Our social and economic analysis of COVID-19

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

Offices: 
National Office
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