More Letters

I get mail from my readers about matters that interest them including one that takes me to task and my reply:

1) [Re WEDC] WE DuCk our responsibility to be accountable or do any real work

2) Let's think about Windsor's progress on the border issue under the leadership of our mayor and council. If you remember we were told prior to the first Schwartz report in January 2005 that a new border crossing and access roads would be in place by 2013. We are now at the halfway point. After four years the progress has been staggering! Let's go down the list.

• Schwartz Report January 2005 calling for a bypass to nowhere through the Ojibway forest (scrubbed) and converting Huron Church Road into the Champs Elysees of Canada (a tongue in cheek joke)
  
• City of Windsor's push for full tunneling from Highway 401 to the EC Row Expressway (an absurd pipe dream)
  
• City of Windsor's Greenlink, tunnels and schwunnels and make believe parkland on top (tossed aside)
  
• Son of Greenlink (dumped)

Of course, the city made sure trucks stayed off the EC Row Expressway even though it its original design included a dedicated truck lane. Meanwhile millions in Ontario government dollars were refused by the City to fix up the roadbed.

Now for the Ambassador Bridge. No city permits. Not for replacement of the 70 year old structure and no permission for tearing down of abandoned house eyesores on Indian Road. Lots more taxpayer dollars wasted on lawyers.

But, all is not gloom and doom. Let's look at the positives over the past four years.

The DRIC road was recently adopted by the province despite loud protests and threats from the city. What will Windsor do? Maybe the mayor will pay hundreds of thousands to carpetbagging legalists to litigate and delay construction. Such a surprise. An additional problem: despite the huge expense of this road (1.2 billion) it would only bring trucks from Highway 401 to the EC Row Expressway. Nothing for reducing pollution on Huron Church Road as trucks continue starting and stopping for the many traffic lights. The mayor doesn't seem to much care what happens between the expressway and the present bridge entrance. Let the locals enjoy breathing vehicle emissions. They're used to it.

As for the DRIC road, what has happened up to now? Well, the Ontario Government bought a church on Talbot Road. Everything else, including the crossing location, its surrounding road infrastructure and the highway leading to it are nothing but lines on a map.

Which means there's lots to do over the next four years. Let's get cracking! If the senior governments can stop laughing at Windsor long enough, something might happen. Will everything be completed by 2013? That's a bigger joke than the Schwartz bypass.

As the past four years indicate, Windsor will likely do its best to make sure little gets done between now and 2013. It took 30 years for the EC Row to be finished. If the mayor and council can stall, litigate and deny long enough maybe they can break the EC Row 30 year record for delay and frustration. Would anyone be surprised?

3) [RE Family Business BLOG] Apropos the content of the blog of this AM, isn't it interesting that the Canadian Nationalism/Anti-Americanism phenomenon seems to pertain only to the Bridge but not to the American-owned and operated Truck Ferry which, apparently, is not held to the same standard. In fact the MOT is in the middle of improving the access to the ferry as well as to the ferry dock itself at the cost of several million dollars while the company’s owners whine incessantly about the unfairness of Customs charges, ice-breaking fees and those mean and hard-hearted bastards at Morterm.

4) Kenny Lewensa is now up against a rock and a hard place. George Bush just gave the industry about $14 billion under the condition that they file a viable business restructuring by March 1 and one of the conditions is that the UAW be competitive with Japanese compensation in the auto sector in North America. With the UAW that means they have to come down by about $10 bucks per hour maybe $15 buck an hour.

Canada is at least $5 buck an hour higher than in the US today so in Canada to be competitive they have to find about $15 bucks and hour on the low side and possibly as much as $20 bucks an hour. There is no ties between the US money and Canada but our Governments would be crazy to not force the same condition on the D3 in Canada for them to receive the $3.4 billion promise up here in the north. And indeed the D3 themselves would be crazy not to force the CAW into matching the US agreement.

Can you imagine what would happen to our assembly plants if Canadian compensation were allowed to stay in the $70 per hour range and the US and the new domestics were all under $45 per hour. We already are the highest compensated auto workers anywhere in the world for the D3 ... with this new US agreement forced on them by the Bush Administration they would be $20 to $25 per hour higher in Canada.

Meanwhile Kenny has been holding town hall meetings to rally his troops to hold firm and to toughen the stance of the CAW against compensation concessions ... He should have been softening up the troops...

If the CAW doesn't move then bye bye to all the D3 assembly plants in Canada. The CAW appears to be more interested in taking NO compensation than a reduced compensation. So Kenny must be real happy these days .. he's getting exactly what he's asked for ... no compensation.

5) Eddie spent another $1.2 million refurbishing the [airport] terminal. Did you notice that there wasn't as single person in that shot other than him and [the Airport GM]?

Keep the blog going!

6) Eddie could use the go kart track at the airport and call that the Windsor Grand Prix!

7) The feds are going to get real tired of the province and Eddie on this border file and if this border is as vital to Canada and the US as they say, one day soon we could have the federal boot right on our necks and there will nothing that Eddie or Dalton can do. It would be an excellent showpiece for the Feds in a stimulus package.

8) Good Day Ed:

Today I did a drive through on Indian Road since there has been mention of it in the media again. The boarded up houses while lacking beauty do seem to be secured well to prevent squatters and vandals from having easy access to the properties. There are many signs up on the homes with the "Support Green Corridor" message and enough art work to make it appear that the end result would be a positive development. Especially interesting was the large fleet of Windsor Police vehicles of many different descriptions in the area. There was a sign up for them as well "Police Services Training Exercise". I agree with the neighbours living on the street that it would be a better impression to the community to have the buildings removed and the green space completed. In the meantime having police exercises is a wonderful deterrent to having any criminal activity take place and a chance for our uniformed officers to practice in an urban setting for those rare events like hostage taking, weapons and bomb threats, and other kinds of situations that when they arise require a response whether there has been practice or not. The media and community spokespersons are giving us less than a full disclosure of what is happening in the area.

9) I was on ctv.ca and found this article about the jobless rate in Canada for December. There is a video on this link where they interviewed Windsor mayor Eddie Francis who talked about how Windsor is recovering and young people are NOT moving away now according to him and the crap he talked about in the toronto star about how auto suppliers are now in the aerospace industry. I heard most people are leaving or planning on leaving because of lack of jobs here including myself.

10) Due to the nature of our companies, we have often worked closely with previous regimes at the WEDC in efforts to develop business and industry in Windsor/Essex.

Aside from a couple of conversations concerning matters from past administrations and a couple of enquiries from the current folks, there is very little contact now and I am very interested in what they are doing or, more likely, not doing.

11) With the new bridge tolls will have to double to make any money.The bridge can raise theirs a dollar shy and make more money with less traffic.

P3's are a difficult scenario right now.Look at the long term facility they just cancelled because of cash flow issues. The Province now has to start again.

Who in their right mind would invest in a bridge that would have major competitionin a slumping market?

12) RE: Who needs THIS Development Commission

WE DO! This region does and so do you.

You know, I take offense to people who just bitch to bitch and who clearly don’t know what they are talking about. If you think there are doing such a bad job why don’t you step up and show us by action and results how you can do a better job. The WEDC is doing a good job and your opinion for once is not appreciated.

MY REPLY

Thanks for your comment. I think you missed my point.

There is a desperate need for "A" Development Commission if this region is to survive. My objection is to "THIS" Development Commission that has achieved little and spent a fortune in doing so. The need for economic diversification has been recognized for years and what has been done? And yes, I am aware of the trade show in November that you attended so do not blast me on that one.

The Development Commission has been leaderless for a year now with no CEO hired and one wonders what kind of conflict there was before the last CEO was terminated that stunted growth. I object to being told that after 24 months "the new WEDC is still taking shape, growing and changing to effectively serve the needs of our Region.”

I saw that your company is involved in aerospace by going to your website. As you know, according to our Mayor, our shops have transitioned to this industry already.

When I searched under that word on the WEDC website, unfortunately nothing showed up that you were involved in that business when I did a search on the word "aerospace." Only 4 company names show up. If I was looking for a partner, then you would be out of luck.

I don't just bitch to bitch. You may have forgotten what I wrote about a year ago that you may want to reread: Weekend reading: Windsor's Future http://windsorcityon.blogspot.com/2008/02/weekend-reading-windsors-future.html

Thanks for reading my BLOGs. I appreciate your comments.

13) [RE Pushing Eddie's Button] Well done Ed for providing a clearer evidence based portrait of our mayor.

We now have a failed Mayor who talks ad nauseum but everything he touches goes to stop while triggering questionable and exorbitant consulting costs

The mayor has created a real problem here. He could have shown true leadership, admitted he ordered the change and provided his reasons. The issue might have died right there, and the veracity of his explanation never arisen. His decision to blame others exposes his personality. Is this really the calibre of person we want for Mayor?

He cannot expect greater positions of power if he cannot succeed as mayor. He is building too many enemies and too many failures. The comments section of the Windsor star and the blogs show that he is not fooling everybody .

There is a growing body of evidence that Eddie F is not the mayor he claims to be. Converse to conventional wisdom, he banks on the premise that words will speak louder than actions. Ironically, in the case of how he chose to handle the button issue, they certainly did! However, it is ever more apparent that his inactions speak louder than his words.

Not much there on his record to show he has earned the the trust of taxpayers to be re-elected for a third term. In fact, it is unfortunate there is no recall legislation in Ontario.

Stay vigilant Ed since a free press is vital to transparent, honest and accountable government!

14) Ed your Windsor city blog does what a good investigative newspaper should do every day. Alas newspapers do not do this anymore. Also we have evolved into a Canadian culture of happy talk, do not upset anyone, mediocrity instead of meritocracy and a lack of innovative thinking. This has led to the decline of what could have become a leading nation. Have you noticed if we need something done or need money we look to immigrants or foreign investors. Can’t we do anything? Furthermore I believe there was a recent report from Simon Fraser University that suggests that we have lost 18 billion dollars over the last twenty years because of our misconceived immigration policy.

Our politicians have learned that the electorate is dazed and can easily be manipulated. This syndrome exists to various degrees across Canada but seems to be severely lodged in Windsor and its’ institutions. As a former resident and university faculty member I recall many suggestions made for implementation by the university/community. Suggestions such as the establishment of a second pharmacy school. It wasn’t possible here in Windsor but Waterloo-Kitchener has recently done this as part of their downtown renewal. Other examples include the lack of any meaningful action when Windsor had three federal cabinet ministers. By this I mean they could have worked with the community to bring in new innovative private and public institutions to diversify the economy.

It seems that the leadership within Windsor as in much of modern Canada is about what can one do for oneself rather than the community. The inability to discern good people and place them in powers of responsibility such as the development commission is a major concern. I could go on. I hope you keep up your good work. If a thousand Windsorites did what you are doing then there would be hope at the end of the tunnel.

I find many of the same problems in my Wife’s home province of Nova Scotia where the Federal and Provincial politicians do not say we can do it but instead suggest let us study this over and over and over or it is not possible. I believe that politicians are not interested in hard work but more in easily attainable tasks such as announcing over and over the same public projects, attending receptions, birthday greetings and so on.

15) Ed, we all know that the Bridge was going to go forward with this lawsuit. Windsor has been holding up progress for years now so why shouldn't they sue. If only we had a Mayor that would work for the good of the community instead of his own ego. God he ticks me off every time he opens his mouth.

16) [John Fairley and Eddie on Face to Face] Thanks Ed for posting that for me (and the ex-pats from Windsor) John sure knows how to shake a guy out of his chair. I could actually visualize Eddie squirming. Good one!

17) Ed, you are not being nasty. Calling it as you (we) see it is your opinion and dead on as I see it also. 2009 is going to be rough. That BS phone (y) call from Harper was only a gratis call. You think ANYONE will do business with the Mayor after the turmoil that has been created with his Administration. You are right - scan any search engine on Windsor and you get gloom and doom. It's too bad for all of us to have to endure him and his bantering the next few years. I think he should hang it up and head out on one of those non existent flights to Calgary or Saskatoon. "Windsor is a wasteland" is the consensus and the entire country is now aware of it.

18) Good for Bruce. The cost of the ad was worth it to him. I saw he was present at the September 12th Audit Committee Meeting.

19) [Re Tales from Two Cities] Good read and WOW it sounds like Windsor. These are times when we have to sit back and realize that we are not the only City that is trying to recover after many years of great living. What we need is some positive and realistic leadership and some insightful entrepreneurs to guide us through this transition. We will all get through this mess - just probably not as fast as we would like to. Tough on us BabyBoomers but you know what, we all need to slow down and reflect sometimes. That time is now whether we like it or not.

20) Tsk, tsk…Ed, certainly you should know that the Governor General is the Head of State – not Government. [Change made.]

21) ED, money is not the root of all evil, it is the love of money that is the root of all evil!