Francis Failures Continue

Now that you have read yesterday what the newspapers have said over the past few days, let us do a bit of analysis.

You have no choice but to read this stuff and weep for our City. I’m not trying to be mean. I did not write these articles. It is the Mayor who was quoted, not I. Do you see anything to be positive about? Do you see a plan in action? Or rather do you see a Mayor who has no idea what he is doing and whose sole function appears to be to talk a good game without performing. It is quite easy to do with Toronto media or the Canadian Press who really have no idea about what has gone on here.

Of course, no one can blame our Mayor for the collapse of the Big Three or the economic devastation caused by the financial meltdown. However, the articles make it clear that there were issues of economic diversification years ago:

• “Four or five years ago when manufacturing and automotive started to decline, we felt the impact immediately.”

A slight rewriting of history here because, according to our Mayor, the problem before was supposedly cyclical not structural. We had been through these ups and downs with the car industry before so what was everybody getting so excited about.

Wasn’t that why we had the report prepared with respect to a joint City/County Development Commission? That revolving door, rudderless organization is a disgrace that has not accomplished much over the past several years that it has been in existence other than waste money. Terrific, they finally accomplish something before the end of the year… a few more call-centre jobs.

• "There's no question that without a leader at the head of the commission, it presents a number of challenges for us in attracting investment to the region," said Nelson Santos, warden of Essex County and mayor of Kingsville. "I know that the existing staff is working hard and working overtime to pick up the slack but, with all due respect, it's not the same as having an executive director or a vice-president in place…”

Is there absolutely no sense of urgency?

When you read the newspaper articles, does what is being proposed sound familiar? It should. What does the Mayor talk about… plans that have been around for months and months and months and for which little has been accomplished. It actually would be nice if the Mayor spoke to “senior research and policy adviser entrusted with the task of getting the shuttle service off the ground.” While the Mayor claims:

• “We have been working with Saskatchewan and we're close to finalizing a program."

his policy adviser states

• “We're working with Saskatchewan officials on how we can make it happen. We're still at the very beginning."

It would be nice if they got their act together don't you think.

Back in July, “Mayor Seeks Information About Windsorites Travelling West.” There were FIVE questions to be answered and, according to the article, 69 responses. Incredibly, it has taken all this time to try to figure out what those responses mean. With the oil prices tanking in Western Canada, there is probably now no point in people going out there even if they were going to go out in the first place. Failure.

Let’s look at what else the Mayor talked about…he has grabbed on the idea of Windsor becoming a retirement community. Terrific except for the fact that he’s telling the world that Windsor is dying so who would want to move here. And until such time as we get over our shortage of doctors, 200 or so who are needed already, I doubt if too many seniors are going to come here. With stories of horrible roads and sewers that have been in the media recently, increasing taxes and a shrinking tax base… the Casino reassessment being the latest example… this is hardly the place for Seniors to come especially if they are on fixed incomes. With “a little seed money,” we can hardly compete against some of the major retirement communities in North America and elsewhere. Failure.

Now we are going to be a hub for agricultural products at the airport to be distributed across North America. Whatever happened to the start-up German onion importers that Eddie went to see twice in Europe? So what exactly are we doing: exporting to Europe, exporting to the United States, importing from Europe to distribute to the United States or all or none of the above? Failure.

Remember how supportive the Mayor was of the University’s Engineering Complex. NOT!

Of course you cannot forget his assertion that unless the University did it his way and located the Complex downtown, there would be no contribution from the City. Can you please tell me why “the research and development capacity that we have in the city is one of the best kept secrets in the country...." Why hasn’t our Mayor ensured that R&D is not a secret?

That it is a secret is no doubt true from a study prepared for the Development Commission:

• “A. Sandy Munro, CEO of Munro & Associates, Inc., on a fact-finding mission to Europe was shocked to find how far Windsor Essex had fallen off European companies’ radar. Many had been led to believe that the core of the MTDM business in Canada was in Toronto, Winnipeg and Montreal. Senior staff in 5 of the largest European companies (EADS, Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes and Thales) had never even heard of Windsor, or the capabilities of the MTDM industry here. These companies have been outsourcing key work for the past 5 years to locations other than China and India demonstrating enormous lost opportunities for our region.
  
  The Region and the industry as a result of these findings must either move to raise its profile, or face irrelevance as a Global Supply Source.”

Wow, even consultants go to Europe at our expense. Oh I forgot, Windsor being an R&D centre is something that Dennison DesRosiers has been talking about and therefore not something that the Mayor can support. Failure.

The Mayor is still talking about creation of jobs. Exactly how many have been created recently? He can talk all he wants about the DRIC process and that there will not be a shovel in the ground until who knows when but he knows as well as everyone else that his stalling on full tunneling, Greenlink, Son of Greenlink and Greenlink: the Next Generation has caused this City untold grief. How dare he say

• “we need to continue to focus our efforts on creating jobs here, but we also need to be realistic in our assessment of the economic situation and challenges we are facing.”

To be realistic would have been working with the Senior Levels and the Ambassador Bridge Company years ago so that their projects could have started instead of threatening lawsuits or appearing in US Coast Guard hearings. That would have been the way he could have minimized difficulties as we were moving away from the automobile industry.

Seriously, what other City is fighting not to get billions of dollars in investments. Has City Hall been inhaling Tunnel exhaust for too long. Failure.

Our tourist industry…” a new convention centre, casino and arena…” not too shabby until one looks at the border crossing numbers and sees the number of vehicles and buses that are not coming to Windsor this year. And what are we doing about it? Have the City and County figured out yet how they are going to partner on increasing tourism? Failure.

To be honest, I do not understand why all these parts suppliers are moaning and groaning and even some of them are going out of business. Haven’t they heard, we are in the aerospace business. No, I do not mean promoting the Red Bull air race although we don’t have the millions of dollars needed yet for sponsorship at a time when Detroit is pulling out of its Grand Prix for economic reasons. I mean the aerospace industry. We have succeeded according to our Mayor

• “There is also an attempt to transition existing automotive infrastructure to meet changing market demands…
  
  "Parts suppliers that once used to supply strictly 100 per cent the automotive industry ... those parts suppliers are now transitioned and are now supplying the aerospace industry."

I went to the Development Commission site to see how many firms are actually involved in the aerospace business at least according to the Commission. Searching the word “aerospace” on their database, I found four companies.

Silly me, I forgot that we had a consultants’ Report prepared, "Changing the Paradigm for the Machine, Tool, Die and Mould Industry in Windsor Essex" so that we could talk about all of this rather than achieving something. Those consultants are really smart people too compared with our foolish business people:

• “The first question we ask any client or company in trouble is, “What is the objective of your business?” If the answer is anything other than “make a profit,” then we know the company is in serious trouble. We have asked this question of a number of MTDM companies in Windsor Essex and never once received the “appropriate” answer even after coaching individuals several times.”

We are so dumb here and the consultants so smart I guess. Failure.

It is enough already. It is a new year which ought to be a time of hope for us and not despair. Realistically however what do we have look forward to under the Leadership that we have in this City? I do not blame the Mayor alone although he must bear the greatest measure of blame since he is the only full-time politician and acts as the City’s CEO. I blame the Council as well for allowing him to achieve so little. They are virtually invisible and play little role in this City, even the loopy ones.

I trust it now that you understand why I am so angry at Prime Minister Harper. He could have solved our problem but didn’t.

There is a step that our Mayor could take that would accomplish the same result. I will let you figure out, dear reader, what that step is.