Canada's empty downtowns defy post-pandemic return-to-normal — and business owners are feeling the pain

It is those people sitting at home, enjoying a peanut butter sandwich for lunch instead of meeting a buddy in the office tower next door for a quick, midday bite — or a round or two of beers at day’s end — that has imploded the pre-pandemic recipe for success for downtown business owners.

A pedestrian walks past commercial space for lease in downtown Toronto. Office vacancy rates are high in Canada’s downtown cores.The proof can be found in office vacancy rates. Despite near-record low unemployment rates across the country, Vancouver’s downtown office vacancy rate is sitting at 10.4 per cent, the highest it has been since 2004, while Ottawa and Montreal rates are at their highest points ever.

One of the key checkmarks was daytime traffic. Tech and advertising firms, startups, all the “cool kids” had office spaces in the area, while the more traditional suits in the banking towers were a short hop away. The area was jumping, with both a lunch and a dinner crowd to pull in. The new restaurant took off until, well, you know.

Apart from the geography, Joyal said there has been a seismic shift in the industry over the past three years. The line cook who worked to the bone on the way up the kitchen staff ladder in 2019 doesn’t want to work in restaurants anymore. Servers have left in droves. Morale is hovering around the point of despair, while food inflation and labour costs have dramatically driven up the price of doing business.

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