‘Our own government was the hold up on this’: Mayor Dilkens’ tunnel vaccination plan shut down by federal agency

Windsor, Ont. -

A month-long effort to secure surplus Michigan doses of the Pfizer vaccine and deliver them to Canadians inside the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel is over.

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens received a letter from the Canada Border Services Agency’s regional director general of the Southern Ontario region, Christine Durocher, indicating that his plan to close the tunnel to deliver American vaccinations to Canadians will not be supported by the CBSA.

“The Windsor-Detroit border is a key gateway for people, trade and commerce, and any closure at this location has the potential to create a significant disruption to cross-border trade and travel, and could have significant security implications,” the letter states. “For these reasons, the CBSA cannot authorize the closure of the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel port of entry for the purposes sought.”

Mayor Dilkens says the Canadian government initially pointed at the U.S. and state governments as the reason the plan couldn’t move forward, when he says it’s actually the Canadian government that has “done nothing but put up barriers.”

“We obviously pushed this every way possible, we knew from the very beginning that our own government was the barrier,” Dilkens says. “The letter that we received just this week indicates they are not willing to support the initiative moving forward.”

Dilkens says 12,000 people signed onto a wait list to get the vaccines and he had 5,000 doses lined up from pharmacists just a mile across the border.

“Our own government was the hold up on this. It wasn’t the US government, it wasn’t Michigan, it wasn’t anyone but our own government not trying to find a pathway to make it work,” Dilkens says.

The mayor’ hatched the plan to take advantage of “surplus” doses in Detroit, which he says were being wasted. His plan would have put them into Canadians’ arms, instead of piling up at a landfill.

“Since we last had this conversation, when there were 35,000 doses that hit the landfill, now there’s over 60,000 in the state of Michigan,” the mayor says.

Dilkens says the region is in a pretty good spot today when it comes to vaccinating our population, with more than 75 per cent of people over 18 with a single dose and 30 per cent of those people with two shots of the COVID-19 vaccine.

But he warns that a pinch on Pfizer supply will be coming the week of July 5, and this plan could have helped address that looming shortage.

In its letter, CBSA director general Durocher says “any importation of drugs, even for immediate administration or consumption, is regulated by Health Canada.”

“I recommend that you contact Health Canada to determine the requirements for importation of COVID-19 vaccines,” Durocher writes.

Dilkens also says his back-up plan of delivering vaccines on boats in the middle of the Detroit River won’t likely get the support of the federal government.

“Clearly there is a pathway on the water, but it becomes more difficult trying to make this happen,” Dilkens says. “And if our government is unwilling to support our vaccination efforts on land, I’m quite sure they won’t support it on water.”

Mayor Dilkens says his office, with the help of council and approvals from the Tunnel Board has invested a great deal of time to make the tunnel vaccination plan a reality, which, he says, is why the letter he received is so disappointing for him and the thousands of people waitlisted to get the tunnel jab.

“(Windsor residents) also know who said no,” Dilkens says. “So at the end of the day, they’ll know who to hold accountable for making these decisions.”

“I know what side of history I want to be on.”