Evidence of meeting #19 for Declaration of Emergency in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was industry.
A video is available from Parliament.
7:40 p.m.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Many of those expenses would be beyond your control, because they would be performed under collective agreements and safety protocols.
Can you submit your letter to the government, as well as the inventory sheet? Would you do that for the committee, please?
7:45 p.m.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
I want to take a quick summary here to make sure I have this right. It's $5.7 million. We have the feds, who haven't paid anything. The Ontario government hasn't paid anything. The businesses have not paid anything. The illegal protesters have not paid anything.
It's an area with high child poverty and unemployment, and people lost their jobs for a period a time. It also has a high immigrant population. People couldn't get to services, including—as I mentioned—medical appointments. Now, at the end of the day, we're expecting the city of Windsor residents to pay for all of this alone. How does that make you feel, if there is going to be another situation?
How do we go back to our community and explain that for doing all the right things, especially for people outside the area, we'll continue to have to do this without a plan? Does that seem fair?
7:45 p.m.
Mayor, City of Windsor
Following the events in Windsor, I sent a letter to both the provincial and federal government and asked for a sit-down planning session to talk about what we would do moving forward in the event that something happened again.
There's no doubt that although people looked from the outside and said our response was really good in Windsor.... It was over in about a week. It was a good response for many. We probably could have shaved a day or two if we'd had a plan that was a little tighter, but if we spelled out who pays for what, it would make life a lot easier. You wouldn't have the mayor from the little city of Windsor grovelling over the $5.7 million that was spent to help deal with a national economic emergency. We'd like to have that conversation. Huron Church Road is not going away. The Ambassador Bridge is not going away.
As to the possibility of something like this happening in the future, I cannot predict whether it will happen. I have no practical way to stop it from happening right now. We need to have a coordinated response that deals with a very unique situation of a municipal road joining a provincial highway leading to a federally regulated bridge that happens to be under private ownership.
We have to figure how to deal with this in a sensible way that allows the proper response and the most effective and timely response and that figures out who pays for what. In situations like this, it's completely unfair for municipal taxpayers to fund the bill.
7:45 p.m.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Thank you, Mr. Dilkens.
Your three minutes are up, Mr. Masse. Thank you.
Senator Boniface, we now go to you for three minutes.
7:45 p.m.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
Thank you very much.
I have a couple of questions.
Mayor Dilkens, was there any concern raised from your citizens about a counterprotest in the event that those weren't moved? That is always a great risk when a protest is prolonged.
7:45 p.m.
Mayor, City of Windsor
That is a wonderful question. The temperature on the ground with the protesters was high, but every day that went by, the temperature in the community got hot. We had just gone through this difficult pandemic period together, when we had significant closures of our largest employer, and the parts sector as well, that affected tens of thousands of families in the city.
This was seen as something that was unnecessary. It was seen as a bit of an assault on the community because of the importance of the Ambassador Bridge, so there absolutely was the threat. There were Facebook groups set up asking for people who were interested in vigilante-style justice to sign up and express their support for the opposing side, those opposing the protesters. That did ramp up. Windsor police had to reach out to some in the community who were known community leaders to have them ratchet down the temperature that they were trying to raise up on behalf of some of the members in their union.
7:45 p.m.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
Thank you.
Mr. Willett, I know that you're in a smaller community. Did you have any experience in terms of that?
7:45 p.m.
Mayor, Village of Coutts
No. There was never any indication that anybody locally was going to counterprotest, other than gripe; but that's typical.
7:45 p.m.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
That's what you're there for. You're available for them to call you.
7:45 p.m.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
Mayor Dilkens, the concern, really, outside of.... I don't want to call it “vigilante”, because I think the real issue for people was that they were being denied work. They knew that the plants would shut down if this didn't open up. Is that part of the argument?
I guess their second point would be about those who were affected in terms of high school and medical appointments, etc. They couldn't get the kids to school and couldn't get to where they needed to go for health and other reasons.
7:45 p.m.
Mayor, City of Windsor
I can't overstate the impact. I mean, it was large. It affected a lot of people. It wasn't just a couple of hundred people who were impacted here. Tens of thousands of people were impacted in their daily lives. They were impacted in grocery shopping. They were impacted in taking transit to get to work and in every other facet of things that people in cities do each and every day. It went on for a week.
The problem was that I couldn't give them a line of sight on when it would be over. Police were developing their operational plans, so it wouldn't have been appropriate even if I'd known. Just in trying to respond to them to say that we were on this and to have comfort that the leaders were dealing with this, it was difficult to communicate with them in a way that provided clarity to them. It looked like this could go on as long as the situation had gone on in Ottawa.
7:50 p.m.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Thank you, Mr. Dilkens and Senator Boniface.
Senator Harder, you have three minutes.
7:50 p.m.
Senator, Ontario, PSG
Thank you.
I'd like to follow up on the line of questioning from Mr. Masse.
Mayor Willett, are there municipal expenses that have yet to be compensated, in your view, that Coutts incurred?
7:50 p.m.
Mayor, Village of Coutts
Actually, no. That's one of the advantages of being this small. All of the policing is handled by the province, and we didn't incur any expenses.
7:50 p.m.
Senator, Ontario, PSG
Thank you.
Mayor Dilkens, would you be willing to table with this committee the itemization of the $5.7 million? I think this is an item that the committee, when we come to writing our report, might wish to comment on.
I am a resident of Ottawa, and I know that the city costs exceeded even Windsor's. The resolution of those costs is an important piece of public confidence that emergency management is broadly shared across this country.
Would you be prepared to do that?
7:50 p.m.
Bloc
7:50 p.m.
Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C
Thank you.
I'd like to come back to Windsor's $5.7‑million bill. That bothers me because it was sent on March 16, 2022, and the government still hasn't reimbursed you for those costs, costs you incurred because you responded proactively. I worry this could discourage people from being proactive in future situations, to avoid having to foot a bill that they are never going to be reimbursed for, as happened to Windsor.
What response did you receive from the federal government? What would you recommend so that this doesn't happen again? Do you think a dedicated fund should be created? How can the system be improved so that cities don't wind up on the hook when they deal with a situation proactively, like you did?