News
June 15, 2020
COVID 19- Important Update From Your Business Agent
We want to take this opportunity to provide a quick update with respect to the status of film, television and digital media production in the Province. In-depth information on the re-opening of the Ontario economy can be found on the Government of Ontario website.As you may be aware, earlier this week, the Province announced that film and television production could resume as of today’s date as part of the Stage 2 re-opening of the economy. Please note, this allowance is only for regions outside of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) and the rest of Southern Ontario. For example, production is able to resume in Kingston, Ottawa, Windsor and/or North Bay, and so on. The GTHA and Southern Ontario are not yet permitted to enter Stage 2. Those regional restrictions remain in Stage 1, which clearly indicates “Filming or other on-site activities, especially those that require the gathering of workers, performers, or others are not permitted to resume under Stage 1”.
Members may have already been approached by productions about the resumption of work. At this time, unless work can be done remotely, film and television work in the GTHA is not permitted. Some productions, such as Nurses, season two, have advised crew of their intention to resume shooting mid-July while others, such as Murdoch Mysteries, season fourteen, have advised crew of their desire to start prep in July. Those productions are aware that they will not be able to return to work until the Province allows such and until the Union has had a chance to review their COVID-19 work protocols and procedures to ensure they meet our standards for your health and safety.
Most productions are waiting for the approval of the Section 21 Health and Safety Advisory Committee’s COVID-19 Guidelines so they can either be drafting, or finalizing the draft of production specific policies and procedures. As the co-chair of the Section 21 Health and Safety COVID-19 Guideline sub-committee, we have been crafting the guidelines along with input from your departmental VPs over the course of the last few weeks. The Guidelines have now been submitted to the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development (MLTSD) for review and approval. As part of the review, the MLTSD has had physicians and infectious control disease consultants review and provide comments. The timeline on the approval process is in the hands of the MLTSD, however, they are aware of the need to expedite the approval of this document with production being allowed to resume in certain areas of the Province. Once the Guidelines are approved and available we will circulate them to the Membership and will post them on the NABET 700-M UNIFOR website.
Further details and updates will be provided as they become available, as well as during NABET 700-M UNIFOR’s Town Hall taking place later this month.
Thank you,
Jayson Mosek
Business Agent