In Ottawa and throughout Ontario, Everything was closed here from December 26th to February 16th, 7 weeks. Malls, closed. Indoor dining, closed. Gyms and theatres, closed. Hair salons/barbers, closed. Bars/restaurants can do take out and many are doing quite well at it, the issue is the workers loss of income. Unemployment coverage doesn't even come close to covering their loss of tips.
I was ok with periodic shut downs at first and I Always follow the rules and my wife are I get along great so no issues. But that doesn't mean others get along great. We have to stop thinking about "ourselves" and worry about others too. At what point does it become too much? It's too much already for many sadly
My wife hasn't worked in almost a year, March 17th, 2020 her company closed and hasn't opened since so she and all of her co-workers have been out of work and though the government in Canada has been handing out money to those people, $2,000/month which helps, it's not enough LONG term. We're almost at a year and my wife's coworkers are expected to live on $24,000 for the past year when they used to make $50,000 - $60,000 or more? It's not possible! People are moving in with friends and parents (one friend rented her condo out and moved in with her Mom), others are drawing from their retirement money and savings or running up their credit cards. These options are better than being dead of course or spreading the virus to others and having them dead but I just think a year in, can't there be a better way than ruining people's lives?
And FYI, my wife's work doesn't expect to be allowed to open until everyone has a vaccine, that, IF we're lucky will be September, that will be 18 months closed without a pay for her and 100 or so co-workers and that's just 1 company sample. (thankfully I made lots of money so it's not an issue financially for us)