several levels of approval are needed for any cross-border plan that must include the province, state and u.s. federal governments, so the mayor should not be targeting the canadian government, she said. that is what occurred recently leading to sharing of u.s. vaccines between north dakota and manitoba.
“if the u.s. and (michigan) state government don’t support this, then how is the canadian government the problem?,” o’connell said.
dilkens countered: “i need our government to support this first.”
the mayor’s appearance in front of the committee was included among the national president of the optometrist association and union leader for hotel workers in b.c., each with their own concerns of covid-19 impacts.
yet, dilkens was hopeful his appearance will make a difference by creating more awareness on the issue given that all federal government parties sit on the committee.
he plans to next send a letter to canada border services agency and u.s. customs and border patrol to hopefully alleviate their concerns on the option of vaccinating residents inside the tunnel or another alternative method of getting the michigan vaccines into windsor.
“i’m hopeful to find a pathway to allow this to occur,” he said. “the least efficient is bringing people to middle of the tunnel, so i’m hopeful the government will work with us to find a pathway.”