Brrrr It's Cold Out

I had better check my calendar. Here I was thinking that it was the warm month of May.

I expected that I would be able to go out now at different times of the day to do a walk to give me some of the exercises I need. Instead, I saw forecasts of quite cold weather in this area overnight on Saturday and into Sunday. It will also be cold Sunday  night.  I must admit I am having difficulty in this kind of weather. I thought that winter was over already and we should be anticipating quite warm weather for this area. I just hope it changes soon so that I can go out and enjoy myself.

Until then, I will stay inside and have more time to write a Blog that I hope you will find interesting. It is my desire to give you some interesting reading because I suspect that you are going to have to stay inside too for the next little while and so I should give you something pleasant to do.

RUSSIAN PARTNERSHIP

Will this area be able to do some different economic work compared with other regions in North America? Who knows but I think there is that opportunity if it makes sense to do.

I saw that there was this meeting of the City of Windsor recently with the Russian Ambassador to Canada. In a CTV story that I saw, it was said that this was the first time that the Ambassador from this country had come here. Here is an advantage for this region:

"The Russian Ambassador to Canada says Windsor is a place his country might want to do business in…

Darchiev arrived in Windsor for the weekend. He spent the day Friday touring the Chrysler Minivan plant on Tecumseh Rd. E and Drouillard Rd. with Mayor Drew Dilkens.

An experience Darchiev described as, "impressive."

"It's my first time in Windsor, in this part of Ontario and I'm very happy to be here. We're looking at exploring opportunities for having more ties,  more regional ties, more business ties with regions of Russia," Darchiev says. "Windsor has a great innovation potential. In Russia we also have a high tech experts, so this might be a real venue for having economic business ties." (Gord Bacon, am800, May 6th 2017) 

Of course, decisions will have to be made at some time about whether or not Canada should be doing business with Russia. This region of Canada will also have to decide whether it is prepared to do so or not.

WHAT IS REAL ESTATE REALLY DOING HERE

I am so confused.

I thought everything was going really well here with prices going up remarkably. Yet, maybe I am to think now that our prices are going to crash. In other words, it may be too late if you have not sold your house yet and you will lose out with the lower prices.

I just wish that I knew what was going on here. After you read parts from these 2 stories, perhaps you will understand what I mean. Here is the first one:

"Windsor housing sales slump

Fewer houses were on the market and fewer sold for not as much money.

That describes April, according to statistics from the Windsor-Essex County Association of Realtors.

The Association says it saw a 10% drop in houses sold year-over-year, from 679 in 2016 to 607.

The average sale price was around $227,000 in April, while in 2016 that number was $283,000." (Mike Vlasveld, BlackburnNews.com, May 6, 2017)

That is pretty bad I think. However, take a look at this story:

"Housing prices jump 20% in Windsor over past year: report

CTV Windsor

Published Friday, May 5, 2017

The number of sales have dropped, but prices for homes in Windsor's red hot real estate market continue to go up.

The Windsor-Essex County Association of Realtors reports housing prices have jumped an average of 20 per cent in the past year.

The average price of a home is now just over $283,000. That is $56,000 more than last year."

Here is the material that I saw that tells us what is really going on here and which media report is correct. 

"WINDSOR-ESSEX COUNTY ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

Residential Stats President's Report for APRIL 2017

So sales have decreased but look at what has happened to prices.  I wonder what will happen next and whether people will not now buy homes to resell if they are afraid that  prices are no longer going up.

"A CAPITAL PROJECT: BUILDING CANADA’S NEW INFRASTRUCTURE BANK"

That is the title of an article by the law firm, Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP. It is an article on Finance Minister Bill Morneau tabling of Bill C-44 in Parliament. $35 billion supposedly is going to be available for new construction projects.  The Liberals stated on their website:

"We will establish the Canadian Infrastructure Bank to provide low-cost financing for new infrastructure projects.

The federal government can use its strong credit rating and lending authority to make it easier and more affordable for municipalities to build the projects their communities need.

Where a lack of capital represents a barrier to projects, the Canada Infrastructure Bank will provide loan guarantees and small capital contributions to provinces and municipalities to ensure that the projects are built."

Hmmm.  That did not seem as if the Federal Government is necessarily going to put up its own taxpayer money to build the new infrastructure projects. Presumably, it could be done by 3rd parties as well.

In any event, here are some of the interesting comments that I saw in the Blakes' article:

"CIB… will operate under a mandate to “invest, and seek to attract investment from private sector investors and institutional investors, in infrastructure projects in Canada or partly in Canada that will generate revenue and that will be in the public interest”. The inclusion of the “partly in Canada” language seems intended to grant the CIB the ability to invest in both domestic and cross-border infrastructure projects."

Does that mean, for example, that CIB might be involved in financing a new Governmental bridge for Windsor/Detroit using both its money and that of private sector investors?

"Accordingly, while some degree of separation is envisioned between CIB executives and the legislative branch of government, the institution itself will not retain a significant degree of independence from government."

In other words, let this mean to me is that these projects will really be Governmental ones but structured in a much different way than these projects are being done today. After all, the Federal Government apparently does not have its own money to finance projects and this is the way that it can partner with private firms.

"Treasury Board must approve the CIB’s annual operating and capital budgets"

It sure seems to me as if it is a Governmental department although it is not being structured that way.

"the current version of the CIB-enabling legislation grants cabinet a significant degree of control over the governance and operations of the CIB. It remains to be seen what impact, if any, such a degree of control over the CIB will have on the CIB’s flexibility to pursue innovative public-private partnerships and funding solutions for Canadian infrastructure deals."

It seems to me that the Cabinet is still in control although the structure of this project differs from how the Cabinet controls projects today.

Who knows if private parties will find what is being structured as being advantageous to them.