Transparent Government In Windsor

All of you people who have attacked our Mayor and Council as not being transparent, well shame on you. They are very transparent. Oh, you do not understand what I mean. Then read on, dear reader, and learn.

At-grade, below-grade, W-E Parkway, full tunneling, Greenlink, tunnels, Schwunnels, Son of Greenlink, Modified GreenLink…does anyone have a clue where we are by now with respect to the road to the border?

All this time I thought that the City’s position was that it wanted 3.8 km of Schwunnels according to the Greenlink proposal that I believed that the City was pushing as its solution. After all haven't we paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for Sam and Parsons Brinckerhoff to create something under the supervision of our legal weapon of mass destruction?

I think I may be wrong now but I am not sure. I did read in the City’s materials presented with respect to the DRIC Environmental Assessment the following:

• “Modified GreenLink
  
  In July 2008 City of Windsor staff working with PB developed a Modified GreenLink solution in order to work with DRIC and reach a potentially acceptable solution that will break the impasse. The Modified GreenLink would also assist DRIC appreciating that the Parkway could include long tunnelled sections which would provide significant vehicle noise and emission shielding for communities and protected greenspaces, all for a construction cost that was not substantially higher than the DRIC W-E Parkway construction cost.
  
  The Modified GreenLink solution was presented by City staff and PB to DRIC and MTO staff in two meetings, one in July 08 in Windsor and the second in August 19, 2008 in New York. The Modified GreenLink maintains the original GreenLink principles and benefits, has the same length as the W-E Parkway (from the current Talbot Road termination of Highway 401 to the new bridge plaza), has construction features similar to the Parkway, including full shoulders, and can be constructed at substantially less costs than the original GreenLink even when costed in future dollars.
  
  The Modified GreenLink respected the City’s firm view that the access road design must protect and connect the communities it is traversing and present a considerate approach for those residents impacted by the new facility.”

Who knew about a "Modified Greenlink" before this? We suspected that there was a Son of Greenlink but were never given the details were we?

The reason that I think I am wrong is because in the Estrin materials he talks about Greenlink at one time and then the Modified Greenlink. I am not sure which is the one that I am supposed to focus on or support or maybe it is both. This Modified approach:

• “provides for five tunnels covering 2,830 metres and consisting of three longer tunnels (1020m, 750m, and 700m) and two short tunnels (240m and 120m).”

In other words, a kilometre or so of Schwunnels disappears but somehow this does not impact the community in a very negative fashion, especially the people who thought they were protected by a Schwunnel but now are not. For some reason as well for almost 9 months, the Mayor did not think it was necessary to tell us about any of this. I wonder why not.

Well that is not quite accurate. As Chris Schnurr pointed out in one of his BLOGs in September, EH-News reported on it:

• “Darryl Newcombe: The revised Greenlink design essentially preserves the kilometre long tunnels near the Oakwood, Mount Carmel and BellewoodEstates neighbourhoods, but leaves room to negotiate other aspects of the design with the DRIC team.
  
  Mayor Francis: I can tell you that the City of Windsor has proposed to DRIC a different way of building the facility that would perhaps come in line with the budget numbersthat they had set. That we had looked at the Greenlinkproposal and made certain suggestions that in terms of how we could protect residential areas with the longer tunnels and perhaps create better buffer spaces in other areas.”

Again, according to Chris, citizens were supposed to hear about this new proposal very soon thereafter. We also found out that the proposal had already been rejected by September by DRIC:

• “And don’t worry dear reader, according to the Mayor, you’ll be made privy to what has already been submitted and rejected by the DRIC in the next few weeks:
  
  Fausto Natarelli: With respect to the most recent discussions, we gave the city’s proposal careful consideration, looked at it from our evaluation criteria, and where we concluded our assessment was for the hundreds of millions of extra dollars that were associated with this proposal it didn’t provide any real benefits above those that, beyond those, that were already provided in the Windsor-Essex Parkway.”

Gord Henderson knew about it as well:

• “The infuriating thing is that the city is holding out an olive branch. Originally intent on full tunnelling over six kilometres, it compromised with GreenLink, which involved six tunnels with a combined length of 3,800 metres. Now according to my sources, the city has proposed tunnel consolidation and a reduction in their combined length by a thousand metres, down to 2,800 metres, while maintaining the commitment to shelter adjacent neighbourhoods. The two sides, I'm told, are $150 million apart, a fraction of the overall cost.
  
  Big movement. But the province? Nothing. No give whatsoever. It seems the powers that be will settle for nothing less than seeing Windsor on its knees.”

For all of that long period of time, Windsorites were not let in on the secret. Just a couple of media people who were to spread the message I guess. However, it seems that they did not do a very good job of it.

I admit, I thought our position was 3.8 km worth of Schwunnels. I am not certain what the Mayor talked about in his two hour PowerPoint Presentation in November to area residents at St. Clair College just before the DRIC people came for their Public Information Open House because I was not at the session. I don’t remember seeing anything about a 2.8 km Greenlink however after that session as the City's new position. He had his chance to tell them of his terrific compromise to gain citizen support. Why didn't he do so?

Can you imagine how those people must feel now after finding out that, when they went into battle with DRIC, their guns did not work. They did not have the proper ammunition. It was faulty:

• “Operating on the principle that forewarned is forearmed, Mayor Eddie Francis and city council provided supporters of their GreenLink border option with ammunition to take to open houses this week presented by the Detroit River International Crossing team.
  
  "We're here today to arm you with as much information as possible," Francis told a meeting of about 300 residents Saturday at St. Clair College.
  
  "Go fight for your neighbourhoods and residences....?”

They were left defenseless. They thought they were fighting for 3.8 km of Schwunnels I am sure not 2.8km.

How about Al Teshuba and his friends, the letter-writers. Were they writing about Greenlink or Modified Greenlink? Did they know? The Star article stated:

• “The city's GreenLink proposal has about 3.8 kilometres of tunnelling compared to 1.9 kilometres of tunnelling in the Detroit River International Crossing study parkway.
  
  Windsor's environmental lawyer, David Estrin, said residents could still ask the environment ministry to make the full-length tunnel the preferred option.”

Do you see what I mean about confusion? Some of the residents still wanted full tunneling and the City’ lawyer said they could still ask for that!

You are now probably sitting there, dear reader, thinking that I have the answer to all of this. That I will make it clear. That I have the insight, the inside scoop. How right you are.

If you want to understand all of this, just do not get wrapped up in all of these details and conflicting fact situations. Understand that none of this is real anyway. It is all a negotiating position. Full tunneling, Greenlink, Modified Greenlink… it doesn’t matter. They are all tools to get money out of the Senior Levels for Eddie’s Agenda. Whatever that might be.

The Star gave it away. The Star story the other day talked about the $30 million that the City would lose and then, it was rewritten to drop the paragraphs dealing with the $30 million. I think that there was another reason why the story was changed. You will not believe it when you read the following:

• “DRIC’s EAR Fails to Assess the Economic Cost of the W-E Parkway
  
  DRIC has produced a biased and incomplete cost assessment for the W-E Parkway. While stressing the benefits that will come with increased border efficiency and traffic movement to the province at large, DRIC has failed to account for the economic costs that will be felt by the local community, including displaced workers and businesses, and the affected municipalities and school boards. DRIC has drawn conclusions and made assumptions without any evidence or quantitative support.
  
  In February 2009, the City of Windsor retained Garry Stamm of Stamm Research Associates to undertake an economic analysis of the WindsorEssex Parkway. Garry Stamm's 2009 report is found in Appendix A to this report.
  
  In summary, Mr. Stamm concluded that the economic benefits of the W-E Parkway (or any access road built) will be felt by the larger regional, provincial and national economies of scale. In contrast, the economic burden will be borne at the local level.
  
  The principle of equity dictates that the local community not be sacrificed for the benefit of the province as a whole. In the present case, from an economic impact assessment perspective, the principal flaw is not even that DRIC has failed to allocate the burdens fairly; rather, DRIC has not even assessed the burdens that will fall disproportionately on local shoulders and weighed that impact in the EA process…
  
  Adding up these costs, which are appropriately and necessarily a part of any economic impact analysis but which DRIC has not counted, recognizing that there are many more economic impacts that DRIC has not attempted to measure but that were not appropriate to estimate, we are left with economic costs to local economy in the range of $230 million.”

$230 million NOT $30 million. The Star was only about $200M out. This quotation came from David Estrin’s “A Cascade of Errors.”

I trust now that you understand what I am talking about. I do not really know which road Eddie is putting forward as the solution nor should you. It does not matter. It started at full tunneling and has now gone to a Modified Greenlink. He could put forward a gondola to be built across the River that would carry trucks inside the cabins for all I care. It is all irrelevant other than to be used as a negotiating tool.

It is nothing more than the approach that David Estrin recommended that Hamilton use when they sued the Federal Government and a whole bunch of bureaucrats for $75 million except without the lawsuit. Eddie would not like to be cross-examined by an experienced trial counsel. He could be blamed. That is why in my opinion he threatens and never does sue notwithstanding the so-called horrors to our health and children that we are told about. As I Blogged before:

• “I do not think that I'm that far off the mark in what I think about the Mayor's campaign for Greenlink. I happened to recall something that I read about a controversy in Hamilton where that City sued the Federal Government over an Environmental Assessment:
  
  "the Hamilton municipal government is accusing 65 federal government staff of "deliberately and unlawfully" using their public office to harm the city by participating in an environmental assessment of a controversial city expressway. The city is suing the civil servants and four former federal cabinet ministers for $75 million, charging the public servants illegally used the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) in 1999 to stop or delay the Red Hill Creek Expressway.
  
  The lawsuit says "the defendants abused their public office by engaging in targeted malice towards the City's completion of the Expressway" and utilized environmental assessment "in an unprecedented, illegal and unconstitutional manner in order to achieve that objective."
  
  The formal statement of claim filed in court by David Estrin of Gowling Lafleur Henderson also says "the defendants knew, when they determined to use their public office to stop the City completing the Expressway, that the City would be harmed in the result..."
  
  The city openly admits that its aim is to achieve an out-of-court settlement which would transfer tens of millions of dollars from the federal government to municipal coffers."
  
  I saw in a news story in March, 2008 that:
  
  "Councillors have voted to continue a controversial lawsuit against Ottawa involving the building of the Red Hill Valley Parkway.
  
  It has also removed a cap on legal costs plus decided to keep the costs from public view until the suit's end...
  
  Councillor Brad Clark, who supported keeping the lawsuit going, called it "the right thing to do" as an effort to keep pressure on Ottawa to settle. He wasn't bothered by removal of the cap or keeping costs from the public until the suit was over. Legal costs have been estimated at $243,000 since 2004."

It is all so tiresome. And so childish. In fact, it is one of the few matters involving this Municipal Government that is transparent. To everyone now.