Downtown Edmonton hopes to be back in business with an anticipated end to working from home
CBC
Downtown businesses that rely on the downtown office crowd are looking forward to seeing Alberta's work-from-home mandate lifted on March 1.
The phased-in lifting of health restrictions, announced Tuesday by Premier Jason Kenney, started this week with the end to Alberta's vaccine passport system and many masking requirements for children and students.
If COVID-19 hospitalization numbers continue to dip, the mandatory work-from-home order will be among measures lifted when the next phase kicks in at the beginning of next month.
"I'm very excited," said Amy Quon, who has owned and operated Chicken For Lunch in the Scotia Place food court for nearly 30 years.
"During these two years, we are very, very slow. Look at this food court. There is nobody here because nobody is working in the office," Quon said.
She's hoping the removal of the mandate will see employees returning to the office — and customers returning to her food court stall.
"Usually the customers line up waiting for me," she said. "Right now I sit down and am waiting for the customer. Very, very bad business now."
Quon doesn't expect change to happen overnight. She believes employees will gradually return to downtown's office buildings, as happened last year after all public health measures were lifted in July.
The Downtown Business Association and other groups have been advocating for months for the work-from-home mandate to be lifted.
"It hasn't made a ton of sense from a public health perspective, and it's been extremely harmful for downtown businesses," said Puneeta McBryan, the association's executive director.
The association has surveyed close to 500 employees whose offices are located downtown but have been working from home. The results, expected next week, will provide a sense of employee returns to the office, which will then allow downtown businesses to make plans.
"We'll be able to make better decisions about how we activate downtown," she said. "All of our restaurants, retail shops and personal service businesses will be able to plan their staffing, stock and all that stuff much better. Because really, it's those office workers that kind of are holding all the cards right now."
Businesses are also sorting out the details.
Stantec, which has a tower located downtown, expects 50 per cent of its Alberta employees will be back to the office full-time, while the remainder will be a mix of office and home.
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
Late last year, multiple tenants in small apartment buildings around Halifax got similar letters from their new landlord, stating their leases would soon be terminated. But no reasons were given.
After paying the wrong power bill for more than four years and six months after discovering the unusual error, a Moncton man is still waiting for his refund.
The majority of Quebec residents had their power back Monday morning after a strong storm swept across the province Sunday, knocking down power lines and flooding major intersections and buildings.
Manitoba is looking to expand the infrastructure it has to monitor air quality, a step experts say is important to better map pollution and its long-term health effects worsened by smoke billowing from wildfires.
The senior lead physician of a Saskatchewan Medical Association program that provides help for rural doctors is speaking out on the challenges they face, after a number of temporary rural emergency room closures forced by a shortage of medical professionals in the province.
Five months into a job action that has brought public transit in the Cowichan Valley to a halt, frustration and anxiety are mounting and locals say it's taken a toll on the lives of low-income residents and has cost some their jobs.
A heat warning is in effect for Hamilton, Niagara, Brant and area with humid weather expected to blanket the region for most of the week.
Canadian travel to the United States has dropped in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats.
It's time to pull out the bug spray.
This trucking association is calling City of Thunder Bay 's designated route a major 'trade barrier'
The Ontario Trucking Association is calling on the province to intervene after Thunder Bay city council approved a new truck route bylaw that will restrict most transport trucks from using Dawson Road and Highway 102.
About one-third of Canadians have become obese — with more weight gain happening during the pandemic, according to a new study.
A recent survey shows sentiment about taking the bus in the greater Charlottetown area has dropped in the past five years, though a Stratford official says the demand is increasing in that P.E.I. town for T3 routes that easily connect to others.
An Indigenous woman working to become a pilot has been grounded due to a delay in getting her medical certification, and the impending closure of her flight school in Faro, Yukon.