COVID-19 isolation and recovery centre for migrant workers closing due to lack of demand

After nearly three years, Windsor-Essex's COVID-19 isolation and recovery centre for migrant workers will close at the end of March due to dwindling demand.

In an email, the County of Essex's acting chief administrative officer Mary Birch said that the 50-bed centre is closing because "no agri-food workers have been isolating and recovering at the centre in recent months." As well, the funding agreement with the federal government is set to expire by the end of this month.

The county's community services manager Jeanie Diamond-Francis couldn't say for how long the centre has been empty, but she noted that it hasn't been used for "several months."

"The need for the site has decreased. We worked with community partners and we feel that at this time, the centre is no longer needed," Diamond-Francis said in an interview with CBC News.

"The burden of illness [isn't] as prevalent in our community, therefore the need for the isolation and recovery centre was not as significant as it was in the past."

The City of Windsor had initially started the centre in the summer of 2020 to help manage a significant number of COVID-19 outbreaks among agriculture workers on Windsor-Essex farms. Throughout 2020 and 2021, hundreds of migrant worker COVID-19 cases were being reported by the local health unit.

Many agriculture workers contracted the illness and farms were under significant scrutiny for the way that the outbreaks were being handled. At least one farm in the region was ordered to stop operating following a significant outbreak of 191 COVID-19 cases.

Due to congregate living and close working conditions, the disease quickly spread among workers, prompting local leaders to create a space where workers could isolate, receive medical attention and recover.

In early 2021, after governments squabbled over who would foot the bill, the federal government said that it would provide $17.8 million to keep the site open.

The County of Essex took over operations of the centre in July 2022 and it was given $4.2 million in funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada to run the site until March 2023.

It's unclear how much the centre has cost in total to operate. CBC News has reached out to the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Ministry of Health for this amount, but didn't hear back in time for publication.

'Nothing has changed:' Advocate

Reflecting on the past three years, Chris Ramsaroop, organizer of the advocacy group Justice for Migrant Workers, told CBC News that he doesn't think the agriculture sector is any more equipped to handle future health crises.

"We need to start preparing for the next outbreak and to ensure that preparations are put in place for other infectious disease and infectious hazards that workers will have going into the future," he said.

"It seems that we have not learned any of the lessons from this pandemic."

Ramsaroop said "nothing has changed" when it comes to housing, noting that workers are still living in crowded conditions. He also said there is still an "asymmetrical power imbalance" between workers and employers.

He said he wants to see workers get permanent status on arrival to Canada, changes to labour laws to better protect workers and policies in place to ensure that workers don't face reprisal for using their rights in the workplace.

In the federal government's 2021 budget, it had committed $49.5 million over three years for a new Migrant Worker Support Program that would help workers recognize and exercise their rights, promote social and cultural activities and support workers in emergency situations.

According to the County of Essex, the isolation and recovery centre helped isolate more than 1,200 workers throughout its operations. At one point, the City of Windsor had been operating multiple sites to keep up with the number of workers who needed to isolate due to being a close contact or testing positive.

Each year, about 10,000 agriculture workers come to Windsor-Essex to work on farms.

Birch said that should a need arise for this type of centre again, the County of Essex is "prepared to work with other partners to re-establish the service."

The Canadian Red Cross provided daily oversight of the centre and medical help was offered by Erie Shores Health Care, Essex-Windsor Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and Windsor Regional Hospital.