In the early stages of the pandemic, Canadian grocery stores were the site of large-scale panic buying which led to many empty shelves.

[15] WestJet has frozen all hiring and is offering voluntary departure packages to employees, with the goal of cutting 12 percent of its total capacity.

"[24] Initially, fast casual restaurants such as Starbucks and Tim Hortons maintained service, but suspended the allowable use of reusable cups by patrons.

[25][26][27] In compliance with or ahead of local mandates, some national restaurant chains (including those aforementioned) have since suspended in-store dining and seating, in favour of take-out and delivery service only.

[33] The major movie theatre chains Cineplex Entertainment and Landmark initially restricted the capacity of their individual cinema auditoriums by half (with Landmark using its reserved seating systems to enforce social distancing between patrons, and providing fresh bags and cups for popcorn and soft drinks upon refills rather than reusing them).

[39] The six connections at London, Paris, Frankfurt, Delhi, Tokyo and Hong Kong airports would allow Canadians to return home.

Flights are banned on all international non-essential travel between Canada and the European Union since 17 March 2020,[43] but citizens are allowed to return to either location.

[51][52][53][54][55] Great Canadian Gaming voluntarily closed its ten locations in BC (prior to the mandated closure), and three in the Atlantic provinces.

[62] The fall, which capped two weeks of steady declines, was exacerbated by an oil output war between Russia and Saudi Arabia.

[83] The Canadian Football League delayed its 2020 season no earlier than September 2020, and announced that the 108th Grey Cup festivities in Regina had been cancelled.

[100] On 11 April 2020, Tennis Canada cancelled the 2020 Canadian Open (sponsored as Rogers Cup) women's tournament (on the WTA Tour) in Montreal, pursuant to a request by the Quebec government for all cultural events, festivals, and sporting events be cancelled through August, although the men's tournament (on the ATP Tour) was still tentatively scheduled to be played in Toronto as scheduled.

[103] On 2 July, the federal government approved appropriate exceptions to allow the Toronto Blue Jays to conduct training camps at their home field of Rogers Centre (following the lead of other teams due to a spike in cases in the U.S. states of Arizona and Florida, the main locations for MLB spring training), although the Blue Jays have been barred from playing home games at the site (as part of the shortened 2020 MLB season).

[105] On 10 July 2020, the NHL announced that Edmonton and Toronto would host the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs in centralized, quarantined environments, beginning 1 August.

[106] The two were among three Canadian cities on a shortlist of potential sites, with Vancouver having dropped out over disagreements with BC's health minister over protocols in the event of a positive case within the "hub" environment.

[107] A spike of cases in Nevada led to Edmonton and Toronto being listed as overall front-runners over Las Vegas by early July.

[108][109] On 29 July 2020, the Canadian Premier League announced a return to play on 13 August 2020 with a modified format called "The Island Games" to determine a 2020 champion.

[116] CBC Radio One also temporarily shifted the scheduling its arts and entertainment magazine series Q, to provide an extended daily broadcast of its morning news series The Current,[116] while CBC Music shifted to programming exclusively Canadian music to help support artists impacted by the cancellations of concert tours and the Juno Awards.

with Tom Power, a Sunday evening talk show that saw musician Tom Power remotely interview both celebrities and ordinary Canadians;[117] and Hot Docs at Home, a Thursday night series which aired several feature documentary films which had been slated to premiere at the cancelled Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

[129][130][131][132][133][excessive citations] The National Arts Centre launched #CanadaPerforms, a $100,000 fund that would pay Canadian musicians $1,000 to perform a livestreamed home concert on Facebook during the crisis.

The initiative launched on 19 March with a concert by Jim Cuddy, with other artists already scheduled to perform including Serena Ryder, William Prince, Irish Mythen, Erin Costelo and Whitehorse.

[134] The eighth season of the Global series Big Brother Canada abruptly ended production on 24 March 2020 due to the Ontario government's mandatory 14-day closure of all non-essential workplaces.

[138] Participating artists included Bryan Adams, Jann Arden, Justin Bieber, Michael Bublé, Fefe Dobson, Scott Helman, Shawn Hook, Avril Lavigne, Geddy Lee, Marie-Mai, Sarah McLachlan, Johnny Orlando, Josh Ramsay, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Tyler Shaw, Walk off the Earth and Donovan Woods.

[140] The contest, presented by Canadian Tire, ran from 27 April to 26 May, and was judged by Cowell alongside hosts Dina Pugliese and Devo Brown.