Blouse Unbuttons To Reveal All

What's wrong with the Government of Canada? Oh I know, it is run by bureaucrats who have no problems at all putting taxpayers' money at risk, not their own, and have little business sense. Of course there is little accountability of them either from polticians who are more concerned about the next election.

That explains why they took on the Moroun family over the last decade and thought they could terrorize them into selling cheaply rather than offering them a fair price for their bridge if they wanted to buy them out.

They were afraid of Moroun who took them on over FIRA and forced them to settle with him. They figured that his ownership of the Bridge was important to him as his icon, for his family legacy so he might never sell voluntarily. However, they expected that when he retired from the business, his son would sell out "in a New York minute."

Oh boy, did they ever misjudge the man and his family!

Now a bottle of expensive bubbly may have to be cracked open as Richard Blouse, President and CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, spilled the beans about what Canada has been trying to do for the last 50 years, and the last decade in particular. He let out the secret agenda just like Bruce McCuaig did too in his infamous speech.

By revealing all, he has improved Moroun's bargaining position dramatically by showing him what is underneath and virtually guaranteeing that Canada must come and talk to Moroun to work out a border solution.

Nothing can be done as the Lufthansa graphic showed unless he is onboard or decades of litigation are undertaken. Even then the Governments would lose in the end since no Court would ever allow the Government to force out one businessperson who has made his border crossing #1 just to put another in his place in an up to 99 year long P3.

And politically, do you really believe that the US Government would allow an American to be put out of business so Canada could control the entrance and exit of people and goods into and out of the US! Oh please! Such inaction would allow any tin-pot dictator anywhere in the world to destroy American businesses with impunity.

Can you spell P-R-O-T-E-C-T-I-O-N-I-S-M as the message to Canada for this and other sins like oil and energy blackmail. And NAFTA-gate.

Here is the relevant part of the Star story that tells what has really been going on over the past decade. What the plans were, what the end objective is and why Moroun had to be taken out of the picture. It tells us what DRIC is all about. Unless you were part of the inner circle, or a WindsorCityBlog reader, you would never know:

• "CP Rail has been quietly advancing its plans for a new $400-million rail tunnel under the Detroit River and will probably start digging two years from now -- around the same time work starts on a new bridge...
  
  CP and its partners have been quietly lining up Canadian political support for the rail-only project, although excavation probably won't start for at least two years, sources indicate...
  
  The century-old existing tunnel being used by CP "needs to be replaced," Rohrer said. "It's coming, but we're not there yet. Expect good news in the near future."
  
  While the construction jobs will be a godsend for the depressed region, Blouse told the Windsor chamber the best news about the rail-only tunnel are the opportunities it will open up for the region.
  
  When completed, the new rail tunnel will plug the largest remaining gap in the local infrastructure needed to help turn the region into an "inland port" and cargo hub.
  
  Coupled with a new international bridge downriver from the Ambassador Bridge -- plus a few port improvements, such as the addition of a some tower dock cranes capable of plucking containers off ocean-going vessels -- Blouse says "the Detroit region" will be poised to capture some of the "hundreds of thousands of jobs" up for grabs in the world's shipping business...
  
  They're even targeting major Canadian transportation players to help them achieve their goal, including CN and CP Rail, and the ports of Montreal and Halifax.
  
  In the next few weeks, members of Blouse's board will visit Halifax to figure out how Detroit can divert thousands of cargo containers from the current shipping route between Rotterdam and ports on the southern U.S. coast such as Savannah., Ga.
  
  Detroit wants to see more containers offloaded onto CN trains that originate in Halifax, bound for its giant Toronto yards and points West. Halifax is currently handling less than half the 1.2 million containers it is capable of receiving.
  
  "Time is money in the shipping business and using Halifax cuts two days off the trip" from Europe to most of the U.S. market, Blouse points out. "But we're not wedded to CN and Halifax."
  
  CP Rail's connection to international shipping lanes via the Port of Montreal could also be used to achieve the same goal, but not until the new Windsor-Detroit tunnel opens.
  
  CP's plans to acquire a larger tunnel to the U.S. has been around for more than a decade -- at least since CN stole a march on its smaller competitor by building its own double stack rail tunnel in Sarnia. The two companies shared the Windsor-Detroit route until Sarnia opened.
  
  The Windsor project was on hold for years while CP and its partners tried to raise money for the new tunnel by convincing governments to turn the old tunnel into a truck route. That bid, known as the DRTP, died when bureaucrats decided a new downriver bridge was the preferred solution to the region's international traffic problems.
  
  Blouse and his members agree completely with the border solution chosen by the bureaucrats. "We support a second bridge, and after 9-11 we support redundancy. Modern terrorists, the way they work today, they would easily blow up two bridges at once if they were side-by-side" -- as the Ambassador Bridge has long insisted it should be allowed to do exclusively. "We need two bridges."
  
  Blouse says getting into the logistics industry in a bigger way is the perfect fit for people in the Windsor-Detroit region, who have more than a century of experience shipping millions of parts for the automotive industry.
  
  "We have people who are the best in the world at moving stuff through a supply chain on a just-in-time basis."
  
  The region doesn't have a choice but to chase the shipping jobs, he said. "We've lost one million jobs since the year 2000, and they aren't coming back, folks."

Now, dear reader, a number of facts are becoming clearer:

• my theories were right, my theories were right, my theories were right
  
• now we understand the reasons that are still ongoing for the Moroun smear-job
  
• this has been a decade long effort [BLOG July 22, 2009 "The Speech That Gave It All Away"]
  
• the Bridge Company lawsuits are winners because they will reveal the Governmental plot against them as the evidence comes out as people will be compelled to testify under oath
  
• it is part of the Canadian Government policy for 50 years to take over the bridge
  
• the purpose of Harper's discussions with Bush and Obama was to get them onside to take over the business of an American firm so that it could be given over in a P3 to a "Canadian-friendly" source to circumvent a Dubai ports mess
  
• Thickening of the border arguments were used to try and accomplish this goal surreptitiously
  
• the Canadian Government has been trying for years as their Ultra-secret Playbook demonstrated to end-run the White House by trying to curry support of Governors and now with Congressional leaders as the desperate move by Harper recently proved
  
• CP Rail/Omers have still not learned that acting "under the radar" does not work if public interest groups want to stop you
  
• Was the DRTP truck road ever supposed to be built or was it nothing more than another way to try to pressure Moroun? Was it, in other words, the precursor to DRIC
  
• Was it always the CP/OMERS intent to build the rail tunnel but not the truck road
  
• Does this explain why OMERS wants the Ontario Government to force small pension funds under its Super-fund umbrella ie it needs the cash
  
• Does this all mean that OMERS already has been chosen the winner to manage the P3 for the DRIC Bridge and road if it ever gets done and that any RFP to do so is nothing but a waste of time for other possible investors unless they are part of the OMERS consortium
  
• Windsor Port Authority seems out of the loop worrying more about Ferries to Detroit and back with the WEDC worrying about finally hiring a CEO than about Highway H2O
  
• Now we know why there is a Minister for the Canadian Atlantic and Pacific Gateways and the PM has responsibility for the Central Canada gateway into the US
  
• Now we know why MDOT is part of this exercise
  
• Now we know why Transpot Canada issued its gateway and corridors policy
  
• Now we know why Edgar's air cargo shanty is a dumb idea when the keys are road, rail and marine and how we are continuing to waste time and effort on mind's eye visions rather than the real thing
  
• Now we know that we are getting an upgraded EC Row and a cheap DRIC road especially when the Ontario deficit has grown to $6.4B from an estimated $3.9B in 6 months
  
• Now we know why the redundancy argument is a joke as if a bridge a half mile away could not be destroyed at the same time
  
• Now we know that the traffic projections were always phony given the million jobs lost that are not coming back
  
• Now we know that my New Jersey distribution proposal made sense and should have been started years ago so that this region would not have the highest unemployment rate in Canada
  
• Now we know that my proposal that Windsor should partner with Moroun years ago to create a distibution network centred in Windsor was teh way to go

NOW WE KNOW THAT THE ENTIRE DRIC EXERCISE WAS A HUGE TIME AND MONEY-WASTING JOKE!

Take pity on Mr. Blouse though. There are a few Oooopsies that he seemed to overlook that will result in the well-laid plans going off the rails if I may put it that way if he and his friends are not careful:

• wishing and hoping will not make it so
  
• the DRIC bridge will not be built
  
• the Enhancement Project bridge will be built
  
• the DRTP Tunnel may not be built because of the Michigan Central Depot owned by Moroun [BLOG: May 21, 2009 "DRTP And The Michigan Central Depot"]
  
• Moroun has a major interest in the Detroit port
  
• Environmental Justice: DRIC + DIFT + DRTP = devastation of SW Detroit. No wonder MDOT treated them separately and not as one. Are you listening Council President Cockrel especially given his Council Motion and Mayor Bing!

Poor Mr. Blouse. He will be scolded for opening up and showing too much.

Take a look at how the Bridge Company has placed themselves strategically over the years and are way in front. While others are still talking concepts and mind's eye visions; they are doing since it is only their business and their future at stake after all.

Now Mr. Blouse will understand why Gord Henderson said:

• "I’m in awe of Moroun and his hired hands. These folks are the masters. They’re always two or three cunning moves ahead of the other players…"