The Broadbent Institute has created this page to serve as a resource and sharing centre for those wanting to advocate for better worker and community protections and support in this time of crisis. It will be updated daily to track provincial and local calls for action and improvements won across Canada.
Important: For public health recommendations on COVID–19 (symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, prevention and risk, and travel advice), please visit the Government of Canada’s website.
Click here for a guide on applying for benefits from the federal government amid COVID-19 (Created by Dr. Jennifer Robson as an open-source guide).
Actions and Responses to COVID–19
(updated as of Wednesday, April 22nd)
Below is a list of organizing and advocacy efforts happening across the country. Our team is working to update this list regularly as new calls to action and responses emerge, and we need your help! If you would like to suggest an action or response that should be added to this list, please contact [email protected].
Click here for ongoing provincial organizing and advocacy efforts, resources
Click here for provincial government responses
Click here for federal/national organizing and advocacy efforts, resources
Click here for archived organizing and advocacy efforts, resources
WORKERS’ RIGHTS
- Alberta: Alberta Rescue Plan (Alberta Federation of Labour)
- British Columbia: Paid and protected sick leave for all workers in BC, enhancement of EI benefits, access to income supports/transfers for workers that fall outside the current definition of employees (BC Federation of Labour)
- British Columbia: Protecting our grocery workers (UFCW Local 1518)
- Ontario: 7 paid sick days, end to sick notes, restored emergency leave, increased access to EI, and an emergency fund for workers without EI (Decent Health and Work Network)
- Ontario: All Workers Need H.E.L.P. (Health, Emergency, Labour Protections) (Workers' Action Centre)
- Ontario: Provide paid sick day for all workers (Ontario Federation of Labour)
- Ontario: Open letter to Premier Ford: Provide emergency support for all workers and vulnerable Ontarians during COVID-19 (Ontario Federation of Labour)
- Ontario: Demand Amazon give fulfillment Centre Workers Protections (Warehouse Workers Centre)
- Ontario: Health Workers Urge Immediate Action: Add Your Voice (Decent Work and Health Network)
- Ontario: Creating Healthy and Safe Workplaces and Communities (Ontario Federation of Labour)
- Toronto and York Region: Help for Individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic (Toronto and York Region Labour Council)
HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS
- Ontario/National: Rent Break, EI for All and a Loan Payment Freeze (ACORN Canada)
- Ontario: Enact legislation stopping the payment of rent on April 1st for all residential tenants in Ontario! (Federation of Metro Tenants' Associations)
ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE
- BC: Handouts and videos about COVID-19 in different languages
- Ontario: Letter to Minister Elliot regarding COVID-19’s impact on the opioid overdose crisis (Alliance for Healthier Communities)
- Ontario: Map of COVID-19 Assessment Centres (Centre for Effective Practice)
- Ontario: 7 paid sick days, end to sick notes, restored emergency leave, increased access to EI, and an emergency fund for workers without EI (Health Providers Against Poverty)
- Toronto: Petition to stop provincial public health cuts (Progress Toronto)
SUPPORT FOR VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES
- British Columbia: Food for People with Precarious of No Immigration Status (Sanctuary Health)
- Ontario: Precautionary measures for family caregivers amid COVID-19 (The Ontario Caregiver Association)
- Ontario: Food for people with precarious or no immigration status (Sanctuary Health)
- Ontario: Resources to help nonprofits adapt and respond to COVID-19 (Ontario Nonprofit Network)
- Calgary: Mutual Aid Resource Tool (Our Calgary)
- Ottawa: Supports for vulnerable people (Centretown Community Health Centre)
- Hamilton: Ontario’s Triage COVID-19 Protocol (ARCH Disability)
- Toronto: A list of financial supports for the most vulnerable for resident in the City of Toronto (Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam)
- Toronto: Friendly Neighbour Hotline (Toronto General Hospital OpenLab)
- Toronto: Toronto COVID-19 Resources (Zahra Ebrahim)
- Toronto: Action to protect public transit riders and workers & ridership experience survey during COVID-19 (TTCRiders)
- Vancouver: Call-in line for women who need support during pandemic (Atira Women's Resource Society)
BROAD PLATFORMS
- Ontario: 14 paid sick days for all workers, eliminate doctor’s note requirement, suspend rent and mortgage payments, reverse all cuts to education, and more (Ontario Parent Action Network)
FIRST NATIONS, MÉTIS & INUIT SUPPORTS
- Call for a specific strategy for First Nations communities (Assembly of First Nations)
- Canada Must Implement Clearer, Stronger Measures to Protect First Nations and All Canadians from the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Pandemic (First Nations Leadership Council)
EQUITY
- Ontario: An Emergency Plan for Ontario Child Care in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic (Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care)
- COVID-19 - Racial Equity and Social Justice Resources (digital resource)
- Healthcare for all, worker protections, stop detentions and deportations, status for all, community support, and inclusion of migrant and community organizations in the response to COVID-19 (Migrant Rights Network)
- Take immediate action to protect those in prison (Contain COVID-19, Not People)
-
Principles for Just and Creative Responses to COVID-19 (Creative Climate Leadership)
Provincial Government Responses
To view this list in a chart format, click here.
Support for Renters
- AB: Evictions suspended for a month
- AB: Proof of rent re-payment plans required before eviction
- BC: Rent subsidy
- BC: Suspended rental evictions
- BC: Rent freeze
- MB: Rent Freeze
- ON: Halt on new rental evictions for a month
- QC: Rental board suspends eviction hearings
- SK: Suspended rental evictions
- NS: Suspended evictions
- PEI: Temporary Rental Assistance Benefit
Access to Healthcare
- BC: Waived 3 month waiting period for health coverage
- BC: Healthcare coverage for uninsured
- ON: Cover COVID-19 related costs for uninsured
Action on Utilities, Bills and Other Necessities
- BC: Hydro and gas bill deferrals
- BC: Hydro Relief
- BC: Defer auto insurance
- SK: Crown utility interest deferral programs
- QC: Hydro bill deferral
- MB: Removed PST from residential homes
- MB: Utility deferrals
- NS: Providing cell phone plans to most vulnerable
Financial Aid for Workers & Social Assistance Recipients
- AB: Job Protected Leave
- AB: Emergency Isolation Support
- BC: Protected job leave
- BC: Emergency Benefit for Workers
- BC: $300 monthly top-up to income and disability assistance
- BC: Emergency Relief Funding (For parent of children and youth with special needs)
- BC: Allowing social assistance recipients to apply and keep CERB
- BC: Climate change tax credit
- NB: One-time income benefit
- NFL: Compensation for private sector employees
- NS: Income assistance increase by $50
- NS: Worker Emergency Bridge Fund
- NWT: Increased social assistance
- ON: Emergency Assistance Fund - Delivered through Ontario Works (OW)
- ON: One-time emergency assistance for social assistance recipients who don't quality for CERB
- ON: Allowing social assistant recipient to keep partial earnings of CERB
- PEI: Employee Gift Card Program
- PEI: COVID Income Support Fund
- PEI: COVID-19 Special Situation Fund for individuals
- QC: Temporary worker assistance program
- SK: Job protected leave
- SK: Self-isolation Support Fund
Financial Aid/Supports for Students
- BC: Student loan payment deferral
- NS: Suspended student loans
- NWT: Student loan deferral
- ON: Student loan payment deferral
- QC: Student loan payment deferral
- SK: Student loan repayment moratorium
- PEI: Temporary Rental Assistance Programs
- PEI: Post-Secondary Student Support Fund
- PEI: COVID-19 Special Situation Fund
Financial Aid/Supports for Seniors
- NS: Funding for food banks
- NS: Supports for seniors
- ON: Doubling payments for low-income seniors (GAINS)
Long-Term Care homes
- BC
- Brought all long-term facilities under the operation of government
- Standardized wage and provided a wage increase to low-pay workers long-term care facilities
- Provide full time work to workers
- ON
- Provided "Pandemic Pay" to all essential workers including those in long-term care facilities
- QC
- Increased pay to healthcare workers including those working in long-term care facilities
- Committed to recruiting/hiring additional workers to work in facilities
Childcare
- BC: 75% wage operating subsidy for child care centres
- ON: Re-opening childcare centres to frontline workers
- ON: One-time childcare subsidy
- QC: Childcare for essential workers
Safety
- QC: Funding for victims of Domestic Violence
- NS: Funding for transition houses for vulnerable women and children
- YK: Free cellphones for women in vulnerable situations
Mobility
- BC: Suspended BC Transit and Translink bus fares
- BC: $52 transit supplement for users of the BC Bus Pass Program on social assistance
Federal/National Organizing, Resources and Actions
Many organizations have advocated tirelessly over the last few weeks for action to support workers, families and vulnerable communities impacted by COVID-19. Recently, the Federal Government announced a comprehensive package of income, business and emergency support measures which responded to many of these calls. The package, though impressive, still contains gaps. Below we have listed federally focused campaigns that led up to the federal government’s response, many of which are still active, with calls of action that have not been met.
- Comprehensive list of Community Response Networks (Mutual Aid Network Canada)
- Plan Now to Adapt to Coronavirus Safety (Climate Actions and Mobilizations)
- A plan to protect workers and the public from an unprecedented crisis (CCPA)
- Canada’s unions are calling for urgent fiscal measures to respond to COVID-19 (Canadian Labour Congress)
- Urgent Action: Eviction Freeze, Rent Flexibility, EI for All, Loan Payment Freeze (ACORN Canada)
- Cancel rent and mortgage payments during COVID-19 (change.org)
- Urgent call for more emergency shelter beds and spaces (Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness)
- Petition COVID-19: We need HELP (Health Emergency Labour Protections) now! (15 and fairness)
- 6 changes to income supports to aid workers amid COVID-19 (Broadbent Institute)
- Cancel Rent Before April 1st (LeadNow)
- Make Vaccines and Diagnostic Tools for COVID19 Developed with Public Funding in Canada Available to All (Universities Allied for Essential Medicines)
- Dealing with Mortgage Payment Difficulties (CMHC)
- Disabled Canadians feel excluded from COVID-19 messaging (news article)
- Put out all the stops to support Canadian workers (CUPE)
- United Steelworkers COVID-19 Resources (United Steelworkers) (United Steelworkers)
- UFCW Canada calls for additional protections for workers in response to COVID-19 pandemic (UFCW)
- COVID-19 Response Page (Canadian Labour Congress)
- Covid-19 Food systems policy proposals from the food movement (federal focus) / Propositions politiques du mouvement alimentaire (Food Secure Canada)
- (Food) Organizations who need help during COVID-19 (Food Secure Canada)
Federal Government Responses
Financial Supports for Workers
- Canada Emergency Response Benefit (Application to open April 6)
- One-time boost to GST
Financial Support for Homeowners
Financial Supports of Businesses/Employers
- Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility (LEEFF)
- Business Credit Availability Program
- The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS)
- Temporary Wage Subsidy
- Extension of the Work Sharing Program
First Nations, Métis & Inuit Supports
Financial Supports for Families
- One-time increase to Child Tax Benefit
- Lower internet rates for low-income families
- Youth mental health services
Financial Supports for Students
- Moratorium on the repayment of Canada Student Loans
- Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB)
Supports for Seniors
- Delivery and personal outreach services (Delivered through United Way)
Supports for Youth
- Mental health supports (Delivered through Kid's Help Phone)