Why Eddie Really Wants A Canal

I do sometimes write several BLOGs at a time in a day when there is a lot to write about in order to try and stay ahead. I only post two per day generally, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, knowing that you do not have the time to read more than one BLOG per email. I intend to post all of them but often these days new stories appear and certain ones just seem to go to the back burner.

This is one of them that I wrote in mid-May if you can believe it. I think it helps explain the obscene amount that the Feds paid Eddie for Brighton Beach. As a Windsorite I am pleased. As a Canadian taxpayer, I am appalled at the gross over-expenditure of my money.

This demonstrates to me in no uncertain terms that the Governments, Canada over this and Ontario with the P3 DRIC road, will waste as much money as is needed to try and beat Matty Moroun instead of sitting down and doing a deal with him.

Reminds me of how negotiations work on the CUPE deal with Governments united to crush public serive unions.

The story is not exactly accurate as you can tell now, but close enough.

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Darn CAW types. So what if it concerns their pensions. Don’t they understand the big investment opportunity they cost the Mayor! Couldn’t they have waited until after the holiday weekend before they did that sit-in at Dwight Duncan’s office. He lost out on a chance to do some wheeling and dealing with the PM and Premier on Friday.

I heard from three different sources that the Premier was coming down here last Friday. Was it to discuss Greenlink, the canal, the jail, Red Bull, the CUPE strike or all of those plus other matters. Was the Prime Minister coming too since they had the joint announcement in Toronto on Friday.

I think the answer has to be that they were coming but for the sit-in. They did not want to get into the middle of that with the CAW and GM negotiating again.

They would have been coming since Minister Tony Clement announced:

• OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- 05/14/09 -- Today, the Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, announced the launch of the Community Adjustment Fund in Ontario. Communities in Ontario experiencing the effects of the current global recession can find relief in the Community Adjustment Fund, an economic diversification program that is part of Canada's Economic Action Plan (see attached Backgrounder).
  
  In Ontario, the Community Adjustment Fund will provide $348.9 million over two years to support adjustment measures in communities affected by the global economic downturn. In 2009-10, this funding for Ontario will total up to $174.2 million…
  
  Today, the government announced the first allocation under the program, for projects submitted by municipalities and not-for-profit organizations:
  
  - $100 million for Southern Ontario projects through an intake process, with projects to be completed by March 31, 2010…
  
  Projects in communities with a population of less than 250 000 will be eligible for support and will be given higher priority if the community:
  
  - is rural and supported by a single industry;
  - has experienced an increase in Employment Insurance beneficiaries equal to or greater than 20 percent over a one-year period; and
  - has experienced major layoffs resulting in significant job losses.”

You know, it would not have surprised me to have heard about some money being given to a project under this Initiative that might just have tied into the canal vision even though the entire canal could not possibly be done within the short time-frame.

Instead, they went to Northwest, Ontario

• “Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced $100 million to expand a 10-kilometre stretch of road between the Manitoba border and Kenora.”

I believe that they were coming here for a border pow-wow. Clement's porgram was merely the excuse for meeting face-to-face. They needed to get together to re-confirm their joint oppostion to the Bridge Company and to reduce the squabbling amongst themselves especially in light of the Bridge Company NEPA lawsuit.

No doubt that Eddie's demands, his share of East Europe, would have escalated dramatically. He could point to all of the abuse he has been taking because of his border stalls that have helped out the Senior Levels but have hurt him politically and career-wise. He would I am sure be upset about the Tunnel deal falling through and I suspect he would again ask for support to try and do it again.

There is no doubt that the Senior Level Leaders would try to appease him. They would use the canal funding as the perfect reason for him to trust their bona fides. No matter that it appears that the canal has no hope of falling under the program, the Feds are bending over backwards to make it fit. Moreover, the Province has to support it as well.

Of course, Eddie does not want a canal. Who does? But it sure is a good place to park $50M until Eddie decides how to squander it.

Unfortunately the sit-in interfered. They will just have to wait for another time to talk.

Unfortunately the Councillors messed things up too. Had they approved the canal project, Eddie could have demanded the money. No wonder he is trying again at the Budget meeting on Tuesday night. Now it will be tougher for him to get especially since Joe and Brian sent out that nasty letter that could give rise to an Auditor General investigation.

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We know now that the Feds did not need the canal deal to give Eddie money. That approach failed with the "Your Arrogance knows no bounds" drama. They justified it under the "Gateways and Border Crossings Fund" instead. No nasty questions in Parliament either over abusing the Infrastructure Program.

I wonder what former Transport Deputy Minister Louis Ranger who resigned recently because of a supposed conflict would have thought about this. Perhaps he would not have had to resign after all.

Brain Masse has to be nervous. All this money, $34M, to make Eddie look good and to allow Eddie to run as a Conservative to beat him. A Conservative seat in Windsor too. No wonder Jeff Watson is Eddie's newest, bestest buddy too. A+ chaps!