Collier | 'Comprehensive' mayor speech has winners, losers

CBC Windsor's municipal affairs columnist, Cheryl Collier, calls Mayor Eddie Francis' state of the city address the most comprehensive speech he's delivered in 10 years.

Francis laid out spending promises for the modernization of the Windsor Public Library, new bike paths, all new LED street lights and a new city - all without raising taxes.

"This is politics, so you have to make your choices; what you're going to invest in or what you're not going to invest in," Collier said. "It would be interesting to know why the winners were chosen and some of the people who weren't given money and were left off the table."

Some of the ones that missed out on investment were the health unit, Transit Windsor, child care, police and fire.

Collier also said Francis made a point to address his critics. She said he sounded defensive.

"There could have been more of a positive tone talking about the positiveness of the city instead of addressing each one of the critics - things like the BYD deal that collapsed," she said. "There was a lot of talk on how that was foreshadowed and even though that didn't come through that wasn't really the fault of the mayor or any of the work that they had done and that there would be more."

Collier noted to CBC News that although Francis spoke of the unemployment rate falling from 13.5 per cent at the height of the recession to nine per cent now, he didn't mention it was 7.3 per cent when he first took office.