d) News Release regarding County's Response to City's Proposal for Boundary Adjustment

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NEWS RELEASE County of Essex 360 Fairvlew Avenue West Essex, Ontario NSM 1Y6 December 9, 1999 "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE" County response demonstrates Windsor's boundary adiustment proposal would be detrimental to the economic health of the Essex/Windsor area As requested by the Minister of Municipal Affairs, the County of Essex has responded to the City of Windsor's "conceptual boundary adjustment" which was delivered to the former Minister of Municipal Affairs, The Honourable J.S. (Steve) Gilchrist, in a letter dated August 18th, 1999. The proposal contained in the letter from Mayor Hurst would result in the City's current land area of approximately 30,000 acres being increased by approximately 35,800 acres for a total land area of 65,800 acres, or an increase of approximately 120%. This land request represents 80% of the lands within the Town of LaSalle, 60% of the lands within the Town of Tecumseh and 4% of the lands within the Town of Lakeshore. A comprehensive discussion of the issues raised in the Mayor's letter was included in the County's res~ponse which was delivered to The Honourable Tony Clement on Monday, December 6 , 1999 via courier. The County position, enunciated in the response forwarded to the Minister, identifies that Mayor Hurst's letter contains no indication as to how the City's proposed boundary adjustment recognizes the restructuring principles which have been declared to further the directive of Bill 26. To the contrary, their proposal continues the City's single-minded efforts to use the restructuring process to take over, to the sole advantage of the City of Windsor, a substantial portion of the County's assessment base. Included in the County's response, which was unanimously endorsed by resolution on December 1 ~t, 1999, was a study which analyzed the economic aspects of the City's proposal. The findings of the study demonstrate that the City's proposal will have an adverse impact on the economy of both the County and the City. The weighted assessment for the Town of LaSalle, Town of Tecumseh and Town of Lakeshore would be reduced by 95%, 94% and 35% respectively. The total current value assessment of the County would be reduced by 3.5 billion or 39% of the weighted assessment.