Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens is weighing in on the issue of testing temporary foreign workers for COVID-19.
Dilkens says there is a desperate need for mandatory testing within the farm worker population and reached out to officials at the federal level, Health Minister Patty Hajdu, for help.
"I said Minister, we've got to do something.’ Everyone seems to be walking away from their ability and their legislative responsibility to do something in this case and the only reason I'm involved is because the fact it effects our entire region and it's going to stop us from moving forward to the next stage of recovery here," he says.
Hajdu will take part in a teleconference with local officials including Dilkens, Leamington Mayor Hilda MacDonald, Windsor Regional Hospital President and CEO, David Musyj, Erie Shores CEO Ross Moncur and officials from the health unit.
Speaking on AM800's The Morning Drive, Dilkens says he's hopeful the call will result in a path forward.
"That says 'here's what we can together to try and help these workers,' and I get, I've heard the premier say it,” he says. “I have heard many say we can't force anyone to get a test I get that. But when I'm talking about mandatory testing, there are ways to do this, much like they're dong with the long-term care sector right now."
Dilkens believes there are ways that testing could be done without making it mandatory.
"But if you want to go and visit someone in long-term care, you must prove that you've had a negative COVID test in the last 14 days, and so, that sort of work-around, could work in the farm sector by saying 'you don't have to get a test, migrant worker, but if you want to work on this farm and handle our food supply, you need to prove that you're COVID-negative."
Dilkens says he understands that the call will be about information sharing and will not necessarily lead to immediate policy outcomes.
Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Wajid Ahmed said on Wednesday that upwards of 300 workers in the agri-farm sector in Windsor-Essex have tested positive for COVID-19.
When asked about it on Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford said he can't force anybody to take a test but is desperately pleading with the employers to work with their temporary foreign worker population to get tested.
A COVID-19 assessment centre in Leamington is closing today after only 724 workers were tested since it opened June 9th.
Health officials say the positive test rate among migrant workers is running at 13 per cent and there have been two deaths.
— With files from AM800's Paul McDonald