Chris Schnurr
Carol Kosowan LL.B., B.A. (Law), B.A. (Policy)
The Star’s Saturday editorial countered Dennis DesRosiers’ claim on Thursday that Windsor was ”a dysfunctional community riddled with dissension and incompetent leadership,” by defending the mayor and council stating, “You can’t blame Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis and city council for the strong loonie, border congestion, 9-11 and adjustments in the international auto sector.”
Well, I would agree. Mayor and council have no control over these factors.
But where the editorial missed the mark and misunderstood Mr. DesRosiers was in how the mayor and council respond to these factors.
In a nutshell its all about leadership.
Take for example Azure Dynamics Corporation. On May 9th, 2007, according to the Star, the company was considering Windsor as the location for its head office. But on September 19th, 2007, in a company press release, Azure chose Oak Park, Michigan as the location citing the strong support from the state and the city:
With the establishment of its head office in Oak Park, Michigan, the State of Michigan has granted Azure a tax credit valued at more than US$1.7 million over the next seven years. The city of Oak Park has also proposed an 11-year local tax abatement worth an estimated US$55,400.
The question then becomes what did the City of Windsor offer to nurture this possible new gazelle? What did the Province of Ontario have to offer? The question is after 7 months of a new economic development commissioner, does the city have an incentive plan for companies such as Azure other than brochures?
Matthew Fischer, the new economic development commissioner said the area’s economic struggle “is different [this time] because now this is serious restructuring, it’s no longer cyclical and as a result I believe people are taking diversification more seriously.” (Economic challenges loom, February 16th, 2007, Windsor Star)
But in Saturday’s Star (City’s Economic woes cyclical, November 24, 2007) “Typically, as a region, we’ve been through these challenges before,” said Francis. “It’s nothing new. And each time we go through one, we come out that much stronger.”
Now this is not to say that our Mayor and council don’t have plans, they do – hundreds of millions of dollars worth.
The Mayor has been focused on buying the Detroit Windsor Tunnel for $75-million; creating municipal corporations for both the Tunnel and the airport; spending millions of dollars on legal and consultant’s fees to fight the Ambassador Bridge Company’s enhancement project and the DRIC; and we cannot forget the $65.9 million community centre, twin pad and arena project.
And all done in secrecy with no meaningful public consultation. If residents do have input, questions or criticism – expect to be ignored or smeared if you’re not singing from the same hymn book.
That is not leadership.
We have a mayor and council that did not work constructively with Toldo & Rosati; refuse to work constructively with the Ambassador Bridge Corporation; refuse to work with small business owners, such as George Sofos; and pass an interim control bylaw that degrades neighbourhoods and freezes development.
That is not leadership.
Despite the Mayor’s assertion that “You can’t take away from the threat to manufacturing. That will continue to be eroded. But we’ve got to focus on the transition economy, the knowledge economy,” in his State of the City address this year he stated the city would only support the engineering school “if, and only if, the campus is built downtown.”
That is not leadership.
And we cannot forget about the WUC fiasco with the Mayor and some members of council flip-flopping on issues related to the 86% water rate increase.
Contrary to the editorial it’s not only about the dollar, the border or 9-11. It is how our Mayor and council have responded.
It’s about confidence, or lack thereof, in our Mayor and council to effectively lead Windsor into a stronger city of tomorrow. It’s a crisis of confidence which our mayor dismisses by suggesting naysayers and critics leave the city.
Daniel Howes, a Detroit Free Press columnist wrote May 29th, 2007, leading up to the Mackinac Policy Conference that:
There’s a clear lack of leadership,” Nicholson says, echoing the complaints of other business leaders who prefer to keep their criticism private for fear of all-too-common retribution by the Granholm administration. “Confidence goes along with it. Uncertainty is truly the enemy of getting things done.”
Mayor and council desperately need to restore confidence. Becoming more transparent is key. Conducting meaningful dialogue with residents is vitally important. And yes, working constructively with local businesses who are attempting to invest in Windsor.
True leaders are not “bosses” or “commanders”. Instead of power, true leadership comes from influence, congruence and integrity. Leading is all about relationships – growing the connections among individuals that permit collective, collaborative thinking and action.
Effective leaders create environments where people want to share their strengths and overcome their weaknesses, allow new ideas to flourish and learn from success and failure.
The question is are the mayor and council leaders or reactionaries? When they can answer this, the city will be well on its way to restoring the confidence of its residents.
That is leadership.
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It is interesting that your first blog following Saturday’s contrasting articles on the economic woes mirrors my impression of Eddie’s lack of experience in realizing that this is not just another cyclical downturn which will be reversed afterwards. All these jobs that have been lost in the past two weeks, and per Dennis Derosier will be lost in the next few years are permanent. You can blame the Canadian dollar or the world in general, but Eddie’s not facing the true realities of what is actually going on or simply he just doesn’t want to admit it.
I can go on about Eddie’s short-comings but that doesn’t solve the problems. Business, government and labour have to stop finger pointing and work cohesively to develop the strategy that creates ten jobs at a time versus 1,000. In most cases, the one that needs to bring something like this together is the mayor, but no one wants to deal with him. His agenda is not to be tinkered with, but unfortunately at 30+ years old, he has no proper insights or means for first of all understanding the issues in proper perspective and secondly getting the necessary buy in to make it work.
Until someone on council other than Halberstadt (who tries but lacks the necessary insight and support) takes on the mayor and until the Star begins with unbiased reporting, Windsor will continue to languish. The monster has been created, but someone needs to cage him.
Chris, one of the best posts I have seen about this administration in a long time. That, it what should have been written in The Windsor Star editorial instead of the fluff job we always get.
I received a called from The Star the other day to see if I wanted to subscribe. I told them as long as they continue to be the mouth-piece for the city and continue to keep their heads in the sand I will never buy nor subscribe to their newspaper as I get better and more objective news from the internet.
The statement by Eddie about the economy being cyclical tells us everything we need to know about this mayor. That is, he has his head in the sand and refuses to see what others are seeing. Anything that is different than what he sees is wrong. I mean this guy is suicidal for this city!
Has Eddie ever gone into any of the OEM’s or plants in the Windsor area? Ask skilled trades if it is cyclical. Ask the plant managers or Presidents of the various companies if it is cyclical. I can guarantee you that the majority of them will say no. If they say yes I will bet my yearly pay that they will be out of business within 3 years. Kind of like Windsor will be if it doesn’t change course.
It really is astonishing to hear the “economic developer” (used lightly but still has more credentials than Eddie) say that the economy isn’t cyclical but Eddie says it is. What do we have to show for it from our councillors? Silence and yes-men.
Yes, Windsor is in economic distress but the difference this time around is that we have a so-called leader who refuses to answer to the challenge and a council that refuses to ask the tough questions.
Will someone please turn out the lights?
“It is interesting that your first blog following Saturday’s contrasting articles on the economic woes mirrors my impression of Eddie’s lack of experience in realizing that this is not just another cyclical downturn which will be reversed afterwards.” King Francis is simply grandstanding, using popularized industry terms to encourage optimism.
“Eddie’s not facing the true realities of what is actually going on or simply he just doesn’t want to admit it.” Grandstanding masks failure.
Most members of Windsor city council have ties to the Liberal and NDP parties. The political strategies and styles of said members are currently being showcased in the House of Commons. Regardless of political ties, Postma, Jones, Lewenza Jr. and Brister are horrible politicians. Hatfield has a penchant for tax money (former CBC “journalist”). Halberstadt has too many enemies. Dilkens lacks information.
Unsurprisingly, Mayor Francis, Dwight Duncan, Sandra Pupatello, Joe Comartin and Brian Masse were reelected.
As an outside coming to Windsor, I am confounded by this whole ‘cyclical’ argument. Wouldn’t you, as a city and as a region, want to break the cycle and try to diversify your economy? I’ve been in Windsor for 14 years and and I have seen no attempt, other than gaming, to diversify the local economy.
Why weren’t tool and die and mould makers out in Alberta or Newfoundland drumming up business? The City and region seem inept when it comes to a cohesive economic development strategy. Yes we have some automotive related research programs with St Clair and the University of Windsor, but that’s not diversification.
Green Shield has their head office here. Perhaps focusing on health related firms might by one idea? How about working that US-Canada Detroit-Windsor connection? How about just trying to attract new firms to Windsor?
Then again, if you were a business would you want to locate in a City that does not want to improve it’s own expressway, that did not want to connect said expressway to the 401? What kind of message does that send?