Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I will try to come in under the allotted time.
Mr. Chair and members of the Senate and of the House of Commons, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.
On November 7 I appeared before Commissioner Rouleau and the Public Order Emergency Commission.
The illegal blockade of the Ambassador Bridge in the city of Windsor began on February 7, 2022, disrupted trade and posed a major risk to the national economy.
The blockade also had a profound negative impact on the city and its residents, schools and businesses until the matter was resolved peacefully and the bridge reopened shortly after midnight on February 14.
I want to express my profound gratitude to all members of law enforcement at the Windsor Police Service, the OPP, the RCMP and other policing partners who worked effectively together and did an exemplary job of quickly and safely clearing the illegal occupation and maintaining the security of Huron Church Road for the over $400 million in goods that travel this crossing each day.
As I testified at the commission earlier this month, I felt that as Mayor of Windsor I had the ear of both federal and provincial government representatives at the highest levels, including Minister Mendicino, Minister Blair, Ontario Solicitor General Jones, Premier Ford and Prime Minister Trudeau. My staff was in contact with and coordinated with political staff across federal and provincial ministers' offices and the security establishment.
At the same time, the Windsor Police Service, the OPP and the RCMP worked through the appropriate chain of command to secure the resources necessary to help clear the occupation in a safe and efficient way.
The system worked as it should in response to this unprecedented blockade, which threatened the economic well-being of our entire country.
The invocation of the Emergencies Act was an unprecedented response, and while I was not consulted prior to the invocation I supported this response as it sent a clear signal that repeated attempts to blockade the Ambassador Bridge after February 14 would no longer be tolerated by Canadian officials.
No doubt this sent an important signal to our U.S. trading partners that Canadian supply chains would remain accessible and Canada would act to ensure the crossing would not be blocked again.
The City of Windsor estimates approximately $5.7 million in unforeseen costs, including extra policing costs to clear the illegal blockade and address the ongoing need to secure Huron Church Road for the benefit of the entire province, and, frankly, for the entire nation. It is unreasonable to expect municipal taxpayers to bear the financial brunt of emergencies that have provincial and national implications. The city has asked the Ontario and federal governments for financial support since March of this year, and our requests remain unfilled.
While appearing before Justice Rouleau and the Public Order Emergency Commission, I said the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge represented a new type of phenomenon, and while the City of Windsor is responsible for local infrastructure and the Windsor Police Service is capable of providing adequate and effective law enforcement to our community, there is an obvious need for broader collaboration and support from the provincial and federal governments to bolster the safety and security of our borders.
I urge members and senators to support Windsor's proposal for all three levels of government to collaboratively study and develop a long-term sustainable strategy to protect our critical border infrastructure and ensure that all three levels of government work effectively together to prevent and respond to disturbances that threaten to choke our national economy.
The planning process must include border municipalities like Windsor to ensure that any framework appropriately supports local authorities at the front line of emergency response to ensure the resulting strategy prioritizes local and community concerns, provides sufficient resources and tools for municipalities to build community resilience and responds to all hazards that may threaten critical infrastructure on their borders.
This is of particular importance when a federally regulated piece of infrastructure is in a municipal community.
Thank you for your attention, and I'm pleased to answer any questions in support of the committee's mandate.