A local restaurant owner, former Windsor city councillor and MP is weighing in on Windsor-Essex being the only region in Ontario still at Stage 1 of the province's reopening plan.
Rick Limoges, the co-owner of Sandy's Riverside Grill on the city's east side, says strong leadership from upper levels of government has been lacking during the pandemic.
He says economic relief packages were handled well, but vulnerable populations were not taken care of.
"They've done a great job on the economic side. Our failure has been in helping vulnerable populations. Whether it be our seniors or migrant farm workers now, who are just sitting ducks. They come here under special legislation and have no way of really protecting themselves," he says.
Limoges told AM800's The Afternoon News that the province should be focused on fixing the problem rather than pointing fingers.
"Mr. Ford did a great job all through this listening to experts, but he made a leadership error in pointing the finger at migrant workers and pointing the finger at the farmers and throwing blame around, because it shouldn't be about blame. It should be about let's fix this," he says.
Limoges says, while he doesn't want anything to be rushed, there is an urgency to move forward.
"We've all been at this for over 100 days. It's a difficult situation. Our businesses have suffered. We're frustrated. We want to open, but we've got to get this right and it's not about pointing fingers. It's about just getting down and correcting the errors that we've made," he adds.
Premier Doug Ford announced Monday Windsor-Essex would not yet proceed to Stage 2 of reopening because of COVID-19 outbreaks at local farms.
Ford warned farmers if they did not co-operate with the province's plan to test workers he would take "extreme'' action — though he gave no specifics.
Hundreds of local migrant workers have tested positive for the virus while two in Essex County have passed away.
Rick Limoges served on Windsor city council from 1985 to 1998 before being elected as the Liberal MP for the former riding of Windsor-St. Clair, following the sudden death of MP Shaughnessy Cohen, serving in the from House of Commons between April 21, 1999 to October 22, 2000.