The Internet And Eddie Francis

Eddie, Eddie, Eddie. You have got to try and stop yourself. You are losing your credibility.

You are forgetting that with the Internet it is so easy to check out what you are saying anywhere and to find research that either supports you or knocks you down.

Sure, we Bloggers do not have the reach of the traditional media but you would be surprised whom we do influence because they read us. Sometimes it is quality not quantity that is important.

You looked foolish on the Diamond “draft MoE memo and your failure to release the DRIC answer to the other MoE memo. It made you look silly and so poorly prepared. And more…it made it seem as if you were trying to fool Windsorites or worse.

Your actions designed to inflame the public did not work either---the area of mass destruction, the need for tunnels, children with backpacks, cancer, death and destruction. You should be ashamed.

I do not know where you got your figures but you started again at the CIBPA meeting on 30,000 trucks a day on E C Row. Puhleeeeaze. When will that happen with the economy going into the toilet, especially the auto industry.

But your latest at the CIBPA meeting---the $100M difference between the Greenlink and DRIC road---and then your attack on the Toronto tunnel for a SUBway, give it a rest Eddie before you make a complete joke of yourself.

Here is why I am giving you this advice. I read this on CHYR news. Yes it is Leamington but I get around:

• “Tunnel Blues Wed Apr 8th, 2009
  
  Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis is livid!
  
  He says a letter from the DRIC team confirms his worst fears about the province, that it's not concerned about the health and well being of Windsor residents.
  
  The letter says... the 144-million dollar difference between Green Link and the Windsor Essex Parkway could be used elsewhere, like a massive tunnel project in Toronto.
  
  Francis says, he'll be sure to complain to the Ministry of the Environment, which is currently evaluating the Parkway's environmental assessment.”

What a whiny baby! Complain to the Ministry that you have already dismissed the other day too!

You have got to stop being so livid. It is not good for the digestion. You have got to learn to read better too. Sure Windsor is at the bottom of the literacy tables in Canada but you are a lawyer after all.

I found the letter you are referring to and I am posting it here for others to read. DRIC posted it publicly too http://www.scribd.com/doc/14074590/urscostmemo

Gosh, I found some interesting stuff in it too:

• ---The cost estimate presented by the City was not comparable to the estimates prepared by the DRIC study team for the practical alternatives
  
• ---Using this approach, the DRIC study team estimated the cost of the GreenLink proposal at $2.3 to $2.5 billion – about $700 to $900 million more than the estimate of $1.6 billion that was developed for the Windsor-Essex Parkway alternative in the spring of 2008.
  
• ---The City has confirmed that the GreenLink cost estimate it provided does not extend to the same limits as the DRIC access road, nor is the cost expressed in the same base year (2011). The Parkway cost estimates include engineering costs, an allowance for inflation, full left and right shoulders and address the complete access road, whereas the GreenLink proposal does not include these items.
  
• ---Accordingly, once the cost estimates for GreenLink are revised to include these items, an “apples-to-apples” comparison could be done, which revealed that the GreenLink proposal is $700 to $900 million more expensive to construct than the Parkway.
  
• ---Additionally, the GreenLink number presented is a 2007 construction cost estimate, whereas the estimate for the Windsor-Essex Parkway is corrected for inflation to a 2011 construction year.
  
• ---This significant and continuing misrepresentation of the cost of GreenLink as compared to the Windsor-Essex Parkway, by the City, is seen elsewhere in the City’s submission and has been used by the City to garner public support for its preferred alternative.
  
• ---The City did discuss a modified GreenLink proposal with the DRIC team in the summer of 2008. This modified proposal included 2.8 km of tunnels as opposed to 3.8 km in the original GreenLink and 1.86 km in the Windsor-Essex Parkway.
  Cost estimates done by their consultants conclude the modified GreenLink proposal would cost $144 million more than the Windsor-Essex Parkway.

Here is the key point that the Mayor is ranting about:

• “Based on discussions with City representatives in the summer of 2008, the DRIC study team believes the actual cost differential would be more than $144 million as reported by the City.
  
  As a point of reference, the additional expenditure of $144 million reported by the City could be used to construct almost half of the 6-lane freeway between Windsor and Tilbury. It could, of course, be used for other programs as well.”

Gee it states the obvious doesn’t it. If you have an extra $144M, you would use it elsewhere. In the same way, Toronto could complain that more of their SUBway could be put underground but for the money being given to Windsor.

It has nothing to do with health which is another phony issue as I have discussed before. Why would one waste money, $144M, on Eddie’s political career if there are no health concerns and when there are better uses for the money.

Eddie better be careful. He may fool Windsorites until they learn the facts but his Big City Mayor colleagues will not like it if he takes legitimate infrastructure dollars out of their pockets.

I do not think that the Premier will like it too much either OR the Minister of Finance.

PS. The Province has already hit back with a response! Second time in a few weeks they acted so quickly. Can you spell P-*-*-*-*-d!