Toronto office jobs in these areas could be performed at home, StatCan map shows

Brookfield Place signage is pictured in the financial district in Toronto, Friday, Sept. 8, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Lahodynskyj

As more workers across Canada return to the office after years of remote or hybrid work arrangements brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study from Statistics Canada is showing where in Toronto those jobs could be done from home, and how reimagining those offices could help with housing.

Released Wednesday, the report titled “Geography of teleworkable jobs in the Greater Toronto Area” uses data from the 2021 census to highlight that there is a “very large concentration” of jobs in the city’s financial district and downtown core that could be done remotely.

Using a grid, Statistics Canada broke a map of the city into 0.5 kilometre-by-0.5-kilometre squares to illustrate where exactly these jobs are located and found that within that area of the city, each square represented 3,600 or more jobs that were teleworkable.

“Further, the regions immediately neighbouring this core and, notably, some regions along Yonge Street contain an additional 1,400 to 3,600 jobs that could be performed from home,” the report noted.

A zoomed out map of the Greater Toronto Area shows there are many “pockets” within the region where jobs could be performed remotely, specifically in and around Yonge Street. As well, areas the like the city centre of Mississauga, contain up to roughly 3,600 teleworkable jobs per 0.5 kilometre.

The study defines a job that can be done from home as one that doesn’t require an employee to work directly with the public, work outdoors, operate or repair machinery and equipment, etc.

How many people are currently working from home?

According to the data cited in the report, the percentage of employees across Canada who spent most of their working hours at home in November 2024 stood at 18.2 per cent. That’s down from 25.4 per cent in November 2020 (months after the COVID-19 pandemic started), but up from 3.6 per cent in May 2016.

At the end of 2024, StatCan noted, the national office vacancy rate in Canada was approximately 18.7 per cent, a 2025 CBRE study found, “suggesting there is a lot of underutilized space available for conversions.”

The goal of the report, the authors wrote, was to identify and visualize where those offices are located in Toronto to inform which spaces could be converted to address Canada’s housing shortage.

“Conversions are potentially attractive because they often make use of existing infrastructure. They may also help alleviate the problem of underutilized office space observed in recent years,” the report read, noting that the City of Calgary has approved 11 such projects in 2024 to create 1,400 new residential units. The City of Hamilton has also started a new grant pilot program in the same vein.

“Amid rising costs of living in cities and displacement of lower-income families from city centres, (work from home) and building conversions might be a potential avenue for increasing housing supply.”

In a statement to CTV News, the City of Toronto said while it has not had the chance to review the report, it will look into its finding as part of its Office Space Needs Study that is currently underway.

“The office study implementation work analyzes current office market conditions, looks at the benefits and risks of converting office space to alternative uses and explores policy options that would balance office needs in the short-term and long-term, while ensuring the City’s economic role remains competitive and resilient,” a spokesperson said in an email.

The StatCan report comes amid widespread return-to-office mandates from a number of large Canadian companies, which have called employees back to the office on a full or part-time basis, most notably four of Canada’s big five banks.

The Ontario government announced last month that it too planned to bring all public servants back to the office full-time starting in the New Year.

Public sector employees in the province have pushed back against the move, and last week, rallied outside Queen’s Park to protest the province’s return-to-office mandate.

In a statement to CTV News Toronto, the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) said the report from StatCan highlights the need for more affordable housing.

“It’s no secret that we’re in the midst of a housing affordability crisis,” OREA President Cathy Polan said in the statement. “We need more affordable housing, of every type of home, at every level... The new Statistics Canada report highlighting office vacancies as a potential opportunity for viable building conversions to create more housing speaks to the need to build more housing and provide more choice in high demand areas.”

Polan said the report echoes what their organization has been calling on the provincial government to do “for years.”

“As we’ve noted in the policy recommendations we’ve put on the table, the provincial government must modernize zoning to support commercial-to-residential conversions, overriding local bylaws prohibiting this conversion, and rezoning all land along transit corridors as mixed commercial and residential use.”

Do you work an in-office job that could be performed remotely? How has your lifestyle changed after returning to the office? Did you move away from your workplace and are now being called back?

CTV News Toronto wants to hear from you. Email us at [e-mail] with your name, general location and phone number in case we want to follow up. Your comments may be used in a CTV News story.

With files from The Canadian Press