Ottawa 'thwarting' every attempt to start tunnel vaccinations: Windsor Mayor
Mayor Drew Dilkens appeared virtually before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health Monday.
“There are better solutions that are more optimal,” Dilkens told the Committee but says he’s trying to find a way to use vaccines that are being thrown away in the United States.
“These would be Canadians, working in Michigan, in health care, administering vaccines to Canadians on the other side of the line (in the tunnel).”
During the meeting, Dilkens confirmed the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has ruled on this idea of vaccinations in the middle of the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel.
Officials say if a Detroit pharmacist hands a COVID-19 vial over to a Windsor health care official, it would be considering importing and as such would need to be inspected by Health Canada before being administered.
“Every effort to find creative solutions to make this work have been thwarted,” Dilkens said.
“At the crux of this is these doses don’t belong to Canada,” argued Liberal committee member Jennifer O’Connell. “We would need the support of the State of Michigan, the US government and Premier Ford to import these vaccinations.”
Dilkens told O’Connell he has the support of Premier Ford but didn’t get a chance to answer about US politicians until he was cut off.
“If the US and the State of Michigan don’t support this, then how is that the federal government (fault)?”
Dilkens replied, “I need our government to support it first.”
O’Connell says the cross border vaccination clinics happening in Montana and North Dakota are happening because they are for essential cross-border workers and due to an agreement between US authorities and Canadian officials.
That sort of agreement is not in place in the State of Michigan.
“These doses are owned and paid for by American taxpayers,” says O’Connell “So unless they are willing to give them to us, whether we say we want them or not, the owners of these doses, must actually indicate providing them to us.”
Last week, a line was painted into the ground of the Windsor-Detroit tunnel, at the international line, clearing the way to close the tunnel to allow for vaccinations.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.