An emergency meeting is held over NextStar, new rules will give homebuyers more transparency, and the E.C. Row Expressway: Top Windsor stories this week

Mayor Drew Dilkens wants the province to take ownership of the E.C. Row Expressway, Conservative MPs want the contract between Stellantis and LG Energy Solutions to be publicly released, and Windsorites will soon have more transparency during the homebuying process.

Here’s a look at the top stories on ctvnewswindsor.ca this week. 

 

Windsor mayor hopes province will upload E.C. Row Expressway after Toronto deal

E.C. Row Expressway on Thursday, March 9, 2023. (Bob Bellacicco/CTV News Windsor)

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens expressed hope Monday night that the city will be able to upload E.C. Row Expressway to the province to upload two expensive area highways earlier in the day.

Dilkens made the comments after Monday’s council meeting, indicating he’s been having discussions with “the right people” from the provincial government for a few years to move the Windsor highway back into provincial control.

“We're asking the province of course to upload the expressway in its entirety. If not, we certainly need support to make sure that we can complete that $80-million project,” said Dilkens of the expected cost to upgrade the intersection at Banwell Road and E.C. Row, near the future site of the NextStar Energy battery plant.

This, on the heels of a deal that will see the province take responsibility for the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway from Toronto, potentially saving that city billions of dollars.

 

New Ontario real estate rules to give 'more transparency' for buyers

House for sale in Windsor-Essex, Ont. on Wednesday, April 20, 2022. (Chris Campbell/CTV Windsor)Potential home buyers in Windsor-Essex may no longer be left in the dark about competing offers, thanks to new rules in the Ontario real estate market.

"Now, home sellers have the option to disclose the highest offer they have, to disclose the conditions or disclose all of it if they do so choose but it is up to them top make that decision,” said Joyce Blackmere, broker and director of sales at Dan Gemus Real Estate. “It definitely is a positive. It gives more opportunity and more transparency for buyers to better understand potentially the property they are offering on.”

This is one of several new rules the province is putting into effect starting Dec. 1, 2023, completing Phase 2 of legislative and regulatory changes introduced under the Trust in Real Estate Services Act (TRESA), 2020.

 

Emergency meeting held in Ottawa about hiring for Windsor battery plant

Stellantis and LG Energy Solution EV battery plant construction site in Windsor, Ont., on Monday, May 15, 2023. (Sijia Liu/CTV News Windsor)An emergency meeting was held in Ottawa about hiring for the NextStar battery plant in Windsor.

Conservative MPs are asking for the contract between Stellantis and LG Energy Solutions to be publicly released.

“Canadians have a right to know what kinds of contracts this government is signing with private corporations,” Conservative MP Luc Berthold told the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates Monday morning.

The Conservative MPs say the deal – offering incentives to automakers for each battery they produce in Canada – will cost each household up to $3,000.

 

'It was a big leap of faith': Essex County friends quit their jobs and start a new career renovating the Dahl House

Allie Carlini (left) and Justine Chevalier (right) are business partners who rebuilt and renovated the Dahl House in Essex, Ont. on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023. (Michelle Maluske/CTV News Windsor)The two-storey Dahl House building in downtown Essex — which was once condemned — is now ready for new tenants.

Friends Justine Chevalier and Allie Carlini had just finished a cottage renovation when they heard about the building being deemed unsafe by the town and the tenants evicted for safety reasons.

They created their company, ‘Flipping Nuts,’ “because we sometimes think we’re nuts,” they said, soon after.

Chevalier describes that cost as “reasonably priced’ even though the building needed to be completely gutted and rebuilt.

 

Vision Zero plan, including new 40km/h speed limit, approved

The City of Windsor installed these 'no right on red' signs at the intersection of Wyandotte Street East and Pillette Avenue in Windsor, Ont. on Friday, Sept. 29. (Sanjay Maru/CTV News Windsor)In the five years Gary Kaschak has been on city council, the most complaints he receives, “is about traffic.”

Kaschak, chair of a Vision Zero Board, wants to see speed limits in residential neighbourhoods lowered to 40 km/h.

“There's proven facts that crashes or collisions or if a person gets hit at a lower speeds they've got a better chance to live,” Kaschak said.