The study indicates that more than one in three Canadians (36 per cent) had jobs that required us to go to workplaces, but could just as easily been accomplished had we worked from home. The pandemic finally gave us the impetus to do those jobs from our homes rather than have to go into offices.
If those of us who work from home continue to work from home after the pandemic, transit use in Canada will shrink to less than half of its pre-COVID number. According to StatsCan’s research, an inordinate number of those who could stay at home to work were actually using transit to get to work. Its estimates showed that 52 per cent of the could-stay-home crowd were regular transit commuters.
If those offices don’t return, we could see lots of empty trains on the Valley Line.
One caveat: the StatsCan study didn’t specifically look at Edmonton. It did look at Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and…St. John’s? Seems random, but OK.
This article appears in the Summer 2021 issue of Edify
