Quote:
Originally Posted by Northendzone
is it though. As i recall the document showed the spend as $6.8m for a period in which 10 folks hoteled it; however, as mentioned, it seems even the kardashians could not spend that much per day
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This isn't meant to justify or rationalize the cost of this, but when people see this cost and divide by 10 people, their frame of reference is when they stay in a hotel under normal conditions and that's not what this was. In a quarantine scenario they needed to transport these guests to and from the hotel, pay for a separate area from regular hotel guests, pay the medical personnel who were testing these individuals daily, pay for the security guards to be on site, pay for separate meal prep, etc. etc. It's not surprising that once you need a magnitude of skilled and unskilled labour, specialized equipment, designated space at the hotel, etc. to manage the process the costs pile up. At the end of the day that $6.8 million probably employed 10-15 people for the duration of that time, and bought/rented a lot of equipment on top of the stays of the 10 people.
In that light I wouldn't be attributing this to malice of procurement, but rather the decision to mandatorily quarantine travelers for no practical purpose other than it was good optics after the Christmas of 2020 when it became a big public issue that many Canadian politicians vacationed out of country at a time when travel was not 'recommended.' The government needed to maintain/create the narrative that their travel restrictions/recommendations and their border controls were sound so this theatre in Calgary and in the other three international airports accepting international flights was the cost of that policy.