And1+2 wrote:I have some major issues with how this is being handled in my industry. All provinces have taken the stance that the Construction Industry is an essential service, and we are to remain open for business until further notice.
Nova Scotia just innacted a state of emergency, and for some reason the construction industry has major exemptions to social distancing, gatherings of groups, and interprovincial travel.
Source: Government of NS
"Nova Scotia borders will tighten to travellers and all entry points (land, sea, air) will be closely managed. Anyone entering the province will be stopped, questioned, and told to self-isolate for 14 days. Exemptions for cross-border travel include healthy workers in trades and transportations sectors who move goods and people (e.g. truck drivers); healthy people going to work (e.g. health-care workers); and people travelling into the province for essential health services (e.g. chemotherapy treatment)."
AND
"There are several groups who are essential and exempt from gathering limits. They include but are not limited to grocery stores, gas stations, and pharmacies. If possible, one person per family should be designated to do these tasks. Other groups include construction sites, health-care services, community services (e.g. child protection) and criminal justice services, and law enforcement."
It's messed up. The construction industry is not essential right now, at least in terms of new construction. Yes, there is always maintenance that needs to take place to keep other essential services going, and I get that. There is a serious conflict of interest going on, and a lot of lobbying by developers and construction companies to remain operational, and in my opinion to the complete detriment of their working class employees. Further, I believe the provinces themselves have a conflict of interest that is two fold:
- They want infrastructure and Public Works projects to remain on schedule.
- They want to keep as many people as possible off employment insurance.
There is no feasible way I can keep a construction site operational in a productive manner without those exemptions in place, but there is also no moral or socially conscious way I can keep construction site open by following those exemptions.
We have put in place protocols and procedures to adhere to on site, and have rented hand washing stations and have placed signage throughout, but the fact of the matter remains that a construction site is difficult to police even at the best of times. It doesn't make sense that we are isolating a large portion of the population, but not another that very easily could be.
And of course our ownership is telling me to keep the site open, against my better judgement, and to follow provincial and federal regulations. In other words we will go on until the canary stops singing...
I'm very frustrated right now.
Unfortunately, this is a widespread reality if the work you do isn't office work and you can't work from home.
Government is preaching social distancing but is allowing corporations and businesses that are actually non-essential to remain open. You've got our mayor preaching social distancing yet city of Toronto employees that are non essential are still showing up to their offices. Sadly it looks like this needs to get worse before it gets better. I just wish everything would close and we were on lockdown. Lock it all down for 2-4 weeks and in theory, we'd defeat this thing for the most part. But government is just pussyfooting around. Only saving grace is that we dont have it as bad as Europe/US and the measures in the UKand US, are still behind ours.
