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Warden Tom Bain <br />4t" Annual Warden's Luncheon <br />Windsor Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce <br />April 21, 2011 <br />Belle River Knights of Columbus <br />Head table guests, members of County Council, members of local municipal councils, ladies and <br />gentlemen and friends, good afternoon and welcome to the 4th annual Warden's State of the <br />County address made possible by our friends at the Windsor Essex Regional Chamber of <br />commerce and their generous supporter and sponsor, the United Communities Credit Union. <br />I want to thank the Chamber of Commerce for this opportunity to come before you today. The <br />Chamber has a rich history of acting as a voice of Business within our region. I want to <br />congratulate you on the many regional initiatives that you are working on and I also want to <br />congratulate you on the great work you did putting on the Business Excellence Awards last week <br />— Jennifer and Linda and Chamber team — Job well done! <br />For those of you who are not aware, this is my second time around the track as Warden. I was <br />honoured to have been elected Warden way back in 1993. As you can imagine, much has <br />changed since 1993, so before I talk about what is going on in the County today, I thought we <br />could take a slight detour down memory lane. <br />• In 1993, we had 21 municipalities in Essex County, now we have 7; <br />• In 1993, we had 42 members of County Council; now we have 14; <br />• In 1993, the gross County budget was $47M, now it is $125M <br />• In 1993, the County levy was $14.5M; now it is $71M — to put that in perspective, the <br />2011 County levy is 150% of what the gross County budget was in 1993. <br />• The top song in 1993 was: "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston <br />• The Academy Award for best picture was won by: "Schindler's List" <br />• A few memorable historical events include: <br />➢ Czechoslovakia separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia; <br />➢ Disney C o . was awarded an NHL franchise and had the nerve to call it the <br />"Mighty Ducks"; <br />➢ Russians elected Boris Yeltsin as Leader; <br />➢ The last broadcast of "Cheers" was in 1993; <br />➢ Bill Clinton was inaugurated for the first time as President of the US <br />➢ We had three Prime Ministers that year: Brian Mulroney, Kim Campbell and <br />Jean Chretien <br />➢ The Stanley Cup champs were the Montreal Canadiens; since then the Red Wings <br />have won FOUR Cups and the Leafs have won, oh yeah, that would be none, but <br />who's counting? <br />