City of Windsor stepping away from isolation centre for temporary foreign workers

The City of Windsor is stepping back from running an isolation centre for temporary foreign workers, and is looking for other municipalities or agriculture groups to take over staffing the site.

The city said it hopes to transition out of running the Windsor-Essex Isolation and Recovery Centre by July.

"As several tools are now available to help manage the impact of COVID-19, it is time for the City to remove itself from helping to manage a public health emergency and for public health officials to determine future requirements to manage an ongoing public health issue," a report to council states.

The report also states that the city has dedicated "significant resources" to the centre, which has had an impact on the city's ability to address regular business.

Leamington Mayor Hilda MacDonald said Tuesday the city's position was "understandable."

"Coming into COVID, the situation that presented itself was mass illness and infection, and with the city having specialized expertise in housing, it was just natural that they would take it over, because they're the funding manager," she said.

MacDonald said smaller municipalities, like Leamington or Kingsville, don't have that same level of expertise.

"We will look to see what we can do," she said. "But we are also looking for a long-term plan, because we don't believe this will be over shortly."

"We're more than willing to work with the city, and they can teach us the ropes."

The centre opened March 2020, and was originally set up as a shelter for homeless individuals. Later, it was expanded to provide COVID-19 isolation and recovery services to temporary foreign farm workers, about 10,000 of whom come to Windsor-Essex each year.

City of Windsor staff and the Red Cross have been running the site since September 2020.

The centre is federally funded, and according to a document presented to Windsor City Council, whoever takes over the Windsor-Essex centre will need to apply to the federal government for further funding.

MacDonald said she believes the centre should continue running for at least another year.

"Who knows still what's ahead of us, and the when the workers go back home and come back again, we may have these outbreaks again," she said. "We just need to be prepared, and we need to have a plan in place."

"We should have had a plan in place for 2021, that then we could have transitioned to, and it wouldn't have ... ended up the way it was, that the city had to do it," MacDonald said. "But then again, we are writing the playbook, still, on this whole predicament, this whole thing."

In a statement to CBC News, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) said it has been advocating for safe and appropriate isolation support for all residents, including temporary farm workers.

"The WECHU will continue to work with municipal and agricultural partners to identify the needs for housing supports related to the COVID-19 pandemic," the statement reads.