Friday, June 12, 2020.

SENT VIA EMAIL, PAGE 1 OF 3 .

The Corporation of the City of Windsor,

Attention: Elected City Councillors

350 City Hall Square West,

Windsor, ON.

Councillors:

At this time, I am writing to urge you, to beg you, please DEFER the Celestial Beacon project until at least 2021. There are problems with both the proposal itself and the process being used to attempt to pass this plan. I am particularly offended by the ‘HOW’ this plan is being presented rather than the merits of the plan itself.

You need to know that I am not a stupid individual. I understand the different types of budgets and spending. I also understand the difference between politics and process. In a democratic city such as ours, a municipality can NEVER sacrifice the rights of the citizens, the process, in order to better serve the desires of the Mayor. The Mayor had an inherent duty to rally the citizens and demonstrate “overwhelming support” for the idea. Windsor’s Mayor chose to hide behind the Covid 19 pandemic.

(1) I ask you to DEFER this project because Heidi Baillargeon, Project Manager, was unavailable to citizens for questions. I reached out to her office on Monday, June 8 with questions; the file was only made available for download, late in the day on Friday, June 5. I have heard nothing but an “auto-reply” asking for my patience during the pandemic. How can you ask to spend $7M of taxpayer money and make the city Project Manager unavailable? For this reason alone, you should DEFER but I have more.

(2) The price tag of this project is unknown and the City is unable to confirm any amount. Let’s start with the Mayor himself admitting the cost in unknown. He does this at the end of the “unveiling” video.

This follows Ms. Wilson’s comments that building into an embankment is difficult and inevitably leads to higher costs. An unknown cost should be reason enough to DEFER but I have more.

(3) I have called Canada Heritage every single day this week. I’m sure I am bothering them more than you. There is NO evidence this project will be given the Cultural Spaces grant. The City has not applied. The City needs direction from Council to do this. This grant is funded, for now. Canada Heritage’s top priority is to fund projects that have already been approved or have been started.

Reviewing and approving new projects is not high on the to-do list. Today, the city wants approval to spend $7M. Maybe a grant is possible, maybe it is not! It is a revolving grant which means they can apply for this grant next year, when Covid 19 is not so new or has been eradicated. The grant is unstable and therefore I ask you to DEFER this project.