Montreal in gray area, conceptually
Tuesday’s hints that Montreal may see a delay in the supposed May 25 reopening comes through a fog here. Are the public health people in a backstage squabble with the board of trade people, trying to resist the pressure to go back to “business as usual” despite the risk?
Is it that there’s a psychological barrier about pushing the date into a new month? If we’re confined into June, does it feel different? I think the premier thinks it does.
TVA has a rather dramatic photo on its version of this story.
mare 10:58 on 2020-05-13 Permalink
I had to pick something up for work, and saw my first traffic jam in months, on the 40E near St-Denis. There weren’t as many cars as usual but it felt like the lockdown had already been lifted. Part of the traffic was construction industry related (and its many layers: small contractors, fancy bathroom showrooms to raw materials), but there was probably also a lot of traffic going from one region of Quebec to another region. People are—understandingly, it was a long winter—relieved their region is opening up and start moving around again. I hope they don’t stop in Montreal to get coffee and export the virus to those regions again. Re-introduction is going to be a big problem now different regions have a very different infection rate. To and from Quebec, but also from other provinces and countries when border restrictions are eased.