The City of Windsor is still pressing for funding to cover $5.7-million in expenses incurred during a blockade that shutdown traffic heading to the Ambassador Bridge.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, Chair of the Windsor Police Services Board, says these expenses are not related to a typical municipal police response but a national economic emergency.
"The $5.7-million is a lot of money for us, it's not an immaterial amount. It's an amount will we need some support to help offset from the federal and/or provincial governments, he says.
The cost of the blockade was first announced March 15, which followed with a request to the upper levels of government for assistance.
The expenses include overtime for Windsor police officers, but also costs related to bringing in hundreds of officers from outside the region to help control the situation. Those costs include travel expenses, feeding and housing the officers from other jurisdictions, along with the cost of bringing in 1,100 jersey barriers from outside the area to control traffic.
Rob Hindi
Dilkens says they are starting to have to pay those bills.
"All of the right response was provided, which I'm extremely grateful for, I think our whole nation should be grateful for the response that was provided," he says. "But now we have to pay the bill and it should not fall on the backs of Windsor taxpayers."
Dilkens is hopeful a response will be forthcoming.
"If we don't hear a response in short order, we will start to amplify our requests to make sure everyone understands we're being forgotten down here in that regard," he says. "I don't think that's the intention of either the federal and provincial governments at this point, but we need their attention sooner rather than later to help resolve the expenses we're incurring."
On Feb. 7, a group of people stopped along Huron Church Road heading to the Ambassador Bridge, protesting COVID-19 restrictions and mandates, halting traffic until police officers moved them off the route on Feb. 13.
In the aftermath of the protest, barriers were put in place along Huron Church Road for several weeks to maintain the flow of traffic.