Is The Detroit/Windsor Tunnel Deal Back

I will let you think about this: is the obscene amount of money being paid by the Feds to Windsor for Brighton Beach the way that Eddie can "buy" control over the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel finally. He can take advantage of Detroit's financial woes. And buy it for the Canadian Federal Government so that the Americans will not get upset!

Buying that land for $34M when comparable land was going for around $5-10M according to the Star made little sense to me. Until this speculation.

Remember that Eddie tried to get Infrastructure Ontario money to do the deal but the amount offered was probably too low. I have a Freedom of Information application out to get that amount. That is being opposed.

Remember also I speculated that the Feds needed control over the Tunnel, which is competition to any bridge, in order to get a P3 investor interested. P3 operators like monopolies to guarantee a nice rate of return.

I raise this now because of a story I read in the Detroit media:

• "The time frame is pressing -- Bing said the city could run out of money by the start of the second quarter, Oct. 1 -- if a $20-million to $25-million hole is not plugged...
  
  "There's a reality that we all have to live with, and the reality of the City of Detroit is that we are broke and we are in a financial crisis," Bing told the Free Press on Thursday...
  
  The mayor said this year's budget is padded with soft or unrealistic revenue, including money from plans to sell the rights to the profit generated by the city's parking system, lighting system and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. He said the short-term goal is to manage through the current deficit, while planning for the three to five years it will take to eliminate the city's debt."

My goodness, Eddie could offer $25M or a bit more for the Tunnel which is losing money and market like crazy to help eliminate that deficit. It would be City money used too so he does not have to justify the deal to a lender from a business perspective. He can argue as he did before that he is merely protecting 5,000 commuters and our tourist trade. Councillors would quickly fall in line.

What a nice neighbour. Why Eddie can justify the lower amount too as he did when ex-Mayor Cockrel was talking about it being worth $100M.

Of course, dear reader, you and I know that this has nothing to do with the Tunnel. It has all to do with Canada controlling how goods go into and out of the United States. Canada has to contol that for our economy.

Nothing wrong with that except when the President Obama and/or Homeland Security figure it out, then we are in deep doo-doo.

What do I mean by that: our Corridors and Gateways Policy.

We have a Minister involved in each of the Atlantic and Pacific gateways and, I just realized it in a flash of inspiration, it is the PM himself in charge of the vitally important Central Canada bridges and tunnel gateways. No wonder he raised the Ambassador Bridge/DRIC file 3 times at least with US Presidents Bush and Obama.

Still do not get it.

Our coastal gateways will be closer to Europe and Asia than most American ports so products will be off and on-loaded there.

There is a need to control the centre of the Continent where trade goes by truck so take over the Tunnel, crush the Ambassador Bridge Company, P3 the Blue Water Bridge with a Canadian P3 Company and have shared border management in Fort Erie/Buffalo on the CANADIAN side of the river.

Ergo, we control the US import/export market. The Americans will never figure it out since they are fixated now on Government Motors and Cries-ler while taking over banks and introducing a CANADIAN-style health care system.

Heck makes NAFTA-gate look like small potatoes. And President Obama and Homeland Security will be in the dark. Why do you think all those stories and Reports are coming out about the "thickening" of the border. The Americans are being deceived into think they are winning. NOT!

We Canadians are so clever!