Did You Know This

Some information that you might not have known:

WILL OUTSOURCING PARKING METERS BE NEXT

We should be P3ing errrr outsourcing our parking collections shoudn't we if we are outsourcing parking enforcement. Or will that be coming as the first step in P3ing a number of our assets like Enwin and WUC and perhaps the Tunnel as well?

Considering that the Tunnel operator, Alinda, is in these businesses, it would NOT surprise me at all. Why else do you think we really have such a good S&P rating:

• "Pittsburgh sees investors lining up for chance to lease public parking
  
  Eleven teams of investors and parking operators want a shot at leasing Pittsburgh's public garages, meters and lots, suggesting a vigorous competition for the potential nine-figure deal, according to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration.
  
  The teams include national and international companies, some with experience handling parking systems much larger than the 18,000 total spaces that the Pittsburgh Parking Authority is offering. Some have local ties...
  
  The healthy number of firms submitting qualifications by a late-Friday deadline suggests "that there's a convergence between the needs of the city, the needs of the private sector, and the benefits sought by the [parking consumers]...
  
  Now the authority and its advisers will sort through firms' qualifications and invite some or all to submit bids in mid-June for a lease that is expected to control rate increases, technological upgrades, and repair and reconstruction of parking facilities for decades...
  
  Alinda Capital Partners, which bills itself as the largest American manager of pension investments in infrastructure, also was expected to join the competition."

What it really means is higher parking rates in the long run since the investors have to make a nice return don't they. But in the long run, the decision-makers who get the cash and can blow it [in Pittsburgh's case at least it is to pay down pension liabilities] are not around any more and those in power will blame it on the past [IBG...YBG]

I THOUGHT THE HARDLINERS HAD WON

Wait a minute Gord, What are you talking about in your last column:

• "The Mikhails aren't buying it. Joe said he has nothing against unions. His late father earned a good living working for Chrysler Canada and his widowed mother is blessed to have the generous benefits negotiated by the CAW.
  
  "But there's a time and a place," said Joe and the bizarre "Catch 22" predicament he and his brother are in reflects badly on the unions and the investment climate in Ontario and especially in Windsor.
  
  According to Joe, the potential investors they lure to Windsor love almost everything about the city, from the cost of living to the quality of life, but most end up going elsewhere because of one devastating factor, this city's militant union reputation. And now that costly rep is coming home to roost, employees or no employees."

You just cannot use the Mikhails every time you want to set up something for Edgar (aka Eddie). We all remember your story about Edgar and Sutherland until Sandra's key role finally came out.

But what happened to Gord telling us that Edgar created a new image for Windsor:

• "The CUPE strike, which shattered this city's longstanding reputation as a militant union stronghold, was labour's low point in 2009."
  
• "In going to war against the taxpayers of Windsor at the worst possible time, Ryan handed this city a gift, an unprecedented opportunity to vaporize its reputation as Canada's most militant union city, a city where table-pounding labour bosses have historically ruled like demi-gods.
  
  Week by week, garbage bag by garbage bag, defiant and resourceful Windsorites are punching holes in that decades-old image of Windsor as a blue-collar community in which big labour calls the shots and management either grovels or flees.
  
  It has long been a given in corporate board rooms that Windsor is hostile territory best avoided in favour of places like Cambridge and Alliston where an anachronistic union mentality hasn't been entrenched, along with a deep sense of entitlement, for generations.
  
  But that's changing fast, courtesy of CUPE's strategic miscalculation that it could bank on Windsor's rapid capitulation."

Silly me, that is the Sheriff telling us that Edgar blew it and what his re-election campaign will be.

Edgar was unable to build on the so-called CUPE win, did NOT capitalize on the opportunity presented and could not draw new investment here. Blame it on the Union will have to be Edgar's re-election battle-cry.

RESEARCH NOT IN MOTION

Remember Doug Schmidt Blogging this a few days ago:

• "Don't Lose Windsor's BlackBerry
  
  Is this how Windsor lost BlackBerry?
  
  I got a lucky break the other day while working on a story on a council advisory panel’s criticism of the level of city hall support (or lack thereof) shown small business...
  
  I wanted to find out how new small business operators felt about their city hall treatment when they set about getting started, so I phoned the DWBIA for some references of recently opened shops...
  
  He described the nearly three hours of being pointed from one counter to another and being told his idea for a new business venture was too new, too off the local radar, for anyone at City Hall Square to be able to help him.
  
  I hope this isn’t what might have happened when the BlackBerry inventors (one of them a Windsorite) were roaming around southwestern Ontario a few years back looking for local support (before they set up their wildly successful venture in Waterloo, which is now raking in huge economic benefits). I cringe to think that desperately needed investment and jobs are being lost because somebody thinks they already have enough on their plate and so they can ignore this stranger with his strange new idea."

To be fair, Edgar cannot be blamed for not attracting Blackberry here in the first place but look who had the chance a few years ago to attract the Blackberry people here for new opportunities. That's right, our Entrepreneur at his 2007 speech:

• "April 13, 2007
  
  Two-day conference at Case Western Reserve University will explore entrepreneurship in Canada and U.S...
  
  the Canada-United States Law Institute (CUSLI) at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law has assembled a number of distinguished experts to address the critical importance of entrepreneurship to economic growth.
  
  "Comparative Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship in Canada and the United States" will be held Friday and Saturday, April 13-14, beginning at 9 a.m. both days, in the law school's Moot Courtroom (A59) and other ground floor classrooms, 11075 East Boulevard.
  
  Keynote addresses will be given by William Davies of Research in Motion, Ltd., the inventors of the Blackberry; the Hon. Eddie Francis, mayor of Windsor, Ontario and former owner of Royal Pita-Baking Company"

FIRE SOME CITY MANAGERS FOR NON-PERFORMANCE

Why take it out on CUPE workers. This report is unbelievable:

Is no one in charge?

Here is something that demonstrates the lack of business management skills at the City. Please do not tell me that Council is running a tight ship: