Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens is confident Ottawa will soon create a pathway for family members to visit relatives on the other side of the border for compassionate reasons.
Dilkens brought up the case of Diane Costello in a zoom meeting with other border city mayors and Public Service Minister Bill Blair on Tuesday. Costello, a Windsor woman in hospice care, has been unable to say goodbye to her parents who live in Michigan.
Back in June, the federal government created a system where immediate family members, divorced parents living apart from their young children, can visit. However, in Costello's case, there is no mechanism to allow her parents into Canada.
"I think all of us can understand that must be for the parents that live on the other side of the border," said Dilkens.
Dilkens said the current restrictions create a real hardship for many families who are denied the opportunity to care for ailing family members or attend funerals.
According to Dilkens, the discussion was to decide each exemption on a case-by-case basis, and Blair appeared receptive.
"The only way to do this is to have someone who can exercise good judgement or discretion to each individual circumstance," said Dilkens. "That would still limit the amount of people who would be allowed entry, but certainly allow entry to those who need to be here for family and compassionate reasons."
Some in the meeting expressed support for keeping the border closed to all but essential travel until 2021. Dilkens is less committal.
"I'd rather wait and see what the data looks like, and at the end of 2020," he explained. "It's possible the numbers will look all good, and we can open sometime before that. But, if the numbers remain high on the other side of the border -- I think it's appropriate for the government to continue to take action to lock down the border."
On Tuesday, the State of Michigan reported 441 new cases of COVID-19, while Ontario had 375, according to Public Health Canada. Since March, Canada has had 133,748 cases compared to 6.3 million in the U.S.
When it does open, some mayors, like Sarnia's Mike Bradley, think the border should open in stages.
“I think it’s key to us that it be staggered over a period of time, and not just open the borders like an Oklahoma land rush, and anyone that wants to come over can come over," said Bradley. "We still have a long way to go on COVID."
Dilkens was unsure how the federal government would implement those staged reopenings.
