Last Chance--2008 Stories Must Be Cleared Out

Here are some new stories that you may have missed because of all the holiday festivities. Absolutely, positively the last stories from 2008 that I finally can share with you.

BORDER RETREAT

A very interesting Editorial from the Star about the Kergin Report that I Blogged about over a month ago. Why it took so long for the Star to talk about it and the approach taken was very surprising to me.

Since the Star Editors know everything, the only conclusion that I could come to in reading that Editorial was that the Governments on both sides of the river have finally figured out that the Ambassador Bridge Company has won the battle. But not necessarily the war. That war has been going on for about 50 years now with the Canadian Government, ever since Dief the Chief, except we did not know about it.

Did you see anything in the Editorial about building the DRIC bridge? Nothing in there as well about capacity or security or redundancy. In other words none of the reasons why a second public bridge was supposedly necessary. The real problem with the border has nothing to do with what DRIC talked about.

• “Kergin's report directly addresses the main reason for continuing problems at border crossings -- a U.S. customs regime that has developed into a cumbersome bureaucracy.”

Gee, isn’t that what the Bridge Company said years ago about the root cause of the border backups and was ridiculed. How nice for Mr. Kergin to bring the Star Editors on side.

One would have to be naïve given that Mr. Kergin was once the Canadian Ambassador to the United States and was also retained by the Ontario Government respecting the Border not to believe that he has some idea about what the Governments want. It would not surprise me if his Report reflected Canadian Government policy at this time.

That policy is a hasty retreat so that the Bridge Company does not get the American Government onside and win the border war forever. Better to pull back now, regroup and fight the battle 10 years from now the way that Canada did with the FIRA supposed settlement. After all, the International Bridges and Tunnels Act is nothing more than FIRA in disguise. It is directed only at the Ambassador Bridge after all.

The idea is to create a Border Authority where the Canadians can try and take control. Nice move to call it NORAD-like so that the Americans will think that it has something to do with Homeland Security.

• “the leaders of Canada and the United States might not, once again, collaboratively confront international instability, albeit of an economic nature.”

We can see now that the Canadian Policy is to sucker the Americans into setting up some kind of a Public Authority that ultimately will try to micromanage the Ambassador Bridge business. That is what Canada wanted to do as part of the IBTA.

The approach is to keep the Government action in the low-level bureaucratic arena and away from politicians on the US side. That approach after all is part of Canada’s Ultrasecret Playbook. Don’t let the Americans know what is going on until it is all too late.

Thanks to the Windsor Star we know that the Canadian Governments’ action-plan has started.

If only the Governments on both sides of the river had actually talked to the best border operator in North America, then we would not have had the problem that Mr. Kergin has had to write about. We would not have had to have wasted years of time and millions of taxpayer dollars either.

CITY FREAKS OVER REASSESSMENT

I think that would have been a better headline.

Oh how calm everyone is at City Hall over the loss of $6 million in taxes because of the reassessment of the Casino. I guess that this is the reason why the Star could put in this headline:

• “City downplays tax base damage”

Oh silly me, I forgot. If the City loses money on one hand, it just reaches in deeper into our pocket with the other hand to make up the difference:

• “But the city should be able to withstand the casino tax fallout through a combination of options to cushion the blow, such as spreading the impact throughout its commercial tax class, find additional revenue sources, cut expenditures or raise tax rates in other classes, Guthrie said.”

Whether it is increased taxes or generating revenues without calling it a tax, the rest of us will pay more.

Another option was raised by Council Halberstadt:

• “In the longer term, the city will have to weigh selling off some assets.”

Bye-bye Enwin. Bye-bye WUC. Bye-bye Tunnel. Look for the City to try to P3 all of these assets. They are not really “sales” so our Mayor can say that he is not selling anything but we will give up the effective control of these utilities for the next 75 to 99 years. Just wait then until you see what increases will be like.

LEAR OVER THIS TAX REDUCTION

In that Star story, what did give concern was the following:

• “Lower property assessments caused by the dismal local economy are not expected to have a major impact on Windsor’s municipal tax revenues unless an entire classification is lost — such as a crash of the Big Three automakers that shutters every local plant.
  
  “That's why we were very interested in the auto sector bailout,” said Janice Guthrie, the city’s deputy treasurer of taxation and revenue. “If they close up and leave, we would be in serious trouble.”

Granted that Lear was not a major player in the automotive business in Windsor, nevertheless their plant where the arena now stands did generate a lot of tax revenue for the City.

I do not know if it has been torn down yet or will be torn down soon but what I was told by a local developer was that the City could lose millions of dollars of revenue because the land would be "vacant." No more plant and office space to tax.

Oh that is all right, we remaining taxpayers can make up that difference too.

CONSTRUCTION HOPES ARE DIM IN THE WINDSOR AREA

I saw this article from the Daily Commercial News:

• "Southwestern Ontario construction companies adjust to economic slowdown
  
  Southwestern Ontario’s construction sector is experiencing the full effects of the global economic meltdown.
  
  Longer bidding lists, greater competition from companies looking farther afield, tougher challenges to secure financing as well as major job losses are just some of the new realities facing the region’s building community.
  
  In particular, the crash of the auto industry, the region’s primary economic driver, is having an impact, says Paul Cocker, president of London-based McKay-Cocker...
  
  Jim Lyons, executive director of the Windsor Construction Association says contractors in his area are pursuing work out of the region, which is highly unusual.
  
  “The quality of life isn’t as good for those guys as if they’re working in their own backyard,” he says. “But that’s the nature of the business —got to go where the work is.”
  
  In Windsor, which has experienced the lion’s share of the province’s automotive sector layoffs, “it’s been pretty doom and gloom.”
  
  There are projects — Lyons mentions an upcoming $70 million Windsor Regional Hospital project, and notes that the University of Windsor has plans to build a $90 million engineering building. The institutional sector looks the most promising, he says, listing projects involving area schools, arenas and a pollution control plant in Leamington.
  
  Bill Jean, Windsor’s deputy chief building official confirms there are projects on the board that haven’t yet applied for permits, including a four-storey Toronto Dominion Bank building in the downtown core and the construction of a nursing home on the site of the former Salvation Army Grace Hospital."

Oh who needs those thousands of construction jobs for the DRIC Road and Ambassador Bridge Project. Let us argue about quality of life issues that are nonexistent. That is so much easier than trying to negotiate a solution. It is so much easier when you are a weakling to be an irritant.

BLAST FROM THE PAST

In going through my archives I found the following Star article from a few years ago. Most of the projects set out have been accomplished. Tell me if you can actually see what was supposed to happen. Think of this when you read the Cooke Report on the canal vision at the end of February and you will be told how the City Centre will be re-invigorated:

• "City core to soar, Francis predicts: Mayor says projects point to 'renaissance'; Craig Pearson, 05-21-2005
  
  Downtown Windsor is set to undergo a renaissance, Mayor Eddie Francis said Friday.
  
  Thanks to a new Dieppe Gardens reception centre, possible university and college use of the Cleary International Centre, Casino Windsor development, and a potential deal to finally rent out two empty floors of the Canderel building for which the city has been paying, Francis thinks the city core will soar.
  
  "What we have downtown is a renaissance of sorts," Francis said addressing the 10th annual Mayor's Luncheon sponsored by the Windsor & District Chamber of Commerce. "You have a new casino expansion -- new convention centre, new theatre -- you're going to have a transit terminal, you're going to have council move on an urban village, you're going to have a potential university-college concept here, and you have two new enterprises taking place on the block.
  
  "There's a lot of activity coming downtown. So the next year's going to be exciting."
  
  Francis said that over the last half year, the city has been negotiating with a company to take over the empty space it has been leasing in the Canderel building.
  
  "It's in front of the corporation's board of directors. The board is very positive towards it," said Francis, who won't publicly name the company unless an agreement is signed. "It's a significant corporation that we're working on."
  
  Francis said he is also excited about a $2-million Cleary Guest House, which will be built to replace the existing Dieppe Gardens snack bar -- possibly starting in the fall.
  
  The plans for the sleek, glass-walled building -- provided by the mayor's office Friday -- call for it to be built into the embankment below Riverside Drive to clear the view across the Detroit River. It will offer a patio on top of the building and at the base, with licensed service and a lighted and towering Peace Beacon that will signal its presence around the clock."

Gosh, and he did not even mention the Keg restaurant either by name!