Looking for resources for workers and renters affected by COVID-19? Click here.
Additional analysis and response from our AFB partners can be found here.
The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, a sharp drop in the price of oil and a global stock market crash has the potential to seriously destabilize the Canadian workforce in 2020, and will strain Canada’s public health and social security systems in the short to medium terms.
At no other time in recent memory has it been so important for all orders of government to respond boldly and with the needs of everyone foremost in mind. Social solidarity, the primacy of collective care, and non-partisan co-operation must guide our actions in the weeks and months to come.
This page will be updated regularly with new analysis on the COVID-19 emergency and proposals for how our governments should respond from CCPA experts and our allies across the country.
REPORTS
Re-imagining Long-term Residential Care in the COVID-19 Crisis, April 24, 2020 | Pat Armstrong, Hugh Armstrong, Jacqueline Choiniere, Ruth Lowndes, and James Struthers, CCPA National
The COVID-19 crisis offers an opportunity to create a new, better normal at Canadian long-term residential care facilities. This report offers both short-term and long-term recommendations for improving long-term care including: making all staff permanent and limiting their work to one nursing home; raising staff wages and benefits; ensuring protective equipment is stockpiled for the future; building surge capacity into labour force planning and the physical structure of facilities; and establishing and enforcing minimum staffing levels and regulations.
Swimming with the sharks, April 14, 2020 | Ricardo Tranjan, CCPA-Ontario
As COVID-19-related layoffs affect workers across the country, Canada’s payday loan companies will see windfall profits at the expense of low- and moderate-income people. This new report details how a lack of government oversight allows payday lenders to prey on the most economically vulnerable households in Canada. The report details the provincial variance in annual interest rates on these quick loans, with rates as high as 391% and 652% in some provinces.
The Rent is Due Soon: Financial Insecurity and COVID-19, March 23, 2020 | Ricardo Tranjan, CCPA-Ontario
This report examines the financial situation of the 3.4 million households who rent and whose primary source of income is wages and salaries or self-employment income. It asks: How many weeks or months can renters go without employment income before running out of savings? The short answer is that almost half of renters have less than a month’s worth of savings; one-third have two weeks or less.
Canadian workforce unevenly protected from COVID-19, March 16, 2020 | David Macdonald, CCPA National
To stay ahead of the COVID-19 crisis, Canada’s income support systems need to be made more resilient and responsive to the needs of workers who are either quarantined or whose industries are heavily impacted. This paper examines how well protected Canadian workers are now and what else should be done to better insulate them from these risks.
BLOGS
- PSE student support program: Does it pass the test?, April 29, 2020 | Katherine Scott and David Macdonald
- Show, don’t tell: Canada’s COVID-19 response doesn’t meet students’ needs or reflect their realities, April 28, 2020 | Rayne Fisher-Quann
- Gender impact of Canada’s income supports, April 27, 2020 | David Macdonald
- Caregiving Beyond the Crisis, April 27, 2020 | CCPA-Nova Scotia
- You can’t re-open an economy without workers, April 24, 2020 | Simon Enoch
- Comparing provincial economic responses to COVID-19, April 24, 2020 | Marc Lee and Arman Hamidian
- 1.4 million jobless Canadians getting no income support in April, April 23, 2020 | David Macdonald
- Extend tax filing deadline to ensure low incomes receive benefits, April 22, 2020 | Toby Sanger
- The coronavirus crisis: Wake-up call for an economic paradigm shift, April 17, 2020 | Bruce Campbell
-
The hidden and not-so-hidden casualty of COVID-19, April 17, 2020 | Avvy Go
-
Mental health, substance use and COVID19: Getting ahead of a perfect storm, April 16, 2020 | Mary Bartram
-
Getting a grip on essential medical supplies, April 16, 2020 | Scott Sinclair
-
Park it: Wi-Fi access is not educational equity, April 15, 2020 | Erika Shaker
-
Long-term funding for domestic violence programs will have lasting impact beyond the pandemic, say experts, April 14, 2020 | Natasha Bulowski
-
Women bearing the brunt of economic losses: One in five has been laid off or had hours cut, April 10, 2020 | Katherine Scott
-
Early Warning: Who’s bearing the brunt of COVID19’s labour market impacts?, April 9, 2020 | David Macdonald
-
Canada joins the QE club: What is quantitative easing and what comes next?, April 8, 2020 | Jim Stanford
-
COVID lockdown leads to cleaner air. Could it lower greenhouse gasses too?, April 7, 2020 | Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood
-
Face to face with COVID-19: How do we care for care workers?, April 6, 2020 | Sheila Block and Simran Dhunna
-
What kind of return to normal do we want?, April 6, 2020 | Emanuel Guay and Raphael Langevin
-
A return to normal is not an option, April 6, 2020 | Guillaume Hebert
-
Which unemployed Canadians will get support?, April 2, 2020 | David Macdonald, CCPA National
- Unemployment may hit 70-year high, but new EI replacement will help, March 26, 2020 | David Macdonald, CCPA National
- COVID-19: Les idées fixes du nationalism conservateur, 26 mars 2020 | Philippe Hurteau, IRIS
- Le gouvernement doit embaucher 250 000 personnes maintenant, 25 mars 2020 | Guillaume Hebert, IRIS
- Vers un taux de chômage de 32% en Avril? 24 mars 2020 | Julia Posca, IRIS
- The prison as petri dish, March 23, 2020 | Anthony N. Morgan, The Monitor
- Governments should support oil sand workers, not companies, March 23, 2020 | Ian Hussey, Parkland Institute
- Protecting Manitoba workers key to public health, March 20, 2020 | Ellen Smirl, CCPA-Manitoba
- COVID-19 crisis must address gender faultlines, March 20, 2020 | Katherine Scott, CCPA National
- Some of our most vulnerable jobs are the most valuable in a crisis, March 20, 2020 | Jim Stanford, Centre for Future Work
- Bold action in an extraordinary time, March 19, 2020 | CCPA-BC
- La santé publique, la COVID-19 et le capitalism, 19 mars 2020 | Anne Plourde, IRIS
- What should be next for B.C. workers and families after the initial federal COVID-19 package?, March 19, 2020 | Iglika Ivanova, CCPA-BC
- Federal support package: the pros, the cons, and the next shoe to drop, March 19, 2020 | Jim Stanford, Centre for Future Work
- COVID-19: Nurses need support from next week's Ontario budget statement, March 19, 2020 | Simran Dhunna and Sheila Block, CCPA-Ontario
- What to make of the federal COVID-19 aid package, March 18, 2020 | David Maconald, CCPA National
- COVID 19: City of Winnipeg should postpone budget and stop cuts, March 17, 2020 | CCPA-Manitoba and the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg
- AFB2020 as COVID-19 policy response: A plan to protect workers and the public from an unprecedented crisis, March 17, 2020 | CCPA National
- Le retour à la normal n'est pas une option, 17 mars 2020 | Guillaume Hébert, IRIS
- COVID-19 exposes huge cracks in Nova Scotia’s labour protections, March 17, 2020 | Rebecca Casey, Acadia University
- Economic Response to COVID-19 Pandemic: Go Big, Go Fast, March 14, 2020 | Jim Stanford, Centre for Future Work
- Lessons from COVID-19: We are only as strong as our weakest link, March 10, 2020 | Trish Hennessy, Upstream
- Protecting workers is key to protecting public health, March 9, 2020 | Jim Stanford, Centre for Future Work