In your youth were you ever part of a long weekend party that constituted an extended hangover with consequences?

No, this is not about a drinking party-(All though I think I can envision a few sheepish grins.)

This whole COVID Virus has hung on the ‘depressing music’ of a blues dirge. By that I mean it’s never ending and the updates are like repetitive lyrics in a sad song.

Unfortunately the hangover economically may be worse. The job market is a mess. Employees laid off in many cases found different jobs.

In a number of cases people who were skilled workers took a temporary position they found and are now being recalled creating a shortage of workers in some fields.

There are those who were skilled and semi-skilled who can’t find work because some companies folded under the pressure of bankruptcy. On the bright side some enterprising people found a niche to pursue their dream and create their own business opportunity.

I read an article yesterday from the Financial Post which jolted me into a new reality.

Here is the story in a nutshell. Alberta has seen hard times for more than five years. The commodity prices for oil and gas have rebounded. Oil at 70+ dollars a barrel for example ….but alas, the industry is confronted with another serious problem. When commodity prices tanked layoffs ravaged the industry and nearly brought Alberta to its economic knees. The problem is many of the skilled jobs are going unfilled as the trained workforce doesn’t have confidence in workplace stability. Yes there are plenty of workers unemployed but they lack the skills to do the jobs required.

The hangover doesn’t end there.

For twenty years or more we have operated business and its supply chain on the concept of lean and mean. Worldwide distribution in manufacturing and shipping, less inventory overall and manufacturing cheaper in the third world selling to a consumer market in the developed world. Everything in the vision of rose colored glasses was fine.

Then came COVID factories everywhere closed or working reduced hours. Getting raw materials saw interruptions. In the ‘Alice In Wonderland’ West we discovered we didn’t manufacture emergency equipment and vital supplies domestically anymore which left us with shortages and dependent on unreliable supply chains. As if things were not bad enough at the height of our hangover one of the biggest freighters in the world ran aground in the worlds busiest water ways, the Suez Canal. This also caused congestion in the Panama Canal.

So how does this effect Canada you ask? One example the auto Industry at home and around the world has a shortage of computer chips. Manufacturing plants are in some cases closing …cars are not built, dealerships don’t have enough product to meet demand. And several other products have shortages or limited access to stock inventories.

It comes down to this, we are arguing about vaccines and masks while the economic health of Canada and the world may itself need and economic respirator before we see brighter days ahead.

Fred Steele