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.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
I said that you liberated the Ambassador Bridge before the federal government declared a state of emergency.
Am I mistaken?
Mayor, City of Windsor
No, that is correct. The folks were moved out before the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act.
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Thank you.
I'd now like you to take a minute to tell me about the interactions between municipal officials and the federal government. Did you have frequent contact with federal officials? If so, who exactly did you have contact with?
Mayor, City of Windsor
The vast majority of my contact was with Minister Mendicino. It was in the form of text messages and phone calls. A lot of it was just status updates. He was asking what was happening on the ground. I would tell him what was happening on the ground. I would try to give him a line of sight on what I was seeing and hearing and what it was like down here, so he could take the appropriate action he thought necessary from his end.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Did you ask Mr. Mendicino to see to declaring the state of emergency?
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Unless I'm mistaken, I believe you've already provided a transcript of your exchanges with Mr. Mendicino as part of the Rouleau commission. Would you be able to send us a copy?
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Thank you, Mr. Dilkens. If I may, I'll turn to Mr. Willett and ask him a few of the same questions.
Mr. Willett, I'd like to get an idea of how things went in your area. What was done? When was your city liberated—that's one way of putting it—or, rather, when did the protests stop?
Mayor, Village of Coutts
The village was cleared early on the morning of February 15. Actually, the protesters began to move out on the evening of the 14th.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
If I understand correctly, that was before the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act. Is that correct?
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Which federal authorities did the municipal authorities—you, to be specific—speak with and how often?
Mayor, Village of Coutts
I never had any communication directly with federal authorities. It was all through the RCMP.
Mayor, Village of Coutts
I had a direct person to speak with, Corporal Curtis Peters, who gave me briefings every day. Also, various people at the command centre here contacted me at different times. I don't have all the names.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Thank you, Mr. Willett.
I'm out of time. I will now take over as chair, so that Mr. Green can have his five minutes.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Yes, that's right. My apologies.
The next questioner is Brian Masse for five minutes.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the committee and witnesses.
To Mayor Dilkens, I represented that area, the area from the Ambassador Bridge to the 401, from 1997 to 2002 as a city councillor, and then from 2002 to now as a member of Parliament. It is 14 kilometres of mixed roadway. That corridor receives upwards of 40,000 vehicles per day.
Can you tell the committee how fragile and delicate that corridor is, and how complex it is, even without a blockade?
Mayor, City of Windsor
It's a great question.
It's fair to say that Huron Church Road links the Ambassador Bridge at one end to the Herb Gray Parkway—or effectively the 401—on the other, and it's three kilometres from point to point.
It's a municipal road with approximately seven traffic lights, and it was constructed almost 100 years ago. It used to be farmland, and it's evolved over time. You have hotels and motels; you still have some homes whose driveways outlet onto Huron Church Road; you have over 200 businesses and banks and shopping centres that require access. Also, you have Assumption High School, which was directly in the protest area and was not accessible for the week of the protest.
Huron Church is also the primary access road for the vast majority of students accessing the University of Windsor. It is a crucial link for many in the city, and it has built up over time to be quite a trade corridor, doing more than just serving the trucks that access the Ambassador Bridge.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
On that corridor—in fact, where the protest was, or demonstration, or whatever people want to call it—there have actually been students and parents killed, and it's actually a community safety zone along that corridor.
Can you also outline how fragile the community is next to it? We've talked about the economic impact on the country, but also adjacent is part of the city of Windsor that has some of the highest poverty in the region, and it was cut off from employment and services, including children not being able to get to doctors' appointments.
