Windsor Ontario News is Windsor and Essex County's online newspaperFollow WindsorOntarioNews.com on Facebook, TwitterLonger season, reduced hours for downtown farmers' market - see FOODWhat about mass transit manufacturing jobs? - see COMMENTLaw a "sop" to Lori Dupont Inquest - see NEWS BACKGROUNDERDRTP moving on new rail tunnel
EA likely in "second quarter"WindsorOntarioNews.com March 5 2010 The Detroit River Tunnel Partnership (DRTP) will be moving ahead with an environmental assessment for a new rail tunnel with an announcement coming “within weeks.” The project – a partnership between the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) and Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) – should have the EA underway in the “second quarter,” spokesman Mike Rohrer says. The DRTP originally proposed a truck tunnel under the Detroit River, which created a storm of controversy as a proposed solution for traffic congestion between Windsor and Detroit. Olympics move over, Inukshuks are us!WindsorOntarioNews.com Feb 26 2010
It just goes to show that Canada’s southernmost region can also get in touch with its Great White North inner being, especially during this snowy February. The time-honoured Inuit Inukshuk is the symbol of the Vancouver Olympics. But along the highways and byways of Essex County there are homemade Inukshuks. A massive one (on right) was spotted on Manning Rd. north of Hwy. 401. Another is on Broderick Rd. in LaSalle. Eco-friendly bags used to steal groceriesWindsorOntarioNews.com Feb 22, 2010
At least one local grocery is patting down shoppers’ enviro-friendly reusable grocery bags looking for stolen items prior to checkout. No Frills in Amherstburg has been checking the bags, used by shoppers in place of plastic bags, because there have been incidents of theft. No Frills is owned by the Loblaw chain. Calls to Loblaw and other major grocery chains such as Sobeys and Metro, asking if there has been a noticeable increase in theft and whether their companies have similar policies on checking shoppers’ bags, were referred to an industry association. Remands like Windsor Jail worse than penWindsorOntarioNews.com Feb 18 2010Photo by devonhaupt flickr.com
Provincial remand facilities like Windsor Jail tend to be much more violent than federal penitentiaries, says the head of Canada’s best-known agency that works with prisoners. Craig Jones said prisoners generally “will do anything to get out of remand because the conditions are so bad.” The executive director of The John Howard Society of Canada was commenting on a recent beating at the jail, where prisoners allegedly attacked a new inmate because he hadn’t brought drugs into the prison when serving a weekend intermittent sentence. The victim was paralyzed from the waist down. Local recycling bin contract with Mafia firmWindsorOntarioNews.com Feb 15 2010 A company that signed a contract with officials for pedestrian street recycing bins was affiliated with the Mafia. In today’s editions the National Post reports that Windsor, along with several other Canadian cities including Toronto, London and Ottawa, signed a deal several years ago with OMG Media Inc. to install what has become the familiar stainless steel recycling bins on streets where pedestrians can divide their garbage by throwing them into different slots for glass and paper. OMG or Olifas Marketing Group at one time had $1.6 million in shares owned by Montreal mob boss Vito Rizzuto’s wife and three children, the Post reported. Downtown asking $600,000 from Ottawa
WindsorOntarioNews.com Feb 12 2010
The Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association is seeking $600,000 from the federal government to start a business incubator. BIA executive director Chris Edwards says the money is needed to get the incubator up and running. “We do have a model to sustain it; the BIA would be heavily involved in that.” An 8000-sq ft space has been tentatively selected for the site, and an individual has come forward to donate the space, Edwards said.
Bertolin working on bingo lawsuitWindsorOntarioNews.com Feb 10 2010 Former city licensing commissioner Diane Bertolin, who resigned suddenly last week, is continuing to work for the city on a class action lawsuit over bingo license fees. The lawsuit has been brought on behalf of charities who say the fees were too high to cover the costs to the city of processing the licenses and regulating the industry. Should the city lose it could be on the hook for up to $85 million. City solicitor George Wilkki says Bertolin "continues to work on that file" but had no further comment. (For more on the resignation see story below; for more on the bingo lawsuit, see Nov 18 2009 story) Long time senior manager resigns city post
WindsorOntarioNews.com Feb 8 2010
One of Windsor city hall’s key administrators, after a long career with the city, has resigned her position. Diane Bertolin resigned Friday afternoon. No reasons were provided to staff. “We found out about three in the afternoon” that day, Michael Chantler, director of business administration in the licensing department and who answered to Bertolin, said. “It was a complete surprise to me.” Bertolin had been employed with the city 19 years, 14 in licensing. Candidate to take legal action against city
WindsorOntarioNews.com Feb 4, 2010
The man who was ousted as chair of Windsor’s crime prevention committee says he’ll be taking legal action against the city. John Middleton, who’s running in this year’s municipal election as a candidate in Ward 5, says he will make details known in “two weeks - max.” “There will be clear action when the news release comes out,” he said. Asked if the legal action might relate to character defamation, he replied, “That’s correct.”
A shocker: natural gas bills to decline $500
WindsorOntarioNews.com Feb 1, 2010
The average family in Windsor and Essex County will see their natural gas bills decline by about $500 this year. Customers who opened their Union Gas bills over the past month may have been shocked to see the drop in their bills. In fact they’re paying one-third now what they were paying a year ago. The price of gas “declined fairly significantly in 2009,” Union Gas spokeswoman Andrea Stass said. Prices, she said, “are at their lowest level in about 10 years.” A major reason is the discovery of plentiful gas in shale deposits in western North America. A'burg proposes first county farm market
WindsorOntarioNews.com Jan 29, 2010 The first Essex County farmers’ market could be built in Amherstburg if the town is successful in securing more than $500,000 in federal stimulus money for a project at a site on County Rd. 20 at the end of Walker Rd. If successful the open air market, which would have a canopy, restrooms, parking, and which would be landscaped, could be open for business in 2011. The location is at the site of the Malden Community and Cultural Centre, also known as the “little white church” because it was once a Roman Catholic chapel. Detroit? No, just Windsor's near east side
WindsorOntarioNews.com Jan 26, 2010 There’s a little bit of Detroit on Windsor’s near east side. Vacant lots, boarded up buildings, houses with disintegrating roofs, the blocks between Aylmer and Louis Avenues with Chatham St. E. running in between, look like they could be a stand in for the worst parts of the Motor City. The blocks have been allowed to deteriorate by absentee landowners and, according to one long time resident, an uncaring city hall that does nothing to clean up the mess. American non-union company protested
WindsorOntarioNews.com Jan 21, 2010
The local Labourers Union will be making its voice heard against any attempt to hire a non-union American company to do work on the $60 million Windsor Retention Treatment Basin (RTB) along the riverfront. The city has shortlisted four companies that have expertise in tunnelling work connected to the football field size project (photo shows site), being built mostly with federal stimulus money. The basin is designed to prevent the spillage of untreated sewer water into the Detroit River from the city’s aged combined sewage and storm water pipes. Activist says new border route has no sound environment, economic purpose
WindsorOntarioNews.com Jan 17, 2010
The director of the Sierra Club’s Ontario chapter Dan McDermott says the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) should not go ahead because it is an affront to the Windsor Detroit ecosystem and is questionable in light of global warming and diminishing use of carbon-based fuels. “I’m not going to suggest for a moment that infrastructure spending is a bad thing,” he said. “I am going to suggest, however, that infrastructure spending to no purpose, that is environmentally destructive, is a bad thing and I would say that DRIC fits that definition in spades.” Mayoral candidate Sam Sinjari will "take action" to turn city around
WindsorOntarioNews.com Jan 14, 2010
Windsor mayoral candidate Sam Sinjari, 20 years old, believes he has what it takes to be the mayor of Windsor. “I’m going to take action,” he says, should he be elected to the city’s top post in this October’s municipal election. “There’s a lot of potential in this city and there‘s a lot of things that we can do to wake this town up.” Sinjari is a third year political science student at the University of Windsor. He also sells used cars and has his own car sales web site. Sinjari believes the current leadership of the city is moving too slowly to bring new investment to Windsor. "Windsor" scam artists target Ohio victims
WindsorOntarioNews.com Jan 11, 2010
Windsor‘s border location makes the city an easy target for scam artists who illegally seek to have Americans wire money to fake lawyers or family members. According to Windsor Police the scam has been going on for years. The way it works is that someone poses as a lawyer or a family member of an elderly person – usually a woman - living in an American city. The most recent case has been Toledo Ohio. The caller phones the elderly person in Toledo, identifies himself as a grandchild, and says he has been arrested in Windsor and needs money to be released and return home while awaiting trial. Lise Lacasse returns for opening night screening of movie Youth in RevoltRoles in more upcoming films
WindsorOntarioNews.com, Jan 7, 2010 Tecumseh’s Lise Lacasse is coming home Friday night when she’ll be at the second performance of Lakeshore Cinemas’ screening of the movie Youth in Revolt. The Michigan-made film stars Michael Cera, Ray Liotta and Steve Buscemi. And Lacasse, who now lives in Michigan, has scenes as the “Matron” playing opposite Cera. Lacasse has resided in suburban Detroit since the early Nineties. Local 211 call centre to serve all southwestern OntarioWindsorOntarioNews.com Jan 4, 2010
The City of Windsor will soon be operating the 211 non-emergency call service for all of southwestern Ontario. In fact the city hall department which oversees 211 began work on the expansion immediately after city council gave its okay in mid-December, with staff getting down to work after the New Year’s break. “Today is actually the first day,” Tom Malenfant, the city’s manager of customer service said. “We’ve got staff who will be put into place in terms of expansion planning.” Areas the Windsor-Essex call centre will cover outside our region will be Chatham-Kent, Lambton, Middlesex, Elgin and Oxford counties.
In the dark: "hundreds" of Windsor blocks without streetlightsWindsorOntarioNews.com Dec 30, 2009
Drive the long block along Roseland Dr. E. between Dougall Ave. and the Roseland golf course and you might notice something a little peculiar – the absence of street lights. This block – which extends as far south as Roseland Dr. S. – not only has no night illumination but it doesn’t have sidewalks either. The neighbourhood is otherwise well kept and solidly middle class with homes dating back to the 1950s. Roseland E. is far from the only street without lights and sidewalks. Other blocks in the area don’t have them or have fewer than what normally might be expected in a residential area. Unique lamp posts designed for WindsorWindsorOntarioNews.com Dec 26, 2009These lights were designed for Windsor. Those futuristic-looking streetlights that first showed up more than a decade ago are now more in evidence along downtown streets. Toyota yanks scenes of Windsor Jaycees' Canadian unity flagWindsorOntarioNews.com Dec 21, 2009 Images of that giant Windsor Jaycees Canadian flag have hit the cutting room floor. The flag, made famous when it became the symbol of the last-minute Canadian unity rally in Montreal just before the 1995 Quebec referendum and which possibly played a role in saving the country – has been lopped from a Toyota advertising campaign in Quebec. City Hall: good pay if you can get itWindsorOntarioNews.com Dec 17, 2009A group of city hall management employees is seeking to get the same status as a union and wants to negotiate a first contract with the city. This week they overwhelmingly voted down a city offer because it didn’t match provisions of non-management staff represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). Customs eyeing bridge plaza for expansionWindsorOntarioNews.com Dec 15, 2009 While owners of property in Windsor’s west end continue to feud with the city about the fate of dozens of boarded up houses along several blocks near the Ambassador Bridge one of the reasons cited for a prohibition on the homes’ demolition has a definite basis in fact. Artists launch sticker campaign against Mayor FrancisWindsorOntarioNews.com Dec 11, 2009A group of artists has launched a campaign against Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis. The group, which apparently doesn’t want to be identified and seems to be working “underground” has been placing stickers around the city criticizing the mayor. New charge coming to cable bills in JanuaryWindsorOntarioNews.com Dec 9, 2009 Local cable TV subscribers will see a new charge on their January bills. It’s the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) charge and amounts to 1.5 per cent plus tax. Essex County towns hooking-up smart water metersWindsorOntarioNews.com Dec 7, 2009Several Essex County communities are on the leading tech edge when it comes to what used to be the simple water meter. Amherstburg, for example, has been rolling out its Sensus electronic water meters this fall. U.S. group chooses Windsor for coats for kids distributionWindsorOntarioNews.com Dec 4, 2009In an unprecedented move the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council in the United States will be giving away hundreds of brand new coats for elementary school students Monday in Windsor at the Unemployed Help Centre.
BIA decries Ouellette Ave improvements as "sea of gray"WindsorOntarioNews.com Dec 2, 2009The City of Windsor spent almost $5 million on new streetscaping downtown. But members of the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association, which kicked in more than $1 million of the cost, aren’t happy at all about it. Citizens group has eyes on DRIC Customs plazaWindsorOntarioNews.com Nov 29 2009The group that is challenging a big box retail development along Matchette Rd. in west Windsor also has its eyes on the environmental impact of the Detroit River International Crossing’s (DRIC) massive Customs plaza in Brighton Beach near the Detroit River.
Council activist says tunnel proposal "dubious, stupid"WindsorOntarioNews.com Nov 26, 2009 Who is Bruce McLeod and why did he make a complaint to Windsor’s Integrity Commissioner about a meeting Mayor Eddie Francis had with now convicted Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick two summers ago? Paul Martin part of Trust to revamp Assumption ChurchWindsorOntarioNews.com Nov 24, 2009 Former Prime Minister Paul Martin and well-known Canadian author Richard Rohmer have been enlisted to serve on a national campaign to seek funding as part of a major plan to renovate Assumption Church and surroundings. Electronic bingo hall opening in WindsorWindsorOntarioNews.com Nov 22, 2009Windsor’s first E-bingo hall will be opening later this month with a grand opening planned for early December.
City could be on hook for up to $85 millionWindsorOntarioNews.com Nov 18, 2009 The City of Windsor could be on the hook for as much as $85 million should a class action lawsuit challenging it over the legality of bingo fees be successful. Ranta Marina protesters "self-interested" groupWindsor Ontario News November 15 2009One of the Amherstburg town councillors who voted to sell the municipally-owned Ranta Marina is not fazed at all by vocal opposition to the conditional sale to developer Rob Delicata.
Transit looking at cheaper passes, open transfersWindsor Ontario News November 12 2009Transit Windsor is considering major changes to its fare system, including the introduction of inexpensive daily family passes and transfers that would allow passengers to return in the direction they came from without paying another fare. Law says child driver should have been supervisedWindsor Ontario News November 10, 2009There are restrictions for children under 12 using dirt bikes, including where they can drive them and the kind of supervision they must be under. Clinton cut fees for environmental fundraiserWindsor Ontario News November 6, 2009Bill Clinton may charge well over $100,000 for speaking engagements but he cut his price substantially to be guest speaker at a gala fundraiser next spring by the Essex Region Conservation Foundation. Windsor could gain sizable revenue from Parkway propertiesWindsor Ontario News November 3, 2009 Some 150 parcels of city-owned land along the Windsor-Essex Parkway route could derive substantial income for the city although Mayor Eddie Francis wouldn’t speculate as to how much the city could earn.Poor economy leads condo owner to advertise nationallyWindsor Ontario News November 2, 2009 A Windsor man thinks the local market for a luxury riverfront condominium is so poor that he has spent considerable money to buy display advertising in one of Canada’s national newspapers to advertise the property.
Bridge uses billboards to take campaign to publicWindsor Ontario News October 29, 2009The Ambassador Bridge company has taken its appeal for a new bridge span directly to the public. Canada Post won't deliver along construction routeWindsor Ontario News October 28, 2009Amherstburg residents this week received hand delivered letters from the town’s public works department informing them that the post office will not have letter carriers deliver mail along the stretch of road that is being torn up and replaced as part of a municipal beautification project. Click to read moreTecumseh park plan has lake pier, ecological gardensWindsor Ontario News October 27, 2009 Tecumseh’s new waterfront park, now largely an open space with limited amenities, is expected to undergo a major transformation under plans being drawn up by the town’s engineering consultants, Toronto’s EDA Collaborative Inc. Click to read moreNew signs coming to Highway 401Windsor Ontario News October 23, 2009 Expect newer and better signs along Highway 401 in the near future to alert motorists to the fact that service centre sites are still open. Click to read moreTecumseh says MPAC office will be on transit routeWindsor Ontario News October 20, 2009Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara says there will indeed be public transit service to the new Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) office when it opens in Tecumseh likely in late January.
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