Biz Blogs

Alan Halberstadt

Scoops In Abundance For Chris And Gord

Posted August 10, 2010 @ 11:19AM

People who have been puzzled by the devotion of Windsor Star columnists Chris Vander Doelen and Gord Henderson to Mayor Eddie Francis and his every idea and whim, scratch your heads no longer.


No it’s not primarily because Star editorial page editor John Coleman is married to the mayor’s executive assistant Norma, as many people charge. It’s because journalists are addicted to scoops.

And in case you didn’t notice, the mayor dishes up scoops to Chris and Gord on a regular basis. He has them on speed dial, as Star Editor Mary Beneteau told the newspaper’s readers a few moons ago.

The latest example can be seen in Vander Doelen’s scribblings on Page 3 today, entitled “Tax plan would lure investors.” Mayor Francis told City Council late Monday afternoon that he was going to introduce a notice of motion for a city-wide Community Improvement Plan at the public meeting that night. He urged Council to waive the procedural bylaw so the plan could be voted on immediately.

The mayor introduced the resolution at the end of the Council meeting around 9 p.m. Familiar with how the Star deadlines work, I know it would have been impossible for Vander Doelen to write a column, detailing the plan, for Tuesday’s paper without having advance knowledge, unlike City Councillors, directly from the mayor’s office.

Many of the columns penned by Chris and Gord are like this. Once in a while they quote Mayor Francis, but for the most part they simply paraphrase his musings on a given issue and claim them as their own.

Chris, when he first took over as the regular page 3 columnist for Gord, was critical about a few of the mayor’s initiatives, notably the downtown canal. Soon, however, the mayor began feeding him scoops which at times wins the columnist above-the-fold, front-page stories with his mug shot attached.

Now we cannot find a cross word for the mayor in any of Vander Doelen’s columns.

Prior to his semi-retirement, Gord was the chief benefactor of this mayoral pipeline, although he still uses this insider information to pen most of his weekly pillars that invariably paint the mayor in a glowing light.

As an old newspaperman myself, I can fully understand the lure of this attachment at the hip to a man who favours them with the filtered, sanitized and spun information that allows the mayor to bestride the City of Windsor.

It’s been proven that Gord and Chris, not wanting this gravy train of exclusives to ever end, will tar and feather any voices of opposition to the mayor on Council, or outside Council.

So what does this arrangement between its opinion leaders and the mayor say about the integrity of the Windsor Star?

Yes, they can thumb their scoop-enriched noses at their so-called competition from the electronic media and various and sundry blogs and print periodicals. But no, they can no longer claim to be a pillar of the Free Press.

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Retention Basin VS Canal

Posted August 5, 2010 @ 11:08AM

I found the choice of a prop interesting this week when Mayor Eddie Francis posed for photo ops with Sandra Pupatello and Jeff Watson to regurgitate the benefits of infrastructure stimulus funding for Windsor.

The prop was the $67-million storm water retention basin, under construction on the riverfront. I did not attend the event since I have many other balls in the air these days, but I now regret it since I missed a great irony.

It was May 1, 2009 when I spilled out the words – “Your Arrogance Knows No Bounds” at Malden Centre after the mayor called a third meeting of Council in about a week to once again try to pressure Councillors into supporting his $40-million plus downtown canal project.

After my outburst, triggered by Jeff Watson’s admission that the mayor had sent him plans for the canal months earlier, while withholding same from Councillors, I am proud to say that I moved the successful motion to apply for the retention basin funding instead of the canal funding.

Here is what Mayor Francis said in the wake of that decision: “Other cities are putting forward massive projects with vision. Today, here, instead of such vision, we have a receptor sewer project … how does that diversify our economy? All we’ve done is remove the opportunity for federal government funding.”

A year and a half later, with an election looming, Mayor Francis seems to have discovered the great merit of the retention basin, which will end sewage overflows into the Detroit River.

The canal, however, has not been forgotten. Mayor Francis has promised to make it an election issue. To that end, I will be asking residents of the new Ward 4 if that project should be one of Council’s priorities among 11 others I will be listing on a survey soon to be delivered door to door.

I invite readers of this site to start weighing in on this issue in the comments section: “Should tax money be spent on a downtown canal project?”

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Pearls Of Wisdom From The G-Man

Posted July 25, 2010 @ 10:09AM

History has shown us that the black and white of extreme ideology – whether on the left or the right – is a nasty thing. I fear the City of Windsor is experiencing whiffs of these elements at the moment.

We have Mayor Eddie (Ronnie Reaguns) Francis and the Windsor Star on the right, and the doctrinaire descendents of Sid Ryan on the left. For Windsor to survive and be strong we need to find the middle ground.

With all the rhetoric raging on the outsourcing debate, it is sometimes difficult to find kernels of truth. Thanks to a simple but profound letter from a guy who calls himself a g-man, I discovered such a kernel last week.

Here is the email Mike Aubin sent City Councillors in the wake of the garbage collection outsourcing decision:

  Hello Councilors, my name is Mike Aubin and I am currently working as a Refuse collector/Driver for the city of Windsor. I have been a refuse collector for almost 20 yrs, 11 with the city of Windsor and 9 for a private company. I just wanted to share with you how it felt when you decided to outsource my job. It literally felt like I was punched in the stomach, or sick to my stomach, I was sad, angry, and for the most part unappreciated. The morale has been very low at work, with all the uncertainty of where we will end up and who will be laid off. I understand that there is a possible savings by privatizing and you want to hold the line on taxes. But I feel my Department has worked very hard to save money for the city including this year’s reduction of 2 garbage trucks and 3 employees. This meant a heavier workload to myself and co workers. I am also confident we will continue to work with administration to keep costs down. It is a very physically demanding job and I feel we are paid well for this.

I have two family members that continue to work for the private refuse company, my father who is 65 and my uncle who is 60. They make nearly $9 less an hour then me, and workers who only pitch garbage make even less. They must work many hours and long days to receive a decent pay just to stay ahead. My job is not only physically demanding, but you work in all weather conditions such as hot, humid, cold, rainy and windy days, we encounter feces, unknown liquids, dead animals, rotten food, maggots, spiders, ants and the occasional rodent. We also encounter the general public, face to face with residents, joggers, bikers, children and fellow drivers on a daily basis. Last week I have encountered so many residents on my routes who are also angry and upset that we are going to be outsourced for a low bidding company from Toronto. I even received messages written on the trash disapproving of Council”s decision. I believe it is only a small majority who are happy with your decision, and possibly still upset over the strike. I admit our union made some mistakes and some members acted inappropriately and I apologize for there behaviour. We are human, and I believe from the amount of encouragement I received lately from the residents of Windsor, they believe us garbage men earn a fair wage and are willing to sacrifice to keep Windsor Public. I was always proud to say I was a garbage man for the city of Windsor, I love my job and I take pride in it. I applied almost 12 years ago to be a Refuse Collector and I intend to retire as one. I have no desire to go to Parks and Rec, being a garbage man for the city of Windsor gives me job satisfaction and is the pinnacle for me, this is what I have wanted to be since I was a young. Working for the City has changed my life. I can afford a mortgage, a vehicle, to travel and simply enjoy life knowing I am doing something I love. I will continue to be the best garbage man I can be until my job is gone. Please do not eliminate these jobs, this could be the pinnacle for someone else in the community who aspires to be a refuse collector, a recycler, a mechanic, a supervisor or a clerical staff for a great employer. By doing this you are even cutting out Windsor Mobile Wash who do a fantastic job power washing our trucks to make them look great in the public. Again I hope you reconsider your decision for the better of the City of Windsor.

Mike Aubin

The G-man reminds us that there are real people behind the numbers and the dollar signs. It is one message from the labour community that rings true, and it is one reason why I preferred to keep 50-percent of refuse collection in-house. The city is losing a lot of pride, heart and soul when it loses employees like Mike Aubin.

I will never forget why I was a supporter back in the early 1980s when the journalists at the Windsor Star formed a union. Management of this once paternal company dealt a bitter downsizing card. The layoffs and downgrading paid little regard to the seniority or the human factors and my wife at the time was caught in the fulcrum.

Now the Star’s opinion leaders find themselves in a cheerleading role as Windsor City Hall polarizes, and taking the right-wing’s hard-liner side.

As vice-chair of Council’s Small Business Advisory Panel, which will address Council Monday night, I am acutely aware that taxes need to be harnessed so the private sector can survive and thrive in the new economy, save and create jobs.

There are no easy solutions, but everyone needs to recognize that Windsor’s private and public sectors are all in this fight together.

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Pal Gord Needs To Remove Blinders

Posted July 19, 2010 @ 11:11AM

My old canoeing partner Gord Henderson took a shot across the bow at me in Saturday’s Windsor Star. “Who would have thought that my old pal Alan Halberstadt, once a ferocious tax fighter and downsizer,” would oppose the 100-percent outsourcing of recycling and solid waste collection? he wrote.

These words appeared in yet another of his weekly genuflections to Mayor Eddie Francis. Gord is a sweet man, an old friend and a fine writer, but he has finally spurred me to ask the question: “Who would have thought that Gord Henderson, the once ferocious City Hall watchdog and fact-finder, would become such and unquestioning lapdog of the mayor of Windsor?”

Gord’s sweeping condemnation of anyone who dared to vote against the scorched earth outsourcing option lacks any kind of analysis or balance. I fear that City Councilors have also lost that balance because of a fear of getting pounded by the Windsor Star.

As for me, yes I opposed the 100-percent outsourcing option. It’s a position I have consistently held, and stated publicly, since the beginning the waste and recycling tendering process almost a year ago. I continue to believe that the city needs to retain a measure of control.

Those who watched the debate know that I favored the option to outsource 100 percent of recycling and 50 percent of the solid waste collection. This option would keep some of the collection in house, and retain half of the garbage truck fleet in case the city decides to go back into the business full-time a few years down the road.

It would provide a safeguard if Turtle Island, the Toronto contractor, doesn’t work out. In addition, the 50-percent option would cost the taxpayer less upfront since half the employees, 24 I am told, would be retained as collectors, and not all would be bumped into the parks department where they will be replacing part-time rink attendants and summers students at much higher wages until they retire.

In the end, after seven years, the 50-percent option would save $7.7 million, a significant savings to the taxpayer.

That is less than the $8.9-million savings estimated in the administration report, but it is based on the assumption of an annual 40-percent rolling retirement rate of the displaced waste collectors. Former Central Yard management guru Ron McConnell, for one, seriously doubts that assumption, which pegs transitional funding requirements at $7.648,600 to pay the higher salaries until attrition of some 46 workers fully kicks in.

McConnell believes that figure is greatly exaggerated. If the rolling retirement rate is instead 20 percent, for instance, the transitional funding could be $12 to $14 million and greatly diminish the business case.

As it is, the upfront, one-time transitional cost of the 50-percent option is estimated at $2,408,542 compared to the aforementioned $7,648,600.

Those who cared to read the entire administration report will know that the 50-percent solution was actually described as “appealing.” In discussing this option with finance staff prior to the July 12 meeting, I learned that operations managers prefer it to the take-no-prisoners option. For reporters and columnists who didn’t read the report, here is what administration said about the option I favoured:

The Hybrid model is similar to the one used in Winter Control and it has been successful there. Other municipalities have employed this model and have found it to be successful for the reasons noted below:

• Would maintain operational flexibility, i.e. number of yard-waste pick-ups could be easily changed, special clean-ups and events (e.g. floods, festivals).

• Able to respond quickly to changes in the Waste Diversion Act, i.e. possible legislated addition of an organics program.

• Could be considered the first step toward fully exiting the direct provision of the service if Council should decide to do so in the future.

• This would permit an easier transition from a partially contracted to a fully contracted model of service delivery through existing employee attrition over the next few years.

• More easily able to ramp back up to 100% waste and recycling collection services by city forces in the future if advantageous to the city due to dissatisfaction with the level of service provided by the contractor.

• Encourages competition between Union and Contractor with respect to efficiency, service level, service delivery, etc. (holds both parties accountable).

• Less disruption to the entire organization than the placement of displaced employees would cause with the 100 percent contracting-out option at this time.

Those who argue that the 100-percent option would not protect the public against a repeat of the 101-day garbage strike need to turn to Page 32 of the outsourcing contract. Clause 22.1 Strike Contingency Plan., states that one month prior to the commencement of service, the supplier must submit a strike contingency plan that will address alternative methods for the collection of waste so as to maintain the services in the event of a labour dispute.

For all those reasons, and one more, I believe the hybrid outsourcing model is the best option. The one further reason? That option might just reclaim a modicum of positive labour relations that no longer exist at City Hall.

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Behind The Scenes With Lord Stanley

Posted July 5, 2010 @ 11:09AM

What a hoot!

Bridget Scheuerman, my wife Susan and I drove to Detroit Metro Airport with Royal Limousine Service owner Jason early Canada Day morning to pick up some real royalty – Lord Stanley’s Cup.

Maggie Durocher, executive director of the Windsor Parade Corporation, asked us to go fetch the cup. Stanley was travelling with Mike Bolt, one of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s four guys with white gloves who escort the most revered trophy in hockey around the world.

We met the 9:35 a.m. flight from Chicago to Detroit, snatched up Stanley and Mike, and sped down I-94 to the tunnel. After stopping for five minutes while the “beyond exhaustion” Mike picked up a case of Canadian and a blast of cologne at duty free, we arrived on the Windsor side to be greeted with a police motorcycle escort. Windsor’s finest turned on all the bells and whistles to lead us down Riverside Drive to the parade staging area at Devonshire and Assumption. We made it around 10:30, half an hour before the beginning of the first Canada Day Parade ever to traverse Wyandotte Street.

Joel Quenneville, coach of the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks, was already there, fielding media interviews. When the other Guest of Honour arrived, Joel and Stanley were engulfed by fans of all ages, wanting to touch the cup and take photos of Joel, Stanley, Adam Henrique of the two-time Memorial Cup champion Windsor Spitfires.

Of course, there were plenty of photos taken of Stanley and the Memorial Cup sitting side by side on the back of a convertible.

The parade went off without a hitch, culminated by a ceremony at Fred Thomas Park, behind The Barn, where Joel captained the Spitfires several decades ago. Somebody shouted -- “Joel Quenneville for Mayor.” Windsor’s real Mayor Eddie Francis soon presented him with the key to the city.

I had the opportunity to thank the parade corporation, Bridget who is the co-ordinator of the Wyandotte Towne Centre BIA and the Olde Walkerville BIA, sponsors of the event. Few people can appreciate the toil behind the scenes required to put on one of these.

I also thanked Quenneville for getting the Cup to Windsor on Canada Day. After I got his cell number from Spit coach Bob Bougner, and made the request to him two days after his Stanley Cup triumph, he worked behind the scenes with the stewards of the Cup to make it happen. As thrilled as we were to have him and the Cup here, Joel was equally elated.

Quenneville told CBC Ontario that he was thrilled to bring hockey's holy grail back to Windsor.

"We've got a perfect day today and I think we had a great celebration in Chicago, when we won the Cup for the first time in 49 years," Quenneville said.

"And getting back and seeing some familiar friends here - everybody's excited, everybody's excited about seeing the Cup, and that makes people do amazing things."

I also expressed a debt of gratitude from the stage on Thursday to Mike Bolt for granting this huge favour for Windsor and our native son. Bolt has been in the middle of mobs of adoring fans at multiple Chicago events. After our parade, he and Stanley were whisked to Windsor Airport by 1 p.m. for a flight to his home town of Toronto.

Mike handed the Cup over to another guy in white gloves, who was accompanying Stanley to waiting arms in Saskatchewan the same day. Mike, who has not spent a holiday with his family for years, was looking forward to chilling out with his Molson Canadian. What a welcome relief, he told us, from the watered down brew that passes for beer in the U.S.A.

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Collection of Flood Related Material Is Ending

Posted June 25, 2010 @ 11:10AM

From the City of Windsor Newsroom
Notice to Residents

City of Windsor crews are nearing completion of the special garbage collection approved by City Council on June 7, 2010.

City crews have completed a sweep of the entire City and are responding to those homes that have registered with 311 for a special pick-up. Calls will continue to be taken by 311 for flood collection locations until 7:00 p.m. on Friday June 25.

Those residents previously registered with 311, who have not had their materials collected, are asked to please be patient and leave it at the curb.

Flood damaged material can also be disposed of at the Public Drop-Off Depot (corner of E.C. Row and Central Ave.). The Depot is OPEN Monday to Saturday from 8 am to 4:45 p.m. Normal tipping fees will apply.

We thank residents for their co-operation and patience during this time.

For information, please visit the Newsroom at www.citywindsor.ca or call 311.

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Tim Horton's Free Swim

Posted June 23, 2010 @ 11:36AM

Tim Horton's is offering free swim days at locations throughout Windosr, Tecumseh and Essex County. With the hot weather we've already experienced in Windsor this summer and what may be to come, this is a great opportunity to take the whole family for an afternoon of free fun, sponsored by Tim Hortons.


Atkinson Pool
July 5 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 12 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 19 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 26 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 2 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 9 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 16 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 23 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 30 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
September 6 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Remington Booster Pool
July 5 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 12 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 19 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 26 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 2 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 9 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 16 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 23 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 30 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
September 6 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Central Pool
July 5 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 12 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 19 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 26 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 2 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 9 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 16 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 23 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 30 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
September 6 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Riverside Centennial Pool
July 5 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 12 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 19 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 26 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 2 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 9 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 16 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 23 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 30 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
September 6 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Lanspeary Pool
July 5 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 12 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 19 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 26 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 2 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 9 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 16 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 23 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 30 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
September 6 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Tecumseh Leisure Pool
June 30 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm
July 7 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm
July 14 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm
July 21 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm
July 28 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm

Mic Mac Pool
July 5 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 12 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 19 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
July 26 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 2 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 9 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 16 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 23 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
August 30 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
September 6 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm

YMCA of Windsor and Essex County
July 1 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm
July 4 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm
August 1 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm
September 6 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm

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Depopulation Plan Needed For Windsor To Survive

Posted June 11, 2010 @ 5:29PM

By Alan Halberstadt
City of Windsor Councillor
Ward 3

As a mostly bogus debate rages over an amendment to Windsor’s Official Plan to halt the sacrifice of more agricultural land to unchecked commercial developments, new descriptors are surfacing in the urban planning world.

Windsor needs to heed the examples of rustbelt American cities such as Youngstown, Ohio; Flint, Michigan and sister city Detroit. These former manufacturing beacons are undergoing painful re-inventions of themselves focused on planning strategies that debunk the long-held belief that the outward growth of cities is good.

A librarian friend recently sent me an eye-popping article from Cityscape, a US government journal of policy development and research. The document heralds the implementation of “smart decline” for cities previously enamoured with “urban sprawl” and later “smart growth.”

Justin B. Hollander at Boston’s Tufts University looks at the increasing shrinkage of Flint and Youngstown and the strategies these cities are taking to “shrink effectively.” The article considers how “depopulation” creates different physical impacts, notably housing abandonment.

Youngstown is held up as a model of depopulation planning, having shrunk from 148,000 to 74,000 since 1950, when it was a bastion of steel making. “The city came to terms with its ongoing population loss and called for a better, smaller Youngstown focusing on improving the quality of life for existing residents, rather than attempting to repopulate the city.”

In Flint, devastated by the General Motors pullout in the 1980s, Hollander studied the changing housing-unit density in core neighbourhoods.

Some neighbourhoods changed to accommodate a smaller number of occupied houses while others did not, resulting in a lower quality of life for residents left behind, triggering strategies on how to customize land uses to right-size the physical features of a neighbourhood to match its smaller population.

Strategies embraced by smart decline proponents envision the conversion of bulldozed neighbourhoods to urban farming and greening.

In Detroit, the idea of widespread sideyard acquisitions of vacant lots has been introduced to reduce housing density, a process described as “blotting.” The urban fabric changed, not by city plan or regulation, but by actions of individual landowners in expanding their lots to mirror density patterns in suburbia.

The purchase of sideyards can expand properties and accommodate nice green space, gardening and even reforestation.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, facing the bankruptcy of his city, is moving on a controversial plan to identify blighted areas, bulldoze abandoned houses and cut off city services to neighbourhoods beyond the point of no return.

This would effectively, if not legally, shrink the traditional boundaries of Detroit, and force the state of Michigan to step in and claim a new budding greenbelt. Depopulation strategies such as this create an urban donut, featuring a shrunken core, surrounded by a buffer of green space and reclaimed agriculture. Beyond the buffer is the urban sprawl generated by “white flight” migration over the last half century.

This brings us back to Windsor. While our demographics are different, and we are not at the same stage as Youngstown, Flint or Detroit, there are troubling harbingers. Windsorites who drove to Caesars Windsor in April to see Bill Clinton might have caught a stomach-churning glimpse of urban blight east of the casino in the Glengarry Marentette district.

Twenty-year-old predictions that neighbourhoods adjacent to the casino would soon resemble Atlantic City are hauntingly coming true. A trip downtown or to Indian Road on the west side, will give you an even more gruesome picture of a city in decline.

It is time for city leaders to face facts, as Youngstown and Flint have done over the last 15 years, and accept the idea that the salad days of manufacturing wealth and rollicking urban growth are not coming back.

Instead of addressing these realities head on, Windsor City Hall is fending off demands by developers and lawyers with no civic conscience to plough up more farmers’ fields. The city’s planning department, working on a new Official Plan, has hard demographic evidence to support its position that no new greenfield lands need to be designated for commercial growth for the next five years.

A 2007 consultant study identified 1.7 million square feet of vacant commercial floor space in Windsor, 1.8 million square feet of potential additional floor space and 69.1 acres of vacant designated commercial land.

Developers and the mainstream media love to paint the planning department’s position as a “development freeze” that sends out the wrong message that Windsor is anti-business. This plays into their agenda of being able to hand-pick their own locations to build more far-flung big boxes and continue to cannibalize a core area with 20-percent vacancy rates.

When City Council debated the merits in March of requiring developers to pay for a market impact study to justify the location of large commercial development outside the current zoning designation, Michael Jagatic, the Development Chair of the downtown BIA, delivered a haymaker to the jaw of the urban sprawlers.

“Being thankful for any kind of development the city can get is like taking up smoking to lose weight,” he says.

These growth addicts, sadly including the Development Corporation and the Chamber of Commerce, dismiss the city’s offer to shop investors around to identify existing vacant sites for redevelopment, such as the former Home Depot next to Devonshire Mall.

Meanwhile, GTA municipality Markham is planning to freeze expansion onto prime farmland to establish a permanent food belt, heeding urban planning futurists who predict that only communities that can feed themselves will be sustainable.

Muddying the waters for Windsor is the last Stats Canada census in 2006, which showed a population increase of 8,000 to 216,473 from 2001. This census occurred prior to the stock market crash in 2008 and several other crippling blows tied specifically to Windsor’s economy and employment rate.

Anecdotal evidence tells us that migration out of the city has shrunk the population and a dearth of jobs has discouraged immigration. So we anxiously await the 2011 census. If that census shows depopulation, it will be evident that pulling back boundaries will be the only way for Windsor to survive.

Originally published in the May issue of BizX magazine. Reprinted with permission

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HST: Complex, Intricate And Occasionally Devious

Posted June 9, 2010 @ 11:33AM

By Alan Halberstadt, Ward 3 City Councillor


When Ontario Revenue Minister John Wilkinson came to town in early March to pitch the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), he started by noting that the Ontario Chamber of Commerce has been bugging Dalton McGuinty’s government for five years to combine the 5% federal GST with the 8% provincial PST.

“The two governments have been tripping over each other figuring how to tax the same thing twice . . . how to tax the other guy’s tax,” said the Liberal Government’s power salesman cum sacrificial lamb. Wilkinson added that the province will save half a billion dollars getting rid of its PST auditing army, failing to mention that about 1,250 revenue ministry employees will be paid as much as $45,000 each in severance packages (totaling up to $25 million) even though many of them will henceforth transfer to the federal revenue service.

This is just one of the many deceptions of this byzantine (defined as highly complex, intricate and occasionally devious) tax.

Wilkinson trumpeted the HST as one component of major tax reform that will transform Ontario into “the most competitive jurisdiction in North America.” He mentioned cuts to income tax, making Ontario “the lowest personal income tax province in Canada.”

His underlings handed out a booklet entitled Ontario’s Tax Plan For Jobs And Growth. The booklet heralded Liberal tax proposals that would eventually save business almost $4.5 billion a year from replacing the PST with the HST, $2.4 billion annually from Corporate Income Tax cuts and nearly $1.6 billion a year from eliminating the Capital Tax.

What Wilkinson didn’t emphasize, of course, was the damage to business, beholden to their consumers, to be triggered by increases to goods and services under the HST that have been exempt under the PST. Staples like gasoline, electricity and heating will be subject to an additional 8 %.

Other commodities and services previously exempt include retirement fund management fees, dry cleaning, home service calls by skilled tradesmen, landscaping, home renovations, private resale vehicles, real estate commissions, message therapy, vitamins, fitness trainers, barbers, esthetician services, funeral services, legal fees and cigarettes.

More telling for Windsor, as a border city dependant on tourism, will be 8% hikes on hotel rooms, taxis, camping sites, domestic air, rail and bus travel, green fees for golf and tickets for live theatre with 3,200 seats or less.

Due to HST rebates provided to municipalities and non profits, Windsor City Council was originally told that the impact of the harmonized tax would be a wash. Later we found out that 8 % will be applied to recreational services, costing families and individuals who use city facilities, like parents of minor hockey players and figure skaters, a total of $500,000 to $600,000 a year.

City Hall subsequently calculated that the HST will also burden municipal taxpayers with an additional $1.6-million in annual capital budget expenditures. This is primarily due to consulting and construction contract payments now subject to full HST.

Since Wilkinson mentioned that the Ontario Chamber is overjoyed that businesses will now have to deal with only one tax regime (“the 7,000 pages of PST regulations that bedeviled you at midnight,”), I called Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce Treasurer Ed Miles to get his view.

Ed is a straight shooter and no HST cheerleader. He acknowledges that the ease of bookkeeping is friendly to businesses liberated from overzealous provincial auditors and expensive appeals.

Businesses such as restaurants and Wal-Mart who already pay 13 percent will also benefit since they will now get rebates on the 8% PST portion as well as the GST portion.

Exporters who will now get full rebates are the “big winners,” says Miles. Local businesses are “moderate winners” depending on their products and services, and consumers are “moderate losers.”

Many consumers, however, believe they are big losers. Polls have showed that 74% of Ontarians oppose the HST. If they stop spending, businesses won’t get rebates on what they don’t sell.

Wilkinson, back in March, salivated over the three phased payments equaling $1,000 to be sent to annual families with net incomes under $160,000. This is designed to smooth the transition for consumers and businesses once they feel the jolt of HST hikes on July 1. In a year’s time, so the plan goes, businesses will have realized the income tax and HST rebate savings and passed them along to pent-up consumers ready to spend.

Lower income Ontarians will benefit from a range exemptions and tax credits. For instance, seniors now receiving $240 annual GST rebates will get another $260 for the provincial portion.

McGuinty is tapping into $4.3 billion in one-time transition funding from the feds to buy off Ontario consumers. The premier, however, recently confessed to the validity of an NDP study indicating that a family earning between $70,000 and $80,000 can expect to pay $722 more a year under the new tax. These costs will be in perpetuity while the $1,000 compensation cheques are for one year only.

It all adds up to “a huge win” for the provincial treasury, says Mills, noting the sweetheart deal of letting somebody else (the feds) collect and audit bills for you. “They could easily exempt utilities (from the HST). That’s not an oversight. That’s a tax grab.”

Given Miles’ suspicions that revenues will be “even better than what they realized,” the government should reduce the HST to 12%. “They should have done the right thing and lower the rate and still be ahead at the end of the day.”

That might even stop some of Windsor’s renowned bargain hunters from parading across the border to exploit Michigan’s 6% sales tax.

The bitter reality is that McGuinty needs the money after raising government spending over his first five years in office by $27.5 billion, or 40 %. Ontario’s total debt of $213.2 billion is “a ticking time bomb,” according to CIBC. With interest rates set to rise, McGuinty faces the grim prospect of paying an additional $500 million in annual debt servicing for every 1% boost in rates.

With all the claims and counter claims flying over its worthiness, measuring the HST’s impact after a year would be a good project for vigilant provincial ombudsman Andre Morin. Perhaps that explains the recent push by the government to get rid of this thorn in the side, and speculation that lifelong Liberal Susan Whelan of Essex County would replace him.

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Mayor Ignores Cyclists

Posted May 25, 2010 @ 12:11PM

Written by Alan Halberstadt

A disconcerting element of the mayor’s annual speech to the Chamber of Commerce on May 14 was his continued snub of the city’s bicycling community. While boasting about all the construction happening in the city, Mayor Francis talked about road improvements, new sewers and watermains, new sidewalks and improvements to parks and green space.

There was no mention of the minimal amount of bike route improvements, such as the cycling lines painted on Gladstone and Lincoln, and the multi-use asphalt trail under construction as part of improvements to the E.C. Row South service road.

Later in his address, Mayor Francis waxed poetic about building a modern city with renewed and reliable infrastructure, new and exciting places to play, walk, learn and life . .. a clean, green city with more parks and more trees . . . a city that leverages our location as a gateway to international trade and commerce.

Perhaps this was simply an oversight by the speech writer, but it remains inconceivable to me that Mayor Francis’s vision of a modern city with modern transportation would overlook the surge in focus on bicycling in the greatest livable cities in North America.

The proof in the pudding in Windsor is the disgraceful amount of infrastructure money spent on adding to Windsor’s cycling network within the stimulus fund budget. Rather than double its paltry traditional sum of $400,000 over two years, Windsor used the matching senior government money to reduce its contribution to $200,000 in 2010-2011.

Those looking for some improvements to the disjointed cycling route on Riverside Drive are also faced with more disappointment. The city has agreed to another adjournment of the legal challenge by Bruck Easton and friends to the Riverfront Vista Project. Having already been put off last fall to this spring, the court date was recently pushed back another six months to late fall of 2010 by agreement of both parties.

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