March 2020
As the Wuhan coronavirus continues to ravage Canada and the world, my thoughts are now turning to what we will do when the inevitable next pandemic comes to our shores.
This pandemic has not only been ravaging the physical and mental health of Canadians, but also ravaging our economy and public institutions like hospitals and our education systems.
My questions to our political leaders, our medical and scientific officials out there: what lessons have we learned and what will be done to reduce the damage the next pandemic does to us?
This pandemic has exacerbated the limits of our healthcare system and shown how easily our economic well-being can be disrupted and decimated. Not to get all conspiracy-theory here, but this pandemic has shown that bullets and bombs aren’t required to bring a country to its knees. Perhaps the bullets and bombs will be needed to maintain control later, but certainly not initially.
There is only so much that the government financial-aid packages can do to slow the economic destruction that we will see in the end. According to the Globe & Mail, an estimated 929,000 Employment Insurance claims have been filed from March 16 to 22, with higher numbers expected to come as this crisis continues. According to University of Calgary economics professor Trevor Tombe, “…in the worst month of the Great Depression, the biggest job declines were about half of what the country has suffered in the past week.”
Not to get all partisan, but we might be in a better position if the federal Liberal government hadn’t spent the past 5 years going on a spending spree; if they hadn’t crippled out energy sector and imposed an unnecessary carbon taxes, along with provincial governments like the McGinty/Wynne government driving industry, and their good paying jobs, out of Ontario with skyrocketing hydro rates, the country might be better able to whether this crisis.
The federal and provincial debts are already alarmingly high, with the interest paid on these debts draining more of our much needed tax dollars, we will be feeling the economic effects of this pandemic for years to come.
Many people are fearful that they won’t be able to pay their bills and many businesses, especially the ones ordered to close their doors, are fearful that they will be able to survive. Even with the government aid packages, there will be many small businesses that won’t be able to re-open their doors.
Is this something that we want to see repeated?
Sources: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-unemployment-claims-reach-nearly-one-million-as-businesses-battered-by/
