Toronto's financial district returning to life with COVID easing

​More workers are going back to their offices in Toronto’s financial district than at any point since the COVID-19 crisis began -- though the numbers remain far below pre-pandemic levels.

Office occupancy in the downtown area of Canada’s largest city is about 25 per cent of pre-COVID times, according to data from the Strategic Regional Research Alliance, a think tank. The figure was below 10 per cent during most of 2021 as Ontario’s provincial government imposed one of the toughest lockdowns in North America. 

As many as 40 per cent of downtown employees are now coming to the office at least once a week, SRRA estimates. That fits with data from Union Station, the city’s central transportation hub, where weekday bus and train passenger traffic has reached 30 per cent of pre-COVID levels for the first time.