Construction projects to resume
François Legault has ordained that residential construction can resume next Monday, although workers must try to maintain physical distancing. Other jobs shortly to be essential include people running gardening centres and garages.
Douglas 19:49 on 2020-04-13 Permalink
Looks like the unions twisted his arm and he caved.
Kate 21:05 on 2020-04-13 Permalink
Yeah, those gardening centre unions are fearsome.
Actually, Legault pointed out that if people were planning to move into new places, but they wouldn’t be ready in time, it could cause a domino effect with people not being able to move house. Which is logical.
Douglas 21:47 on 2020-04-13 Permalink
I’m glad Legault is listening about opening the economy up. He’s listening to businesses finally. Allow businesses to open while observing physical distancing.
This is what should have happened in the first place. Allow everyone to operate but at physical distance enforcement.
Kate 22:46 on 2020-04-13 Permalink
Douglas, have you ever tried building a house with a team of people who can never get closer than 2 meters to each other?
Right.
It only takes one slip.
david100 03:30 on 2020-04-14 Permalink
Housing construction is an essential service, as much as food or whatever.
Legault should take this opportunity to also ban zoning in certain areas, in the interest of public health.
Raymond Lutz 06:12 on 2020-04-14 Permalink
“Housing construction is an essential service, as much as food or whatever” Bin oui, comme si y fallait que t’achètes une maison à chaque semaine… geez, this is econ 101: housing is not a consumable good, comparing it to food is incorrect.
So the economical elite (business owners and CEOs) will be safe in their nice office (or even better: ‘working’ from the safety of their home) and the plebeians exposed to the pandemic will just have to work until they get sick, and get replaced: we are the consumables. This illness is more serious than it seems. FFS! 16 days after apparition of the first symptoms, I’m still waking up in the morning with burning pains in my chest.
Oh, and don’t place too much hope on herd immunity: “Although scientists are still studying immunity among people who have recovered from COVID-19, current evidence suggests that previously being infected may not be a guarantee that you won’t get sick again. One possible explanation for this could be that the virus does not elicit a strong enough response to “imprint” a memory on the cells of the body’s immune system: white blood cells called B cells and T cells.” Source.
Tee Owe 06:33 on 2020-04-14 Permalink
Thanks for the link, Raymond -worth reading
Tee Owe 06:52 on 2020-04-14 Permalink
I clicked too soon – Raymond, it’s good to know you are recovering, I hope it continues well. I’m curious, were you tested, will you be tested again, I mean for antibodies?
walkerp 07:17 on 2020-04-14 Permalink
How does this make any sense?
So does the construction worker come home and isolate him or herself from their family members?
Raymond Lutz 07:52 on 2020-04-14 Permalink
Tee Owe, thx. The ER doc (yes, I went to the hospital: I was worried by some arrhythmia episodes) deemed a covid test wasn’t necessary as I was already in confinement and it was a mild form. The first week (from the first symptoms onset) is OK, the real stuff kicked in on about day 10: burning sensation in upper lungs; dizziness; strong headache; exhaustion (the last three hopefully didn’t last more than a day). My evolution was in concordance with the data in “Full list of symptoms from the Wang study: (Worldometers)” (see ‘Onset of symptoms to’, NB: IQR is interquartile range ie mid 50% of distribution).
Kate 08:43 on 2020-04-14 Permalink
Raymond, I hope you have a “prompt retablissement” – and thanks for continuing to participate here throughout it!
I’ve also wondered about the assumption people have been making that once you get COVID you can’t get it again. We don’t know that. There are a few diseases that, by and large, you only get once, like measles or chicken pox, but colds and flu come around in various forms time and again.
Ian 09:05 on 2020-04-14 Permalink
@Raymond glad to hear you are recovering!
I had pneumonia last year which knocked me flat on my back for a week, I’ve been told by people that have had both that this is much worse.
There seems to be conflicting reports about relapse vs. re-infection but one thing we can certainly agree on regardless is that it won’t be the fat cats that own construction companies getting sick Zooming in from their Baie d’Urfé mansions, it will be the guys paid hourly to work on-site.
Kevin 09:21 on 2020-04-14 Permalink
Once the frame, subfloor, and sheathing are in place it’s pretty common to work solo — or nearly so — in a home under construction.
Each contractor comes in for their job, works part of the day on one house, then part on another house.
Before the pause began, one of my brothers was doing electrical work on four different houses — and could easily have continued to do so without ever seeing anyone except at the hardware big box store.
John B 09:25 on 2020-04-14 Permalink
I feel like at some point construction becomes essential if we don’t want our homes & cities to fall apart. I’m not sure we’re 100% there yet, but maybe hopefully a way can be found to let people build homes without spreading the virus.
Uatu 10:40 on 2020-04-14 Permalink
Just glad the garages will open. Gotta get my tires changed and I have to go to my mechanic because I store my tires at his shop!