City vs. County: Tensions still high between Windsor, Essex

CBC Windsor's City vs. County is a series looking at the state of the relationship between the City of Windsor and the municipalities that make up Essex County.

Two years after making an impassioned plea for unity between councils in Windsor and Essex County, retired CBC Windsor municipal affairs reporter Gino Conte says he has seen no real progress.

Conte was given a key to the city by former mayor Eddie Francis the week of his retirement inApril2014.

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In between the handshakes and photos, an emotional Conte told the city politicians they needed to quit fighting and work together.

"If you want to progress this region, which you have to, there has to be a trust between both city and county councils," Conte said during his farewell in council chambers at the time. "There are certain individuals on the county council that have no trust for the city, and there are certain individuals on this city council that have no trust. Get rid of that."

Despite some of the faces changing in municipal elections later that year,Contesays history is repeating itself.

"I'm beginning to hear more and more of the same rhetoric over what's been said in the past number of years," Conte recently told CBC."They can talk, but when it comes down to actually voting, whatever the issue is, especially if it's detrimental to the county, it'll be turned down."

A generation of distrust

Conte says the distrust grew roots in the 1990s, when the provincial government of Conservative Premier Mike Harris pushed for the downsizing of municipal government.

Twenty-one municipalities in Essex County became seven towns through a series of amalgamations. They maintained a county level of government, separate from the City of Windsor.

Conte saysthe county continues to resist any move that hints of a regional government that includes Windsor.

"County politicians believe they have a good community that they're running efficiently," he explained."They believe that if the city took it over, if a regional form of government was pushed on them, they lose their control, they lose power, and they believe their own residents would be hurt in the long run, because they think of the city as being a bully."

"They believe the residents are getting the best service as low as taxes can go, and if Windsor comes in, it all changes," he said.

'It can get nasty'

Former Windsor city councillor Alan Halberstadt says he's seen that dynamic first-hand.

Now a trustee with the Greater Essex County District School Board, he remembers bringing up the idea of increased co-operation at a joint meeting of city and county councils in 2010.

"I said the elephant in the room is regional government, and even city councillors jumped on me about that, because they know how sensitive an issue that is. I got pounded on that one, but it's there," Halberstadt said.

"I would think that should be an automatic," he said."But the county has resisted it basically. I think a lot of it is a turf consideration. They don't want to give up any of their turf. It can get nasty."

'This is not about boundary adjustment'

The city and county do work together on a number of public services, although some of those were forced on them.

Through the Harris government's downloading, the city took responsibility for social services and housing in the late 1990s.

Essex County became responsible for ambulance services across the city and county in 2001. The city and county also work side by side on the solid waste authority, the health unit and Essex Regional Conservation Authority.

But city councillor Bill Marra has long pushed for greater integration of services. He calls regional transit a "no-brainer," but says the city and county should also explore combining police and fire services, libraries and recreation.

Marra knows the county and its municipalities arereluctant to enter into these discussions, and says it may be helpful to set the ground rules at the outset.

One outstanding issue is a perception that amalgamation would change the boundaries between the city and county, he said.

"There's a real cultural challenge here," he said.

"Maybe what we need to do is make one of the very fundamental principles clear that this is not about boundary adjustment. We don't need to talk about that. It's not necessary to have that. But we can talk about regional services, without the fear or concern about political changes," he said.

More opportunities to co-operate

Whatever tensions may erupt from time to time at the political level, the county's chief administrative officer,Brian Gregg, insists there is no hostility between the people working to run city and county services.

Gregg says his staff has always gotten along well with their counterparts in Windsor.

Gregg says the politicians need to communicate effectively as well, and he agrees there are "more opportunities for co-operation."

"I think the more that the elected officials in both the county and the city can speak with each other, and not let our frustrations build where they get to a boiling point," Gregg said."It's having that ongoing, candid conversation, where they know they can speak to each other and they can be frank to each other."

"This is really one economic region," he said."Weneed to understand that geographically, we're at the end of a peninsula, and we're surrounded on three sides by water. So we need to continue to get along with each other, and we need to continue to reach out and find those ways that we can collaborate."

"Every day, I think that's something that we all should be challenged with."