The Mayor's idea of administering COVID-19 vaccine in the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel has officially been shut down.
"Our government has finally put a nail in the coffin and said no, we will not allow this to happen," says Drew Dilkens.
Speaking on AM800's The Morning Drive, Dilkens says he received a letter from Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) stating any closure of the tunnel has the potential to create significant disruption to cross-border trade and travel and could have significant security implications.
After receiving the latest correspondence, Dilkens is blaming the Canadian government and feels it was never the Michigan or U.S. government saying "no."
"We had everything lined up on the other side, in fact, U.S. Customs had told me directly that there is no customs reasons why the vaccine cannot leave the United States," he says. "It is what it is, we tried, people in the city know that we tried and again they're throwing 60,000 doses of vaccine, 68,000 I believe, that have hit the landfill in Michigan."
Dilkens feels he did everything he could to try and make this happen
"I've been fighting this battle internally with our own government for a matter of weeks now," he says. "It didn't matter what roadblock they put in the way I would come back and say I've got an answer for that, I can find a pathway that addresses that concern. The intention was always to find a sensible pathway that would allow this to happen that would address the shortage of vaccine."
Even though Dilken's plan didn't technically have the vaccines leaving the U.S. with Canadians sitting in the middle of the tunnel to be inoculated, the letter Dilkens received from CBSA also addressed the importation of vaccines across the border saying even if for immediate administration or consumption, those decisions are regulated by Health Canada.