The mayor of Hamilton, Ont., has compared the novel coronavirus health emergency to living in a science fiction movie. Fred Eisenberger says three weeks ago, who would have thought that “we’d be sitting in this kind of environment with the streets empty and most businesses closed.” Eisenberger said the safety measures taken to slow the spread of COVID-19 have made the city seem “like a ghost town” right out of a “script of a sci-fi pandemic movie.” Unlike in the movies, though, the new reality “has real costs and consequences,” says the mayor.
Eisenberger was reflecting on the fiscal impacts to the municipality of the COVID-19 pandemic, during an appearance on CHML’s Bill Kelly Show on Friday morning.