With administrative choices to end pandemic emergency declarations and responses came the widespread loss of many protections and supports.Footnote 94 The film industry's landmark multi-union agreement ended at the same time as the US emergency declaration.Footnote 95 In Canada, many financial supports have been sunsetted,Footnote 96 as have a variety of community safeguards, testing programs, and treatment options.Footnote 97
Since scaling back many pandemic protections, up-to-date data on immune hazards and their impacts has also become harder to find.Footnote 98 What information there is suggests a troubling mismatch between hazard levels and worker protections. In 2023 (the last year of data available), 81% of surveyed arts and culture workers in British Columbia worried about their health due to respiratory illnesses, yet only 23% of organizations planned to use any mitigation measures listed in the survey.Footnote 99 In that same year, over 1 in 10 BC arts, culture and heritage organizations reported a health & safety work stoppage or delay in the past six months, with hazard modelling indicating as many as 1 in every 13 British Columbians were infected with COVID-19 during that same timeframe.Footnote 100
Footnotes (7)
- Christopher McDonald, “Buffy’s Nicholas Brendon’s Death is the Sixth of The WB Stars Since 2024,” The Canary, April 5, 2026, https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/04/05/nicholas-brendon/. Back to text
- McDonald, “Buffy’s Nicholas Brendon’s Death.” Back to text
- Nick Boisvert, “Federal COVID-19 Supports Expire Today as Ottawa Says ‘Extraordinary’ Measures No Longer Needed,” CBC News, May 7, 2022, https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/covid-emergency-measures-expiring-1.6444945. Back to text
BC’s Office of the Human Rights Commissioner, “Commissioner Urges Public Health Officer”; Allison Jones, “Ontario to Stop Free COVID-19 Rapid Test Program in Pharmacies, Grocery Stores,” CBC News, June 9, 2023, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-covid-19-rapid-test-program-pharmacies-grocery-shops-1.6871135;
Charles Lefebvre, “Paxlovid to No Longer Be Provided to Provinces for Free,” CTV News, April 1, 2024, https://www.ctvnews.ca/winnipeg/article/paxlovid-to-no-longer-be-provided-to-provinces-for-free/; Nicole Ireland, “Provinces Now Responsible for Buying COVID-19 Vaccines as Feds Issue New Guidance,” The Canadian Press, January 10, 2025, https://www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/health/feds-issue-new-covid-vaccine-guidance-says-provinces-now-responsible-for-buying-them/article_2338b98b-a49b-57b6-9266-d74e58390d8a.html; Karen Bartko, “Health-Care Workers Urge Alberta to Halt Plan Limiting Free COVID-19 Vaccines,” Global News, June 16, 2025, https://globalnews.ca/news/11244318/alberta-covid-vaccine-health-care-unions-doctors/; “Quebec to Stop Offering Free COVID-19 Vaccines to the General Population,” CBC News, September 17, 2025, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-covid-19-vaccines-1.7636666.
Back to text- Stefan Anderson, “Global COVID-19 Data Gap Grows As Countries Stop Reporting to WHO,” Health Policy Watch, August 25, 2023, https://healthpolicy-watch.news/fewer-than-20-countries-report-covid-19-hospitalization-data-to-who/; Prater, “COVID Levels Are Up to 19 Times Higher”; Andrew Nikiforuk, “The Risks of Killing a COVID Early Warning System,” The Tyee, August 1, 2024, https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2024/08/01/Risks-Killing-COVID-Early-Warning-System/. Back to text
- GVPTA, BC Arts, Culture, and Heritage, 42–47. Back to text
- “Canadian COVID-19 Hazard Index, September 23–October 6, 2023,” COVID-19 Resources Canada, https://covid19resources.ca/covid-hazard-index/, archived October 6, 2023, at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12AiMhthKcH-yQ_hty3LRyXoBCW-mS_Fcdr9y6Qhg2r4/edit. Back to text