo Mancini and Tracy Pringle will be going to Germany to attend the International Suppliers Fair in Wolfsburg.

I wonder if the overseas travellers ever provide a report on what they have achieved. I do not remember seeing anything about the trade show in London for instance and how many new businesses with jobs were attracted here. I really would be interested in knowing what follow-up was taken after the big party in Toronto with all of the movers and shakers there. Someone needs to assess whether all of these trips have any value or not in a time of economic slowdown.

Now they have a new Sugar Daddy who can open up its wallet to allow members of the Commission to go overseas.

The International Relations Committee of Council is recommending that a member of WEDC be included as part of the Committee.

It makes good sense for that to happen because we do have a number of Twin City partners around the world and we ought to be capitalizing on our relationships with them to generate new business. Please excuse my cynicism however.

Bon voyage!

PETTY-coat JUNCTION

Do you remember the BLOG I did Monday, July 16, 2007 "More On The Junction." In that BLOG, I differed with the opinion of the City Solicitor about the legal relationship between Council and its own Chief Building Officer in the Junction case:

• "I was also interested in what the City Counsel, Mr. Wilkki, had to say about the City suing the CBO if they disagreed with him. He referred to an Ottawa case where that happened. It is unfortunate that he did not mention that the CBO had a specific statutory duty that he was acting under and THAT was the reason why the City had to sue. That is NOT the case with the Junction. All that happens here is that the City listens to what the CBO says and then COUNCIL makes the decision."

There was an interesting item in the recent Communications Package about grandfathering Bed and Breakfast houses. In this instance, the City Solicitor said that Council could overrule its Licensing Commissioner who believes that it would be a bad idea to grandfather them.

No mention of the City perhaps being required to sue the Licensing Commissioner.