The Strangest Of Weather And Other Matters

I just cannot figure this out.  My calendar tells me that we are not yet in the winter period yet we have almost been buried in snow as a result of a couple of snowstorms we have had recently. I can remember last year when temperatures were warmer and we hardly saw that much snow at all. I am rather disappointed that we are not experiencing the same kind of weather this year.

I just saw a weather report that suggested that we may not get too much snow over the next couple of weeks but to be honest I am not sure that I believe anything that anyone tells us about weather these days.  The other day I thought that we were supposed to get inundated with snow overnight and into the morning. However, that does not seemed to have happened. Instead of very many more inches of white stuff on the pathway in front of my house, I think we really only got a few inches with hardly any snow in the morning and into the early afternoon. So far, I have not yet seen any rain falling so who knows if that's going to come later instead of snow if the temp is a bit higher.

It certainly is a big change from the weather that we had last year. I must admit that I cannot remember any days that were this cold and had so much snow as we are seeing now and are expecting to see later on. However, in looking at some of the weather forecasts in other parts of the Province, I see that other areas are really getting snowed under. So perhaps this area is still quite lucky even with all of the bad weather that we are getting so far this year. Let us hope that, even with the volumes of snow that we are seeing now and will probably experience later, we will still be able to get around relatively easily.

I just want to talk about a few of the news stories that I have seen reported around here recently. They have caught my attention probably because they do not make a lot of sense to me at all.

Take for instance this headline in a story in the Windsor Star by Craig Pearson on December 16, 2016: 

"Proposed city budget suggests 2.7 per cent property tax hike"

Here is something else that I read:

"Windsor’s streak of eight straight zero tax increases could be coming to an end.

Mayor Drew Dilkens made the comment after tonight’s council meeting.

The 2017 budget documents landed on councilors’ doorsteps last week.

Mayor Drew Dilkens says there is a pathway to zero --  the city would need to find $17-million in savings -- but it isn't pretty and will likely not receive his endorsement.

“With respect to the path to zero, you can see there's a lot of pain to reach zero this year,” Dilkens said. “It would involve frankly closures of certain facilities, so I suspect that council would have a very difficult time getting to zero this year with the cuts that are proposed." (Rich Garton, CTV Windsor, December 12, 2016) 

Such utter nonsense. Here is what has been suggested may happen:

"Windsor taxpayers could end up paying 2.7 per cent more in property tax next year, if a proposed city administration budget goes ahead, though Mayor Drew Dilkens hopes to whittle the hike down to less than two per cent."

Gee, wouldn't that be a miracle if he was able to make that happen. What a marvelous Mayor he would be to keep our taxes from shooting upward to such a high percentage. Naturally, City of Windsor taxpayers would all have to vote to have him re-elected because he was so wonderful in reducing it a little bit.

Come on, do you really expect the taxes to increase as is being suggested now? They might but I do not expect that to happen. Why would he and his colleagues on Council want to be seen increasing taxes when they would be praised so well by taxpayers if there was no tax increase at all. Wouldn't we think that they were wonderful!

I must admit that my feeling is that again there will be no tax increase.  Here is what was set out at first for the budget for 2016:

"Increased property taxes and a road repair levy are included in the first draft of the 2016 Windsor budget, released Monday.

The budget calls for a 1.25 per cent property tax increase and a 0.5 per cent levy for road repairs." (CBC News November 30, 2015)

Amazingly, that increase did not happen at all.  I must admit that expect something similar to happen once again. I do not expect a tax increase to happen this year either. I expect to see lots of stories about that possibility in the next little while that is supposed to make taxpayers upset but the Mayor and Council will ultimately make sure that there is no such increase. Naturally, they expect to be viewed as taxpayer heroes so that voters will praise them considerably and vote for them in the next municipal election.

The other story that interested me was the new job for Dwight Duncan. It was a wonderful future position for him as far as I can tell:

"Dwight Duncan has been named the chairman of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, according to a federal government announcement Wednesday.

Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi appointed Duncan to a five-year term as head of the bridge authority, which is overseeing the construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge.

Duncan was made interim leader on Jan. 1, replacing former chairman Mark McQueen." (CBC News December 14, 2016)

It must mean that the Federal Government is so impressed with the work undertaken by Duncan so far with respect to the new Government bridge that they want him around even longer. Now they have escalated him to a five-year firm position. What a nice Xmas present for him. 

Of course, it makes no sense to me at all. I just don't see how the Government bridge can be built in the first place. Presumably, nothing can be started for at least another 18 months on the federal side because of all the work that has to be done by them to choose someone to build a bridge in the first place.

Unless there is some reason why the Ambassador Bridge Company cannot start soon on building their bridge, I expect them to do so fairly shortly. Once they make their announcement about starting the construction of their new bridge, probably for a cost of around $500 million, I hardly think that there would be too many contractors or finance companies around who would want to build a Government Bridge for about 8 times that amount or, $4 billion. That sum would seem to be the new cost for that project!

Naturally, in about 18 months, the Ambassador Bridge Company would start a lawsuit in both Canada and in the United States if a new bridge project moves forward for a Government bridge saying that the Government Bridge cannot be built at all because the Ambassador Bridge Company has the exclusive right to build a cross-river bridge between the Cities of Windsor and Detroit. How long would that lawsuit take to finish: 5 to 10 years or more for both sides of the river! Who knows what other international lawsuits might be started as well to prevent such a bridge being built.

Seriously, I do not think that Dwight Duncan was hired to get a new Government bridge started. In my view, he is going to be the main negotiator between the Ambassador Bridge Company and the Government of Canada to get a decision reached between them as soon as possible about the construction of a new Ambassador Bridge.  I do expect that the Government of Canada will demand and ultimately receive an ownership share in the new bridge that the Ambassador Bridge Company will build because I expect that its business structure will change in the future. I also expect that a US Government entity will also have a partnership interest in the new crossing.

So much for those stories. I think I better get back to clearing the snow away from my front property.