Essential Services

 

One of the strangest things about the lock-downs initiated back in the winter of 2020 was the choice of what industries were considered “essential”. The most striking, to me, was that “government” in all of its forms and permutation (Municipal, Provincial, and Federal), without exception, were considered “essential”. Unless you are an avowed Marxist this makes no sense at all!

While aspects of government, such as the assurance that all transportation routes and methods would be unimpeded, can be considered “essential” to modern society there are vast swaths that do not. An example of what I am getting to, in the community I live in all civic buildings were closed to the public including recreation facilities. Like so many irrational aspects of the Covid-19 reaction the excuse given was for the “safety” of civic employees. Funny how those who worked at grocery stores were not at risk yet civic employees, just as one example, were.

On top of it with all recreation facilities closed were those employees given a layoff, thus saving the municipality money to offset the undo pressure of the now limited tax base? Not at all. Ironically if they had been laid off those people would have benefited from the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). While still tax dollar funded at least it would have provided relief for the local municipal taxpayers who were forced to either reduce or curtail their businesses.

At the Provincial and Federal levels there are departments that no one would have missed at all if they had been shut down completely if every employee had been given a layoff. Yet all were deemed “essential”.

I hold no animosity against these people but at times like this we had to be fair, especially back in March when there was so much uncertainty as to the deadliness and transmissibility of the new virus. But too many actions were, and still are, being taken that make absolutely no sense! Rather than support each decision with sound reasoning instead we got a hodgepodge of incomprehensible dictates from our elected representatives who conveniently were unable to debate their practicality.

In nature we have two types of relationships between a host and another organism: symbionts and parasites. The former creates partnerships with their hosts such that each benefit from the other. The latter on the other hand while depending on the host for survival act to harm their host. And such are the two forms of civil servants, people who live off society. Some provide measurable benefit like police and others who provide direct heath and security protection. Meanwhile others do not and by their actions attempt to destroy the industry or demographic they are supposed to be “helping”. It is this latter group that should have been sidelined. Instead they have been declared “essential” and given free reign during the epidemic allowing them to tear apart the social structure that has done us well for an exceptionally long time.