My Consulting Fees
This is the only time so far, and hopefully it will never happen again, where I have to keep information from you so that I can make some money.
Believe it or not, writing this BLOG takes a lot of time and effort. BLOGMeisters do not make money writing information that keeps you so up-to-date and informed so that you know the story behind the story.
I trust therefore that you will not begrudge me making a few bucks so that I may live comfortably as I get along in years. After all, I too have suffered from the stock market meltdown, the fall in the value of my house and the crushing taxes and levies and increased fees in this City.
I figured, if the Chair of the Undevelopment Commission could make $1,200 a day for helping to write brochures, creating a world-class website, traveling to the UK and searching for a CEO for 10 months, I could do somewhat better advising P3 proponents and contractors on the ins and outs of the Infrastructure Ontario process.
By my reckoning, I could charge $25,000, $50,000 or perhaps a bit more per day for my assistance. After all, the road part of the DRIC project is going to cost probably around $4 billion before it is finished. Then there is the cost of the plaza and bridge on the Canadian side. Notwithstanding that there is no P3 legislation in Michigan, they are going to have to finance their side as well. In the end, using the Manning Road example, the Port Mann example and the Big Dig, I figure we are talking about a $10 billion project by the time it is done.
If the DRIC consultants on both sides of the river can make about $60 million, then what is a paltry $50,000 per day between friends.
Moreover, don’t you find it strange that there is going to be one project for the road and a separate project for the bridge? My Constitutional Law background would be able to assist the parties involved in working their way through all of this to make it understandable. Again, considering what law firms have charged the City on border deals, my fees are a pittance!
I do feel very bad however that I am depriving you of information. Truly, I do feel sorry about it. I already know who is going to be the successful party in this matter but I am afraid I cannot share that with you or else no one would need to pay me for my work. That would be self-defeating.
I mean really, I could tell P3 proponents that they need not spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to create a proposal when they are going to lose. I could tell them instead with whom they ought to partner. Imagine as well the fees that I could generate from the successful party by bringing them all of this cash at a time when there is a P3 meltdown because of the economic crisis.
The same for contractors. Why waste time pricing out the project and losing when I could direct them to the successful consortium with whom they ought to be dealing? It is a no-brainer.
But I do owe you something, dear reader. You have stuck by me through thick and thin and continue to read this BLOG. Accordingly, here is what I am going to do. I am going to give you some strong hints that will suggest where you should look to make your own determination about who the big winner in this contest will be. It should be obvious, with a bit of work on your part, by the time you are through what I mean. My only hope though is that you will keep this information to yourself, in confidence, and not use it to deprive me and my wife of food, clothing and accommodations in our old age.
The first hint is the obvious one that everyone should know about without me having to say it. Go and check out Henderson’s columns. He gave it away. Whether he knew it or not, or understood the significance of what he was saying, I don’t know. However there is no doubt in my mind that he signaled it to me, probably because of what he was told by his secret provincial government insider.
You may think that is presumptuous on my part but remember who was the first one who picked up in a Henderson column that he was going to retire. He knew that if he gave me a sign that I would recognize it. I would understand exactly what he was writing. Now you know why I called him the Sheriff. While some might think that he was writing for the masses and saying something positive about our Mayor as an example, his columns were really being written for me to help me know what was really going on!
And there is truly now no doubt in my mind that Don McArthur has picked up Gord’s spurs to carry on as I shall demonstrate.
Next let me talk about Brian Masse. He is Windsor’s point man on the border file. He knows everything there is to know about everything to do with the border on both sides of the river. He is a true NDPer and is not very happy with private enterprise. In the Star story that first mentioned a P3 road, I expected Brian to speak about the obvious. But he did not. Instead, here is what he said in the Star:
- “the "Windsor Essex Parkway project would be the first large road project to be delivered using Ontario's AFP process."
That triggers alarm bells for Windsor West MP Brian Masse.
Masse had opposed P3s for crucial public infrastructure projects.
"I don't think that we need to have some consortium from China, Dubai, Russia, Spain or wherever owning public infrastructure in Ontario, especially one that connects our border and is very significant for economic trade," Masse said from Ottawa.
Masse raised the spectre of a toll road and said an international consortium might not be sensitive to local logistical issues when planning and constructing the highway…
Masse has also been pushing to ensure there is a local worker mandate attached to the project, which is expected to create, at a minimum, 12,000 person years of direct employment over four years.”
His comments were a huge surprise to me. It was not at all what I expected so it must mean that there is a hidden purpose behind it, some subliminal message. Of course there was. To be fair to Brian, I don’t think he gets it either. I think he has been used unknowingly. Or maybe he knows the winner too.
Who wrote that story… Don McArthur! Do you get it?
Then there was the latest story about the Windsor Sounding session written by… Don McArthur. A coincidence? I think not.
Let me try at least to make it up to you, dear reader. What did it say about when the project really would be started, shovel ready? The answer was in the fall, 2010.
- “The bulk of the jobs associated with building a border access road won't be created until the fall of 2010 — at the earliest — and it is only preparatory work that might begin later this year, provincial officials said in Windsor Tuesday.”
Thank you very much. I explained to you time and time again what Eddie’s role was ie. stall everything off until 2010 when the Province was supposed to have the money to build the road. We know that is not going to happen given the Port Mann problems.
No wonder everyone is desperate for the Ambassador Bridge to sue so that the Province can buy some time. The Bridge Company can be blamed for all of this. No wonder Eddie has presented on a silver platter all of the information needed by the Bridge Company to set aside the Environmental Assessment. Eddie does not have the nerve to do so. He is in enough trouble now with the Premier. However, the Province may force Eddie to act. I wonder if the Red Bull $3.2 million was to make life easier for Mayor if he had to sue.
Back to the Sounding story. What a bunch of noise except Don also has signaled what is going to happen, perhaps unknowingly as well:
- “Construction companies from across Canada and as far away as Omaha, Australia, Los Angeles and Spain met at the Hilton with local companies — who they will have to engage to win the bid for the $1.6-billion project…
Potential bidders who attended Tuesday’s session included Dragados/ACS from Spain, Kiewit from Omaha, Neb., MacQuarrie from Australia and Aecom from California. Potential Canadian bidders included Coco Paving, Aecon and SNC Lavalin.”
There was some additional information as well about how the road would be financed that was inconsistent with what the Provincial Minister of Finance said previously and of course there was the language about no tolls but nothing about levies as was hinted previously from Transport Canada.
Naturally, unless you are deeply involved in this world of P3s, you would not understand the basis upon which this project will be sold. Remember, and here is a really big hint, this is Ontario’s first major road using the P3 model. You know that horrific mistakes will be made that will cost the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. That would be brushed away of course by saying that it was the first project and naturally mistakes would be made.
Oh there you are mocking me again. You forgot about Bruce Nuclear and the Hospital P3 that I Blogged about. If you are so smart, explain this:
- “Field of dreams
DUNCAN W. GLAHOLT
February 11, 2009
Brampton, Ont. -- The real story behind the Brampton Civic Hospital is the co-operation of the public and private sectors to serve a community that is growing at twice the rate of any other area in the province (In This PPP, Taxpayers Are The Ones Who Paid - Life, Feb. 5). The Brampton community had long outgrown its aging hospital and was underserviced.
The community's needs outstripped the ability of conventional infrastructure planning. The need was chronic and immediate, and was recognized as such by two successive governments. With our community and private-sector partners, we were able to turn a cornfield into a 608-bed hospital in seven years.
Were there lessons learned? Sure there were, and if people look at what Infrastructure Ontario is doing now on other projects, they would see the changes that have been made. But please do not punish my hospital for being the pioneer.
chair, William Osler Health Centre”
Accordingly, I can help the successful Consortium and their contractors make a killing on this project. Heck, I probably should provide some strategic advice to the politicians as well because I can show them how they can be made heroes even while this project in the end falls apart and costs taxpayers billions of extra dollars.
That’s it though. While there is a lot more that I could say, a lot more hints that I could give, I am giving you too much information already. I cannot jeopardize my family’s future I am afraid. I hope you can appreciate this.
I will tell you this. You need to read what you see and read what you don’t see as well to understand what I’m talking about.
In the fall of 2010, if the road project really does happen, you will understand it all if you have not figured it out already. It's right there, in front of you. Honest.
posted by JoeBlog at 12:05 a.m.
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