Even More News

So much more to let you know about before the holidays. I'll try and get them all in.

ANOTHER WEDC MESS

Seems that emails are being sent around by whom I do not know since the ones I received are anonymous making all kinds of allegations around the hiring of a new CEO for the Development Commission. Some of the allegations are quite serious too. Who knows if they are true or not but they ought to be investigated immediately.

All that we do know is that the Commission has not had one since Mr. Fischer was let go quite some time ago!

Honestly, this Organization is a disgrace. Is anyone running it? What has it accomplished? Where has all of its money gone? Have they printed brochures yet?

It is time the 2 Councils that supposedly fund this group and for which taxpayer money is being used (and Credit Union funds too) find out what is going on.

NEW JAIL LOCATION

Don’t give me that holier than thou attitude. You like to hear gossip and rumour just as much as I do and I would not put it past some of you to spread it around too!

Well here is a story I have heard. I have, of course, no idea whether it has any substance or not. But perhaps if a reporter from a certain Radio Station in town decides to follow up and' I am right, then perhaps I might win the News Tip of the Month award.

If the jail is definitely not going to Brighton Beach as the Mayor wants and the Province wants it to go on the site that they have selected, there is a dispute. What next?

I have it! A compromise! Yes, dear reader, the Mayor who refused to budge one single inch on the border road but who is now compromising all over the place may want to compromise on the jail location as well.

In fact, given the way our Mayor negotiates, and since there was a specific term in the jail arrangement with the City respecting the DRIC bridge going to Brighton Beach, one might think that the Mayor’s brouhaha, ably supported by the Windsor Star, was designed to create a ruckus. Accordingly, the Mayor could then put forward a compromise solution which is really where he wanted the jail to go in the first place.

Now where could that location be? A friend of mine told me that he heard on the radio that the Mayor wanted to use $10 million of the $20 million that the City was to receive from the Province to help develop the airport lands.

What an amazing coincidence! Could it be true that the story going around that the Mayor is working on a project at the airport is the new jail? I doubt if it has anything to do with the onion importers.

It would be a terrific win for the area because the other story going around is that not only is the jail going to be built on 30 or 35 acres but that another Ontario Government Department is going to be located right beside the jail. Just like in London as I Blogged before.

Why don’t we try and get the Ministry of the Environment to locate there so they can resolve the war between a certain Councillor and a lawyer for a property owner near Howard and the Expressway.

IS THE CONFEDERATION BRIDGE IN WINDSOR

Of course not, it is in Prince Edward Island. Yet it seems that this bridge and our area seem to be linked together more and more. I know that Gord Henderson has mentioned this bridge about seven times in his column, most recently with respect to having a major contractor building the project rather than a local firm.

• “Think about it. When the feds built the $1-billion Confederation Bridge linking P.E.I. with New Brunswick in the 1990s, did they hand the assignment to local boy Bud The Spud and his trusty backhoe? No. They awarded the project to a major Calgary-based firm, Strait Crossing Inc., which provided outside expertise but employed thousands of local workers and completed this remarkable link in less than three years.”

Now the Minister of Finances is doing it. Here is part of a speech that he gave to the Canadian Council of Public-Private Partnerships:

Perhaps I am just overly suspicious but I believe that there may be some kind of a link between the PEI bridge and our border crossing. Exactly what that is I am not completely sure but I will find it out one day.

FORGETTING TECHNOLOGY

The Ambassador Bridge used to have a toll for cattle crossings if you recall. 80 years later, it handles more trucks than any other crossing in North America.

This Bridge and other border crossings have been able to adapt to handle the increased number of vehicles. One of the ways they do so is by speeding vehicles through the border crossing more quickly. One of the ways of doing so is through the use of technology.

While DRIC pays lip service to programs like the Ambassador Bridge’s pre- processing centres in the United States and Canada, FAST and NEXUS, they do not draw the obvious conclusion that an existing crossing can handle more vehicles i.e. capacity is increased without the need of building another bridge.

It is much cheaper building a new customs booth or installing new electronic technology that identifies the border crosser than spending a billion on a new bridge. Here’s a recent story that explains what I mean:

• “Crossing the Border
  
  Federal authorities tell us the cards will be one of only six forms of identification that will be accepted for Americans re-entering the country starting June 1, 2009. That's a major reduction from the nearly 8,000 forms of i-d currently accepted.
  
  It's estimated roughly 3,000 cars and trucks pass thru these tolls everyday. It's the same number at the nearby Windsor Tunnel.
  
  That can create long waits for people entering the US. The new equipment is expected to reduce the wait time by about six seconds. It may not sound like a lot, but, federal authorities disagree.
  
  Winkowski
  "Here in a place like Detroit, we deal with about five million vehicles a year. You do the math."

Here is another story:

• "ID upgrade to speed trips across border
  Border crossings for Americans entering Canada and Mexico are about to be a whole lot safer and efficient.
  
  U.S. Customs and Border Protection has completed technology upgrades at the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge that will use new radio frequency identification that will automatically read and recognize special U.S. "pocket" passports, the new enhanced Michigan driver's licenses and special tunnel/bridge NEXUS, SENTRI and FAST cards.
  
  The technology is in place at the tunnel and Ambassador Bridge and will be installed at the Blue Water and Sault Ste. Marie bridges in the spring."

DRIC MOVING FORWARD

I wonder how hard it will be for our Mayor to try and derail the DRIC process if they keep on expropriating properties. $17.9 million for slightly over 13 acres. I assume that this is a pretty good price but I have no idea.

The tactics are very interesting right now. Would the Mayor dare stop the process after the Province is spending this kind of money? On the other hand, is this a big club for the Mayor to use to force the Province to do what he wants them to do? If they will not listen, then he can disrupt what they are doing and cost them a considerable amount of money. Presumably if that happened, the Province would upload the road amd end the mess down here.

In such a case, when Queen’s Park cut off all funds to Windsor then Councillor Valentinis would know why.

One interesting element is that the lawyer who obtained the $17.9 million for the Church, Stephen Waque, also acted for the City. As an example:

• “Toronto lawyer Stephen Waque is the city's representative in Ontario Municipal Board hearings relating to the former Norwich Block expropriation claims.”

EDDIE'S DILEMMA

Fantastic, Greenlink is a prizewinner in some anonymous contest that cannot be revealed until April. It’s just like all of these people that the Mayor is talking to who want to invest in Windsor but he is not at liberty to tell us who they are.

Thank goodness though that Gord Henderson was able to give us a hint about another weapon Eddie can use if needed.

I say “if needed” because it seems now that our Mayor may have decided to litigate. Right at the bottom of one of Gord's column is the following:

• “Sadly, given the damning environmental evidence we heard this week, it would be unconscionable for the city to do anything less than fight for the health and safety of its constituents, even if it means seeking a judicial review.”

Those DRIC people may get a piece of coal in their stocking if Eddie does so.

However, this is not how the Sheriff has been operating. If you read the sentence properly, there is no doubt that someone has talked to him about “judicial review.” It may well have been Councillor Jones considering the legal education that he has been given over the past little while.

However, don’t you see what Gord has just done to Eddie…he is forcing him to start a lawsuit. Oh he can fight all he wants, but when the Premier says get on with it, that is pretty much the end. What other alternative does our Mayor have but to litigate? It would be “unconscionable” otherwise.

Gord has put Eddie on the horns of a dilemma. Sue and be condemned by almost every Windsorite for costing us thousands of jobs that are desperately needed. Don’t sue, and then Eddie is not fighting for us and is acting in an unconscionable manner. That will not do him much good. That is not something to have as a reputation in one's next career.

Oh the Sheriff is chuckling tonight.

MAKE A BOOK ON IT

Is it true that the Mayor is angry at what is going on at the Library?

Apparently, the Library workers just settled their 2006 contract for 2.6% increase. I was told that the Mayor wanted a Special Meeting to “discuss” this increase.

I wonder if that upset him because it undercuts his position with respect to the employees with whom the City will be negotiating a new contract soon.

If the Mayor wants a strategy for dealing with employees, he might want to try a variation of what the some companies have done with respect to new hires and existing employees. What the Mayor might do is divide the employees that work for the City into different groups e.g. ones that cannot be touched by budget cuts (police and fireman) and the arts, museums and libraries workers whose services are not essential and where budget cuts can be made without impacting the public very much. Cut the salaries and benefits of the latter. Let them strike, who cares.

I’m not suggesting at all that this is a strategy that should be followed but it is one that I have heard has been considered.

A NEW BORDER COMPETITOR

The DRIC process may be thrown into a tizzy because another Company I hear may be coming into Windsor to offer an alternative way to cross between Windsor and Detroit.

If successful, the project would certainly be competition to the new DRIC bridge and could put more pressure on the financial position of the Tunnel especially since it would likely be a downtown to downtown proposition.

Just remember, when you hear about gondolas, it does not necessarily mean what Dave Cooke is looking into.