Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens admitted he is "disappointed" Windsor-Essex will remain at stage one of reopening its economy after Monday's announcement by the province.
Premier Doug Ford announced several more jurisdictions will advance to stage two, but not Windsor-Essex, Toronto, or the Peel Region.
"I understand that we cannot pick and choose cities and towns within our region that could move forward to stage two while others are held back," said Dilkens. "To move forward, we will need to do so together."
Dilkens said he spoke with the Premier and Ernie Hardeman, the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs on Sunday and expressed his concern about the high rate of COVID-19 among the migrant worker population.
Two migrant workers in Leamington recently died of the virus.
"We can and must do more to test the full and complete population of migrant workers," continued a statement from Dilkens. "During my conversations this weekend, I expressed my desire for stronger invention from the province of Ontario to help test and isolate temporary foreign workers in our region."
Meanwhile, numerous news organizations, including CNN, said Mexico had put a pause on sending more migrant workers to Canada to work in the agriculture sector. It is reviewing safety protocols on Canadian farms. About 60,000 come to Canada every year and about 8,000 of them to Leamington.
"As we know, this virus doesn't discriminate, and our regional response will be measured by how we protect the most vulnerable in our community," continued Dilkens. "The City of Windsor will continue to work with regional and provincial partners to help bend the curve, and try to seek to eliminate COVID-19 in our community."
The decision to keep Windsor-Essex at stage one will be reviewed weekly.
