The COVID-19 pandemic

[ijmorlan]

I remember when the Oil Sands were big, they had to get foreign workers at the fast food restaurants in Fort McMurray as there were no Canadians willing to relocate there for minimum wage.

Based only on your description, it sounds like they didn’t try very hard. Specifically, to operate in the market by raising their wages. Just because people won’t do the work at the employer’s usual or target wage doesn’t mean there is a labour shortage.

And if the higher wages make the restaurants uneconomical, then they need to charge more at those restaurants.

And if that means they don’t get enough customers and can’t run the restaurants, then that means the customers don’t value the food enough for it to make sense to run them.

There is absolutely no justification for the idea that goods and services should all be the same price everywhere in the country.

[danbrotherston]

Perhaps the government needs to look at incentives for farmers and farm workers to make hiring local for enticing.

In order to get these workers, the Canadian employers have to jump through a lot of hoops to get an LMO (Labour Market Opinion) from the Government in order to qualify for work permits.  The process is not cheap for the employer either.  If there are Canadian workers to take the jobs, they wouldn't get the LMO.  Problem is, we (Canadians) don't want these jobs.

I remember when the Oil Sands were big, they had to get foreign workers at the fast food restaurants in Fort McMurray as there were no Canadians willing to relocate there for minimum wage.

Coke

That’s the point though, pay is the only factor in finding people.  I could demonstrate an inability to hire software devs in KW just by offering low pay. 

That doesn’t mean there aren’t workers, it just means I am not paying enough.

[tomh009]

Seasonal farm work is a bit of a different animal than either McDonalds or software development, though. Hard, physical work, with no chance to check social media every few minutes. Needs significant skill to make a decent wage. Dorm housing at the work site. And the work lasts only weeks or few months at a time. Those attributes don't make it attractive to many people in today's society, even if the wages were higher.

Of course, if they were to start paying workers $25 or $30 per hour, you'd get more candidates. And maybe even some that can handle the work. But then we'd be looking at a big cost increase in Canadian-grown farm products, and people might choose the imported alternatives instead.

[danbrotherston]

Seasonal farm work is a bit of a different animal than either McDonalds or software development, though. Hard, physical work, with no chance to check social media every few minutes. Needs significant skill to make a decent wage. Dorm housing at the work site. And the work lasts only weeks or few months at a time. Those attributes don't make it attractive to many people in today's society, even if the wages were higher.

Of course, if they were to start paying workers $25 or $30 per hour, you'd get more candidates. And maybe even some that can handle the work. But then we'd be looking at a big cost increase in Canadian-grown farm products, and people might choose the imported alternatives instead.

Not going to disagree. There are also efficiency to workers moving around, given that our growing seasons are short, basically you still get the efficiency gains from specialization of labor, even though the labor doesn't last all year.

I was making a more general statement about work visas/migrant worker policies. Not that I think we should limit workers, but the standard of "I can't hire anyone to do the job" means little when the "without raising wages" remains implicit.

That being said, I think service work *should* be treated as a higher skilled job. Frankly, the fact that it isn't doesn't do anyone any favours.  But that's an entirely different conversation.

[tomh009]

No Waterloo Region reports on weekends.

Ontario reported 129 new cases today, for a seven-day average of 133 new cases. 112 recoveries and three deaths translated to a small increase of 14 active cases, and a current total of 1,470. The weekly total change is -369. 25,726 tests for a 0.5% positivity rate. The positivity rate is averaging 0.6% for the past seven days.

The new cases are 0.4% of the total and 8.8% of the number of active cases. New cases averaging 8.1% of actives over the past seven days.

Hospital population back down to 116 (-12) and the ICU population dropped to a new low of 29 (-2).

[tomh009]

I was making a more general statement about work visas/migrant worker policies. Not that I think we should limit workers, but the standard of "I can't hire anyone to do the job" means little when the "without raising wages" remains implicit.

Yes, at times that's an issue.

But I'll note that we have also been hiring software developers almost continuously for the past five years. We really don't get a lot of applicants, and that's way before there is any discussion about salaries. But we have found some great team members among new Canadians (permanent resident, but recently arrived).

While Google or Shopify etc may be perceived as more exciting and attract more applicants, overall I don't think the software developer job market here is saturated. We do still need more people, whoever they may be.

We're a bit off the pandemic topic now though.

[jeffster]

Another charge for a 10+ Party: https://www.waterloochronicle.ca/news-st...oo-region/

[tomh009]

Waterloo Region reported only ten new cases over the past three days, or 3.33 per day; the average new case increase was 0.25% of the total cases to date and 6.6% of the current active caseload. New cases averaging 5.4% of actives over the past seven days. Active cases in the region were down by six (over those three days) to 48, and down 26 in the past seven days, from 74 to 48. The active case count is now down by 85% from mid-May.

Next testing data update will be on tomorrow (Tuesday).

Ontario reported 116 new cases today, for a seven-day average of 127 new cases. 129 recoveries and three deaths translated to a decrease of 16 active cases, for another new low of 1,454, after a weekly total change of -379. 20,896 tests for a 0.6% positivity rate. The positivity rate is averaging 0.55% for the past seven days.

The new cases are 0.3% of the total and 8.0% of the number of active cases. New cases averaging 8.1% of actives over the past seven days.

Hospital population dropped to 104 (-12) and the ICU population to 28 (-1).

[jgsz]

That’s good new.  But I still worry that Covid 19 essentially skipped the epidemic stage and became a pandemic very fast.  What is next?  Are we readying to accept Covid 19 as “endemic” to our species?

[Bytor]

;-)

Babe, you're sitting so far away
No mask is somethin' I just have to say
I don't think I can breathe while you're makin' me sheathe
Another day, spreadin' the virus
And I, I'm getting too close instead
I don't want to curb the spread
If I demask tonight will you turn out the light
And walk away, thinkin' infectious?
I'm gonna tell you like it is because Fauci's no whiz
It's a flu
I'm gonna comment right away, just for reopening day
It's a flu
I'm gonna yell and grand stand, as I don't understand
It's a flu
I'll sneeze too
There's fewer cases every day
So I don't want to mask, no way
I just want to to be free, I don't care about thee
Won't live in fear
I don't wanna mask up
So, it may be too soon, I know
The symptoms take so long to grow
If I unmask today you can just stay away
Or I'll cough more?
I don't wanna mask up
I'm gonna tell you like it is because Fauci's no whiz
It's a flu
I'm gonna comment right away, just for reopening day
It's a flu
I'm gonna yell and grand stand, as I don't understand
It's a flu
I'll sneeze too
You and I
I know that we can't shake
And I swear, I swear it's not a lie, girl
The masks they don't help not one bit
Me, me and me, girl
I can't share to keep the curve down
'Cause I'm to selfish
And the masks they don't help not one bit
And feelin' the way I do
I don't wanna say "I've caught it too"
No mask and it seems it's true…

(If you heard this in Brad Delp's voice, I did it right.)

[jwilliamson]

At the grocery store today I'd estimate 95% of people were wearing masks. It was certainly far more than last week.

[bgb_ca]

Saw this shared on FB today.

https://www.facebook.com/derick.lehmann/...1330560384

[panamaniac]

At the grocery store today I'd estimate 95% of people were wearing masks. It was certainly far more than last week.

They’re allowing people to enter without masks?

[taylortbb]

At the grocery store today I'd estimate 95% of people were wearing masks. It was certainly far more than last week.

They’re allowing people to enter without masks?

Businesses are allowed, but not obligated, to enforce the bylaw. Most don't want to deal with the confrontation so I'm not surprised there's no enforcement.

I suspect that more than anything what this does is normalize mask wearing. 80% of people are just going to go with the flow of whatever is normal. They don't want to be the one "weirdo" wearing a mask, or not wearing a mask. Some of the 5% are probably just people that forgot to bring their mask, or haven't got one yet, or are waiting to see if they become mainstream so they're not the odd one out. I suspect in a couple weeks that'll be 98%, asides from a few dedicated anti-masker conspiracy theorists.

[tomh009]

A consistent 95% would be a very good outcome.

Can I assume that all the staff were wearing masks?