It’s Monday morning and the mad dash begins. The uncomfortable work clothes, the packed lunch, the crush of the subway, the gridlocked streets.
Many thought they left the daily office commute behind post-pandemic, but this fall, for many downtown Toronto workers, it’s back.
Four of Canada’s major banks have issued memos to staff requiring them to work from the office at least four days a week, with mandates taking effect in September. Meanwhile, Rogers and the Ontario government are demanding that employees come in full-time starting next year.
The result will be hundreds of thousands of workers heading back to the office across Ontario over the coming months — whether they like it or not.
The rollout of these return-to-office mandates will be staggered over the next six months. By early 2026, at least 100,000 public servants will be required to work in-person every day, according to a spokesperson for the provincial government. The financial services industry alone could bring back as many as 200,000 professionals to Toronto four to five days a week.
Experts say it won’t be long before other businesses follow suit, with demand for office space already heating up.
“We are trending toward pre-pandemic leasing activity levels,” said Mackenzie Sharpe, senior vice-president of office leasing and investment sales at commercial real estate firm CBRE.
“The banks are one of the largest users and occupiers of space. So they tend to move the needle when it comes to leasing,” he added.
For a while, it seemed like hybrid work was here to stay — with studies supporting that flexible work arrangements have the power to boost worker productivity and well-being.
But recently, the return-to-office movement has been gaining traction. Statistics Canada data shows the percentage of Toronto workers who mostly work from home has been trending down in recent years, declining from 32 per cent of workers in 2022 to 24 per cent as of May.
Peak office attendance in Toronto recently hit almost 90 per cent of the pre-pandemic level, according to think tank Strategic Regional Research Alliance (SRRA) — suggesting work-from-home no longer defines most people’s “new normal.”
“That idea that you don’t have an obligation to come into the office very often, that’s pretty much gone,” said Iain Dobson, co-founder of the SRRA.
“There’ll be very few people who work completely remotely.”
Is hybrid work dead?
Toronto’s largest employers say bringing workers back will be beneficial to both employees and the organization, improving social connection and professional opportunities.
A TD spokesperson told the Star in-person interaction at work “builds energy and alignment, offers ongoing development and apprenticeship, and strengthens our culture.”
An RBC spokesperson echoed those sentiments, while a Scotiabank spokesperson emphasized that the bank is already seeing a positive impact from teams working together.
BMO noted that it has invested in innovative workplaces such as its newly built BMO Place in Toronto. Those workplaces are a vital part of their culture and “organizational productivity,” it said. The bank added that employees are expected in-office four days a week “where existing real estate capacity permits.”
The back-to-work drive is partly due to fears of slipping productivity amid the trade wars and greater economic uncertainty, said Giles Gherson, CEO of the Toronto Region Board of Trade (TRBT).
Employers are “concerned about how well-functioning the teams are. It’s not about the individuals, it’s about the teams,” he said.
“It is about companies saying, ‘we’ve got to perform better any way we can, if we’re going to survive and thrive in the world we’re now in, which is much more challenging with tariffs.’”
Workers push back
The latest return-to-office announcements have been met with frustration by some employees and labour unions. They say the changes were implemented by their bosses without their input, and many expressed concerns over standstill traffic and losing work-life balance.
The move demonstrates how “out of touch” senior management in the public sector is, said Nathan Prier, president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees. Most employees view mandatory office time as an “outdated model,” he added.
The Association of Management, Administrative and Professional Crown Employees of Ontario (AMAPCEO) sent a letter on Aug. 15 to the secretary of the cabinet, Michelle E. DiEmanuele, protesting the province’s decision to return public service workers to the office full-time.
“We write today … to express our immense frustration with your decision to unnecessarily return our members to a five day in-office work week. To say our members are incensed would be to downplay their reaction,” the statement reads.
The statement was signed by other labour groups, including the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and the Ontario Crown Attorneys’ Association.
Canadian advocacy group Moms at Work also issued a statement to the Ford government on Aug. 15 pushing back on the changes, which it says will burden working mothers.
“When parents have the flexibility to work from home, they can do school pickups, have dinner together, and make it to hockey or soccer practice … Working five days in the office and commuting in gridlock traffic doesn’t make people more productive — it leaves them stressed, exhausted, and forced to use sick days on basic family responsibilities like doctor’s appointments,” the letter reads.
The mandates threaten to harm people’s trust in the organizations they work for, said Karen MacMillan, assistant professor of organizational behaviour at Ivey Business School.
“I can definitely understand why certain people need to be in more often, maybe even full-time — for some jobs, you have to. But other jobs are not like that. So when we paint everybody with the same brush, there’s a feeling that things are not just,” she said.
“I think turnover will go up and it will be tougher to recruit in a lot of cases.”
On social media platform Reddit, workers who oppose return-to-office mandates at their workplaces haven’t been holding back.
One post reads “Hamilton resident employed by a big bank. I’m looking at about 3.5 hours commuting each day. I immediately started applying for other jobs the second (return to office) was announced.”
Others expressed worries about affordability and the possible lack of office space after many employers downsized post-pandemic.
“We don’t have room (in the office) on any of the Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays,” someone wrote.
“Boosting downtown Toronto’s economy at the expense of my local community’s economy (where I often get lunch while working from home.) Toronto priced me out, and now they expect me to support their economy,” wrote another.
Will it work?
In recent years, construction — of everything from condos to the new Ontario Line — has snarled the city’s roads, including the Gardiner Expressway, where repairs are expected to continue into 2026. Congestion has gotten so bad that the city is seeking to hire a traffic czar to help fight gridlock.
The in-office mandates risk adding pressure to Toronto’s public infrastructure crisis with more people flooding into a congested downtown core.
Many feel the TTC is still not functioning as well as it was before the pandemic. A high volume of streetcars and buses are being diverted due to construction, the subway is facing more closures for repairs while the transit system overall hasn’t recovered to pre-pandemic level ridership.
Out of StatCan’s census metropolitan areas, Toronto continued to have the longest average commute in May, reaching 34.9 minutes, up 1.6 minutes from one year earlier.
Gherson, of the Board of Trade, said that while the local economy and the city’s coffers are poised to benefit from more commuters, he is worried about workers getting stuck in frustrating journeys.
“This back-to-the-workplace drive that we’re seeing now puts the city in the crosshairs for alleviating congestion and really making it work,” he said.
“Otherwise, these companies are going to find that all they’re doing is wasting people’s time sitting in traffic. It’s not going to deliver the productivity outcomes that these companies are looking for.”
Laura McQuillan, a spokesperson for the city of Toronto, told the Star the city will continue to monitor travel patterns and will work to adjust congestion management strategies with transit partners.
Dobson, of the SRRA, is optimistic, saying companies now have a better understanding of the impacts of remote work than they did at the beginning of the pandemic.
“There’s been a big learning curve amongst employers and employees over the last five years. And I think that it’s getting to the point now where people are better equipped to make the decision as to whether or not remote work is possible,” he said.
While Dobson believes office occupancy in downtown Toronto will rise this fall as a result of the return-to-office mandates, he doesn’t expect it will ever return to pre-pandemic levels.
That’s because “the mandates do allow, under certain circumstances, more remote work than they did prior to COVID,” Dobson said, adding that those instances will be determined by the employer.
Whether having more workers at their desks will actually result in higher productivity for Toronto’s largest employers is another matter.
“I think traditional leaders, conservative leaders, think they can tell someone’s working because they can see them go into their office and sit down at their desk,” said Ivey Business School’s MacMillan.
“But you and I both know I can sit at my desk for eight hours and not get any work done.”
With files from Andy Takagi
