Follow-up Letter to Chatham Daily News that was not published...

To:      Chatham Daily News-  Sent the same day as my first letter was published under the heading "Reader Suggests Casino For SWRC Property" From:  Brian Keenan              Date:   Friday, November 04, 2011 Re:      YOU WANT JOBS? Letter to the Editor #2 There is a whole lot of “downtown development” going on and “YES” it is good for Chatham but who is going to occupy this residential, retail and office space?  The answer is simple, people and business’ from somewhere else in our community.  In other words, this development is just shuffling the deck but not adding new cards to it. Did the Capital Theater generate new jobs?  No! Did it attract new businesses to Chatham? No!  Will the new downtown residences bring new people to Chatham or just move them around?  Will all the new office space and hotel facilities bring new business’ to town or just create vacancy signs in other parts of town? I recently returned to Chatham after 40 years of living and working in places like, Toronto, Mississauga, Chicago, Tokyo, San Diego and Las Vegas.  The first thing I noticed was that the city had not grown, the downtown was dead, the factories were vacant and the high school graduates were leaving for university or collage somewhere else, never to return to Chatham because there are no NEW jobs. Yes, other cities in Ontario have suffered as well but does that mean nothing could be done? NO!  Our local leaders, and I don’t just mean the people at city hall, could and should, have done more.  When the automotive related jobs left Chatham did the leaders over the years do everything they could have to keep and bring new agriculture plants to Chatham Kent? NO, they even let that golden goose get away despite the fact that we are in the heart of Canada’s agriculture heartland.  O’ yes, our agriculture community does bring jobs to Southwestern Ontario, from Mexico, from Jamaica and from who-knows-where! Yes, the wind and solar energy development throughout Chatham-Kent has brought temporary jobs to our area although many of those are also from out-of-town or not permanent in nature.  Did we get any of the mega-plants that are bringing jobs to other cities in southern Ontario? NO! The problem is we think that City Hall is responsible for bringing these opportunities to town.  Yes, they have a big role in these the job creation and business retention initiatives but so do our other city leaders. A couple of our local business leaders and you know who they are, have invested their hard earned money into the downtown development initiative, as has an out-of-towner visionary more recently.  Why, because they see the opportunity and the potential for profit.  Thank God for capitalism! Can we all do more?  YES!  Do we need to be millionaires to be part of every solution? NO!  What we need to do, and that includes the small players like me and you, is to start using our combined brain power to make things happen.  I know what this means because in my 40 years away from Chatham, I made and lost millions of dollars as the founder and champion of many new ideas, like the International Computer Orphanage, like Bekeen Disaster Recovery, like Canada Computer, like SignCast and the list goes on. Recently I decided to become the “born again” visionary and entrepreneur that I once was. The creators of the once popular nationally syndicated Global Television series, Everybody’s Business, Kenneth Barnes and Everett Banning, once labeled me a visionary in their book “Money Makers! The Secrets of Canada’s Most Successful Entrepreneurs.”  These authors rightfully labeled me a visionary in their book.  They said that “Visionaries are sometimes, idealist; often they seem impractical, even a bit eccentric, as they push and pull the marketplace far beyond its present bounds.”  It’s been a while since that book was published and several ventures from the one that sparked their interest to write about me in that book.  In some ways I kind of wished my visionary days were behind me, but I guess it must be in my blood because I can’t stop coming up with these crazy or not so crazy ideas. I need to make a living and survive in these tough economic times, like everyone else.  I hope that selling real estate will cover that base!  But I owe it to myself, to my family, to my friend in Chatham, to use my many talents and vast experience to help bring NEW jobs to Chatham Kent.  To kick start this creativity, I have appointed myself the Chairman of the Dealtown Casino and Retirement Village initiative. Yes, I think the Southwestern Regional Centre is the perfect place to be transformed into a casino and retirement village.  Think about it; it’s already built and less money than what was thrown at the Capital Theater could kick start this initiative.  Think about it; the old regional center provided 600 full time jobs because it ran 24 by 7, 365 days of the year, just like a casino would.  The 235 acre property and 650,000 sq ft of buildings is already built and it is perfectly located to draw people from Kitchener to Kingsville.  Add a spacious RV park on the property and you will draw folks from all over to this waterfront oasis. I could go on and on as to why this is a great opportunity for Chatham Kent but this is not the place.  What I do ask is that you voice your opinion on this initiative and ask yourself if Chatham Kent could use 600 to 1000 new jobs, jobs that will bring our kids back home, jobs that will be created to support this facility, jobs that could replace those lost at Navistar, jobs that can fill those new condos and offices in downtown Chatham.  I need your help and support to make this happen and I need it now. -       30   -