Local political and healthcare leaders want either the province or the federal government to take the lead on efforts to eradicate COVID-19 outbreaks at farms.
The mayors of Windsor, Kingsville, and Leamington were joined by the CEOs of Windsor Regional Hospital and Erie Shores Healthcare at a virtual meeting to discuss the need for greater coordination of efforts. They want either the provincial government or Ottawa to assume responsibility for the entire operation in Leamington and Kingsville.
At the same time, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit reported that 87 per cent of all new COVID-19 cases in the region were in those towns.
BlackburnNews.com file photo of Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, January 15, 2014. (Photo by Jason Viau)
When pressed on how the lack of coordination from senior governments is impacting the operation to test farmworkers, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens admitted that sometimes the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.
"Just to give you an example, if you are going to house migrant workers in a hotel -- well, that requires someone to actually show up and provide meals to them. Three times a day," he said. "If there is not proper coordination, and if a meal is being missed, most human beings are going to get hungry, and they're going to leave their room to try and find something to eat."
Dilkens said he believes the provincial government should take the lead since much of the concerns expressed by local leaders are about the rate of testing.
There are provincial and federal officials in the region to help contain outbreaks on four farms where hundreds of temporary foreign workers and seasonal workers have tested positive for the virus. Despite their involvement, only a third of the 8,000 to 10,000 workers have been tested.
A photo of Leamington Mayor Hilda MacDonald. (Courtesy of Hilda MacDonald on Facebook.)
Leamington Mayor Hilda MacDonald was more forthright. She blamed the federal government for not taking the reins from the outset.
"It's the feds that opened up the border. They're the ones that closed it to the rest of us, but opened the border for the offshore workers to come in," she explained. "They should have through which they didn't. Had they followed through, we wouldn't be in this mess."
MacDonald opined there would likely be a dissection of the current situation and changes.
"It's like the 'who's on first, whoever's on second,'" she continued. "Well, it's not my job, it's his job. And he's saying, 'no, it's your job.'"
In the meantime, she suggested a "carrot and stick" approach, or "incentives" to motivate farm operators to get their workers tested. She recommended making testing a condition of employment, or even fining farm operators.
"It's a prickly issue, and no one seems to want to take that on," MacDonald said. "If we don't get someone to do this, we'll just keep going around in circles -- and we'll never get there. Somebody needs to say, 'look, you either do this, or you're going to get fined.'"
Meanwhile, the federal government plans to bring another 3,000 temporary foreign workers into the country. While local officials are not sure how many will come to Essex County, they know some will.
"At the end of the day, we all have a shared goal. We shouldn't be tripping over each other, trying to undertake efforts that would be better delivered if there was one lead organization with ultimate responsibility," said Dilkens.