Tausi Insider

People walk in Vancouver’s business district over the lunch hour on April 22. According to a new report, the city experienced a 48-per-cent decline in mobility compared with prepandemic times JENNIFER GAUTHIER/Vancouver Freelance The downtowns of most major Canadian cities continue to face a substantial dip in foot traffic compared with prepandemic norms – but the opposite is true of smaller towns and suburbs within commutable distance of those cities, data from a new study show. The results of the study, produced by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Business Data Lab, suggests that almost three years into the pandemic, a new economic pattern is emerging in metropolitan areas across the country – a hollowing out of the central hubs of large cities owing largely to hybrid work, and growth in mobility in the outlying spokes of those cities. “Canada’s biggest cities are significantly behind in terms of workers returning to the office. But we found that there’s been a substantial increa...

Michel Leblanc, head of the Montreal Chamber of Commerce, in downtown Montreal on Nov. 17. Christinne Muschi/Tausi Insider For the past two years, Michel Leblanc was the guy in the tie trying to save downtown Montreal from pandemic-induced ruin – a fate the city centre avoided. Now comes the hard part: reviving its office culture. Mr. Leblanc is president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, a business group with outsized influence and a rich history of accomplishments. In its early days, merchant members organized the dredging of the St. Lawrence River so Montreal’s port could accommodate bigger ships. Later on, they pitched the creation of what is now the internationally renowned business school, École des Hautes Études Commerciales. So when the Quebec government opened its purse strings in March, 2021, to try to stimulate an economic recovery in Montreal’s financial centre after successive COVID-19 waves and work-from-home mandates, the Chamber of Commerce ...

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe takes part in a news conference on Dec. 5. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press A local coffee shop in Ottawa’s downtown core is looking forward to some more frequent foot traffic once federal workers head back to the office on a more regular basis. “I’m just personally excited to see more people around and kind of feel like we’re back into before times,” said Kyle Macleod, a manager at Manhattan’s Coffee Co. The Treasury Board’s decision to stick with hybrid work means public servants will be back to in-person work two to three days a week starting early next year, to be fully implemented by the end of March. Departments were able to make their own arrangements for a hybrid workplace model during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Treasury Board will now apply a consistent approach. The reaction from public servants has been mixed, but the return-to-office news is being greeted by the city and local business community as a boon for commerce and public transit r...

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe takes part in a news conference on Dec. 5. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press A local coffee shop in Ottawa’s downtown core is looking forward to some more frequent foot traffic once federal workers head back to the office on a more regular basis. “I’m just personally excited to see more people around and kind of feel like we’re back into before times,” said Kyle Macleod, a manager at Manhattan’s Coffee Co. The Treasury Board’s decision to stick with hybrid work means public servants will be back to in-person work two to three days a week starting early next year, to be fully implemented by the end of March. Departments were able to make their own arrangements for a hybrid workplace model during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Treasury Board will now apply a consistent approach. The reaction from public servants has been mixed, but the return-to-office news is being greeted by the city and local business community as a boon for commerce and public transit r...