APMA takes 'umbrage' with Windsor City Hall characterization of blockade dismantling

The president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association (APMA) is disappointed with how the city handled a recent news conference to announce federal funding reimbursement for enforcement of the Ambassador Bridge blockade.

“The feds came to town and you know, made Windsor whole so I guess that leaves us (APMA) as the only ones who put our money where our mouth is,” Flavio Volpe told CTV News in a virtual interview Wednesday.

“I take some umbrage at the fact that the characterization out of a city hall these days is that it was a City of Windsor initiative,” he said.

On Dec. 29, Federal Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino was in Windsor to announce Canada would be giving Windsor $6.9 million.

The money covers everything from legal expenses to enforcement of the blockade six days after it started.

According to a document provided by the city to CTV News, they spent over $245,000 in legal costs just for an injunction in the Superior Court.

APMA’S legal costs were much lower according to Volpe.

“They were in the 10s of 1,000s of dollars, but also because they were kept that low because I have a great lawyer here that works for us,” he said.

Volpe concedes the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association (CVMA) and the City of Windsor worked together to argue for and to be awarded the injunction that set the stage for police to have the authority to remove the protestors the next day.

“It was my chin and our name on that line on that injunction. And we were going to do it with or without them. And until we did it, it was without them,” said Volpe.

Volpe tells CTV News they have not asked for money from the federal government to pay their costs, noting he would spend the money again “at the drop of a hat” if a similar crisis unfolds in the future.

“We were facing the biggest crisis, (the) biggest acute trade and delivery crisis industry has ever seen,” said Volpe. “And as in the trade association whose members were being impacted by $100 million in lost production per day and 100,000 people were sitting at home without getting paid, we took action.”

When asked to respond to Volpe’s comments, the City of Windsor provided a written statement.

“Partnering with affected parties like the CVMA, APMA and Chamber of Commerce when legal counsel began the injunction process was of vital importance because they were the economic party most impacted by the illegal blockade,” chief of staff Andrew Teliszewsky writes. “However, it was the residents of Windsor, particularly those in the west-end, who bore the brunt of the occupation.”

Teliszewsky notes all Windsor taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for the “financial burden” of the blockade which includes million in policing the blockade, enforcing the injunction and placing barricades along Huron Church in the weeks after it was cleared.

“The city’s focus of advocacy with the federal government was for the cost of the blockade to taxpayers,” Teliszewky writes.