With local frustration mounting over the continued requirement of the ArriveCan app at the land border, the MP for Windsor-Tecumseh says he has taken those concerns directly to the federal government.
Irek Kusmierczyk says that was a focus of many of his meetings during the Liberals recent caucus retreat.
He says he had about a half dozen if not more direct meetings with the individual ministers responsible for this file.
"I can tell you that I raised the issues, the voices that we've heard clearly in our constituency office to those ministers, and specifically how ArriveCan presents challenges to border communities like ours," he continued. "So I had the chance to sit down one on one with ministers and really hammer away at that point."
Kusmierczyk says he feels we are being heard, and the existing border measures included in the current Order In Council will be reviewed on September 30.
"We're going to be paying very, very close attention to that September 30 date and the review of the OIC. But this retreat provided an opportunity to just sit face to face, have these one on one meetings, and really bring that message home that really we've been hammering away at with ministers and the Prime Minister's office," he said.
He says these OICs are set with a schedule in place for when they're reviewed.
"This next important point, the inflection point of September 30 when this existing Order in Council and these existing measures are reviewed and a new set of measures will be introduced. So that's really important and that's why these meetings were so critical."
Kusmierczyk's office has clarified that the future of ArriveCAN's use is still a question, as he's been told that all options remain on the table ahead of the OIC review at the end of the month.
- with files from AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides