Operators are going to need a "carrot or a stick" to agree to mass testing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at area farms.
That's how Leamington, Ont. Mayor Hilda MacDonald described the need for incentives for mass testing at Friday's Update on Farm Worker Pandemic Planning.
MacDonald was one of several panelists representing municipalities and medical professionals in Essex County. She understands the reluctance of farms to test but she says that's not a valid excuse anymore.
"When we had one of our big farms test most of their farm was shut down, so that threw fear in the hearts of many and I get that, but when I weigh the scale of millions of dollars and human lives the human lives weigh heavier," she says.
Upper levels of government regulated migrant and seasonal workers coming into the country during the pandemic and should have continued to take responsibility, according to MacDonald.
"Had you had one entity saying exactly what needed to be done it would be smooth sailing and they would have said first and last and we'd be there," she says. "That is what should have happened in an ideal world, could have happened, but didn't."
Essex County Warden Gary McNamara says the province needs to take over.
"They have the wherewithal to bring in additional resources that we need once we've exhausted everything at the bottom end and we're getting pretty close to that now," he says. "If we are to deal with the mass testing and everything else that's required on those farms, we just don't have the full resources at hand."
MacDonald says upper levels of government need to put steps in place to assure farmers and workers they're covered if there's a positive test.
Windsor Regional Hospital's David Musyj told the panel the only way to get a handle on the outbreak is to test everyone and it's not happening fast enough.